Oct 30

Today’s News 30th October 2024

  • Turkiye Debunked Bild's Fake News About India Reportedly Vetoing Its BRICS Membership Request
    Turkiye Debunked Bild’s Fake News About India Reportedly Vetoing Its BRICS Membership Request

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    There was never any reason to take this report seriously in the first place…

    German outlet Bild reported late last week that India allegedly vetoed Turkiye’s BRICS membership request over its ties with Pakistan, which prompted Turkiye’s Center for Combating Disinformation to respond by clarifying that the membership process wasn’t even on the Kazan Summit’s agenda. The Turkish foreign policy expert who was quoted in Bild’s article also refuted their report and added that they didn’t include the nuances of his views that he shared with them.

    Reputable Indian journalist Sidhant Sibal earlier reported that BRICS agreed to grant Turkiye partnership status together with a dozen other countries, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “everyone is interested in inviting Turkey” to join their association. “BRICS Membership Or Lack Thereof Isn’t Actually That Big Of A Deal” though for the reasons explained in the preceding hyperlinked analysis, namely that anyone can voluntarily coordinate their financial multipolarity policies with the group.

    Membership only imbues countries with the right to participate in discussions on this subject whereas partnership status lets them observe these talks in real time while everyone else waits until they’re over to hear about the results. Both have an element of prestige associated with them and that’s why so many countries want to formalize such relations with BRICS. Turkiye considers itself to be a rising power and accordingly believes that it has the right to at least observe their financial multipolarity discussions.

    Russia, which hosted this year’s summit, agrees. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was thus invited to participate in the BRICS Plus/Outreach meeting. His country has an important role to play in accelerating financial multipolarity processes due to its transcontinental location and economic influence in the Eurasian Heartland brought about by the “Middle Corridor”. The specific form in which this takes and the degree of coordination with BRICS remain to be seen but this fact exists regardless of that.

    India also appreciates Turkiye’s abovementioned role in the global systemic transition despite those two’s disagreements over the unresolved Kashmir Conflict. Its grand strategy aims to carefully multi-align between competing power and influence centers in order to maximally reap the benefits from each. India only decisively takes a side on issues that directly concern its interests, especially those related to national security, since it wants to indefinitely perpetuate this balancing act.

    Turkiye’s request to formalize its relationship with BRICS isn’t considered to be something that directly concerns India’s interests, especially not its national security ones, so it was always dubious that it vetoed this even before Turkiye’s Center for Combating Disinformation debunked Bild’s report. India also respects Russia as a state while Modi and Putin are close friends so it would have been scandalous for Delhi to get in the way of Ankara’s plans after Putin invited Erdogan to attend to lobby in support of this.

    There’s no credible indication that Russia and India had any sort of disagreement over BRICS expansion during last week’s summit. Bild’s report was therefore bonafide fake news that was published for reasons that only this outlet’s editors can account for if they were honest with the public. Whatever they may be, they were ultimately counterproductive after Turkiye itself debunked their report, which damaged Bild’s reputation and exposed it as more of a tabloid than a reliable source of news and insight.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 02:00

  • Escobar: BRICS Make History – Can They Maintain The Momentum?
    Escobar: BRICS Make History – Can They Maintain The Momentum?

    Authored by Pepe Escobar,

    The not so simple twists of fate always allow certain cities to make their mark in History in ineffable ways. Yalta. Bretton Woods. Bandung – a 1955 de-colonization staple. And now Kazan.

    The BRICS summit in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, under the Russian presidency was historic in more ways than one – followed with riveting attention by the whole Global Majority and with perplexity by a great deal of the declining Western order.

    It did not change the world – not yet. But Kazan should be seen as the departing station of a high-speed train journey towards the emerging multi-nodal new order. The metaphor was also spatial: the pavilions at the Kazan Expo center “station” holding the summit simultaneously connected to the airport and to the aero-express train to the city.

    The rippling effects of BRICS 2024 in Kazan will be perceived for weeks, months and years ahead. Let’s start with the breakthroughs.

    The Kazan Manifesto

    1.The Kazan Declaration. That is no less than a detailed diplomatic manifesto. Yet because BRICS is not a revolutionary agent – as its members do not share an ideology – arguably the next best strategy is to propose real reform, from the UN Agenda 2030 to the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, the WHO and the G20 (whose summit is next month in Rio).

    The kernel of the Kazan Declaration – which had been debated for months – is to move in practice towards in-depth institutional changes and to reject Hegemony. The Declaration will be presented to the UN Security Council. There’s no doubt the Hegemon will reject it.

    This paragraph sums up the reform drive: “We condemn the attempts to subject development to discriminatory politically motivated practices, including but not limited to unilateral coercive measures that are incompatible with the 5 principles of the UN Charter, explicit or implied political conditionality of development assistance, activities, aiming at compromising the multiplicity of international development assistance providers.”

    2. The BRICS Outreach session. That was Bandung 1955 on macro-steroids: a microcosm of how the new, really de-colonized, non-unilateral world is being born.

    President Putin opened and handed the floor to the leaders and heads of delegations of other 35 nations, most at the highest level, including Palestine, plus the UN Secretary General. Quite a few speeches were nothing short of epic. The session lasted 3h25. It will be circulating all across the Global Majority for years.

    The session tied up with the announcement of the new 13 BRICS partners: Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkiye, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. A strategic tour de force including 4 Southeast Asian powerhouses; the top two Central Asian “stans”; 3 Africans; 2 Latin Americans, and NATO member Turkiye.

    3. The Russian BRICS presidency itself. Arguably no other nation would have been able to pull off such a complex and impeccably organized summit, held after over 200 BRICS-related meetings throughout the year across Russia conducted by unnamed sherpas, members of working groups and the BRICs Business Council. Security was massive – for obvious reasons, considering the odds of a false flag/terrorist attack.

    4. Connectivity corridors. That is the main geoeconomic theme of Eurasia integration, and Afro-Eurasia integration as well. Putin explicitly named, more than once, the new growth drivers of the near future: Southeast Asia and Africa. Both happen to be key partners of several high-profile Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects. Additionally, Putin named the top two connectivity corridors of the future: the Northern Sea Route – which the Chinese describe as the Arctic Silk Road – and the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), where the three drivers are BRICS members Russia, Iran and India.

    So that translates as BRICS China crisscrossing Eurasia from east to west while BRICS Russia/Iran/India crisscross it from north to south, with ramifications in all latitudes. And with all the energy add-ons, with Iran positioning itself as a crucial energy hub, opening the finally feasible possibility of building the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, one of the unfinished sagas of what I described in the early 2000s as Pipelineistan.

    The Return of the Primakov Triangle

    There were immense expectations all across the Global Majority of a major breakthrough in Kazan on alternative payment systems. Realist Russian-Chinese finance tech experts commented they did “not see anything at all except for another round of initiatives about grain exchange, precious metals exchange and investment platform. BRICS Clear is being somehow developed but the rest will not work without proper sovereign infrastructure.”

    And that brings us back to the UNIT project – a form of “apolitical money”, anchored in gold and BRICS+ currencies, which was exhaustively discussed by the working groups and reached the Russian Ministry of Finance. The next necessary step is a trial run by a major business conglomerate. That may happen soon, and if successful, will stimulate other major companies in BRICS nations to tag along.

