Today’s News 31st October 2021

• Durham Probe Inches Closer To Hillary As Alfa Bank Hoax Plot Thickens
  Durham Probe Inches Closer To Hillary As Alfa Bank Hoax Plot Thickens

  Authored by Paul Sperry via RealClearInvestigations.com,

  A Hillary Clinton campaign operation to plant a false rumor about Donald Trump setting up a “secret hotline” to Moscow through a Russian bank was much broader than known and involved multiple U.S. agencies, according to declassified documents and sources briefed on an ongoing criminal investigation of the scheme.

  

  In addition to the FBI, the 2016 Clinton campaign tried to convince the Obama administration’s State Department, Justice Department and Central Intelligence Agency to look into the hoax, and continued pressing the issue even after Trump was inaugurated in January 2017.

  The goal was to trigger federal investigative activity targeting her Republican rival and leak the damaging information to the media.

  “The Clinton machine flooded the FBI with pressure from a number of angles until investigations of Trump were opened and reopened,” said one of the briefed sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive law enforcement matter. “The deception was wide-ranging.”

  

  Michael Sussmann: The indicted former Clinton campaign attorney wasn’t the only one feeding the bogus Alfa Bank story to the feds. perkinscoie.com

  Special Counsel John Durham outlined the FBI part of the scheme in a felony indictment of Michael Sussmann. The former Clinton campaign lawyer was charged last month with making a false statement to the former general counsel of the FBI when he claimed he was not working “for any client” in bringing to the FBI’s attention allegations of a secret channel of communication between computer servers in Trump Tower and the Alfa Bank in Russia.

  According to the indictment, Sussmann was in fact acting on behalf of clients including the Clinton campaign, and an unnamed tech executive who RCI has previously reported is Rodney L. Joffe, a regular adviser to the Biden White House on cybersecurity and infrastructure policies.

  Internal emails reveal the Clinton operatives knew the links they made between Trump and Russia were “weak,” even describing them as a “red herring,” but fed them to investigators anyway.

  

  The Sussmann indictment revealed the doubts of those developing the Alfa Bank story. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

  After Sussmann’s meeting with the FBI in September 2016, the Clinton campaign approached the State Department the following month with the same lead, this time using paid Clinton campaign subcontractor Christopher Steele to feed the rumors. A former British intelligence officer, Steele was offered as a reliable source to help corroborate the rumors. On Oct. 11, 2016, Steele gave his contact at Foggy Bottom documents alleging that a supposed hidden server at Trump Tower was pinging Moscow.

  

  Christopher Steele: Author of the debunked dossier passed the Alfa Bank story to the State Department, which passed it along to FBI agent Peter Strzok. (Aaron Chown/PA FILE via AP)

  Two days later, a State official who previously worked under former secretary Clinton funneled the information to the FBI’s then-top Eurasia/Russia counterintelligence official, Stephen Laycock, according to recently declassified notes and testimony. Laycock, in turn, forwarded the information to Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who led the investigation of Trump and his campaign and had just weeks earlier texted a bureau lawyer, “We’ll stop [Trump from being elected].”

  “I informed Peter Strzok and another supervisor,” Laycock testified last year in a closed-door Senate hearing.

  

  Telephone: After Steele fed the Alfa Bank story to State, it was passed to the FBI’s then-top Eurasia/Russia counterintelligence official, Stephen Laycock (left), who in turn passed it on to lead FBI agent on Trump-Russia, Peter Strzok (right). Facebook/Twitter

  Steele, who later confessed he was “desperate” to defeat Trump, was the author of the debunked dossier claiming Trump colluded with Russia to steal the election. He even misspelled the name of the Russian bank as “Alpha.” Still, the FBI took his rumors seriously enough to interview tech vendors working for the Trump Organization and obtain warrants to search Trump Tower servers. Within days of receiving the State Department tip, Strzok also used Steele’s dossier to secure a wiretap on Trump adviser Carter Page.

