- Why Propaganda Is Vital In Upholding The Illusion Of A Democracy
Why Propaganda Is Vital In Upholding The Illusion Of A Democracy
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 23:40Authored by Cynthia Chung via The Saker blog,
“Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion. This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks. Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem true; the enemy, a friend, and the friend, an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and the trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, the wrong the right. In a country where opinion has sway, to seize upon it, is to seize upon power. As it is a rule of humanity that the upright and well-intentioned are comparatively passive, while the designing, dishonest, and selfish are the most untiring in their efforts, the danger of public opinion’s getting a false direction is four-fold, since few men think for themselves.”
-James Fenimore Cooper
Democracy is something that has been completely taken for granted here in the West. There is an ongoing triumph over past laurels, without paying heed to the road we have strayed from. We criticize others for failing to uphold a standard we consider ourselves the leaders of, but democracy is not something simply “acquired” and subsequently “retained,” it is not a “possession.” This is because a system of democracy is at every moment of its existence defined by the character of its citizenry. Democracy only exists if it is upheld, and if a citizenry fails to do so, it renders itself defenseless to an ever-creeping tyranny.
For such a “creeping tyranny,” control is conditional to whether the citizenry is satisfied with an ever-growing “illusion of democracy.” Such a construct needs to give its subjects the impression that they have “free choice” in what shapes their future and their way of life, including: who will be their “friends” and who will be their “foes.”
And thus, War has always depended on a reliable system to spread its propaganda.
The Arthashastra written by Chankya (350-283 BCE) who was chief advisor to the Emperor Chandragupta (the first ruler of the Mauryan Empire) discusses propaganda and how to disperse and apply it in warfare. It is one of the oldest accounts of the essentialism of propaganda in warfare.
Propaganda is vital in times of war because it is absolutely imperative that the people, who often need to make the greatest sacrifices and suffer the most, believe that such a war is justified and that such a war will provide them security. To the degree that they believe this to be true, the greater the degree of sacrifice and suffering they are willing to submit themselves for said “promised security”.
It is crucial that when the people look at the “enemy” they see something sub-human, for if they recognise that said “enemy” has in fact humanity, the jig is up so to speak.
And thus we are bombarded day after day, hour after hour of reminders as to why the “enemy” is not human like us, not compassionate like us, not patient, just and wise like us.
No doubt, war has been a necessary response when tyranny has formed an army to fight for its cause, but I would put forth that most wars have been rather unnecessary and downright manipulated for the design of a small group of people.
During WWI, on Dec 25th 1914, something rather unexpected occurred and a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front took place between the French/British soldiers and the German soldiers. Some even ventured into “no man’s land”, given its name since none left it alive, to mingle with the “enemy” and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps. A game of football took place as well. It is said that these truces were not unique to the Christmas period but that they were much more widespread during the holiday season.
These fraternisations would understandably make it quite difficult to return to combat against one another…for no apparently good reason. Some units needed to be relocated since they had developed friendships with the opposing side and now refused to fight them.
The lesson was quickly learned and propaganda was heavily pumped down the throats of the Allied countries, and by the course of just a few years, they no longer viewed the Germans as human.
The Battle For Your Mind
“Politicians, Priests, and psychiatrists often face the same problem: how to find the most rapid and permanent means of changing a man’s belief…The problem of the doctor and his nervously ill patient, and that of the religious leader who sets out to gain and hold new converts, has now become the problem of whole groups of nations, who wish not only to confirm certain political beliefs within their boundaries, but to proselytize the outside world.”
– William Sargant “Battle of the Mind”
Mass propaganda is the very reason why in this so-called “age of information”, we are more confused and divided from each other than ever…
It had been commonly thought in the past, and not without basis, that tyranny could only exist on the condition that the people were kept illiterate and ignorant of their oppression. To recognise that one was “oppressed” meant they must first have an idea of what was “freedom”, and if one were allowed the “privilege” to learn how to read, this discovery was inevitable.
If education of the masses could turn the majority of a population literate, it was thought that the higher ideas, the sort of “dangerous ideas” that Mustapha Mond for instance expresses in “The Brave New World”, would quickly organise the masses and revolution against their “controllers” would be inevitable. In other words, knowledge is freedom, and you cannot enslave those who learn how to “think”.
However, it hasn’t exactly played out that way has it?
The greater majority of us are free to read whatever we wish to, in terms of the once “forbidden books”, such as those listed by The Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1). We can read any of the writings that were banned in “The Brave New World”, notably the works of Shakespeare which were named as absolutely dangerous forms of “knowledge”.
We are now very much free to “educate” ourselves on the very “ideas” that were recognised by tyrants of the past as the “antidote” to a life of slavery. And yet, today, there is a fear of that very thing, that to “know” will label you an outcast from a “healthy” society. That the simple desire to know is the beginning of rebellion.
It is recognised, albeit superficially, that who controls the past, controls the present and thereby the future. George Orwell’s book “1984”, hammers this as the essential feature that allows the Big Brother apparatus to maintain absolute control over fear, perception and loyalty to the Party cause, and yet despite its popularity, there still remains today a lack of interest in actually informing oneself about the past.
What does it matter anyway, if the past is controlled and rewritten to suit the present? As the Big Brother interrogator O’Brien states to Winston, “We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not? [And thus, are free to rewrite it as we choose…]”
Of course, we are not in the same situation as Winston…we are much better off. We can study and learn about the “past” if we so desire, unfortunately, it is a choice that many take for granted. And thus, by our failure to ask the right questions and seek the appropriate answers, we find ourselves increasingly in the unsettling position of a Winston…we are enslaved by the very lack of our own will.
In Orwell’s “1984”, there are three main super states in the world: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia that are in one combination or another constantly at war with each other and have been so for the last 25 years.
In the case of Winston, he has only known Oceania (the British commonwealths and U.S.), he knows essentially nothing of either Eurasia or Eastasia, except that sometimes Oceania is at war with Eurasia and sometimes it is at war with Eastasia. In fact, even this memory, that the enemy is not constant, is not something Winston is supposed to recollect or acknowledge. Just by doing this very thing, he is committing a “thoughtcrime”.
Winston’s experience begs the questions, if one were born into a fascist, totalitarian state would they know it? Of course, the state itself would not describe itself as such. How would you be able to compare your “freedom” with the “oppression” of the enemy, when all you were given was what the state chose to give to you?
How do you know that what has come to shape your convictions, your beliefs, your fears really belong to you, and were not placed there by another?
We are all very sensitive to this unsettling question because ironically, that has also been placed in us. It was what started this whole business of “mind control”, you see, it had to be done…for our “protection”.
Warfare in the 21st Century
For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the pinnacle of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the pinnacle of skill.
– Sun Tzu
There a many different forms of warfare, but namely there is warfare that exists in the physical domain of aggression vs defense and warfare that exists in the mental domain of ideas.
The majority of tyrants from the ancient times to present day, have always had a network of powerful people behind them (whether they were aware of it or not) that opened up a path for them to sit on the throne so to speak. For example, we now know that there was a very direct support of Hitler coming from the Bank of England amongst other very influential institutions. That is, Hitler did not arise to power ‘naturally’ or by his mere merit.
The desperation of that economic environment in Germany was predictably formulated as a direct consequence of the Treaty of Versailles which was essentially a death sentence to the German people. And Hitler who had started to make a small name for himself was selected and endorsed as the ‘face’ of what had already been decided would be the fate of Germany.
Wars have almost always been the result of funding and organising from powerful groups with geopolitical interests, often of empire, who create an environment of disinformation and desperation amongst the people through economic and military warfare along with color revolutions.
However, once there was the creation of nuclear bombs, geopolitical warfare was changed forever.
Though we still use much of the same old strategies today, war is ever more located on the plane of ideas, and along with this the ever increasing focus on the manipulation of information and the populace’s perspective of who is good and who is bad.
The war that needs to be fought against the present tyranny is thus increasingly a mental war. In the case of the populace, all together they hold more power than they realise. The real crisis of today’s western thinking is that the people have forgotten how to think. Attention spans have gone down drastically along with a functional vocabulary. People are becoming more and more dominated by image based messages rather than content that requires more than a 10 minute attention span. Articles in the news keep getting shorter and shorter because people seemingly cannot be bothered with too much reading. Along with the serious decline in reading in replacement for quick entertainment (more successful than any book burning in history), people no longer bother to work for a comprehensive viewpoint. Information becomes an annoying barrage of ad campaigns, each yelling louder and more frequently than the other.
The solutions to our problems such as the oncoming economic collapse (in case you haven’t noticed we are doing everything the same as pre-2008), have their solutions in what Russia and China are presenting.
The initiation of war has almost always been presented as a false ‘necessity’, that is in response to the dominating geopolitical ‘balance’, which is basically meant to service the present system of empire, and the erroneous belief in zero sum game.
However, the idea that humans exist in a zero sum game, doomed to battle forever over a diminishing return of resources, was disproven time and again in modern history through the application of successful principles of national political economy. Notable examples of which include Colbert’s dirigisme of France’s 17th century (later revived during the presidency of Charles De Gaulle), the Hamiltonian system of America as exemplified by Abraham Lincoln’s Greenbacks, FDR’s New Deal, and JFK’s space program as well as its most recent expression of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
This system understands that fast money is parasitical and acts in direct opposition to the long-term investments required for projects that will revolutionise a nation’s infrastructure, including science-driver programs.
That debt for such long-term projects is not qualitatively the same as the present debt we see accruing today, and that debt towards investing for the future will always yield a higher return than the cost over time. This is why debt towards long-term investment on infrastructure and science driver projects, such as space exploration, will always be sustainable with a massive return quantitatively and qualitatively. Whereas, the gambling of fast money will very predictably lead to a collapse as was clearly indicated by the 2008 financial crisis, and which insanely has yet to be addressed with a serious bank reform.
The higher battle ground is being fought on the plane of ideas and which proposed ‘new system’ will replace the current collapsing one we are presently in. On the one side the hegemonic rule of a one world government who thinks that they can use force and oppression to rule and on the other side a multi-polar system of cooperating nation states committed to progress that will offer a real qualitative return for the future.
The Art of Doublethink
“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”
George Orwell’s “1984” (Big Brother Mantra)
A truly immersive system of propaganda, which necessarily will be full of contradictions to the truth, absolutely requires that its subjects are compliant with “doublethink,” that is, the ability to accept two contradictory thoughts in your mind without acknowledging that they are in fact opposites.
Orwell identifies this under two forms of “doublethink”, which are “crimestop” and “blackwhite”. “Crimestop” meaning the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of a dangerous thought.
Orwell further states “It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop in short, means protective stupidity.”
“Blackwhite”, is the act of contradiction of plain facts, applied to an opponent. And when applied to the Party, it is the willingness to say black is white when the Party discipline demands it so.
As Orwell describes it
“it means the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past…The alteration of the past is necessary for two reasons…The subsidiary reason is that…he must be cut off from the past, just as he must be cut off from foreign countries, because it is necessary for him to believe that he is better off… [the precautionary reason] by far the more important reason for the readjustment of the past is the need to safeguard the infallibility of the Party.”