    As for the BRICS digital investment platform, it is already a go. Alongside the NDB – the BRICS bank, and Putin encouraged former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to stay on the helm – this will facilitate Global South access to financing without the dreaded IMF/World Bank “structural adjustment” conditionalities. The BRICS grain exchange, establishing clear, transparent rules, will be essential to ensure Global South food security.

    The BRICS made it clear that the complex drive towards a new settlement/payment infrastructure is inevitable, but a long work in progress, especially when the G7 – which for all practical purposes is hijacking the agenda for the G20 next month in Rio – wants to finance at least $20 billion of a $50 billion package to Ukraine with proceeds from stolen Russian assets.

    And that brings us to the most glaring BRICS problems.

    Achieving consensus on difficult dossiers is extremely hard – and may lead, in the long run, to BRICS moving towards an absolute majority mechanism to get things done.

    The Brazilian case – vetoing Venezuela as a BRICS partner – did not go down well at all among members, among partners and across the Global South. The current Lula government may be under tremendous pressure by the Hegemon’s Democrat establishment, but that in itself does not explain the decision.

    There is a massive anti-BRICS lobby inside the highest levels of the Brazilian government, “facilitated”, as usual, by American NGOs as well as the European Commission (EC), heavily infiltrated among the proverbial comprador elites. Brasilia this year privileged the G20 over BRICS. That foresees trouble for next year, when Brazil assumes the BRICS presidency.

    Prospects are not exactly brilliant. The BRICS summit next year is scheduled for July – and the decision seems to be final. That makes no sense – to do the recap of a working agenda in the middle of the year. The official excuse is that Brazil also needs to organize the Cop-30 climate conference in November. So a suggestion will be floated by top Brazilian economist Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr to hold a parallel BRICS wrap-up session during the 2025 G20 summit, which will be held in BRICS member South Africa.

    President Putin has been very accommodating – even proposing Dilma Rousseff to remain at the helm of the NDB. Yet the Russian presidency of the NDB technically starts next year; a more suitable candidate for head of the NDB would be Aleksei Mozhin, until recently the Russian representative in the IMF.

    There’s a major takeaway of all of the above.

    Kazan proved that the driving force of BRICS is actually the notorious Primakov triangle – or RIC (Russia, India, China). It’s now possible to add Iran, and that would make it RIIC. Everything of substance in the inter-connected processes of BRICS integration and Afro-Eurasia integration depends on RIIC.

    Saudi Arabia remains an open proposition. Not even Putin answered whether Riyadh is in, out, or over the wall. Diplomatic sources hint MbS is waiting for the result of the US presidential elections. As much as Saudi Arabia’s wealth is invested in the Anglo-American sphere – and can be stolen in no time – relations with the Russia-China strategic partnership at the highest level are excellent.

    RIC scored a major hit right before the Kazan summit with Beijing and New Delhi announcing their Ladakh normalization. That was achieved by Russian mediation. Then there’s Turkiye; Erdogan was adamant to stress his BRICS enthusiasm in the few hours he spent in Kazan. Later in Istanbul, scholars confirmed he’s dead serious about Turkiye’s partner status and eventual admission as a full member.

    In the language of symbols, the minarets of the Kul Sharif mosque in the Kazan Kremlin were the de facto trademark of the summit: graphic multipolarity in effect. The lands of Islam did get the message – with serious, auspicious repercussions ahead. As for the conductors as the high-speed multi-nodal train leaves the station, all attention should be focused on RIIC. May all the Global South have a safe trip.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 23:25

  • "Complete Lawlessness": Seattle Residents Concerned With "Chaos" Cause By Illegal Street Racing
    “Complete Lawlessness”: Seattle Residents Concerned With “Chaos” Cause By Illegal Street Racing

    We’ve already seen it wreak havoc in cities like Philadelphia, and now illegal street racing is taking over another Democrat-run, Democrat-DA led city: Seattle. And the chaos is starting to concern residents.

    Seattle police are seeking drivers involved in two weekend “street takeovers” that caused traffic jams and alarmed nearby residents and workers, KING5 Seattle reported on Monday. 

    Resident Clay Church said: “Felt like chaos and you something you see at a frat party. Ten fireworks I saw. Multiple were thrown at the cop cars directly. That’s kind of when the cops backed another block. [It was] really loud between that and the cars, complete chaos.”

    “One hundred to 150 people out here with their cars essentially, drag racing, doing donuts. Kind of complete lawlessness, really,” Church added.

    Church described the early Sunday street takeover outside his apartment at 3rd Ave and Clay St. Around 1 a.m., he saw people blocking the intersection with lime scooters and orange cones.

    “We see things on Friday nights. But you don’t expect this type of thing,” another resident said. “We were very nervous someone was going to get hit by a car. Just with the mass amount of people out there and with these cars just spinning.” 

    According to KING5, staff reported the street takeover lasted under 20 minutes. Tower camera footage showed a bystander throwing an object at a car, sparking a conflict before police intervened.

    “They need to understand what folks go through who do live in downtown and understand that it’s just not acceptable,” Church concluded. 

    A statement from the Mayor’s office read: “Mayor Harrell believes it is critical that we work to prevent this behavior and hold offenders accountable using all tools available, including law enforcement efforts, new safety technologies, and legislation recently passed by the City Council. We would defer to SPD on the specifics of these particular events and law enforcement tactics.”

    Maybe Seattle residents will think twice before urging defunding the police the next time we have a “Summer of Love”…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 23:00

  • What China's "Joint Sword-2024B" Military Drill Tells Us
    What China’s “Joint Sword-2024B” Military Drill Tells Us

    Authored by Carl Schuster via The Epoch Times,

    Involving over 125 aircraft and 34 coast guard and naval units, Beijing’s recent military drills around Taiwan give us some insights into Xi Jinping’s plans for forcing the island’s reunification with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

    This latest intimidation operation was intended to warn Taipei and its potential supporters that Beijing has the capability and will to isolate the democratically governed island from any external support or assistance. However, it also signaled that Xi intends to present the initial phase of a violent reunification effort as one justified under international law.

    For example, the People’s Armed Police Coast Guard’s (PAPCG’s) opening participation indicates China may launch that gambit by declaring a maritime exclusion or quarantine zone around Taiwan. Coast Guard cutters not only circumnavigated the main island of Taiwan, they also patrolled in the waters off Taiwan’s islands just off China’s shores. Nor was this the first time the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command has incorporated PAPCG and Maritime Security Agency (MSA) patrol craft in its exercises opposite Taiwan three times since 2022.

    Seven PAPCG cutters participated in this latest exercise, and a similar number were active in last summer’s as well. Additionally, last August, the MSA’s largest patrol ship, the Type 918 Hai Xun 06, challenged a Taiwan ferry going the offshore island of Matsu. It did not board the ferry but demanded that it declare its cargo and destination and then escorted it outside Taiwan’s declared territorial waters. The patrol ship presented an intimidating presence for the ferry’s crew and passengers. The growing participation of PRC maritime law enforcement units is significant.