  Clinton foreign policy adviser and current National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan would put out a written statement trumpeting the Trump-Alfa Bank story, which was shared by then-candidate Clinton on Oct. 31, 2016, after Slate reported on it. Fusion GPS, the Washington opposition-research group that worked for the Clinton campaign as a paid agent, and helped gather dirt on Alfa Bank and draft the materials Sussmann would later submit to the FBI, reportedly pressed Slate to publish the story by the account of its author, journalist Franklin Foer.

  

  The Clinton campaign played up the Trump-Alfa Bank story on the eve of the 2016 election. Twitter/@HillaryClinton

  “This was a highly sophisticated operation using enablers in both the media and federal agencies,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told RealClearInvestigations.

  The Clinton campaign did not let up even after Trump won the election.

  In mid-November 2016, it enlisted top Justice Department official Bruce Ohr – whose wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS – to add credibility to the Alfa rumors. That month, Ohr advised the FBI that Steele had told him that the Alfa Bank server was a link to the Trump campaign. Then in early December, Ohr met with the FBI case supervisor who worked for Strzok at least twice. Declassified notes and other records show that during those meetings, Ohr provided him with thumb drives he had received from paid Clinton opposition researcher and Fusion GPS co-founder, Glenn Simpson, and Ohr’s wife and Simpson’s colleague, Nellie. Quoting his Clinton sources, Ohr insisted the alleged backdoor computer channel between Trump and Alfa was real.

  

  Bruce Ohr: The Justice Department official — linked to Clinton opposition research firm Fusion GPS through his wife Nellie, a Fusion employee — brought the firm’s arguments and materials to the FBI. The Global Initiative

  The FBI spent months investigating the claim, eventually dismissing it as baseless. After the FBI closed the case, Sussmann turned to the nation’s top intelligence agency for assistance, as RCI first reported.

  In December 2016, Sussmann called then-CIA Director John Brennan’s general counsel – Caroline Krass – to set up a meeting to brief her about the same Alfa Bank rumors. Krass expressed interest in the tip. Then in early February 2017, officials from her office formally sat down with Sussmann for more than an hour to discuss the Trump-Russian bank rumors. Sussmann provided them updated versions of the materials he had handed off to the FBI.

  

  Caroline Krass: General counsel to then-CIA Director John Brennan welcomed Sussmann’s pitch of the Alfa Bank story, which reportedly passed from the CIA to FBI. CIA/Wikipedia

  The CIA, in turn, referred the rumors to an FBI liaison for further investigation, according to the sources briefed on his case. Strzok was the lead FBI liaison to the CIA at the time.

  Among the documents Durham has obtained is a CIA memo memorializing the meeting with Sussmann, according to the sources. In his grand jury indictment, Durham accused Sussmann of also misleading the CIA, which he referred to only as “Agency-2.” The special counsel alleges that Sussmann, as he did when meeting with an FBI official, had also failed to inform contacts at Langley that he was representing a client – in the latter case specifically Joffe – tied to the Clinton campaign operation and who had been promised a high-level job in a Clinton administration.

  Billing the Democrat’s campaign for his work on the “confidential project,” Sussmann recruited Joffe and a team of federal computer contractors to mine proprietary databases containing vast quantities of sensitive, nonpublic Internet data for possible dirt on Trump and his advisers. In a new court document filed last week, Durham revealed his team has obtained more than 80,000 pages of documents in response to grand jury subpoenas issued to more than 15 targets and witnesses, including the computer contractors. Among others receiving subpoenas: political organizations, private firms, tech companies and other entities, including a major university — Georgia Tech — which allegedly participated in the Clinton conspiracy as a Pentagon contractor. Some witnesses have been granted immunity and are cooperating with prosecutors, the sources close to the probe said.

  

  Jonathan Turley: “One would expect a CIA official to express reluctance in an investigation that would have a largely domestic focus,” says the law professor. CNN

  “While Sussmann may have hidden his work for the Clinton campaign, this was obviously a useful attack on Trump,” Turley said. “One would expect a CIA official to express reluctance in an investigation that would have a largely domestic focus. But as with the FBI, the Clinton campaign found eager officials to move on any such allegation.”