Orwell continues
“The splitting of the intelligence which the Party requires of its members, and which is more easily achieved in an atmosphere of war, is now almost universal, but the higher up the ranks one goes, the more marked it becomes. It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy are strongest.”
That is, it is the Inner Party members who are the most indoctrinated, the best at inducing “mind control” or “doublethink” on themselves, and at the same time believe that it is the best and right thing to do.
Orwell describes “doublethink” thus:
“The process has to be conscious , or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence guilt…To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink.”
What many fail to grasp when reading “1984” is that Orwell is not only the character Winston, he is also the character O’Brien. He is the Outer Party member-turned-revolutionary, and he is the Inner Party disciplinarian.
He is simultaneously the tormentor-programmer as well as the tormented-programmed.
Winston eventually breaks and releases the one thing that kept him human, his love and loyalty to Julia. In the end, an announcement is made that Oceania is ever nearer to winning the war and Winston looks up at a large poster of Big Brother and cries gin-filled tears of joy and relief, for he had finally come to love Big Brother.
He had become O’Brien.
So Who is the Said “Enemy”?
The enemy is our lesser selves.
Our most base fears, desires and obsessions. The voice that whispers in our ears telling us not to believe in anything genuine or honest, that the world we live in will ultimately destroy itself and thus it is all about looking out for number one. That it is our fate to be the playthings of higher powers.
This is the voice of a prisoner of Plato’s cave, neck shackled and looking at only shadows on a wall. This is not reality. This is the voice of someone who has been enslaved for most of their life. The voice of someone who has become so disempowered that they wholly accept whatever ugly condition is imposed upon them and will even work to defend it as necessary.
There is a way out of all of this, but you will have to become an optimist in order to see the solution.
“We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
– Abraham Lincoln
- US Seizes "Largest Ever" Haul Of Iranian Missiles & Oil: 'Enough For A Large Military Force'
US Seizes "Largest Ever" Haul Of Iranian Missiles & Oil: 'Enough For A Large Military Force'
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 23:20On Thursday the United States revealed it had previously seized a major shipment of Iranian missiles bound for Yemen, and separately that it seized and later sold 1.1 million barrels of Iranian fuel bound for Venezuela.
Reports describe the seizer was accomplished by two US warships in regional waters that apprehended a total of 171 guided anti-tank missiles, eight surface-to-air missiles, and associated equipment, according to a statement by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers.
“These actions represent the government’s largest-ever forfeitures actions for fuel and weapons shipments from Iran,” the Justice Department said.
Via Fox News Also on Thursday the Treasury Department and State Department slapped sanctions on eleven different entities connected to the Iranian fuel shipments and sales, and sanctions-busting operations.
The DOJ identified that it as top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operatives behind the clandestine shipments of fuel and weapons.
The 1.1 barrels of fuel had been previously reported as seized by US authorities in August. Initially diverted to Houston, some of it was offloaded in New York. The US has now confirmed it sold the petroleum from four tankers at a price of over $40 million.
“We estimate that in excess of $40 million will be recouped by the United States related to the sale of petroleum from those four vessels,” acting US attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin the told reporters.
According to AFP, Sherwin indicated much of the proceeds from the sale would go to a US fund for victims of “state-sponsored terrorism”. The report details:
US courts have ordered Iran’s clerical regime to pay damages over attacks, most recently in July when a judge told Tehran to pay $879.1 million over a 1996 bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US airmen.
Iran denies responsibility and states it has no intention of paying, saying the United States should instead compensate for past episodes including its support of Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War.
Image of prior intercepted Iranian weapons shipment seized by US Navy, via Stripes. As for the weaponry seized, US statements said it was enough “for a large military force” according to Fox:
Authorities also said the Navy had confiscated other weapons components and enough blasting caps to “approximately” supply the U.S. military forces for a year, “leading law enforcement to believe these blasting caps were intended for a large military force.”
Days ahead of the US election, there’s little doubt that Tehran is actively rooting for Joe Biden to take the White House, given Trump’s maximum pressure campaign is crippling the Iranian economy and fast putting the two sides on a war footing, especially after the January assassination of IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani. Biden has promised he’ll attempted to bring the US back into the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
A very strange non-story ratcheting things up with Iran as we go into an election. FBI says nothing is going on here, but golly he has Facebook friends in the Middle East…https://t.co/8nFIjuB49c
— Jack Murphy (@JackMurphyRGR) October 30, 2020
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Meanwhile Iran and Venezuela have pledged deepening cooperation, while the US has vowed to “destroy” and missiles transferred to the Maduro regime.
- The Irony Of American History And Russian Disinformation
The Irony Of American History And Russian Disinformation
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 23:00Authored by Chris Farrell via The Gatestone Institute,
We have been subjected to four years of large parts of the US government shrieking about Russia and the threats posed by that country to the safety of our republic. How did so many miss their own serial treasons, in concert with the Soviet and Russian governments, dating back to 1917? Let us refresh our recollections of how so many Americans reframed history and disinformation.
Some of the following may be “lost history” to you, but that is okay, because we definitely need some reminders before election day.
FDR himself personally schmoozed Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov in the White House and acknowledged the USSR diplomatically for no US advantage whatsoever in November of 1933. When Litvinov returned to his embassy from the White House, he openly mocked FDR’s naïveté and gullibility to his staff.
FDR’s “co-president,” Kremlin-loving Harry Hopkins, has been airbrushed out of the history of the FDR White House. Hopkins went on to live in the FDR’s Lincoln Bedroom between May 1940 and December 1943 while running the entire Lend-Lease Program. Hopkins bellowed “All hail to the Russian people and their gallant army!” in Madison Square Garden on June 23, 1942, while promoting US war aid to the Soviet Union.
The usual rebuff to this sort of inconvenient historical observation is, “Oh, but that was when the Soviets were our allies!” If you are satisfied with that explanation, then I recommend reading Stan Evans, Diana West and Paul Kengor in order that you to get much-needed additional information and perspective.
How about when Ted Kennedy asked the Soviets to intervene in the 1984 elections? You may remember that Kennedy derisively coined the phrase “Star Wars” to mock Reagan’s “Strategic Defense Initiative” and aided the Soviet Union by opposing the program. Americans repeat “Star Wars” like parrots and do not even know why or how the term came to be associated with the program. Kennedy was not alone in his “Soviet friendship.” The FBI ran a program monitoring congressional contacts with the Soviet embassy for nearly 40 years, and they still will not release those records.
What about Barack Obama’s wooing and collusion with Medvedev on a “hot mic,” with a special message for Vladimir? Hillary Clinton conjured up the fake Trump-Russia scheme, and then paid political operative cut-outs and Russians to advance the story.
There is a 100-year-old pattern.
The Soviet Union and modern-day Russia are expert practitioners of deception, provocation, diversion, active measures, and double-agentry — all of the tools and techniques of disinformation. Deception and manipulation are the goals of the disinformation. False information itself is not enough. There is a desired outcome. Decisions must be affected. Changes made. People persuaded. Actions taken.
One hundred years ago, there was a cottage industry of forgeries peddled around the embassies, consulates, attaches and spies of European capitals. Some of the forgers were criminals looking to make a fortune, but most were Soviet agents sowing confusion. Letters, documents, reports, maps, diagrams, etc. — all forms of records, both physical and sometimes photographic reproductions that were used to tell a certain story to a certain audience. Books were also generated for deceptive purposes — writing and rewriting “facts” and “history” to serve on another front of the political war. It is really no different today. We have the “Steele dossier” and James Comey running around on his book tour(s). There really is “nothing new under the sun.”
We are supposed to believe that the life-long career “friends of Russia” are suddenly terrified by Russia. Someone should have told Bernie Sanders. This sudden alarm over Russia by its erstwhile admirers is similar to the “old switcheroo” many Democrats did on civil rights for Black Americans. Lincoln and the Republican abolitionists freed the slaves of the Confederacy from Democrats through a bloody civil war, suffering 600,000+ casualties. Many of today’s Democrats pretend Republicans were Alabama plantation owners. Half the Republicans agree, or do not understand the insidious lie.
Many switched party affiliation colors during the 2000 election. America now stupidly assigns Republicans the color of revolutionary, communist red. That was and is always the color of the Left. Hence “Red Army,” “Red Square,” etc. Republicans are too stupid and lazy to challenge it in the media and their own branding, so now a whole generation of Americans have been brainwashed and do not know any better. In fact, they are proud to be “Reds!” So sad.
One must also consider the “arguments” about the “evidence” of Russian disinformation.
First off, we have unending “investigations” by various bodies and persons who are not qualified to investigate a price check at Walmart.
Here, I speak of persons like Adam Schiff or the members and staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Second, we have the “TV experts.” These folks are usually the former heads of the agencies and departments that are actually guilty of the subversion and sedition that got us to this point. Think of John Brennan giving his expert opinion on the innocence and honor of James Comey. When any of these characters (and paid CNN contributors) invokes Russian disinformation (usually quoting each other), you know they are lying. Period.
Of course, anyone who asks questions about any of the logical disconnects and fallacies of any alleged Russian disinformation campaign must be on Putin’s payroll. Ask a question? Sure “comrade,” go ahead!
It is terribly important to be reminded of all these things just a few days before the election. You should go to your polling place in-person and “vote angry.” You’ve been lied to — savagely — for nearly four years. Go ahead and take your electoral revenge.
- Visualizing The Top Struggles Of Remote Workers
Visualizing The Top Struggles Of Remote Workers
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 22:40Unplugging from work can be challenging at the best of times.
But, as Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang notes, when your living room doubles as your office, it can be even harder–at least that’s the case for 22% of remote workers.
Thanks to the global pandemic, millions of workers have been sent home to work at a safe distance. While many remote workers enjoy the flexibility that comes with remote work, it doesn’t come without its drawbacks.
Here’s a ranking of the top struggles that remote workers face, according to a recent report by Buffer and AngelList:
The report also found that only 15% of employers paid the cost of home internet, and 21% covered the cost of a phone plan in a work-from-home situation. However, with this type of arrangement still being relatively new for most, these perks could evolve over time.
Despite the various challenges involved, 98% of remote workers would like to continue working remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers.
In short – while remote work poses its own set of struggles, the benefits outweigh the cons.
»For a more in-depth look at the topic of remote work, visit: How People and Companies Feel About Working Remotely.
- Daily Briefing – October 30, 2020 (LIVE)
Daily Briefing – October 30, 2020 (LIVE)
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 22:40Tune in for this special edition of the Daily Briefing to hear from Ash and Raoul live at 4:30 PM ET. Raoul will provide an update on his macro thesis, trades he’s bullish on, and answer questions from the audience. Raoul and Ash will also break down bitcoin’s recent rally, and provide greater insight on the Real Vision crypto tier. - A New World Monetary Order Is Coming
A New World Monetary Order Is Coming
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 22:20Authored by Stefan Gleason via ActivistPost.com,
The global coronavirus pandemic has accelerated several troubling trends already in force. Among them are exponential debt growth, rising dependency on government, and scaled-up central bank interventions into markets and the economy.