    In effect, Beijing is at least considering a maritime law enforcement operation to isolate Taiwan from external support. It will not declare a blockade since that is an act of war typically employed against a hostile sovereign state, a status Beijing denies Taipei. Instead, Beijing argues that Taiwan is a renegade province, making all of its islands, air space, and waters sovereign PRC territory in “rebel” hands. Beijing claims that Taiwan’s status gives China the right under international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to control access to that territory and regulate commerce and resources within Taipei’s economic exclusion zone.

    Under that mindset, Beijing can argue that any maritime quarantine it declares against Taiwan constitutes a reasonable domestic law enforcement operation authorized under international law. It can use that declaration to monitor, intercept, and search shipping entering the quarantine zone to ensure the cargos contain no contraband or materials that Beijing considers supportive of the rebellion. Xi may hope to depict any foreign attempt to assist Taipei under those circumstances as an act of war violating Beijing’s right to re-establish its authority over a province in rebellion. That may give some Western leaders pause since they may have influential “legal experts” who accept Beijing’s interpretation.

    China’s PAPCG is the world’s largest coast guard, and the waters around Taiwan off-China’s shore islands will be reinforced by the PRC’s Maritime Safety Administration’s units. Additionally, as is often the case in the South China Sea, the PAPCG will enjoy the backing of the responsible PLA Theater Command. The PLA Navy and Air Force will maintain patrols, presence, and readiness to respond to any challenges beyond the PAPCG’s capabilities. Equally important, recent missile tests by the PLA Rocket Force and past participation in Eastern Theater Command Exercises indicate preparations for potential anti-Taiwan operations if required.

    The 13-hour-long Joint Sword-2024B was neither as large nor as complex as China’s earlier intimidation exercises against Taiwan. Still, it does demonstrate Beijing’s aggressive intentions and provides some potential insights into how it intends to achieve them. The PRC employs a more adroitly crafted narrative and operates with greater care and subtlety than America’s traditional enemies. It will present its acts as legitimate and lawful actions necessary to ending a rebellion on its territory. All of its military operations have a political narrative and purpose behind them.

    Beijing’s “Three Warfares” doctrine integrates media, public opinion, and legal activities to shape the legal and political environment in its favor. The PRC often presents a positive legal façade to divide its opposition and hide its true intentions. Exposing what’s behind the façade is critical to deterring Xi’s aggressive plans. That may be the greatest challenge the United States and its allies face in deterring Xi’s destabilizing designs in the Western Pacific.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 22:35

  • The Most Devastating COVID Report So Far
    The Most Devastating COVID Report So Far

    Authored by Jayanta Bhattacharya via The Brownstone Institute,

    The House report on HHS Covid propaganda is devastating. The Biden administration spent almost $1 billion to push falsehoods about Covid vaccines, boosters, and masks on the American people. If a pharma company had run the campaign, it would have been fined out of existence.

    HHS engaged a PR firm, the Fors Marsh Group (FMG), for the propaganda campaign.

    The main goal was to increase Covid vax uptake.

    The strategy:

    1. Exaggerate Covid mortality risk

    2. Downplay the fact that there was no good evidence that the Covid vax stops transmission. 

    The propaganda campaign extended beyond vax uptake and included exaggerating mask efficacy and pushing for social distancing and school closures.

    Ultimately, since the messaging did not match reality, the campaign collapsed public trust in public health.

    The PR firm (FMG) drew most of its faulty science from the CDC’s “guidance,” which ignored the FDA’s findings on the vaccine’s limitations, as well as scientific findings from other countries that contradicted CDC groupthink.

    The report details the CDC’s mask flip-flopping through the years. It’s especially infuriating to recall the CDC’s weird, anti-scientific, anti-human focus on masking toddlers with cloth masks into 2022.

    President Biden’s Covid advisor Ashish K. Jha waited until Dec. 2022 (right after leaving government service) to tell the country that “[t]here is no study in the world that shows that masks work that well.” What took him so long?

    In 2021, former CDC director, Rochelle Walensky rewrote CDC guidance on social distancing at the behest of the national teachers’ union, guaranteeing that schools would remain closed to in-person learning for many months.

    During this period, the PR firm FMG put out ads telling parents that schools would close unless kids masked up, stayed away from friends, and got Covid-vaccinated.

    In March 2021, even as the CDC told the American people that the vaxxed did not need to mask, the PR firm ran ads saying that masks were still needed, even for the vaxxed. “It’s not time to ease up” we were told, in the absence of evidence any of that did any good.

    In 2021, to support the Biden/Harris administration’s push for vax mandates, the PR firm pushed the false idea that the vax stopped Covid transmission. When people started getting “breakthrough” infections, public trust in public health collapsed.

    Later, when the FDA approved the vax for 12 to 15-year-old kids, the PR firm told parents that schools could open in fall 2021 only if they got their kids vaccinated. These ads never mentioned side effects like myocarditis due to the vax.

    HHS has scrubbed the propaganda ads from this era from its web pages. It’s easy to see why. They are embarrassing. They tell kids, in effect, that they should treat other kids like biohazards unless they are vaccinated.

    When the Delta variant arrived, the PR firm doubled down on fear-mongering, masking, and social distancing.

    In September 2021, CDC director Walensky overruled the agency’s external experts to recommend the booster to all adults rather than just the elderly. The director’s action was “highly unusual” and went beyond the FDA’s approval of the booster for only the elderly.

    The PR campaign and the CDC persistently overestimated the mortality risk of Covid infection in kids to scare parents into vaccinating their children with the Covid vax.

    In Aug. 2021, the military imposed its Covid vax mandate, leading to 8,300 servicemen being discharged. Since 2023, the DOD has been trying to get the discharged servicemen to reenlist. What harm has been done to American national security by the vax mandate?

    The Biden/Harris administration imposed the OSHA, CMS, and military vax mandates, even though the CDC knew that the Delta variant evaded vaccine immunity. The PR campaign studiously avoided informing Americans about waning vaccine efficacy in the face of variants.

    The propaganda campaign hired celebrities and influencers to “persuade” children to get the Covid vax.

    I think if a celebrity is paid to advertise a faulty product, that celebrity should be partially liable if the product harms some people.

    In the absence of evidence, the propaganda campaign ran ads telling parents that the vaccine would prevent their kids from getting Long Covid.

    With the collapse in public trust in the CDC, parents have begun to question all CDC advice. Predictably, the HHS propaganda campaign has led to a decline in the uptake of routine childhood vaccines.

    The report makes several recommendations, including formally defining the CDC’s core mission to focus on disease prevention, forcing HHS propaganda to abide by the FDA’s product labeling rules, and revamping the process of evaluating vaccine safety.

    Probably the most important recommendation: HHS should never again adopt a policy of silencing dissenting scientists in an attempt to create an illusion of consensus in favor of CDC groupthink.

    You can find a copy of the full House report here.

    The HHS must take its findings seriously if there is any hope for public health to regain public.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 22:10

  • Trump Responds After Biden Calls 80 Million Americans Human Garbage, Then Lies About It
    Trump Responds After Biden Calls 80 Million Americans Human Garbage, Then Lies About It

    Update (2147ET): President Trump has responded to Biden’s comments, saying “Remember Hillary, she said deplorable… Garbage I think is worse.”

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    Does Harris agree?

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    And of course, the media is already spinning this – suggesting that Biden said ‘Trump’s supporter’s‘ – singular, as if he was only referring to Hinchcliffe.