  The CIA is largely barred from collecting information inside the United States or on American citizens.

  “The CIA has no business involving itself in a domestic political issue,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told RCI. “The evidence suggests the primary purpose of the meeting was political.”

  Fitton said his watchdog group has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the CIA demanding all records generated from the contacts Sussmann had with the agency in December 2016 and February 2017.

  The CIA did not return requests for comment.

  For good measure, old Clinton hands tried another pressure point. In early February 2017, Clinton’s foreign policy adviser Sullivan huddled with Fusion GPS’s Simpson and Daniel Jones, an FBI analyst-turned-Democrat-operative, to reboot the same smear campaign against Trump. (As RCI previously reported, Sullivan, who spearheaded the campaign’s effort to promote the narrative of a disturbing Trump-Russia relationship via the Alfa Bank story, is under scrutiny for possibly lying to Congress about his role in the operation.) Jones, in turn, reached out to his former colleagues at the FBI, who reopened the investigation into the old allegations of a cyber-link between Trump and Alfa Bank.

  

  Jake Sullivan played a pivotal role in the Alfa Bank story as 2016 Clinton foreign policy adviser. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File

  The next month, acting on Jones’ recycled tip, FBI agents visited the offices of the Pennsylvania company that housed the Trump server, which was actually administered by a third-party hotel promotions firm – Cendyn, based in Florida. But their second investigation proved to be another dead end. The sinister communications Jones claimed were flowing between an alleged Trump server and Alfa Bank were found to be innocuous marketing emails. In other words, spam.

  Sources say it is odd that FBI headquarters continued to pursue the allegations, because internal FBI communications reveal that the bureau’s own cyber sleuths had pooh-poohed them within days of Sussmann’s briefing, RCI has learned.

  Strzok himself had been briefed on that assessment of the materials Sussman dropped off at headquarters on Sept. 19, 2016. In fact, in a Sept. 23, 2016, internal message to Strzok, an FBI official relayed his preliminary findings following an interview with Cendyn, the Florida marketing firm that managed the alleged Trump server.

  “Followed up this morning with Central Dynamics [Cendyn] who confirmed that the mail1.trump-email.com domain is an old domain that was set up in approximately 2009 when they were doing business with the Trump Organization that was never used,” according to the message.

  Reacting to the Durham indictment, Strzok recently tried to distance himself from the Alfa scandal, insisting in a Lawfare blog: “I had a minor role in the events in question, insofar as I transferred the material Sussman gave to Jim Baker, the FBI’s general counsel at the time, to the personnel who ultimately supervised and looked into the allegations.”

  Echoing other critics, Strzok complained that Durham – who originally was tapped to investigate the origins of the Russia “collusion” investigation by Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr – is conducting a partisan witch hunt on behalf of Trump.

  Strzok’s claims notwithstanding, Barr’s successor, the President Biden-nominated Attorney General Merrick Garland, testified last week that he has renewed funding and staffing for Durham’s far-reaching investigation for the next fiscal year. “[Y]ou can readily assume his budget has been approved,” Garland assured Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 23:30

• Russian Woman, Boyfriend Sentenced To 10 Months In Prison For Simulating Oral Sex Outside Church
  Russian Woman, Boyfriend Sentenced To 10 Months In Prison For Simulating Oral Sex Outside Church

  Following the fall of the Soviet Union and the disastrous reign of Boris Yeltsen, President Vladimir Putin has sought to restore Russian national pride in a number of ways, including elevating the Russian Orthodox Church to its pre-Soviet glory. This veneration has at the times taken the form of legal crackdowns: the Russians stamped out non-orthodox Christian groups like the Jehovas Witnesses. And when the members of feminist group Pussy Riot staged their “punk prayer” at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, they were arrested and sentenced to sentences as long as 7 years in a brutal Russian prison.