Central bankers now appear poised to embark on their biggest power play ever.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, in coordination with the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), is preparing to roll out central bank digital currencies.
The globalist IMF recently called for a new “Bretton Woods Moment” to address the loss of trillions of dollars in global economic output due to the coronavirus.
In the aftermath of World War II, the original Bretton Woods agreement established a world monetary order with the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency.
Importantly, the dollar was to be pegged to the price of gold. Foreign governments and central banks could also redeem their dollar reserves in gold, and they started doing so in earnest in the 1960s and early 1970s.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon closed the gold window, effectively ushering in a new world monetary order based solely on the full faith and credit of the United States. An inflation crisis followed a few years later.
In response, the Federal Reserve took the painful step of jacking up interest rates to defend its wilting Federal Reserve Note and tame rising prices.
Fast forward to 2020, and the Fed has assumed for itself novel policy mandates that are a precursor to a new monetary system.
But the monetary masters aren’t contemplating a return to sound money. Rather, they’re planning for even more debt, more inflation, and picking of winners and losers in the economy.
The Fed has unceremoniously thrown its statutory dual mandate of full employment and stable prices out the window. It now gives itself an unlimited mandate to inject stimulus and bailout cash wherever it sees fit (including, recently, “junk” bond exchange-traded funds).
Instead of pursuing stable prices, the Fed is now explicitly embarking on an inflation-raising campaign with the goal of generating annual price level increases above 2% for an undefined period.
The next frontier of the Fed’s unlimited mandate could be “FedCoin” – a central bank digital currency.
Earlier this month Chairman Powell participated in an IMF panel on international payments and digital currencies. He touted electronic payments systems and raised the possibility of integrating them into a central bank digital currency regime.
Powell has so far declined to outright endorse a move toward a fully cashless system which countries including China and Sweden are spearheading. But he is on board with the larger globalist agenda of expanding the role of monetary policy in shaping economic and social outcomes.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva sees expanded monetary tools being aimed at every issue under the sun: “We will have a chance to address some persistent problems – low productivity, slow growth, high inequalities, a looming climate crisis… We can do better than build back the pre-pandemic world – we can build forward to a world that is more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive.”
The IMF is being pressured by debt campaigners to sell some of its gold reserves to cover payments owed by some of the world’s poorest countries. The IMF would issue pseudo-currency units known as Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to cancel the debts of poor countries.
In a world where central bank balance sheets have grown by more than $7 trillion, it’s not surprising that everyone wants a piece of the pie and that many now view gold as dispensable.
Is gold merely a barbarous relic in this brave new digital world? If it were, then it would have collapsed in price this year, amid all the new central bank rollouts, instead of surging to an all-time high.
Precious metals may be the ultimate hedge against the new world monetary order.
In the event that the U.S. central bank launches a digital dollar and assigns every American a virtual wallet, there would be no escaping adverse monetary policy decrees except by exiting fiat currencies entirely.
Under a central bank digital currency, authorities could impose negative interest rates on all holdings of currency units. They could do so without needing to get anyone to buy negative-yielding bonds or deposit money into negative-yielding bank accounts.
Under a central bank digital currency, direct credits and debits could replace stimulus checks and taxes. It would be the vehicle through which modern monetary theory could be fully implemented – with the central bank becoming tax collector and funder of all government operations.
If depreciating the value of the currency through the inflation tax wasn’t enough, the Fed could also stick dollar-holders with a direct tax in the form of negative interest rates. Once paper notes are phased out, holding cash itself would no longer be a way for individuals to escape negative rates.
The only escape hatches would be volatile alternative digital currencies (such as Bitcoin) or hard money (gold and silver).
Under a monetary order where electronic digits representing currency can be created out of thin air in unlimited quantities, the best hedge is the opposite – tangible, scarce, untraceable wealth held off the financial grid.
- US & China Hold Military Talks To Deescalate Ratcheting War Rhetoric
US & China Hold Military Talks To Deescalate Ratcheting War Rhetoric
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 22:00The US and Chinese militaries are holding “crisis communications” talks after days of escalating ‘war rhetoric’ between the two countries.
This latest was held via video conference between the US and PLA sides Wednesday through Thursday of this week, Chinese defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian confirmed. This also as Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Mike Pompeo toured Asia seeking to gain support and cooperation from allies on confronting and countering the “China threat” to the region.
Over the course of this month President Xi Jinping has made multiple hugely provocative statements telling PLA forces to “prepare for war” as tensions are ratcheting over Taiwan, particularly after US warship ‘freedom of navigation’ passages through the Taiwan Strait and Washington’s latest approval of advanced weapons transfers.
Via Reuters In particular during this week’s military-to-military talks, intended as establishing a means of emergency communications, or military hotline, to avoid ‘accidental’ confrontation, dealt with rumors of a coming US drone attack on islands in the South China Sea claimed by Beijing, which the PLA side raised. It was said that a US military drill off California was meant to simulate just such an attack.
The exercise raised eyebrows in Chinese regional media given widespread reports that American drone operators wore patches on their uniforms suggesting China and its claimed islands were the direct targets.
Esper is said to have expressly denied that there are any plans in place to attack Chinese islands in the region, also to assure Chinese military delegation participating in the communications talks.
Does this US military uniform suggest it is preparing for war with China? https://t.co/kAPUwXtO93
— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) September 29, 2020
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According to PLA spokesman Wu, Esper underscored that the United States “has no intention of creating a military crisis with the Chinese,” according to Reuters.
“US Defense Secretary Esper clarified the issue through the military diplomacy channel and said the reports were inconsistent with the facts,” Wu added. “We urge the U.S. to walk the talk, keep its promise, and take measures to prevent provoking China military in the air and sea.”
The Pentagon also confirmed that “The two sides agreed on the importance of establishing mechanisms for timely communication during a crisis, as well as the need to maintain regular communication channels to prevent crisis and conduct post-crisis assessment” in a statement.
It’s long been feared that each superpower is ‘stumbling toward war’ in the region given the potential for an unintended confrontation or clash to rapidly grow into a broader conflagration. The military-to-military talks are designed precisely to prevent such a dramatic scenario.
- Trump's (64-Day) Post-Election Endgame (Or, Can A Criminal Be Inaugurated President?)
Trump's (64-Day) Post-Election Endgame (Or, Can A Criminal Be Inaugurated President?)
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 21:40Authored by Brett Redmayne-Titley via WatchingRomeBurn.uk,
Suddenly, the anticipated Trump campaign’s October surprise: allegations that presidential candidate Joseph Biden has been a beneficiary of an international influence-peddling scheme with his son, Hunter, as the point man. This has dramatically, for the moment, turned the tables of election 2020.
This pre-election day chess move is an obvious, carefully planned Trump campaign hit job, but short-sighted, most pundits predict these allegations come too late to sway the outcome of election day.
This view is dubious and misses what could indeed be a three-move check-mate against Joe Biden, but…after the votes are counted.
Come Nov 3, the race for POTUS is far from over. Trump’s handlers seem to know this. The follow-up will be an unprecedented public spectacle that will likely very much include the Electoral College. Further, this possible coup will have sixty-four very valuable extra days, a Judiciary Committee, an Attorney General, a Senate and developing media attention, all remaining and at the RNC’s disposal.
The Trump campaign knows this and appears to be playing the long game. Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon are not political fools. Thanks to Biden’s true personality being exposed, a growing treasure chest of allegations have been handed over to Trump, four different times thus far. If these revelations prove true, should Trump lose, this will also provide his campaign no less than two more chances to bring Biden down.
The timing of the weeks four separate bombshells alleging a Biden family pay-to-play scheme mimic off course the effects of the July 22 and November 6th, 2016 Wikileaks pre-election revelations. Here, in context, it should be remembered that this massive leak of emails blew up the campaign of the, then, DNC frontrunner, Hillary Rodham Clinton. It also exposed the utter anti-democratic corruption and coup that was the 2016 DNC presidential election committee.
The Biden pay-to-play allegations also mimic those against Hillary Clinton US Secretary of State and the trove of evidence strongly indicating her own scheme in which her business partner, former president Bill Clinton, sold himself for international speeches…and access to Hillary’s State Department. And, during Biden’s tenure as VP.
Mere days ago, the initial salvo released the news of Hunter Biden’s laptop and an alleged FBI cover-up of its illicit contents. In brief, Hunter had left it uncollected for months at a computer repair shop, and after seeing the laptop’s contents the owner, John Paul MacIsaac, first turned it over to the FBI which did nothing with it. But MacIsaac had kept a copy of the hard drive, and next donated it to Trump’s top henchman, Rudy Giuliani, who tossed this bone to the New York Post, who blew the whistle to the public.
The laptop’s contents and emails made headlines… except in virtually the entirety of DNC aligned mainstream and social media. That’s most of it. This began Trump’s efforts to substantiate that Father Joe was the willing bait to sell influence in the VP’s office while he was in that office. Worse, the Bidens may have been working in concert with America’s newest enemy number one: China.
Two days later the next salvo hit. A former close business associate of Hunter Biden, Bevan Cooney, who is currently serving a prison sentence for fraud, gave-up his own laptop reportedly containing 26,000 emails that according to Breitbart News make it “explicit” that Hunter Biden was “trading off the Biden name, the Biden connections, and the Biden access.” It has recently been reported that Cooney was moved out of his cell in Oregon for his safety.
Barely a day went by before Tony Bobulinski next stepped forward with his digital paper trail of alleged Biden family conspiracy. Bobulinski has offered himself up as the total insider with the needed direct link(s) to the former VP and China. As of Tuesday night, Nov 27. when appearing with Tucker Carlson on Fox News he became the personalized face representing all these three sets of revelations. In reviewing the interview, despite his constant reminders of his being a democrat, his military record and his outrage on behalf of the American people, Bobulinski is obviously a well-rehearsed hitman. But his clownish act does not negate this purported evidence from further investigation.
A dubious side note has also been floated with a detailed investigative report authored by the unknown Typhoon Investigations, released by Christopher Balding, Associate Professor at Peking University who reportedly is a contributor to the anti-Trump Bloomberg News. The report is 65 pages, well presented, documented, charted, sourced and referenced. This presentation must be called out as to its validity if only because of the sensational but fraudulent Steele Dossier leak of four years ago.
Certainly, this report must be vetted, like the two camera moths, MacIsaac and Bobulinski. But if Prof. Balding does not cash his chips forever with Bloomberg, investigations will be in order.
If Trump loses, so begins the long game of hard-ball power politics, 2020 and ‘21.
Speaking of Investigations.
Already these allegations have provided much further de-legitimacy of the Biden campaign beyond the candidate himself. The virtual black-out of all four stories and the excuses offered by the news directors of many censors have not blinded the public. Instead, this obvious censorship has rocketed this developing story to a massive new viewership. Questions about the related FBI cover-up in burying the laptop allegations have further increased calls for an investigation. The outrage of America’s awakening public is rising daily, with at least sixty-four plus days to go.
Post-election day, should these allegations bear scrutiny there are three possible investigative bodies available to Trump. Further, the Electoral College has two more required steps to complete as well. This gives Trump, should he lose, multiple new chances to legally overthrow Biden.