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    Trump running mate JD Vance responded as well – calling out journalists trying to spin this:

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    You may have heard. During Donald Trump’s 7-hour, celebrity-packed rally at Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” in reference to the US territory’s well known problem with overflowing landfills.

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    The left went into absolute hysterics,

    Liberal comedian Jon Stewart was the voice of reason…

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    And just when you thought the dust had settled, President Biden called 80 million Americans human garbage:

    “Donald Trump has no character. He doesn’t give a damn about the Latino community…just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage?…The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” reports NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez.

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    Update: Then he lied about it!

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    Even CNN isn’t buying it…

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    Meanwhile, Puerto Rican Trump supporters responded with a pro-Trump caravan…

    Puerto Rican politician Zoraida Buxó came out for Trump at a Tuesday rally…

    Stay classy, Biden…

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 21:46

  • Citadel’s Griffin: "Expectation Today Trump Wins White House"
    Citadel’s Griffin: “Expectation Today Trump Wins White House”

    At Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative summit, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman shared their views on the upcoming US presidential election, which is now just six days away.

    “The expectation today is that Donald Trump will win the White House,” Griffin told the panel at Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative summit, adding, “We are at that moment of peak uncertainty. It is a race that Trump is favored to win, but it is almost a coin toss.”

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    During the same panel discussion, Schwarzman weighed in on US politics, indicating, “I don’t know who’s going to win the presidency … but it appears Trump is in a much better base of knowledge of how that job works and how to be efficient and effective in doing it.”

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    Earlier, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told Bloomberg TV, “We do have an election, and there will be policy decisions coming,” adding, “Those will impact the trajectory in 2025 and 2026.” 

    Equity and bond markets have already moved in directions that indicate a possible Trump victory. We detailed this in length for pro subs in a note titled “These Are Goldman’s Favorite Election Trades.”

    That note highlighted Goldman’s Republican Policy pair (GSP24REP), up 7% on the year, while the Democratic Policy pair (GSP24DEM) is down 2.3%. 

    Weeks ago, we showed how Polymarket’s Trump election odds influenced the bond market. 

    The current Polymarket Trump-Harris spread is massively in favor of a Trump win.

    “The mainstream lost its monopoly over media. Now it’s losing its monopoly over polls, prediction markets and shaping public opinion as trust shifts to independent new entities,” we noted on X. 

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    According to the national polling aggregate by RealClearPolitics, Trump is holding a slight lead over Harris. 

    While Griffin and Schwarzman shared their view on the upcoming election on Tuesday, Elon Musk has gone all-in for Trump.

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    It appears America’s leading entrepreneurs want real leadership and stability after 3.5 years of uncertainty and chaos with the Biden-Harris regime. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 21:45

  • The Importance Of Discipline
    The Importance Of Discipline

    Authored by Christian Milord via The Epoch Times,

    What does the undisciplined life look like? The picture that comes to mind would be an individual who tends to be disorganized in a number of behavioral dimensions. They might be slovenly in appearance, arrive late to appointments, avoid responsibilities, have a short attention span, give in to every impulse, take shortcuts, lack focus and purpose, and so on.

    The undisciplined life doesn’t arrive in a vacuum. It can develop in a young person’s life perhaps due to a lack of firm role models around to steer the youngster toward self-control and the hard work of character building.

    If an individual fails to form disciplined habits, he or she can more easily be buffeted back and forth by the winds of fate.

    It takes real effort to become organized and reliable. In other words, it takes discipline to become disciplined!

    The Disciplined Life

    No one needs to be undisciplined forever. An individual can learn self-control through experience (trial and error) and observation. One does not need to isolate oneself or become a monk in order to form disciplined habits. Constructive routines can be formulated regardless of the environment one lives in.

    If you are tired of being pushed around in life, developing disciplined habits will help you to take control of your life in an assertive manner. Implementing these habits starts in the morning. Over time, I developed a routine of rising very early in the morning and taking in some moderate exercise to get the circulation going. This is a purposeful start to a new day as you are eager to plunge into the day’s activities without the need for coffee. Morning prayers are also beneficial.

    Another facet of a structured life involves diet and nutrition. Consuming a healthy diet in order to stay fit requires discipline and the ability to resist the temptation of junk food that bombards us at every turn. Most folks are aware of what constitutes a healthy diet, but they have a hard time sticking to it. Self-control helps you to stay on the narrow path of good nutrition, although we all have lapses from time to time.

    Diet, exercise, and sufficient rest can help us to be confident and healthy as we dress appropriately, maintain personal hygiene, and utilize our energy wisely each day.

    Turning off electronic devices an hour or two before retiring for the night also bestows restful sleep. None of these habits come easily, but once they are part of one’s daily schedule, it becomes easier to abide by them, because you witness the positive outcomes.

    On a more practical level, delayed gratification is a positive principle that comes from a disciplined life. If we are careful at how we spend our income, we can learn how to invest and save more for the future so that we are less inclined to incur debts that can lead to downward mobility. The reckless running up of credit card debt is a prime example of a path that can send one to a poorhouse.

    Disciplining the mind is another aspect of a disciplined life. Sometimes we are faced with information overload, and it can be a challenge to quiet our thoughts down and focus on what is important. This demands practice and mindful breathing exercises to eliminate the stress and invite relaxation in. Muddled thinking can give way to clarity of thought.

    The mind is a powerful instrument that can either sabotage our goals or guide us on the road toward self-governance. If harnessed properly, the mind can enable us to help other folks more effectively as we develop social skills. By assisting others, you end up helping yourself as well.

    Practicing self-discipline can also lead one to a greater spiritual awareness regarding nature and the wonders of God’s creation. Prayer from the heart can strengthen us to cope with the hardships and rejections we all face during our lives. The key is to not give up when faced with obstacles that sometimes arrive two or three at a time.

    I’ve lost count of the number of occupational and personal hurdles I’ve encountered over the years. You learn to grow a thicker skin as the problems roll off your back. Indeed, sometimes these closed doors can point to other opportunities. Suffering can be unpleasant, because we all have feelings, but it’s a part of life that can help us to be empathetic toward other folks.

    Finally, a disciplined life can multiply our chances for success. We learn how to communicate effectively, develop sensory and situational awareness, tame our emotions, embrace lifelong learning, and show gratitude for our blessings. With discipline, we can better organize our lives, yet still have the flexibility to pivot from the structure when necessary. We can also strike a balance between purposeful work and task completion with relaxing leisure time. Self-discipline is part of what comprises a virtuous life.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 20:30

  • Trump To Unleash Financial Armageddon On Mexican Drug Cartels If He Wins: We Will Be "Seizing Assets" 
    Trump To Unleash Financial Armageddon On Mexican Drug Cartels If He Wins: We Will Be “Seizing Assets” 

    Former President Trump reportedly told allies earlier this year that he would covertly deploy Tier 1 US Special Forces operators to Mexico to wipe out drug cartel leadership if he returns to the White House. However, storming the command and control centers of cartels with guns blazing may not be the proper strategy to dismantle these criminal organizations.

    “I’m announcing that for the first time under my administration, we are seizing the assets of the criminal gangs and drug cartels and we will use those assets to create a compensation fund to provide restitution for the victims of migrant crime,” Trump said at a press conference on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago. 