  But in the latest example of how Russian authorities handle any gesture of disrespect toward the Russian orthodox church, a Tajik man and his Russian girlfriend were sentenced to 10 months behind bars after a raunchy photoshoot in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral – one of the country’s most sacred religious monuments – which featured the Russian woman simulating oral sex to her boyfriend from a very suggestive angle.

  Here’s more from RT:

  Ruslan Bobiev (whose real name is Ruslani Murojonzod) and Asya Akimova (Anastasia Chistova) published photos on social media taken by the iconic Red Square cathedral. The most controversial snap saw Akimova on her knees, simulating oral sex while wearing a police jacket.

  The photo, shown below, was taken from the Telegram app:

  

  The lovers were later arrested and accused of breaking a law that seeks to punish those who commit actions “with the purpose of insulting the religious feelings of believers.”

  The 10-month sentence is exactly the length of time requested by the Russian prosecutors.

  

  Bobiev and Akimova are the first to receive time behind bars under this law, with all those previously convicted being given a fine or suspended sentence.

  Bobiev’s isn’t the only high-profile case of attractive women using their bodies to disrespect Orthodox Churches in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a video showing a Russian OnlyFans star went viral after she was filmed flashing her breasts near the exact same church.

  The model, known as Lola Bunny, later apologized in response to an outpouring of online outrage and anger. She still faces the prospect of prosecution.

  The law against insulting believers was passed back in 2013 following the “Pussy Riot” incident. The law made headlines again in 2016 when a Russian YouTuber was caught playing Pokemon Go in a church.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 23:00

• Unvaxx'd San Francisco Police "Discarded Like A Piece Of Trash": Officer
  Unvaxx’d San Francisco Police “Discarded Like A Piece Of Trash”: Officer

  Authored by Ilene Eng via The Epoch Times,

  Several dozen San Francisco police officers who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 have been placed on leave, a police union leader told NTD Television.

  Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, told NTD that there are 41 unvaccinated officers on paid administrative leave. Another 40 are on disability or Family and Medical leave and have yet to report their vaccination status.

  San Francisco previously allowed its city employees to submit exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine. They were approved.

  Later, however, the Department of Public Health issued a health order requiring all city employees to be vaccinated by Oct. 13 or be relieved of their duties.

  “DHR [Department of Human Resources] kind of bungled the situation from the onset, where they gave very strict timelines on when things were due,” Montoya said.

  “My members followed those guidelines, whether it was submitting an application [or] requesting an exemption. And the city has just thrown rules to the wind, and it just really made my members distrustful. It completely lacks transparency, and the members are like, ‘What rules are we supposed to follow?’ Because it’s really unclear what the rules are at this stage.”

  NTD reached out to the DHR but did not receive a response by the deadline.

  “For some reason we were told they would go under a secondary review process and then we had to answer some additional questions, submit those by a deadline,” Alicia Worthington, a sergeant at the San Francisco Police Department, told NTD.

  “We received paperwork that stated that our exemptions were now denied.”

  Worthington was born and raised in San Francisco, and she said this is her 20th year with the San Francisco Police Department.

  “It’s been really rough for all of us. I’ve been in contact with my colleagues who were impacted by the mandates and who are on leave, and we’re going through a lot of stress, a lot of heartache. We worked tirelessly through the pandemic. And just to undergo a complete 180, and to be yanked from duty and put on leave, is pretty heartbreaking,” Worthington said.

  “You’re just discarded like a piece of trash.”

  

  Officer Rebecca Schiff with her father. (Courtesy of Rebecca Schiff)

  Rebecca Schiff, an officer of three years at the San Francisco Police Department, told NTD that some of the questions were combative.

  “I’m a Roman Catholic. They asked questions like, well, the Pope was for the vaccines, so what makes you so different?” Schiff said.

  “Very abrasive questioning like that, about our religious beliefs.”

  They are not allowed to work or volunteer during this time, despite the department’s lack of resources. Montoya said it had to restructure during the last month to compensate those on paid leave.

  “They were pulling officers from admin positions, so people who had been doing paperwork for the last 20 years are now being pulled out to go on the street, which they have been doing prior to terminating us because they just don’t have enough people on the streets,” Schiff said.