Behind the scenes, as the process of the Electoral College begins before it convenes for the last time on Jan 6, 2021, the Judiciary Committee, the Senate and the Attorney General will remain republican. Assuming AG Bill Barr is willing to do his job, history may be made post-election and, if so, placing one’s hand upon the bible may not this time be the privilege of the president-elect, but that of an indicted co-defendant in court.
The first step of the Electoral College does not take place until Monday, Dec 14. In the meantime, although covering-up for Biden as the DNC media may attempt, the Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee has already announced, on Thurs Oct 22, 2020, that on Oct 28 it will be convening public hearings regarding the censorship by at least Twitter, Google and Facebook of the Biden accusations. These hearings, although in the guise of examining social media censorship, will instead be an initial public display by the RNC of many of the allegations against Biden. This will be must-see TV for the tens of millions of locked-down, unemployed, and pissed off American’s who were already holding their noses about this election’s bi-partisan stench.
Two of the three constitutionally available methods of investigation are tactically available to the RNC: A Senate Commission; or the Appointment of a Special Counsel, at the request of the Judiciary Committee, by the Dept. of Justice.
A Senate investigation would have the benefit of TV coverage, as was the case with the Watergate and 9/11 investigations. It may be included in a duet of investigations. With the Judiciary Committee already on the attack, it will almost certainly reconvene again with Biden as the target. Able to function quickly as a quasi- grand jury, upon the Judiciary Committee’s initial examination the JC will likely call for the appointment of a Special Counsel. The Attorney General, William Barr, must then immediately appoint a Special Counsel of his choosing.
Bill Barr has of late not been loyal to Trump, nor with his investigations into DNC criminal interference and collusion against a sitting president. But, if Barr fails to appoint a Special Counsel he must, by law, inform the Judiciary Committee of his exact reasons. So, if Barr doesn’t do his job as demanded by the JC, he too will join Dorsey and Zuckerberg as coconspirators, at least in the widening minds of the public now watching closely.
Regarding the AG’s support of a Special Counsel, the regulations set forth (28 C.F.R. 600.1) require a three-part analysis: One, that “criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted.” Two, that prosecution of the “person or matter” would present “a conflict of interest for the Department [DoJ]”, and, three, whether “it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside Special Counsel to assume responsibility for the matter.”
By definition, Biden is in it deep.
Certainly, the next few days before the election are not sufficient to see any result of an investigation and Trump just might win. Or, lose. Trump’s campaign loyalists knew this beforehand, particularly the suddenly released from the woodshed, Steve Bannon. He and Giuliani have likely had all this info for many weeks in waiting. If legitimate, to waste political treasure of this magnitude too early in a single pre-election attack is not likely for men as crafty as Bannon and Giuliani. Since a Trump loss is still the predicted outcome, both are more likely preparing to play the long game of the post-election day Electoral College. Presumably, both are aware of its step-by-step chronology. Almost all of American voters are not. Yet.
However fraudulent this election may be on many other state line battle fronts, the two upcoming Electoral College votes (actually fifty-one votes in total), both a month apart, are required of the EC to certify the presidential winner. With the scripted investigations thus already nicely raging in the minds of the Electoral College, and the court of public opinion, the EC has the ability to be Trump’s checkmate.
The Reality of the Electoral College.
The constitutional provisions of the Electoral College have been reported far too simply.
The Electoral College is not an institution but, more accurately, the process of certifying the final results of a presidential election after Election Day and before the inauguration of Jan 20, 2021.
Previous to the 2016 election, Electors of each state – Republican or Democrat- only “promised” that they would vote for the candidate who did prevail in their state. Few states had a legal requirement nor penalty for an Elector not doing so. Up until that election, only a total of eight Elector’s had ever in US history bucked party lines.
In July 2020, the US Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, certified a state’s ability to mandate that any elector not deviate and that any who would can be sanctioned. At this time, still many states have not mandated a penalty, and of those that do, none is punitive enough to prevent an Elector following his conscience and allegiance to country.
As the Electoral College begins and voter tabulation finally comes in sometime beyond Nov 3, the governor of each state must first prepare a “Certificate of Ascertainment” listing all of the candidates who ran for President along with the names of each of the respective Electors of the state’s party choice of president. Each state sends its Certificate of Ascertainment to the National Archives, but the C.A. of each state is also readied for a required upcoming public meeting of Electors at each of the fifty state capitols.
The public meeting of the electors must take place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which will be December 14, 2020.The electors meet in their respective states, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate personal ballots. After the vote, usually a formality seldom attended by members of the public, each state’s elector’s votes are next recorded on that state’s “Certificate of Vote,” which, now finalized, is also sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election.
But, on Dec 14 – just forty-one days in– each state’s EC must vote in public. What will be the mood of these Electors six weeks, and possibly two ongoing investigations, after election day? Regardless, each state will next have three more weeks to re-consider their Dec 14 vote, the mounting evidence… and their conscience.
Any individual protest by an elector will be merely grandstanding. However, by law, any state body of Electors might instead be influenced to collectively, “object.” This collective state protest of objection to a president-elect can be rendered at the State House on Dec 14, but also at any time before the reading of that state’s name from the floor of the US House of Representatives. That will be on Wed Jan 6, 2021.
This meeting is also, by law, public.
Yes, instead of individually influencing Electors to change their minds on individual votes at the State House, an entire state might ultimately- after days of watching the results of Biden’s true character surface daily- exert its 10th Amendment rights and chose to object to Biden’s certification. When the elector’s votes are read one-by-one by one, in alphabetical order by one of the four designated congressional “Tellers”, any state at that moment may interrupt the proceedings at the calling of its name and object. The objection must be on constitutional grounds. Such as secretly dealing with a foreign power for profit.
Just as importantly, if any state does object, the vote tally immediately stops and a separate joint session of Congress must then be held to investigate and debate the merits of that state’s objection. Should there be a subsequent objection, yet another session must be held, but it is unclear if multiple issues and state’s objections could be combined.
Although a president-elect with a criminal conviction can indeed still be elected president, any state can at least temporarily stop the proceeding for an examination of new charges by the full House. For examples of this possibility, Texas, in its state’s constitution, provides that disqualification for elected office can be for “anyone that has a conviction for bribery, forgery, perjury, and other high crimes.” Texas is a Trump state and is a strategic possibility to object on behalf of Trump once Trump makes the call to party loyalist, Gov. Greg Abbott.
Over in Georgia, their bar is lower, disqualifying anyone who has been convicted of a crime “about moral turpitude.”
What is important to note is that if Biden crosses the bar in any state, it would thus be statutorily illegal for that state to allow its electors to certify its State’s result on Jan 6. Therefore, that state must object. Having Georgia similarly object on Jan 6 is not beyond possibility if the allegations are by then substantially proven.
As for the voter, this is certainly not a farfetched possibility. On, Oct 26, the Google search for “Can I change my vote“ was reportedly surging nationally. And, by Jan 6…?
An objection by a state has never happened. This eventuality, particularly if other states followed suit, would be far different from Biden dropping dead or impeached by his own party under the 25th Amendment due to his declining mental condition. The objection(s) would also have the potential to remove enough Elector’s votes from the Biden’s grand total to swing that remaining total in Trump’s favour. These objections would not provide the DNC with their desired result of a Kamala Harris presidency. Nor would the Speaker of the House take over as interim president. This would be a unique electoral problem, one probably headed to SCOTUS for resolution.
And, just moments ago, Trump’s new SCOTUS appointment, Amy Coney Barrett, has now been confirmed by the Senate.
Trump’s senate.
The sound of pitchforks is an interesting sound for it tends to carry on the winds.
Come Dec 14, and then on Jan 6, on either day where will the unemployed, pitchfork carrying, depressed, angry, hungry, and disenfranchised voters be, physically and mentally.
The answer on both days could be: shoulder to shoulder packing each and every State House rotunda. Rightfully, the voters, after decades of congressional, presidential and political party corruption are quite anxious and willing to finally lynch at least one of these bastards. And Joe Biden may be the one to swing.
Will Biden fight? It’s doubtful, since he has trouble speaking much less weathering a prosecutor’s attack.
Will Kamala Harris take his place? Not a chance. No outraged voter or elector after, having taken Biden’s skin, will ever allow a black Hillary Clinton in the White House, particularly one just as corrupt as Biden.
Nancy Pelosi? Well…need one say more?
The author offers this plausible evaluation to the reader in the spirit of bi-partisan presidential contempt.
While it is easy to detest the presidential offerings of at least the past five elections, any political junkie should put aside a partisan view-point to appreciate this possible brilliant strategic checkmate by Giuliani and Bannon. Face it, Trump’s not this smart.
Giuliani and Bannon are anything but politically naïve. If these allegations prove worthy of investigation at the Congressional level it is very doubtful that this carefully laid coup would be so short sighted as to be risked on only influencing the popular vote count.
If the allegations against Joe Biden and family begin to gel into hard proof, the aftermath of the worst presidential election in US history will only increase in turmoil. With the other ongoing election chaos, thus combined with the Electoral College, the flames already on American streets will become a firestorm that has the possibility of destroying the nation.
The American voter, no matter which horned and tailed, crimson-red phoenix does rise from these flames, constitutionally, politically, or militarily, will in less than a week, and sixty-four days after have to watch, wait and see.
Or, pick-up a pitchfork and run to the local State House!
- Want To Lease A Bugatti Hypercar? Expect To Pay $66k Per Month
Want To Lease A Bugatti Hypercar? Expect To Pay $66k Per Month
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 21:20For the Robinhood traders who turned tens of thousands of dollars into millions this year and have still yet to lose all their money, DragTimes YouTube channel’s Brooks Weisblat has found the perfect hypercar to lease, that is, a one-year-old Bugatti Chiron.
Weisblat ran the numbers on leasing the hypercar, and even to our amazement, who knew Bugatti had a leasing program?
So here are the numbers: Bugatti offers 24- and 36-month leases with a 2,500 mile-per-year allowance. According to CNET, even before the actual lease amount, one must pay $4,000 of the monthly cost in taxes. For a 24 month lease, one would expect to pay around $65,960 per month or about $1.6 million over the term of the lease.
For some perspective on per monthly lease costs, the US median income for 2019 was around $69,000. Tens of millions of Americans this year are struggling to survive as the virus pandemic has financially crushed them. But the Federal Reserve and the federal government, pumping trillions of dollars into financial markets, sparked a boom in the stock market that minted new millionaires.
Our advice to the successful Robinhood traders, preserve the wealth that was created from panic buying technology stocks, and enjoy it. Either way, in the next stock market crash, amateur traders will be wiped out again.
By the way, the Chiron has two keys; a regular key and a top speed key that allows it to hit 262 mph. Here’s Weisblat’s video:
And if the need for speed is your game – why lease a Chiron and waste $1.6 million, when you can purchase SSC North America’s Tuatara hypercar that recently reached speeds of 331 mph on a Nevada highway. The price tag of Tuatara is only $2 million, one million less than the 2019 Chiron.
- Did 'The Economist' Aid A Chinese Communist Influence Operation?