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    Trump’s comments at Mar-a-Lago suggest if he wins in November, the US Treasury Department may ramp up a financial war against the violent Mexico-based drug trafficking cartel responsible for America’s drug overdose catastrophe. 

    “When it comes to drug trafficking, we haven’t enforced sanctions against banks seriously,” David Asher, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute specializing in US foreign policy and law enforcement, told AP News in April 2023. 

    Asher continued, “If we can sanction Russian oligarchs and banks, why can’t we do the same thing to Mexican drug lords and their bankers and bank accounts and banks — especially when we know who they are.”

    Under a Trump presidency, international fentanyl trafficking could be declared a national emergency. This would then allow the Treasury to sanction the hell out of drug cartels and their banks. This would enable Trump to confiscate the sanctioned property of fentanyl traffickers. And it’s not just targeting Mexican banks where traffickers hide their monies – Chinese banks could be targets, too.

    Sanctions would be a tool by Trump to then deter Chinese chemical firms from sending fentanyl-precursor chemicals to Mexico. When cooked, these chemicals are turned into fentanyl, shipped over Biden-Harris’ open southern borders, and then flooded into streets of American towns and cities. 

    If Trump wins, expect these illicit financial networks of the cartels and Chinese companies participating in this drug crisis scheme to be instant targets. 

    Remember, China doesn’t even have to fire a shot, and 100,000 Americans die each year from the drug death overdose crisis. Many of these deaths are folks who are prime-aged working men and women, in other words, military-aged men and women. Some say this is reverse opium wars waged by the Communists on the West. Trump may end this chaos that Biden-Harris allowed to expand drastically. 

    Will activist hedge funds short the peso and Mexican banks if Trump wins? It certainly sounds like a big theme in the making, of course, dependent on a Trump win. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 20:05

  • October Surprise: NY Times And Media Matters To Drop Hit Piece On Conservative News
    October Surprise: NY Times And Media Matters To Drop Hit Piece On Conservative News

    Over the last 48 hours, Tucker Carlson, the Daily Wire‘s Ben Shapiro, ZeroHedge, and others have received text messages from a NY Times reporter who’s about to drop a pre-election screed on ‘misinformation’ in conjunction with radical left-wing group Media Matters – which exists to deplatform conservative voices.

    Tucker Carlson simply told them to fuck off, as one does.

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    Ben Shapiro, meanwhile, wrote in a Monday post to X, “If you were wondering what the legacy media would plan for its October surprise, wonder no longer: it’s here. Today, I received the following text from a reporter at @NYTimes.”

    “What, precisely, is NYT doing? It’s perfectly obvious: using research from Media Matters, a radical Left-wing organization whose sole purpose is destroying conservative media (see below), in order to pressure YouTube to demonetize and penalize any and all conservatives ONE WEEK FROM THE ELECTION,” Shapiro continues.

    “This isn’t about “election misinformation.” Obviously. As pretty much everyone knows, I have always acknowledged that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. And if it is “election misinformation” to point out the “rigging” of the voting rules for election 2020, resulting in massive mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, then the NYT might want to talk to…the NYT and CBS News, for starters,” Shapiro writes, noting that those outlets essentially said the same thing. 

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    ZeroHedge, yours truly, also received a nastygram from Newsguard – who Revolver News exposed as a complete joke years ago.

    Fox News explains what’s going on…

    Meanwhile, the author of the hit piece – Nico Grant, has locked his profile on X…

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    If we haven’t done so recently, we’d like to thank all of our premium and professional subscribers for helping combat this cabal.

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 19:55

  • US Ambassador To Lebanon Promotes 'Internal Uprising' To Assist Israel: Report
    US Ambassador To Lebanon Promotes ‘Internal Uprising’ To Assist Israel: Report

    Via The Cradle

    A high-ranking Lebanese security source revealed to Al-Akhbar newspaper that the US Ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, is continuing her agenda to prepare Lebanon for a “post-Hezbollah era” by mobilizing “internal” forces against the resistance movement while it fights the Israeli Army.

    In discussions with Lebanese politicians, Johnson reportedly said, “Israel cannot achieve everything through war; it’s time for you to do your part and launch an internal uprising under the banner of ‘Enough.’“

    Still frame via YouTube/US Embassy Beirut

    The ambassador added, “The Lebanese people must show their desire to rise up and get rid of Hezbollah and return to the context that emerged after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, especially since the regional, international, and field circumstances are in your favor.”

    According to the source, the ambassador asked the politicians, “Why do you seem afraid? Hezbollah has been defeated, its leadership is destroyed, and we are with you, and the entire free world stands by your side.”

    Johnson encouraged her Lebanese allies to advocate for the election of Lebanese Armed Forces Commander General Joseph Aoun as President of Lebanon, saying, “He (Aoun) will appoint a strong commander for the Lebanese Army, and we will support the Army in restraining all Hezbollah supporters. You will have backing from Arab states and the West. But the time to act is now.”

    According to the high-level Lebanese security source, Ambassador Johnson’s allies are conducting incitement operations to stoke internal sectarian tensions in areas where displaced persons, mostly Shia from Beirut’s southern suburbs and the south of Lebanon, are now staying after fleeing their homes due to Israeli bombing.

    Lebanon’s society is multi-confessional and multi-national, making the country susceptible to division by outside forces. Lebanon is comprised of Christians (Catholic and Orthodox), Muslims (Sunni and Shia), Druze, and Palestinian and Syrian refugees.

    Civil war engulfed Lebanon’s multifaceted society between 1975 to 1990. An estimated 150,000 people were killed. 

    The source speaking with Al-Akhbar added that “mobilization operations” are being carried out in some neighborhoods and areas controlled by the Lebanese Forces, a right-wing Christian political party, under the pretext of “protecting our areas from the chaos of the displaced and so that they do not turn into occupiers.”

    In an effort to weaken Hezbollah, Johnson has also begun calling on politicians, civil organizations, and media professionals with whom she has influence to drive a wedge between Lebanon’s Shia community and Hezbollah.

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    The source said that Johnson has clearly stated her wish to take advantage of the current Israeli war to completely eliminate Hezbollah, not only militarily but politically as well.

    “We do not only want to limit Hezbollah’s influence, but we will strike its support lines, and we are working non-stop to bring down the regime in Iran as well,” Johnson reportedly said.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 19:40

  • US Approves Weapons Sale To Riyadh Despite Unprecedented Iran-Saudi Drills
    US Approves Weapons Sale To Riyadh Despite Unprecedented Iran-Saudi Drills

    Authored by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute,

    Last week, Saudi Arabia conducted unprecedented drills with its rival Iran in the Sea of Oman in a sign of warming relations between the regional powers. Following the announcement, Washington approved a massive arms sale to the Gulf Kingdom. 

    On Thursday, the US announced it had approved the sale of 1,000 Tube-launched, Optically Tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) missiles to Saudi Arabia. Raytheon will be the contractor for the $440 million deal. 

    US Army file image showing vehicle mounted TOW missile launch.

    Washington’s press release about the deal came after Saudi Arabia said it conducted joint naval exercises with Iran on Wednesday.