  “They took trainers from the academy and put them back on the street. And then they hired retired people to come into the academy to make up for the training that they otherwise don’t have.”

  Schiff does not think the new trainees will get the same training she did.

  Her now-retired father, brother, and significant other are also officers.

  “I’m never not going to be a police officer. It’s how I was raised, it’s how I see myself,” Schiff said.

  “You could put a crowd of people who all look exactly the same, and the only thing that’s different about the majority of us who do this work is that when something happens, everybody else ducks and runs; we’re running towards the danger.”

  “The department is going through kind of an administrative hearing right now to make a determination whether or not those members will be put on unpaid leave status after 30 days,” Montoya said.

  They are requesting that the city rethink its position and present options other than vaccination.

  “It’s a personal choice. But for the department to just have that kind of hard line … it really doesn’t show collaboration between the union and the city,” Montoya said. “They’ve just taken this one-size-fits-all approach, and it’ll be up to individual members to [decide] whether they want to seek any type of injunctive relief through the legal system.”

  Montoya said the department is already short 400 officers and this mandate is adding to their deficit.

  Some of the police on leave are eligible for retirement. Some are considering employment elsewhere.

  “San Francisco is always going to be my home, even if I end up somewhere else, out of state. I took great pride. I still have a lot of pride in my profession, what I did in my years of service,” Worthington said.

  “I’ve had some wonderful times, some great cases, things I can look back on, knowing that I really made a difference and I was impactful in what I did in serving my community.”

  As of Oct. 5, San Francisco has 2,117 sworn police officers.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 22:30

• The Most Popular Halloween Costumes Of 2021
  The Most Popular Halloween Costumes Of 2021

  Halloween – it’s the time of year when kids and adults alike dress up, eat candy, and show off their spookiest selves. It’s also when the scariest home decorations are the talk of the town, and people are frightened left, right, and center.

  With the help of data from Google Trends and their unique Frightgeist series, Visual Capitalist’s Anshool Deshmukh visualized the most searched Halloween costumes in the U.S. in 2021.

  From spooky to sweet, these are the costumes everyone wants to dress up as this Halloween.

  

  A Brief History of Halloween

  Halloween is celebrated each year on October 31, with this year’s Halloween occurring on a Sunday. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, where people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.

  The concept of Halloween didn’t gain popularity until it reached the United States. Borrowing from European traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition.

  Other superstitions also started to form around the holiday. Young women believed they could divine the appearance of their future husbands by doing tricks with apple parings or mirrors.

  Over time, Halloween moved away from focusing on witchcraft and ghosts to the festival we know and love today—a day focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes.

  What Are the Most Popular Halloween Costumes?

  With COVID-19 cases down compared to last year and Americans expected to spend over $10 billion on Halloween this year, much of the United States will be partaking in celebrating the spooky holiday.

  From classy costumes and last-minute DIYs to pop-culture outfits and even era-inspired costumes, here are the top 10 most popular Halloween costumes in the U.S. in 2021.

  

   

  Notable Trending Costumes

  The Netflix show Squid Game has had a meteoric rise in popularity in recent weeks, becoming one of the most-watched shows on the streaming platform—just in time for Halloween.

  Squid Game costumes are the 23rd most popular in Google’s search, and they continue to trend high, being the most searched costume idea in Detroit.

  In 2020, the mobile game Among Us was the talk of the gaming world, and this year it is the 16th most popular costume, with its popularity spiking in Jacksonville, Florida.

  Other notable costumes in the top 50 include Pokémon at #50, Fortnite at #44, Velma Dinkley (of Scooby-Doo fame) at #42, Poison Ivy (the comic book villain) at #33, Beetlejuice at #24 and the entire 1980s decade at #18.

  Most Popular Halloween Costumes by State

  When it comes to festivals, every state has its unique perspective and traditions on celebrating them. This extends to popular Halloween costumes too.