Did 'The Economist' Aid A Chinese Communist Influence Operation?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 21:00Authored by Austin Bay via The Epoch Times,
On Oct. 26, the Washington Free Beacon published a hard-hitting investigative article exposing a truly appalling and destructive example of communist China’s long-term war on free societies, in this case using influence and information as weapons.
The Free Beacon detailed The Economist magazine’s years of “sympathetic” coverage of China’s Huawei Technologies company. Then the report connected information to a kind of influence by documenting the magazine’s profitable business relationship with the notorious corporate giant. The Free Beacon noted The Economist did not acknowledge that economic relationship for nearly a decade.
Huawei’s deep financial and operational connections to the Chinese Communist Party are no secret. The CCP has final say over Huawei’s international operations. That indicates the CCP was a silent partner in the Huawei-Economist arrangement.
According to the Free Beacon report, written by Yuichiro Kakutani, from 2012 through 2018, the Economist Intelligence Unit (the magazine’s consulting division) published at least seven Huawei-commissioned reports the company used to “advance its policy agendas and deflect cybersecurity concerns raised by Western governments.” Huawei credited the reports with influencing British broadband and communications policy.
But here’s the damning quote that implicates the news and editorial divisions. The magazine itself had “defended Huawei in a front-page cover story in 2012 – the year the publication’s consulting division started working with the company.” Titled “Who’s afraid of Huawei?” the story “accused Western countries of using cybersecurity concerns as a pretense to oppose legitimate competition from Huawei.”
I visited The Economist website and read the Aug. 4, 2012, story. The Free Beacon summarizes it fairly. The Economist’s editors called Huawei “China’s new world-beater.” The article mentioned Chinese cyber-espionage, Huawei’s government connections, its “opaque ownership structure and secretive culture,” and other security and competitive issues—column inches devoted to the list. However, the editors dismissed these critical issues as “fretting.” This quote reveals the editorial attitude: “Huawei’s competitors have a vested interest in hyping concerns about it, while disguising their own reliance on Chinese subcontractors and on subsidies.”
Substituting a bland word for a harsh one is a euphemism. The term “euphemize” also has a rhetorical meaning: a statement characterized by evasive or dismissive language. The Economist’s 2012 Huawei coverage dismisses deep national security concerns as frets.
The Free Beacon’s bottom-line accusation: Chinese money bought advantageous (euphemized) treatment, if not favorable news coverage and a positive editorial attitude in a news and business journal long regarded as one of the world’s most influential—influential in terms of its editorial acumen, erudite reporting and savvy story selection. The Economist’s international subscriber base is well educated, wealthy and connected.
It appears the CCP managed to influence The Economist’s purveyors of influence and did so not in one or two instances but for eight critical years. The CCP wasn’t simply targeting The Economist. Huawei has tried to coopt media everywhere. But The Economist allegedly influences the influencers in capital cities around the planet, which gives it unique leverage.
For the past two decades, Huawei has engaged in espionage operations, racketeering, economic corruption and influence operations on behalf of Beijing while positioning itself to dominate global and regional communications infrastructure and international digital systems.
Until summer 2020, the British government was committed to using Huawei’s suspect 5G technology—so the political influence attributed to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s reports lingered. I’ll wager the magazine’s soft and euphemized coverage helped stall attempts to curb Huawei’s activities.
The word “influence” dominates this column. “Influence operations” are a major topic of national security concern. Influence operations are hard to define. In 2009, RAND Corporation offered this one: “efforts to influence a target audience, whether an individual leader, members of a decision-making group, military organizations and personnel, specific population subgroups, or mass publics.”
From the Chinese perspective, Hunter Biden’s alleged business deals in China would classify as an effort to influence an individual leader.
Congratulations to the Washington Free Beacon for documenting how corrosive and effective China’s influence operations can be.
- Costco Drops Coconut Milk Products Over Allegations Of Forced Monkey Labor
Costco Drops Coconut Milk Products Over Allegations Of Forced Monkey Labor
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 20:40In the last few months, Walgreens, Food Lion, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop halted coconut milk products from Thailand suppliers accused by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) of using monkeys as forced labor.
“No kind shopper wants monkeys to be chained up and treated like coconut-picking machines,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a Thursday press release.
@H_Combs VICTORY! ❤️🐒 Costco has cut ties with coconut milk producer #Chaokoh after discussions with PETA & hearing from thousands of kind supporters!
Join us in continuing to speak out to other companies that still use forced monkey labor! https://t.co/OdVFzvugbJ pic.twitter.com/DM3cyKo0Mf
— PETA (@peta) October 29, 2020
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Today’s PETA announcement shows another western retailer, that being Costco, will no longer carry coconut milk products from major Thailand-based coconut milk producer Chaokoh – until the company ends the use of chained monkeys to pick coconuts.
Newkirk continued, “Costco made the right call to reject animal exploitation, and PETA is calling on holdouts like Kroger to follow suit.”
Readers may recall, in July, we noted PETA Asia’s investigation uncovered these chained monkeys, picking hundreds of coconuts each day. It was said Aroy-D and Chaokoh were some of the biggest Thai coconut players using monkeys.
PETA Asia’s investigators released disturbing images of the coconut picking monkeys:
h/t PETA Asia 
h/t PETA Asia PETA Asia’s investigators found many of these monkeys were tortured, saying:
“When not being forced to pick coconuts or perform in circus-style shows for tourists, the animals were kept tethered, chained to old tires, or confined to cages barely larger than their bodies. Many displayed repetitive behavior indicative of extreme mental anguish, including one monkey who chewed on one of his own limbs. One coconut farmer confirmed that when monkeys are terrified and try to defend themselves, handlers may have their teeth pulled out.”
PETA noted Costco joins Walgreens, Food Lion, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop, all of whom have eliminated coconut milk brands that use forced monkey labor, noting their attention will now turn on “Kroger” who still sells products from Chaokoh.
- Why Victor Davis Hanson Thinks Trump Will Win
Why Victor Davis Hanson Thinks Trump Will Win
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 20:20Authored by Oliver Wyman via TheCritic.co.uk,
To those who see an intellectual case for Donald Trump as a contradiction in terms, Victor Davis Hanson is an unlikely figure.
A senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, Dr Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal by George W Bush in 2007. He is the author of more than 20 books on classics, military history and more. When he isn’t writing or teaching, he’s managing his family’s farm. Dr Hanson is also a full-throated and unapologetic supporter of the president. Last year, Dr Hanson published The Case for Trump, a coherent and thoughtful argument for an often incoherent and thoughtless president.
Victor Davis Hanson. Image courtesy of the Hoover Institution
With under a week left in the presidential election, Dr Hanson spoke to me over the telephone from his farm in California’s San Joaquin Valley about whether Trump will win, why he supports the president and how the coronavirus has sharpened America’s political and class divides. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.
How do you see the race right now? Who will win next week?
I think Trump will win the Electoral College. I’m not sure about the popular vote, but the more our experts and pundits reassert that 2016 cannot happen again, the more it seems like it is happening again. And by that I mean, more specifically, all the polls that were discredited in 2016 — the Politico poll and the Reuters poll, Fox or the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, the mainstream polls in other words — they have Trump losing in the key states just about at the rate that Trump was losing last time. And from what I can tell, they haven’t really altered their methodology. The other polls, the Democracy Institute, the Trafalgar poll, the Zogby poll, the Rasmussen poll, have him very close, if not deadlocked at the national level. And then, in these key swing states, deadlocked or slightly ahead.
And yet, we were told in 2016, that these were not credible polls. They turned out to be almost prescient in their accuracy. So there you have it.
And then what we’re not supposed to do is rely on anecdotal evidence. But when you drive around communities in America — and I’ve been out a lot despite the quarantine — the enthusiasm is all on one side. It’s all Trump. There’s Trump signs, Trump motorcades, huge Trump rallies.
Because the data doesn’t seem logical, people don’t believe it. By that, I mean that African Americans might not vote just 8 per cent, but maybe 12 or 13 per cent for Trump, or Hispanics may not vote 31, but 35 or 36 per cent. Or college students, maybe a million and a half of them in swing states at these huge public universities, the biggest in the world — Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, University of Wisconsin, University of Miami, all of them — they’re not in session because of a lockdown. And students are not going to walk to the polls after being registered on campus, with the herd mentality and rah-rah exhortation that is normal. They are home in their basement or with their parents scattered all over. And I just don’t think they’re going to vote in the same numbers or with the same consistency as they did in 2016. I think that’ll benefit Trump as well.
If I accept your assessment of the race for the time being, what about Trump’s message is working?
If we had had this conversation in January, I think his critics would have said he was going to win, because of the booming economy, GDP, low unemployment, some foreign policy achievements.
But after Covid, the lockdown, the recession and the rioting and looting, the Democrats came up with a pretty effective strategy toward him. If I can use the vernacular, he became Donald Trump as Herbert Hoover, Donald Trump as Typhoid Mary, Donald Trump as Bull Connor and he was blamed for all of these problems.
At the same time, they had about a two-to-one edge in money. Most of the nation’s billionaires and big PACs were funding very effective ads against him. Then Joe Biden, once it was determined by his handlers that he had some cognitive issues, was pretty much put in isolation in his basement. He outsourced his campaign to surrogates and the media, who were 93-94 per cent for Biden according to the Shorenstein Center. And then he wasn’t allowed to go out and debate or barnstorm because of fear that he would say something like he did this week, that he was running against George, or that he had a fraud Task Force. He is capable of saying anything at any time. It can be quite embarrassing. So they kind of locked him down and let the news cycle take hold.
Trump hadn’t come up with an effective answer to that. And then three weeks ago, his campaign took a turn for the worse when he got Covid. He wasn’t able to do the rallies, people were predicting he would be in bed with the virus or post-viral fatigue for weeks or months, sort of like Boris Johnson. Then suddenly, with these new therapeutics, new drugs, he just bounced back. Suddenly he was at the rallies. Suddenly they were talking about vaccination. Suddenly he was able to make the argument that while the cases were spiking, they were not as morbid. The mortality rate was going down. GDP was going up. And at the very time that happened, we had the Joe Biden scandals. They are trying to run out the clock on them, and they may or may not be successful. But the result of all that is that he has surged and is now, I think, dead even.
You supported the president four years ago, as I understand it, and you support him in this election, obviously. How do those two cases for Trump differ? How does the 2016 case for Trump compare to the 2020 case for Trump?
The most important thing is that most politicians in the Western world lie. And so when Donald Trump said, “I’m going to build a wall with Mexico, and I’m going to take on China, I’m going to bring jobs back to the deindustrialised Midwest, I’m going to avoid optional military engagements in the Middle East, I’m going to put my foot on the accelerator of gas and oil production, I’m going to get the most conservative judges you can imagine” everybody thought, you know, this is Manhattan real estate talk.
But then when he got in, not only did he start doing that, but the forces arrayed against him. And, I should note, they were bipartisan. I mean, we had, almost immediately, talk of articles of impeachment, and then there was a move to declare him crazy under the 25th amendment, than the Emoluments Clause, then the Logan Act, and then 22 months of the Mueller Russia hoax, and then the impeachment. So it showed you that there was a lot of opposition to him, because he kept his promises.