    “The Royal Saudi Naval Forces had recently concluded a joint naval exercise with the Iranian Naval Forces alongside other countries in the Sea of Oman,” a Saudi military official told AFP. 

    While the drills signal a strengthening relationship between Gulf powers, Washington providing a huge shipment of weapons to Riyadh as it also backs Israeli strikes on Iran could scuttle the steps towards a more stable Saudi-Iranian relationship. 

    The White House took a similar approach to the South China Sea. In July, China and the Philippines agreed to a deal that saw tensions around the Second Thomas Shoal decrease.

    However, the Biden administration then sent $500 million in military aid to Manila. Shortly thereafter, the Philippines and Chinese vessels began colliding near another reef in the South China Sea.  

    Riyadh and Tehran have been building their relationship since Beijing brokered a landmark peace deal between the two countries last year. President Joe Biden has sought to take the Middle East in a different direction, bringing Saudi Arabia into a coalition with Israel aimed at Iran. 

    The Saudis and Iranians recently went from spending decades as bitter regional enemies and rivals to holding joint military drills after a China-brokered detente…

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    The announcement of the massive arms deal for Raytheon comes after the arms merchant agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in penalties after overbilling the Pentagon and bribing foreign governments. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 18:50

  • Maddow Wheels Out Neocon Nuland To Declare Russia Is Interfering In 2024 Election
    Maddow Wheels Out Neocon Nuland To Declare Russia Is Interfering In 2024 Election

    MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow can’t let an election go by without wheeling out the usual cadre of tired old neocons, with the latest to appear on her show being former State Department official Victoria Nuland. As expected, she sought to lump Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vladimir Putin together in a segment on ‘disinformation’ this week.

    “He’s at it again!” Nuland claimed of Putin, resurrecting talking points heavily featured in the prior two elections as well. She accused Musk of being in essence a useful idiot of the Kremlin, allowing Putin to use “sophisticated tools” on his X platform to ‘interfere’ and influence voters. “And he has more sophisticated tools… He’s got a brand new, very powerful tool, which is Elon Musk and X,” Nuland claimed of Putin (and by extension Trump, according to her talking points).

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    “In 2020, the social media companies worked hard with the U.S. government to try to do content moderation, to try to catch this stuff as it was happening. This time, we have Elon Musk talking directly to the Kremlin and ensuring that every time the Russians put out something, it gets five million views before anyone can catch it,” Nuland continued. And then she warned: “Trump is taking Putin lessons, as autocrats around the world are.”

    Maddow, for her part, added: “For the United States to not be the leader of the free world, but rather in effectively a sort of ‘Axis’ with the dictators of Russia and China, and North Korea.” So clearly Maddow wanted to escalate the claims to put Trump in league with all dictators of the world, absurdly enough.

    “For the United States to be allied with those countries instead of our traditional alliances — I’m not sure people have absorbed the magnitude of what you’re describing there,” Maddow followed with.

    Aaron Maté, an indepdent journalist who has spent years debunking key Russiagate talking points, issued the following commentary in reaction to the Nuland-Maddow interview segment…

    * * *

    For a third consecutive presidential election, Russiagate propagandists are accusing Russia of manipulating Americans into not voting for their preferred candidate. Here, Victoria Nuland complains that Twitter is no longer partnering with the US gov’t to censor stories — what she calls the “content moderation” that we saw “in 2020.”

    This is a reference to censoring journalism on Hunter Biden’s laptop based on the CIA lie that it was “Russian disinformation.”

    Speaking of Russia and election interference, Nuland is well-versed in practicing it: as a senior State Dept. official, she was instrumental in funneling the Clinton-funded “Steele dossier” into the FBI. She personally authorized the early July 2016 meeting where Steele gave an FBI agent his dossier, which helped kick off the multi-year Russiagate scam.

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    * * *

    And another commenter wrote that “Nuland openly longs for the days of US Govt/Twitter 1.0 censorship collusion.”

    “Free speech on X is under constant assault — their information monopoly has been destroyed in an election cycle — and they desperately want the Twitter 1.0 censorship regime back.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 18:25

  • Starbucks Warns Corporate Staff: Show Up In Office Or Get Fired
    Starbucks Warns Corporate Staff: Show Up In Office Or Get Fired

    The golden era of remote work seems to be ending. Starbucks is the latest mega-corporation to enforce a return-to-office mandate for white-collar workers.

    An internal message from the coffee chain obtained by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal states a new “standardized process” will be implemented at the start of the new year to hold employees accountable if they don’t comply with work requirements, such as coming into the office at least three days a week. The memo stated that non-compliance could result in termination. 

    Starbucks reminded hybrid white-collar workers that working arrangements had not changed and that rules must be followed. The memo emphasized: “We are continuing to support our leaders as they hold their teams accountable.” 

    Bloomberg quoted new Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol last month as saying, “This is not a game of tracking. This is a game of winning,” adding, “I care about seeing everybody here succeed, and if success requires us being together more often than not, let’s be together more often.” 

    A company spokesperson told Bloomberg, “We are continuing to support our leaders as they hold their teams accountable to our existing hybrid work policy.” 

    The bigger picture here is the remote work revolution across corporate America was more or less a total flunk. It did not drive increased office productivity; instead, it was the opposite. More or less, hybrid work policies, a combination of home and office, will likely be the gold standard moving forward. 

    Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently told corporate staffers to work from the office five days a week, up from three days a week – completely reversing pandemic-era policies. Also, UPS, JPMorgan Chase, Dell Technologies, and Boeing have asked parts of their white-collar workforces to return to offices full-time. 

    We suspect Starbucks CEO Niccol’s enforcement of office work requirements is part of his attempt to turn around the sinking ship.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 17:40

  • Government Gaslights People About The Economy
    Government Gaslights People About The Economy

    Authored by Ron Paul via The Mises Institute,

    Public opinion polls consistently show the economy is one of the top issues, if not the top issue, for American voters.

    This may strike some as odd, since official government statistics show low unemployment and declining price inflation, suggesting the Federal Reserve has engineered a “soft landing” bringing down inflation without causing a recession.

    So why the concern over the economy? One reason is more people are realizing government economic figures hide the truth about the economy.

    “Recession Since 2022: US Economic Income and Output Have Fallen Overall for Four Years” is a Brownstone Institute research paper by Dr. E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and Dr. Peter St. Onge, a fellow with the Mises Institute.

    It details how the federal government understates inflation, while making wages, profits, and economic growth appear stronger.

    Dr. Antoni and Dr. St. Onge use a more accurate measure of inflation than that used by government to uncover the true state of the economy. Their calculations show that the US economy has been in recession since 2022.

    The government claims that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by approximately 13.7 percent from 2019 through the first half of 2024.

    When the more accurate inflation number is used, the result is a 2.5 percent decline in GDP.

    The federal government’s figures also show the American people’s disposable income increased by 12.9 percent from 2019 through the first half of 2024.

    However, when the more accurate way of calculating price inflation is used, it shows Americans’ disposable income declined by 2.3 percent.

    Dr. Antoni and Dr. St. Onge are hardly the first to expose how the government uses doctored statistics to make the economy look stronger.

    John Williams’s ShadowStats has regularly shown how government manipulates data to underreport unemployment and price inflation.