  Though there might be some overlap, digging deeper into the most popular costumes in every state allows us a unique look into how diverse people’s tastes are across the country.

  Here is a breakdown of the most popular costumes in the U.S. in 2020 by state:

  

   

  A look at popular costumes at the state level reveals some interesting quirks. Montana, for example, is uniquely interested in The Purge, and Rhode Island trick-or-treaters are big fans of Hermione Granger of Harry Potter fame.

  Traditions are Here To Stay

  At its core, Halloween still remains that same old fright-inducing festival it has always been.

  Even though pop culture might influence your Halloween choices, traditional costumes will always have a unique place in everyone’s heart.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 22:00

• Over 11,000 Active-Duty Air Force Personnel Unvaccinated With Days Left Before Deadline
  Over 11,000 Active-Duty Air Force Personnel Unvaccinated With Days Left Before Deadline

  By Zachary Stieber of The Epoch Times

  

  The Air Force could lose thousands of troops in the coming weeks as over 11,000 active-duty personnel remain without a COVID-19 vaccine, just days before the deadline to get one.

  Some 96.4% of active-duty airmen were partially or fully vaccinated as of Oct. 25, the branch said in its latest vaccination update. That means approximately 11,462 airmen have not begun a vaccination program before the Nov. 2 deadline to become fully vaccinated.

  Another nearly 12,000 reserve personnel or Space Force members remain unvaccinated, according to data released by the Air Force. Reserves have until Dec. 2 to become fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated means getting a vaccination regimen and then at least two weeks elapsing. Members who haven’t yet started a program cannot come into compliance with the mandate.

  “We don’t anticipate we will be to a 100 percent vaccination rate,” an Air Force spokeswoman told Defense One this week.

  Any troops who don’t get a vaccine by the deadline and have not received or is not in the process of seeking a religious or medical exemption will be deemed in violation of a lawful order and subject to discipline under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. They could be court-martialed or face other disciplinary measures.

  The mandate stems from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s order in late August for all troops to get a vaccine unless they receive an exemption.

  Each branch head decided separately on mandate details, including deadlines. The Air Force has the earliest deadlines for active-duty troops and reserves. An Air Force spokesperson told The Epoch Times earlier this month that the deadlines would not be pushed back.

  Hundreds of thousands of troops across the military weren’t vaccinated in the middle of October. As of Oct. 27, over 381,000 troops remain unvaccinated, according to an analysis of Pentagon data. The vast majority, or nearly 320,000, are in the Army, the Army reserve, or the Army National Guard.

  Army reserves have the most lenient deadline, by far. They have until June 30, 2022, to become fully vaccinated. Active-duty sailors and Marines have until Nov. 28, while active-duty soldiers have until Dec. 15.

  It remains unclear how many religious and medical exemptions have been approved. The Pentagon previously referred requests for numbers to each branch. The Army didn’t respond to a query and the Navy declined to comment. The Marines said it had not started approving any religious accommodation requests while declining to speak about medical exemptions. The Air Force told The Epoch Times earlier this month it is not tracking exemption requests and therefore could not say how many were approved, if any.

  The Air Force told news outlets this week it would start releasing approved exemption numbers after the deadline.

  Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday declined to directly address complaints from some sailors who said that leaders told them their religious exemption applications were going to be denied.

  “I don’t have any direct knowledge of a situation where a member of the military was told by his or her leadership, ‘hey, go ahead and apply, but you’re going to get denied,’” he told reporters in Washington. “I go back to what the secretary expects, that there is there’s an exemption policy been in place well, before the COVID vaccine, so it’s not new. And his expectation is that if members of the military want to apply for one that they should be able to. And they should be able to make their case. And the leadership should follow the same process for that exemption request as they would for any other.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 21:30

• Venezuelans Turn To Gold Nuggets As The Local Currency Implodes
  Venezuelans Turn To Gold Nuggets As The Local Currency Implodes

  By Joseph T. Salerno of Mises Institute

  