Now he’s running as an incumbent, Joe Biden is not saying “he didn’t build a wall”, or “I want to put that embassy back in Tel Aviv”, or “I’m going to go back to the Obama position on China”, or “I think those NATO members should pay what they want; they don’t have to meet the 2 per cent commitment”. That’s different. So there is a grudging consensus that whatever you think of him, he’s really kept most of the promises. He has absolutely recalibrated the entire American judiciary with his appointments.
Were you surprised by the intensity of the opposition to Trump?
I’d never seen it before. I’d seen hyper-partisanship. But I’d never seen respected former government officials like Rosa Brooks writing nine days after he was elected that you should either impeach him, declare him crazy or have a military coup to remove him. I’ve never seen retired military officers of the caliber of a General Mattis, or McCaffrey or McRaven say of their commander in chief “the sooner he’s gone, the better”, or “he uses Nazi-like tactics”, or “he’s a Mussolini”. I’ve never seen that level of opposition.
Part of it is because he didn’t play by Marquess of Queensbury rules. When they went after John McCain and said he was senile or that Mitt Romney was a hazer who treated animals terribly, they just took it. And Trump came along and said, “I’m not going to lose nobly. I’m going to win ugly if I have to.” That appealed to his base, but it also won over some of his sceptics, because they were tired of Republicans at the national level not doing as well as they had been doing at the state and local levels, partly because of a failure to take off the gloves and handle the democrats in like kind, blow for blow.
After Trump won in 2016, there was a big debate about what explained support for the president. It was soon framed as cultural grievances versus economic grievances. What do you think of that framing, and how do you explain the rise of the president?
It was, in part, common to the Western world, not just the United States. It was same forces that voted for Brexit, that explained the surprising results in the Australian election as well as some push back in Canada. People who are on the coastal peripheries that had skills or were part of a professional class plugged into global markets — insurance, finance, media, academia, law, high tech — who made enormous amounts of money were exempt from the consequences of their own ideology. So they told people in the interior, whether it was on climate change, identity politics, or on immigration, this is what you’re going to do, and you’re the losers, you didn’t understand the economy. We can Xerox your muscular labour and outsource your fabrication or your farming or whatever. It’s cheaper somewhere else and you’re expendable.
Here in the United States, they became the deplorables, irredeemables, clingers, dregs, the people that Peter Struck in his text called the smelly ones at Walmart. Whatever they were, that group felt that they had done nothing wrong, that they were not racist, and that you had to give a second look at globalisation. They thought that while it was nice that people had eyeglasses in the Amazon, and that you can buy cheap stuff at Target or Walmart, there was a downside to the disruption in traditional life and to marginalisation of nationalism and borders, of a distinct culture and tradition, iconoclasm, all that stuff. They didn’t like it.
And Donald Trump went one step further than other politicians. He looked at the peculiarities of the American electoral system and said, you know, these people are in states that decide the election, and they have not been voting for either Democrat or Republican, they’ve been sitting out or they’re unhappy Republicans or they’re turned off Democrats, but I’m going to get four to six million of them to turnout in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina. And he did. Now the question is, can he do it again?
Let’s imagine he loses next week. And I know you think that that’s not going happen, but let’s say it does. Where do you think that energy will go?
That’s a very good question. I don’t see that group of people rallying to the left when we don’t really have a Democratic Party. It’s sort of analogous to the pre-Tony Blair Labour Party underneath Kinnock. That’s pretty much where the Democratic Party is now. I don’t see any of those issues — I shouldn’t say I don’t see, I know because I saw them in the primary — winning much support. That’s what elected the supposed moderate Joe Biden. People didn’t want the Green New Deal, they didn’t want reparations and open borders and Medicare for everybody and all that stuff. So I don’t think that’s going to be empowered. They’re going to try to take power, but I don’t think these people will gravitate to them.
They’re going to have to find a Republican candidate that has those signature Trump issues. It should be remembered that 90 per cent of Trump’s agenda was typical Republicanism, but he’s so tweaked it and modified it and adapted it that it got those people out. So somebody like Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, or Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, or another younger person coming up without the baggage of the Bush years, I think, can incorporate Trump’s ideas.
You mentioned the Democratic Party. I’m interested, do you give Biden any credit for not swerving left in the way many of his competitive competitors did during the primary? And do you entertain any possibility that a Biden administration will be moderate in a way that is kind of tolerable to those on the right who are worried about the far-left?
No. None. Zero. None.
Why?
Two reasons. Joe Biden at 77, is not the Joe Biden he was at 67. Every day he says something that is preposterous, and he doesn’t seem fully cognitively aware in a way that a president must be. That’s number one.
And number two, I might disagree slightly with your interpretation of why he was nominated. He failed in in Iowa and New Hampshire, and he was declared a loser. He came in fifth. And so Michael Bloomberg was trotted out as the nice veneer, a centrist that could carry the party. And it turned out he spent a billion dollars to prove to everybody that he was a very unlikeable fellow. Then the Democratic establishment was in a quandary, so they resuscitated Joe Biden, but with the proviso that he would be a vessel that would carry this leftist position. And so it’s worked pretty well, to the degree that he’s not not up and about, but when he makes these rare appearances, he gets caught out. So in the debate, he said we’re gonna end fossil fuels, and I think that will cost him Pennsylvania. He said some things about immigration and amnesties and the wall and things that are not 51 per cent issues.
Metaphorically, he’s like a hot air balloon that the left blew up. And then the carriage of progressivism is attached to it. Because he’s been a 47-year politician, his job was to get this across the finish line without having a Bernie Sanders veneer to it all.
Once he’s done, I think you’ll start to hear rumours form the left and left media (which is a redundancy) that Biden is surprisingly, shockingly befuddled or addled and this is really a concern and maybe we better examine it. If Biden should win, we’ll hear this and we’ll hear, probably in November or December, that the virus is de facto not an issue now. It’s over with, the Biden economy is recovered, there’s no need for quarantine. We’ll hear all that, but I think in a context where Joe Biden knowingly and courageously served his purpose.
If you look at the Democratic Party by House representation or the Senators, there’s no more blue dog moderates. They don’t exist anymore in the House. In the Senate, I mean, Amy Coney Barrett was a very brilliant, charismatic nominee and there wasn’t one Democrat that voted for her. You know, 90 Senators had voted for a pretty radical Sonia Sotomayor, just a decade or so ago. So, no I don’t think he’s going to govern as a centrist at all.
We haven’t talked much about the pandemic. How has it thrown the choice in this election into contrast? How has it framed the difference between the American left and right?
Well, I think it’s been cyclical. At the beginning, when the World Health Organisation said that it wasn’t transmissible, travel bans were not necessary, masks were unnecessary. And Anthony Fauci said go on a cruise, don’t wear a mask. Then that was recalibrated to “This is hyper deadly. This is very bad.” And Trump was confused. So he gave conflicting messages. Then we locked down the country for supposedly two weeks to level the curve. And that took on a life of its own for seven months. I think that really hurt the president because the economy was ruined and the quarantine was not evenly applied. If you wanted to protest the death of George Floyd or professed that you were protesting, all rules of quarantining were dropped. If you went out for a different type of rally, then all of a sudden you were arrested. Or if your business was open, you were arrested. So people lost confidence in the quarantine’s logic and systematic application, the fairness of it.
Now I think it’s starting to be a wash. Half the country is where Sweden is and the other half is where Germany or France is. In other words, half the country believes that with the therapeutics that got Donald Trump back in three days, and with a vaccination on horizon, and new studies coming out of Stanford Medical School showing that the morbidity under 70, not 60, may be as low as two to three per thousand, you just simply can’t justify destroying an economy.
Let me add a final caveat. This is a class issue now. I think here in the Western world, the people who are really suffering economically, from suicide, spouse or family abuse, missed cheques, missed surgeries, missed medications, are the lower and lower-middle class. And they’ve been hurt terribly. We don’t know how many have died from it or have had their lives ruined. But Trump is suggesting that the reaction to the virus at this point has been more lethal than the virus itself.
But does the net effect of the virus on the race hurt Trump? Or do you think that if it’s clarified these things in the way you described? Has it helped him at all?
It hurt Trump terribly. And then, three weeks ago, when he got the virus, he came up with a brilliant exegesis that people you can’t run a country from your basement, and that there were 100 million Americans out there growing food, delivering fuel, making stuff, and there’s an elite that stay safely in their basement and who had the ability and the opportunity to earn cash on Zoom or Skype. And he wasn’t gonna be part of that. He went out and said, I risked my own health to be with you guys. I took these experimental drugs to be with you guys. I’m with you guys. You’ve got to take risks. This is a great country. And that kind of worked, at least for his base. And especially with Biden secluded. So I think now what was a great detriment to his candidacy has been sort of neutralised.
People think, you know what? China gave us the virus, nobody could have cured it. Look at the deaths per million ratios in Spain or Italy or France or the UK. Except for Germany, they’re pretty much comparable, and in some cases, like Belgium, worse than the United States. So I think that’s where we are.
- Central Banks Sell Gold For The First Time In 10 Years Due To Just Two Countries
Central Banks Sell Gold For The First Time In 10 Years Due To Just Two Countries
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 20:00Following continuous quarterly net purchases since the start of 2011, in the third quarter of 2020 central banks switched to being modest net sellers for the first time in a decade, reducing global gold reserves by 12.1 tonnes in Q3 compared with purchases of 141.9 tons a year earlier, according to the latest Gold Demand Trends report by the World Gold Counsel.
And while that selling in itself would be notable, there are two very big caveats: not only have central banks remained net purchasers on a YTD, basis, with demand for the first three quarters totalling 220.6 tonnes, the selling was the results of just two reserve-strapped nations which rushed to convert gold into dollars: Turkey and Uzbekistan.
A few observations on Q3 activity which reflected two trends: a slowdown in purchases as the year has progressed combined with higher sales, which increased during the last quarter.
First, the WGC notes that there was more buying from familiar faces. Despite the quarterly net sales, six central banks increased their reserves in Q3 by a tonne or more, although total gross purchases were a modest 33t largely due to the continued economic hardship sparked by COVID-19. This has pre-occupied central banks and governments around the world, which have been forced to find USD-denominated liquidity. Indeed, as the WGC notes, “uncertainty has been elevated by the pandemic, motivating many investors – including central banks – to seek assets that will diversify and protect the value of their portfolios in times of crisis.” Central banks have been particularly hard hit by the low and negative interest rates on sovereign bonds, which make up the largest proportion of reserve assets for many. United Arab Emirates (7.4t), India (6.8t), Qatar (6.2t), Kyrgyz Republic (5t), Kazakhstan (4.9t), and Cambodia (1t) were notable, and familiar, buyers during the quarter.
Which brings us to the sellers… which were sizable but extremely concentrated. Reported gross sales jumped to 78.9t in Q3, with the rise mainly attributable to just two central banks: Turkey and Uzbekistan.