    Government distortions of economic data mislead the people regarding the true state of the economy. They also mislead Congress, the president, and maybe even the Federal Reserve.

    Until the Audit the Fed bill becomes law, we will not know for sure what data the central bank relies on.

    Making economic policy decisions based on flawed data enables politicians to ignore the dangers posed by Congress’s refusal to cut federal spending.

    Government spending puts pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low. The Federal Reserve can keep interest rates low because the dollar’s world reserve currency status guarantees a strong demand for US dollars.

    A growing number of countries, though, are seeking alternatives to the dollar. One reason for this is resentment over the US government’s use of the dollar’s world reserve currency status to force other counties to abide by US demands.

    Saudi Arabia is moving away from exclusively using dollars for its oil trade.

    The “petrodollar” is a major reason the dollar has been able to maintain its world reserve currency status.

    If the dollar loses its world reserve currency status, America would face a major economic crisis. This crisis could lead to the collapse of the welfare-warfare state and the fiat money system that makes it possible. The danger is the replacement could be even worse as a frightened populace turns toward an authoritarian promise of security in exchange for restriction of liberty.

    However, the collapse could also result in a turn toward respect for the principles of liberty, limited government, free markets, and a foreign policy of peace and free trade.

    Those who know the truth must continue to educate our fellow citizens about the benefits of liberty.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 17:20

  • Russian Special Forces Academy In Chechnya Hit By Drone Attack
    Russian Special Forces Academy In Chechnya Hit By Drone Attack

    A drone slammed into a building and campus in Chechnya known as the Russian Special Forces University in the early morning hours of Tuesday, regional governor Ramzan Kadyrov has confirmed.

    “At 6:30 this morning, the roof of an empty building on the territory of the Russian Special Forces University caught fire in Gudermes as a result of an unmanned aerial attack,” Kadyrov said. The town which hosts the military school lies just over 20 miles east of the capital Grozny.

    Via social media/X

    “No one was killed or injured. The fire has been extinguished,” Kadyrov detailed in the statement posted to Telegram. He claimed the attack didn’t lead to significant disruptions at the training academy. However, that seems doubtful given the photographs showing the extent of fires and damage to the roof in the aftermath. Images suggest more than one UAV may have hit.

    The institution is known for being the only private campus for training Russian military special operators. But tens of thousands have been sent through its elite training program.

    Politico has detailed that the school heavily contributes to training special operations troops deployed in Ukraine:

    “The school’s website says it instructs both soldiers and civilians in a variety of combat tactics, including shooting, artillery and parachute landing. More than 47,000 troops deployed to the front line in Ukraine have been trained there, according to the Kremlin.

    The school also reportedly has a combat drone production facility attached to it. This marks the first such major drone attack on this specific region since the Ukraine war began.

    The Amsterdam-based Moscow Times has noted it’s possible the drone was not sent from Ukraine, given the great distance of the Caucasus from the front lines. 

    “He did not say whether he believed the drone had been launched from Ukraine, noting only that police were investigating the incident,” the report said in reference to Gov. Kadyrov’s statement. “Chechnya is located around 600 kilometers (373 miles) southeast of the border with Ukraine.”

    However, there has been an emerging reporting consensus that this was the result of a Ukrainian attack, and not the result of recent tensions among rival factions on the Russian southern Caucasus republics: 

    Ukraine has frequently struck Russia with drones in the course of the war, but Tuesday’s attack appeared to be the first against Chechnya. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

    “They’ve bitten us – we will destroy them,” [Chechen leader] Kadyrov told reporters in a video published by Russian state news agency RIA. “In the very near future we’ll show them the kind of vengeance they’ve never even dreamt of,” he said.

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    Chechen troops have from the start of the war been very active in Ukraine, including specialized units deployed, which has outraged Kiev. Kadyrov in particular has been a regional leader who has been very vocal in supporting Putin’s decision to go to war.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 17:00

  • Trump "Violent Rhetoric" Needs "Close Monitoring": Political 'Scientists'
    Trump “Violent Rhetoric” Needs “Close Monitoring”: Political ‘Scientists’

    Authored by Matt Lamb via The College Fix,

    Political scientists determine Trump uses more violent language than Obama by comparing the Republican’s campaign speeches to the Democrat’s White House addresses

    President Donald Trump’s “violent rhetoric” is getting worse, according to two political scientists.

    University of California Los Angeles doctoral student Nikita Savin and UCLA Professor Daniel Treisman reached their conclusion after analyzing Trump campaign and presidential speeches from 2015 to 2024.

    They compared it to President Barack Obama’s White House weekly addresses, even though a campaign speech is different in tone than a formal address. They have also said Hillary Clinton’s violent language is part of her “toughness” as a female politician confronting stereotypes.

    “While politicians’ rhetoric does not always predict their actions, Trump’s increasing attachment to violent language and populist themes may offer insight into his future approach, whether as president or in defeat,” they wrote in The Conversation.

    This recent article is based on a study published in July and updated this month. “As political scientists, we believe the rise of such rhetoric merits close monitoring because of its potential implications for the broader political landscape,” they wrote.

    Over the summer, Treisman made similar warnings. “How Trump’s vocabulary will evolve in the coming months remains to be seen,” Treisman stated in a news release for UCLA. “But the rising temperature of his rhetoric bears watching.

    Trump uses a “violent tone” and a “controversial rhetorical style,” the political scientists wrote for The Conversation.

    The study relies on a dictionary that Treisman himself developed with another researcher.

    His language is close to “authoritarian figures such as Kim Jong Un and Fidel Castro,” the scholars wrote.

    The political scientists wrote that Trump uses “aggressive” language, such as promising to “drain the swamp.”

    Old Trump used to not be as bad, according to the academics.

    They wrote:

    Trump’s rhetorical style has undergone significant changes since he launched his first presidential campaign. During his initial run in 2015-2016, his language became more inclusive, with a rise in the use of “we” and “the people” and fewer references to elites and social groups he views negatively (“them”).

    Once in office, however, his speeches exhibited a more combative style. His use of violent language surged, and references to “them” became more frequent.

    This evolution suggests that Trump’s rhetoric is adaptable, changing in response to political contexts and the audience he aims to engage.

    “His increasing use of inflammatory language and swear words after taking office contrasts with the more measured tone he adopted during his 2016 campaign,” they wrote.

    Biden was much better, according to the researchers.

    “Despite being president during the start of two foreign wars and other ongoing conflicts abroad, Biden’s use of violent vocabulary during both the 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns was consistently less than Trump’s,” UCLA wrote in its summary.

    (Biden’s administration has labeled pro-lifers as an “extremist threat” and warned of a “dark winter” if enough Americans didn’t take the COVID-19 jab).

    The scholars also explained away violent imagery from Hillary Clinton.

    “Hillary Clinton’s use of violent words in her 2015-2016 campaign slightly exceeded Trump’s relatively moderate level at that time, which could reflect Clinton’s desire to show ‘toughness’ given stereotypes of women leaders being less hawkish,” UCLA stated in its news release, paraphrasing the researchers.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 16:40

  • Google Jumps After Beating Across The Board
    Google Jumps After Beating Across The Board

    And they’re off.