  The Venezuelan government recently lopped off six zeros from its hyperinflating currency, the bolivar. The highest denomination currency note of 1 million bolivars, worth less than $0.25, was replaced by a one-bolivar note. At the same time, a 100-bolivar note, worth about $25.00, was introduced as the new highest denomination of the bolivar. The currency conversion was designed  to spare the government the embarrassment of having to issue a 100-million bolivar note to enable people to purchases everyday items without having to carry around bundles of notes, given that the price of a loaf of bread had risen to 7 million old bolivars. Of course, the arbitrary scaling down of the denomination of the currency will not slow inflation, because the new currency notes can be printed just as cheaply as the old. The bolivar has already lost 73 percent of its value in 2021 alone and the IMF estimates the annual inflation rate will reach 5,500 percent by the end of 2021.

  It is not surprising, then, that all but the poorest Venezuelans have abandoned the bolivar as a medium of exchange, let alone a store of value or unit of account. US dollars are the exchange medium of choice in Caracas and other large cities, while the Colombian peso dominates along the Colombian border, particularly in the regional city of San Cristobal. The Brazilian real is current along the southern border with Brazil and the euro and cryptocurrencies have also found niche uses.

  What is wonderfully surprising is the spontaneous emergence of a pure gold currency in a remote region of southeastern Venezuela around the towns of Tumeremo and El Callao. The region abounds with precious metal ores and has a long history of luring prospectors and miners seeking their fortunes. Today, however, many of the larger mines are controlled by the government military, which is battling local gangs and guerillas. Despite the violence and lawlessness, jobless Venezuelans from far and wide are flooding into the area to work in thriving illegal mines in exchange for payment in gold nuggets. As a result, gold flakes, which are peeled off raw nuggets with hand tools, have become the currency of choice in the region with prices for commodities and services quoted in grams of gold. Half a gold gram buys you a one-night stay in a local hotel, while a meal for two at a Chinese restaurant and a haircut will cost you a quarter of a gram and an eighth of a gram, respectively.

  The gold flakes are carried in people’s pockets—usually wrapped in the nearly worthless bolivar notes. While some shops are equipped with scales to weigh the gold flakes, most sellers and their customers have become so familiar with the flakes that they evaluate them by sight. For example, the barber and his customer who transacted for the haircut agreed that three gold flakes equaled the one-eighth gram price (approximately $5.00). Gold is also starting to penetrate the nearby cities, such as the regional capital Ciudad Bolivar, as stores in shopping malls gladly accept the gold in exchange for dollars from miners who are seeking to cash out.

  For gold to become a full-blown currency that can viably compete with depreciating dollars and other foreign currencies, the raw nuggets need to be minted into convenient shapes and sizes and their weight and fineness certified by reputable firms. This means that any legal barriers to private mints must be eliminated. In addition, sales and capital gains taxes on gold must be abolished. Since it is highly unlikely that these measures will be implemented by the Maduro government, we can only cheer on the inroads made by the people’s gold flake currency. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 21:00

• Prince Andrew Accuses Virginia Giuffre Of Procuring 'Slutty Underage Girls' For Epstein
  Prince Andrew Accuses Virginia Giuffre Of Procuring ‘Slutty Underage Girls’ For Epstein

  Alleged Royal pedophile Prince Andrew is looking to turn the tables on his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, who he says was involved in the “wilful recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse,” according to the Sunday Times, citing a late Friday court filing.

  

  In a controversial attempt to prove his innocence, lawyers for the Duke of York have painted Virginia Giuffre as an alleged criminal who worked to procure underage “slutty girls” for Jeffrey Epstein, the paedophile billionaire.

  They also indicate that by making false allegations against the prince and using up court time, Giuffre is allowing real predators to get away with their crimes. -Sunday Times

  The Prince’s new legal strategy is quite the shift from claiming ignorance to his good friend Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile lifestyle, and risks “victim-blaming” by supporters of Giuffre – who has accused him in a civil lawsuit in New York of “rape in the first degree” and three instances of sexual assault when she was 17.