- Turkey, which is undergoing an unprecedented current and capital account crisis which has drained the central bank’s reserves to almost nothing as the Turkish lira has disintegrated, reduced gold reserves by 22.3 tonnes during the quarter, the first quarterly decline since Q4 2018, as it is well on its way to becoming the next Venezuela – a country which liquidates its gold to keep the lights on. As the chart below from Goldman shows, while Turkey hasn’t engaged in full-blown liquidation yet, it may do so sooner rather than later with its FX reserves (excl swaps) at all time lows.
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Although the story is a bit more complex: higher domestic gold demand in August and September led to heightened gold trading activity between commercial banks and the central bank, resulting in this decline. But on a YTD basis, the country remains the biggest gold buyer, adding 148.7 tonnes, although the inflection point seems to coincide around the point in time when the lira suddenly collapse. Turkey’s official gold holdings now amount to 561 tonnes and 47% of total reserves. In August, Hasan Yucel, the head of Turkey’s Gold Miners Association, indicated that national gold production was expected to increase by 44% this year. He also stated that since 2017 the central bank has been the sole buyer of all domestic output and that will likely continue this year. - Uzbekistan reduced its gold reserves by 34.9t during Q3, bringing YTD net sales to 28.6t. Despite the sizable sale in Q3, gold reserves of 307t still account for 56% of total reserves. The country has seen a rise in gold exports this year as it looks to utilize its gold reserves, taking advantage of higher prices to combat the economic impact of the pandemic. Tajikistan (9.2t), Philippines (7.8t), Mongolia (2.4t), and Russia (1.2t) were the other notable but small sellers during the quarter.
“It’s not surprising that in the circumstances banks might look to their gold reserves,” said WGC analyst Louise Street. “Virtually all of the selling is from banks who buy from domestic sources taking advantage of the high gold price at a time when they are fiscally stretched.”
Central bank selling aside, total bullion demand fell 19% year-on-year to the lowest since 2009 in Q3, largely thanks to continued weakness in jewelry buying as a result of record high prices and the lockdown-induced economic slowdown. Indian jewelry demand fell by half, while Chinese jewelry consumption was also down. Overall jewelry demand fell to 333 tonnes, 29% below an already relatively anaemic Q3 2019.
By contrast, bar and coin demand strengthened, gaining 49% Y/Y to 222.1 tonnes as investors scrambled to buy paper gold. Much of the growth was also in official coins, due to continued strong safe-haven demand in Western markets and Turkey, where coins are the more prevalent form of gold investment. Q3 also saw continued inflows into gold-backed ETFs, which saw an eighth consecutive quarter of inflows. Q3 inflows of 272.5 tonnes pushed YTD flows to a record 1,003.3t and total global holdings of gold-backed ETFs to a new record of 3,880 tonnes.
Meanwhile, on the all important supply side, things are getting more ominous as total gold supply declined 3% year-on-year as mine production remained depressed, even after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in producers like South Africa. A quarterly uptick in recycling softened the decline according to Bloomberg, with consumers cashing in on high prices.
- Turkey, which is undergoing an unprecedented current and capital account crisis which has drained the central bank’s reserves to almost nothing as the Turkish lira has disintegrated, reduced gold reserves by 22.3 tonnes during the quarter, the first quarterly decline since Q4 2018, as it is well on its way to becoming the next Venezuela – a country which liquidates its gold to keep the lights on. As the chart below from Goldman shows, while Turkey hasn’t engaged in full-blown liquidation yet, it may do so sooner rather than later with its FX reserves (excl swaps) at all time lows.
- Thousands Of Ballots In Pennsylvania May Be Missing: Officials
Thousands Of Ballots In Pennsylvania May Be Missing: Officials
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 19:40Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
Thousands of voters in Butler County, Pennsylvania, said have they never received their ballots…
Nearly 40,000 registered voters in the county requested mail-in ballots, but only about 24 percent of them have been returned back to the county so far, authorities said.
“At first we thought that maybe it just was a delay in the postal system” due to the high number of requests, Leslie Osche, chair of the Butler County commissioners, was quoted by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as saying.
“And that could still be the case. But nonetheless, when we realized that, we changed our strategy and now have begun to tell folks that if they haven’t received a ballot, they still have multiple options.”
“Our main focus—because it’s too late now to worry about this—we need to make sure we get these people their ballots,” Osche added.
A U.S. Postal Service (USPS) spokesperson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the agency is “unaware of any significant delays or issues and is in regular contact with the Board of Election as we work to locate and deliver ballots as they are presented to us.” As of Tuesday, voters in Pennsylvania cannot apply for a mail-in or absentee ballot.
A local county official, Aaron Sheasley, told CNN Friday that the county has received more than 10,000 phone calls about information related to the ballots that were requested but not received.
“Somewhere between the post office and the Pittsburgh sorting facility something happened,” Sheasley told the network.
“We don’t know what.” He added:
“We haven’t given out any numbers” about the number of missing ballots “because we simply don’t know.”
Speaking to CNN, Chuck Bugar, president of the American Postal Workers Union Pittsburgh chapter, said there is no record that suggests the missing ballots in Butler County made it to a Postal Service facility.
“There’s no pile of ballots that have been taken from the Butler County election committee that are sitting around,” Bugar said.
“There’s no record or indication that they entered the mail stream. There’s paperwork that goes along with it.”
Butler County voted for President Donald Trump over Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in 2016 about 66 percent to 29 percent. The county is located north of Pittsburgh and has approximately 150,000 registered voters. In 2020, both Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden have been holding events and rallies, vying to secure the key battleground state with 20 electoral votes.
The county told the Post-Gazette that voters can come to the Bureau of Elections and vote in person, provide them with identification, and officials will then give them a new mail-in ballot that a voter can return immediately. The original ballot that was mailed will be voided.
They also said that voters can vote at a local polling place in the county. Other alternatives are also provided.
- Philly City Council Strips Cops Of Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas After Dozens Wounded In Street Violence
Philly City Council Strips Cops Of Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas After Dozens Wounded In Street Violence
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 19:20Philadelphia City Council approved legislation, 14-3 vote, that prohibits law enforcement officers from using “less-lethal munitions,” such as rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray on demonstrators.
The vote comes days after social unrest was sparked in the City of Brotherly Love – over the police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., and days before the Nov. 03 presidential elections. The legislation is expected to be signed momentarily by Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney, who is trying to appease local constituents/demonstrators.
Councilmember Helen Gym, the bill’s prime sponsor, said, “in banning the police use of less-lethal munitions in response to demonstrations, we are answering the calls of our constituents.”
Gym continued: “This is a moment where repairing trust between our residents, public officials, and police are essential. Residential neighborhoods are not warzones. Demonstrators are not enemy combatants. This is a first step in working with our communities to build a new model for public safety that is driven by their needs and their vision for the future.”
While most councilmembers support the bill, three councilmembers, including Republican Councilmembers David Oh and Brian J. O’Neill, along with Democrat Bobby Henon, voted against it. Their opposition stemmed from what they said would be the “chilling effects” of police officers not having the right tools to enforce public safety.
Philadelphia Mayor’s Office released an update Thursday of the overall situation in the metro area. At least 11 ATMs were blown up across town, 57 police officers injured, and over 212 felony or misdemeanors arrests.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf was quick to deploy the Pennsylvania National Guard on Tuesday with mandatory curfews on Wednesday.
Readers may recall, other Democratic cities banned “less-than-lethal” weapons earlier this year, following the George Floyd protests.
Seattle City Council voted unanimously to ban police from chokeholds, tear gas, pepper spray, and other crowd-control weapons in June.
This is another example of pandering urban Democrats, placing their political interest above police officers’ health and safety and the community they are supposed to be protecting.
Also, suppose officers, barred from carrying “less-lethal munitions,” what happens when they’re forced into a situation where they have no alternative in firing their service weapon?
- California Threatens To Arrest 12-Year-Old For Missing 3 Zoom Classes
California Threatens To Arrest 12-Year-Old For Missing 3 Zoom Classes
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 19:00Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,
Are you ready for this week’s absurdity?
Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.
School Threatens to Arrest 12 Year Old Over Three Missed Zoom Classes
A California school sent a letter threatening to arrest and prosecute a 12 year old boy who missed 90 minutes of online virtual classes.
The letter says the middle-schooler is considered truant if he misses more than a half hour of any given class.
When the boy’s father complained about the threat to his son (who happens to be an excellent student and makes straight A’s), the school principal said his hands were tied.
California’s laws regarding truancy force schools to send the warning letter, and funnel kids into the state’s prison pipeline.
Click here to read the full story.
* * *
Mother Faces Prison for Keeping Kids Home From School
A mother of two in the UK has a great reason to keep her kids home from school.
She is especially at risk of complications if she contracts COVID-19 due to diabetes, asthma, and an underactive thyroid. According to these conditions, the UK’s socialized health system, the NHS, classifies her as clinically vulnerable.
But that doesn’t matter to the local education welfare officer, who sent a letter to the mom demanding her children return to school, or she will face up to three months in prison and a £2,500 fine.
So first the government forces everyone to close their businesses and stay home. Now they want to force a vulnerable person into contact with others.
Isn’t it fun having the government control your life?
Click here to read the full story.
* * *
UK Allows Migrant Posing as Child into School
When an asylum-seeker arrives in the United Kingdom without a passport or birth certificate, the policy is to give him the benefit of the doubt.
That’s how a balding man from Gambia who looks about 40 years old ended up in a UK high school.
The man claims to be 15 years old, which qualifies him for extra government support as an unaccompanied minor. Naturally, he is not required to prove his claim of being 15. The government merely accepts his word, even though he clearly looks MUCH older.
When one schoolgirl shared pictures of the man on social media, questioning his age, the school called her a bully.
Click here to read the full story.
* * *
Tampax Competes for Wokest Corporation
If you thought Tampax was a women’s hygiene product brand, you were wrong.
The company recently sent a Tweet that read:
“Fact: Not all women have periods. Also a fact: Not all people with periods are women. Let’s celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed!”
Now it’s somehow controversial to say that one set of sexual organs requires Tampax’s products, and the other does not.
In order to be more inclusive, we have to deny basic scientific facts of life, like the biological differences between males and females.
Of course, like J.K. Rowling, you will get in trouble these days for thinking like that.
The Harry Potter author was recently “canceled” for Tweeting, “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
Click here to see the Twitter thread.
* * *
The Only Cop Arrested Was The Whistleblower
Six months ago, a man died after two police officers arrested him in a drug sting.
The Police Department in the city of Joliet, Illinois (about 30 miles from Chicago) refused to release video footage from the patrol car that night showing how the man died.
But another officer was so disgusted by his colleagues’ misconduct that he leaked the video to the public.
The video shows the officers swearing at the detainee, slapping him, shoving a police baton down his throat, and holding his nose shut to try to make him spit something out, presumably drugs.
The suspect died a short time later.
But the only arrest that resulted from this incident was the whistleblower– the third officer who leaked the video footage.
He’s now charged with official misconduct for unauthorized access to the video evidence and faces five years in prison.
Click here to read the full story.
* * *
On another note… We think gold could DOUBLE and silver could increase by up to 5 TIMES in the next few years. That’s why we published a new, 50-page long Ultimate Guide on Gold & Silver that you can download here.