    What until now was a solid, if not stellar earnings season, is about to go into overdrive as the tech giants report Q3 earnings, although unlike previous quarters, growth for the Magnificent 7 is expected to be far more subdued.

    So turning to the first true megacap to report earnings (after a stellar print from minicap TSLA last week) Google parent Alphabet which as a reminder yesterday Goldman pointed out that ahead of earnings hedge fund positioning here was not as excessive (at 6/10), and may be why the stock is soaring some 4% after the close on what is a solid beat across the board. Here are the details :

    • Q3 EPS $2.12, up 37% and beating estimate $1.84
    • Q3 Revenue $88.27 billion, beating estimate $86.45 billion
      • Google advertising revenue $65.85 billion, beating estimate $65.5 billion
        • Google Search & Other Revenue $49.39 billion, beating estimate $49.08 billion
      • YouTube ads revenue $8.92 billion, beating estimate $8.89 billion
      • Google Network Revenue $7.55 billion, beating estimate $7.41 billion
      • Google Subscriptions, Platforms and Devices Revenue $10.66 billion, beating estimate $9.79 billion
      • Google Services revenue $76.51 billion, beating estimate $75.24 billion
      • Google Cloud revenue $11.35 billion, beating estimate $10.79 billion
      • Other Bets revenue $388 million, beating estimate $377.9 million
         
    • Operating income $28.52 billion, estimate $26.67 billion
      • Google Services operating income $30.86 billion, beating estimate $28.47 billion
      • Google Cloud operating income $1.95 billion, beating estimate $1.11 billion
      • Other Bets operating loss $1.12 billion, missing estimate loss $1.16 billion
         
    • Operating margin 32%, beating estimate 31.4%
    • Net income was $26.3 billion, beating $22.8 billion estimate.
    • Capital expenditure $13.06 billion, beating estimates of $12.88 billion
    • Number of employees 181,269, down from 182,381 a year ago.

    A quick point on YouTube: it was bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion; YouTube now generates $1.65 billion of revenue every 16 days.

    The results visually:

    While Google’s cloud numbers were stellar, with revenue rising from $8.4BN to $11.3BN, and beating estimates of $10.8BN, what investors wanted to hear was more about the company’s progress on AI. This is what CEO Sundar Pichai had to say:

    In Search, our new AI features are expanding what people can search for and how they search for it. In Cloud, our AI solutions are helping drive deeper product adoption with existing customers, attract new customers and win larger deals. And YouTube’s total ads and subscription revenues surpassed $50 billion over the past four quarters for the first time.

    Like other Big Tech companies, Alphabet has been plowing money into developing artificial intelligence, a strategy that has helped drive demand for its cloud services, which saw revenue rise 32% in the first quarter. While Google remains a distant third in the cloud computing market, trailing Amazon and Microsoft, the company’s prowess in AI could help it close the gap.

    Ironically, Google developed much of the underlying technology being used in the AI boom today, and has woven it into products from web search to its suite of enterprise software from Gmail to Google Docs. Yet ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT was released in late 2022, Google has been battling the perception that it’s lagging behind Microsoft and OpenAI in rolling out new generative AI tools. The arrival of popular chatbots such as ChatGPT, which answers questions in a conversational tone rather than providing lists of links to other websites, has posed a threat to Google’s two-decade stranglehold on search. The company is struggling to compete in generative AI without cannibalizing its core profit machine.

    Google has been scrambling to reassert its early lead in AI, after its early efforts were marred by embarrassing blunders, including a scandal over how its AI model Gemini handled race that forced the company to suspend image generation of people.

    And as the company seeks to establish itself as a leader in AI, it wants to make sure that investors are rewarded to wait, and the company not only announced a cash dividend at 20 cents…

    On October 29, 2024, Alphabet announced a cash dividend of $0.20 per share that will be paid on December 16, 2024, to stockholders of record as of December 9, 2024, on each of the company’s Class A, Class B, and Class C shares.

    … but also announced repurchased $15.3 billion in stock under its new $70 billion buyback program.

    While investors have shown they are excited about the prospects of AI, they want tech companies to continue to focus on revenue and profit in the meantime. Meta, which competes with Google in AI and also digital advertising, suffered its worst stock decline since October 2022 after reporting that it would spend billions of dollars more this year on AI efforts and projecting weaker revenue for the current quarter. For its part, Google – which does not do forecasts – paid $13.1BN in capex in the quarter, about $200 million more than estimated, but that’s not a huge difference and was more than made up for by the rise in profits in its core businesses.

    The Google owner has been suffering compared to the rest of the Magnificent Seven recently. Investors appear to be skeptical of its AI spending — and when it will filter through to the bottom line — and that’s weighed on the stock.

     

    For all the hoopla about AI, search advertising remains the engine of Google’s lucrative business, and the company is facing heightened competition there, too. Meta has been seeding AI tools throughout its advertising business and Snap Inc. has also undergone a total revamp of its ad business to improve ad targeting. The digital ad market is recovering from a post-pandemic slump, buoyed by the Olympics Games this summer, but Google is increasingly vying for those ad dollars with Meta and Snap.

    Additionally, if consumers gravitate from Google search to the new wave of chatbots, that could imperil the company’s search advertising juggernaut, which is expected to generate nearly $200 billion in revenue this year and the bulk of Alphabet’s profit.

    Cloud has been a bright spot for Google, after it first became profitable early last year. Many young AI startups are founded by former Google employees, creating a strong pipeline of cloud clients.

    For now, however, these concerns were on the backburner, with GOOGL stock jumping about 4% after hours, but still well below its all time high reached in early July when it briefly traded above $190.

    For now, however, these concerns were on the backburner, with GOOGL stock exploding about 12% after hours, and trading at a new all time high.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 16:23

  • Megyn Kelly Eviscerates Michelle Obama Over "Whining" Speech "Ripping On The Country"
    Megyn Kelly Eviscerates Michelle Obama Over “Whining” Speech “Ripping On The Country”

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly blasted multi-millionaire Michelle Obama for making a speech that yet again complained about how racist and sexist the US is.

    Obama made the speech at Kamala Harris’ rally Saturday, also bashing men in the process.

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

    She also complained that people expect a presidential candidate to be articulate and intelligent.

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

    She asked why Harris is being held to a high standard, despite the fact that she’s been Vice President for almost four years.

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

    You get the gist.

    Kelly was having none of it and tore Mrs Obama to pieces.

    “The Democrats were on bended knee with two dozen red roses begging Michelle Obama to run, especially when Joe Biden started to implode,” Kelly said, adding “They would have done anything to sub her in… I’m so sick and tired of Michelle Obama whining about how racist and sexist America is.”

    “We made her rich, famous and beloved beyond any measure,” she urged.

    “Everything she has is due to this country — her Martha’s Vineyard estate, her Chicago estate, her Washington, D.C., estate, her Hawaii estate and her trips on the David Geffen yacht. I am sick and tired of her complaining about us. It’s like Oprah. Just shut up!” the host declared.

    “All of your gifts are due to us. All we want to hear you say is thank you. That’s it. That’s what we want to hear you say. Stop ripping on the country,” Kelly added.

    Watch:

    Kelly followed up with two more jabs.

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

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

    She’s right, every time the likes of Michelle Obama speak, it alienates every day Americans.

    *  *  *

    Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 16:20

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