- Twitter Capitulates: Reinstates NYPost Account After 16-Day Suspension
Twitter Capitulates: Reinstates NYPost Account After 16-Day Suspension
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 18:36Following contentious Congressional testimony this week from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and a 22% drop on Friday, the social media giant finally decided to unlock the New York Post‘s account just days before the general election – after more than two weeks in Twitter jail for posting a negative article on the company’s preferred candidate, Joe Biden.
In a Friday afternoon thread, Twitter Safety wrote that their policies are ‘living documents’ which they’re willing to ‘update and adjust when we encounter new scenarios or receive important feedback from the public.’
The company says they’re ‘updating our practice of not retroactively overturning prior enforcement,” and have decided to let the Post have their account back.
In response, we’re updating our practice of not retroactively overturning prior enforcement.
Decisions made under policies that are subsequently changed & published can now be appealed if the account at issue is a driver of that change. We believe this is fair and appropriate.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 30, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
This means that because a specific @nypost enforcement led us to update the Hacked Materials Policy, we will no longer restrict their account under the terms of the previous policy and they can now Tweet again.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 30, 2020
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The Post responds:
We’re baaaaaaack https://t.co/D39qdLGMdV pic.twitter.com/SkVtp4o9ew
— New York Post (@nypost) October 30, 2020
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In short, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was able to stop Twitter’s obvious election meddling by silencing one of the largest (and oldest) outlets in the country.
Sen. Ted Cruz:
“Mr. Dorsey, who the hell elected you? And put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report, and what the American people are allowed to hear… and why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC?” pic.twitter.com/lrC9II2MxL
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) October 28, 2020
The move also comes after DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf penned a scorching letter to Twitter demanding answers over why they’ve censored Customs and Border Protection senior official Mark Morgan over a post touting the southern border wall as helping to “stop gang members, murderers, sexual predators, and drugs from entering our country.” It appears his account is still locked, however.
Twitter’s censoring of factual information poses a threat to national security.
It should not be up to corporate bureaucrats to determine what security information the American public receives. https://t.co/9WzHcn4HLn pic.twitter.com/4lHJW5vEpZ
— Acting Secretary Chad Wolf (@DHS_Wolf) October 30, 2020
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After weeks of grandstanding from @Twitter, it’s good to have the @nypost back.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) October 30, 2020
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TWITTER SAYS WILL NO LONGER RESTRICT NEW YORK POST ACCOUNT pic.twitter.com/RLDldPMaiq
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 30, 2020
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The company was last able to post on October 14, the day they dropped a bombshell report regarding alleged incriminating contents on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Earlier in the day, CNN’s Jake Tapper suggested the post simply bend the knee and delete the offending tweet.
Earlier today, Jake Tapper donned the Big Tech gimp suit, climbed out on a limb like a good little helper, and demanded New York Post sign the false confession demanded by Tapper’s Big Tech dom.
And then Twitter sawed that limb right off. https://t.co/q97QC75LPu
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 30, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Meanwhile, the Post has gained nearly 200,000 new followers since being locked out.
On 10/14, FB announced that the @nypost‘s bombshell re Hunter Biden was eligible to be fact checked, and “in the meantime, [they] are reducing its distribution on [their] platform.” Despite the preemptive censorship, @nypost has gained 47,390 new page likes. This spike 😍 pic.twitter.com/oIXlZueghz
— Tyler Cardon (@TyCardon) October 30, 2020
- Michael Moore: "Don't Believe These Polls"
Michael Moore: "Don't Believe These Polls"
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 18:30Filmmaker and political pundit Michael Moore – who correctly called Trump’s win in 2016 (and accidentally made a bitchin’ Trump ad) – is warning Democrats not to believe polls suggesting Biden has a giant lead. In fact, it may be within the margin of error.
“I need to remind people that the poll back in July said at that point that Biden was ahead in Michigan by 16 points. Trump has cut that in half. Trump has tightened virtually every one of these swing states…” Moore told The Hill – noting what we’ve been highlighting for months – namely that many Trump supporters are unwilling to tell pollsters their true political affiliation.
“Don’t believe these polls, first of all. And second of all, the Trump vote has always been under-counted,” said Moore. “Pollsters, when they actually call a real Trump voter, the Trump voter is very suspicious of the deep-state calling them and asking them who they’re voting for…
…It is not an accurate count. I think the safe thing to do… whatever they’re saying the Biden lead is, cut it in half – and now you’re within the 4-point margin of error. That’s how close this is.”
Moore also noted that Trump has been strategically campaigning in 2016 Hillary territory in Michigan: “10 days ago when Trump had the big rally in Muskegon, Michigan – Muskegon County, over on the west side of the state on Lake Michigan – only two counties voted for Hillary on the west side of Michigan in 2016,” said Moore. “Muskegon County was one of them. Trump chose not to go to a Trump county, because he won the state, he went to a Hillary county and had thousands of people there.“
MICHAEL MOORE SAYS PRO BIDEN POLLS GREATLY INFLATED
pic.twitter.com/thx1pDW18k— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) October 30, 2020
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Moore’s concerns aren’t unfounded. As The Hill notes, while most pollsters show Biden with a ‘sturdy and stable lead’ over Trump, ‘a handful of contrarian pollsters believe Trump’s support is underrepresented and that election analysts could be headed for another embarrassing miss on Election Day.”
The Trafalgar Group, which was the only nonpartisan outlet in 2016 to find Trump leading in Michigan and Pennsylvania on Election Day, shows Trump with small leads in both states, which would be keys to another Trump win in the Electoral College. Nearly every other pollster shows Biden with a comfortable lead.
Trafalgar’s Robert Cahaly says there is a hidden Trump vote that is not being accounted for in polls that show Biden on a glide path to the White House. –The Hill
“There are more [shy Trump voters] than last time and it’s not even a contest,” said Trafalgar’s Cahaly, who says it’s “quite possible” that the polling industry is headed for a catastrophic miss in 2020.
Trafalgar is joined by a handful of other contrarian pollsters, such as Jim Lee of Susquehanna Polling and Research – which finds Trump and Biden tied in Wisconsin (the only other poll not showing Biden in the lead in the Badger State). In Florida, Susquehanna shows Trump leading Biden by four points.
“There are a lot of voters out there that don’t want to admit they are voting for a guy that has been called a racist. That submerged Trump factor is very real,” said Lee. “We have been able to capture it and I’m really disappointed others have not.”
Are we headed for a repeat?
- Countdown To Chaos
Countdown To Chaos
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2020 – 18:20Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,
On Wednesday, while the broad stock market was getting shellacked, and companies like Everbridge, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Dynatrace were suffering double digit freefalls, something else was going on. Gold and silver were also getting shellacked.
But it wasn’t all crash and burn. First Solar, Rolls-Royce Holdings, and CoreLogic all notched double digit gains. The dollar, as measured by the dollar index, gold, silver, and most stocks, was also up. And something else was up too…
Most investors likely didn’t notice that American firearm manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Company managed to eke out a small return. Why would they? A return of 0.43 percent is nothing to write home about.
Nonetheless, we contend that Ruger’s modest gain in the face of a massive selloff is something that should get the attention of investors. It’s something that should also get the attention of non-investors. Guns are in high demand. So is ammo.
Naturally, guns and ammo should be in high demand. They are useful. Sometimes they are especially useful. And right now happens to be one of those times.
Without question something wicked is brewing. Politicians, academics, and the media have been fermenting public divisions for decades. Now a volatile cocktail of rage threatens to blow its top off sometime on or shortly after election day. People are gunning up just in case the chaos – something more than things that go bump in the night – arrives at their doorstep.
What to make of it…
“Death to America!”
The weather may have cooled down. But the populace still burns hot. Factions and fanatics look for any excuse to destroy public usufructs. And they don’t have to look far to find one.
For example, this week, following the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. in West Philadelphia, people went mad. First they took to the streets. Then they took to setting dumpsters on fire. After that, they took to looting Walmart and other stores.
The main intent of Philadelphia’s violent mobs was not to protest the shooting of Wallace. Rather, it was to get free stuff. Flat screen TVs were particularly popular.
Here at the Economic Prism we don’t agree with theft of any kind…be it currency debasement, confiscatory taxes and fees, or mob looting. But at least the mobs in Philadelphia were clear of their intent. They wanted free stuff. So they took it.
The mobs in Portland, Seattle, and Kenosha were of a different variety. The Wall Street Journal offers the following distinction:
“‘Death to America!’ is a common refrain from antifa rioters from Portland, Ore., to Kenosha, Wis. Children are in the streets calling for the country’s destruction while mobs of college kids trash public spaces, filming themselves as though part of a performance-art spectacle. […]
“These acts of violence encapsulate five decades of neo-Marxist indoctrination in American schools, colleges and universities. The left’s ‘long march’ through the institutions is all but complete. […]. America’s young, especially those raised in middle-class or affluent homes, have been so brainwashed that they no longer notice how absurd it is to call for the eradication of their own nation-state, and to do so in the lingo of Iran’s mullahs.”
‘Death to America!’ is a hollow mantra. Just what is it that these soft minded brats think they’re shouting death to? The American republic has been dead since at least 1913.
Countdown To Chaos
A great boon for Washington was attained that year. Honest and prudent statesmen offering small government and sound financial policies were forever rendered powerless. So, too, the hallowed reach along the banks of the Potomac River where politics and money mix forever slipped into venality. Democratic mob rule supplanted the limited government of a republic.
In the year 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified giving Congress the power to collect taxes on incomes. That same year the states also ratified the Seventeenth Amendment, which established direct election of Senators by popular vote. Then, before the year concluded, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was passed delegating the right to issue money from Congress to the Federal Reserve.
After the events of 1913, the American republic ceased to exist. The federal government was given carte blanche authority to consolidate and centralize power. Moreover, the federal government had the power to plunder the lives of its citizens on a grand scale. That is, it had near limitless power to tax, borrow, spend, and inflate the currency.
The effects of the Sixteenth Amendment and the Federal Reserve Act are themes we commonly explore. However, the effects of the Seventeenth Amendment are equally destructive.
In short, the Seventeenth Amendment allows the Senate to buy votes from their constituents in exchange for delivering federal money back to their districts. This ensures the government acts to meet the collective demand for private security through public spending. It also rewards political corruption and public graft.
These realities are not taught at universities. They require self-study, independent learning, and deep thinking to uncover. By this, shouts of ‘Death to America!’ by radicalized youth fall short of past grievances.
At least shouts of ‘Bread or Blood’ by rioters of East Anglia, Britain, in 1816, were clear in their rage. Bread prices had inflated beyond wages. Stomachs were empty.
Today’s ‘Death to America!’ rioter is unaware that the American republic is long gone. Thus, what they are rampaging for is more of the policies that brought us to this disagreeable place. Wealth redistribution and corruption are two of the fundamental canons of progressive socialism. Throw a ‘woke’ hyper focus on race into the mix and progressive socialism can take a far more dangerous turn.
Perhaps next week’s election day will come and go without a hitch. But with all the idiots on parade, this is highly doubtful. The countdown to chaos is on. Plan accordingly.
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