  Giuffre, 38, claims the attacks took place in 2001 in London, New York, and on Pedo Island (Little St. James), owned by Epstein at the time. She seeks “punitive damages” that could end up being millions of pounds.

  The late Friday filing by the 61-year-old royal includes a section titled “Giuffre’s role in Epstein’s criminal enterprise,” and alleges that she was involved in procuring minors for Epstein – who was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls.

  Andrew’s filing quotes the sister of one of Giuffre’s ex-boyfriends, who claims Giuffre (then Virginia Roberts) asked her for help to recruit minors.

  “She [Giuffre] would say to me, ‘Do you know any girls who are kind of slutty?’” she claims.

  How it started. How it’s going pic.twitter.com/j2EVHQj0jf

  — Ben Rometsch (@benjarom3) October 30, 2021

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

  “It is a striking feature of this case that while lurid allegations are made against Prince Andrew by Giuffre, the only party to this claim whose conduct has involved the wilful recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse is Giuffre herself, including while she was an adult,” the filing continues.

  The prince’s US-based lawyer, Andrew Brettler, also points out that Giuffre has profited from her allegations involving Epstein over a number of years and is now set on gaining “another payday” at the prince’s expense.

  Brettler suggests that Giuffre’s modus operandi may allow genuine paedophiles to escape justice. -Sunday Times

  “Giuffre’s pattern of filing a series of lawsuits against numerous high-profile individuals should no longer be tolerated, as it continues to irreparably harm many innocent people and diverts already limited judicial resources from the adjudication of meritorious claims asserted against those who have actually perpetrated sexual offences against minors,” reads the filing.

  Giuffre’s lawyer hits back

  In a Saturday statement, Giuffre’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley said “If Virginia Giuffre had stood silent in the face of outrageous statements like those Prince Andrew routinely churns out — his motion to dismiss the litigation being no exception — the decades-long sex-trafficking ring his friend Jeffrey Epstein operated and he participated in would have never been exposed.

  “On the subject of money, let’s be clear: the only party to this litigation using money to his benefit is Prince Andrew.”

  McCawley also told Telegraph Magazine that Andrew’s infamous interview with BBC‘s “Newsnight” in 2019 “was very helpful for us.”

  The prince argued at the time that Giuffre’s claims that she was forced to sleep with him at the Belgravia home of Ghislaine Maxwell in March 2001 could not be true because he had been collecting his daughter, Princess Beatrice, from a children’s party at a branch of Pizza Express in Woking.

  McCawley revealed that Beatrice and Sarah, Duchess of York, Andrew’s ex-wife, could be forced to give evidence about the alibi if Giuffre’s lawsuit goes to trial next year.

  The Prince’s legal team has argued that a private 2009 settlement between Giuffre and Epstein protects him from liability.

  On Wednesday, the a pre-trial hearing will take place before a New York judge in what is expected to be several months of litigation.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 20:30

• Biden Admin Fails To Enforce Trump's Phase One Trade Deal With China
  Biden Admin Fails To Enforce Trump’s Phase One Trade Deal With China

  The Biden administration has failed to enforce the U.S.-China phase one trade agreement. There are serious concerns about the enforcement mechanism of the deal as China’s purchases fall behind targets. 

  In the trade deal signed in January 2020, Beijing promised to purchase about $200 billion of US goods and services over 2020, 2021 compared with 2017 levels. We’ve noted on multiple occasions how China was never going to live up to the deal, and nearly two years later, it still hasn’t. 

  Top Biden officials have tried to reassure that the deal is still intact and said the administration would hold China accountable. 

  Through September 2021, trade data from Peterson Institute for International Economics shows China only purchased 62% of the US goods expected at this point for the deal covering 2021. Put differently, China is about $121 billion behind its expected purchases for the year. 

  

  In every category, China falls behind in commitments. 

  

  Bloomberg recently spoke with a soybean farmer and head of DC Analytics in Illinois, Dan Cekander, who said: 

  “China isn’t buying as aggressively as anticipated at all.

  “They really need to step it up.”

  From the agreement’s early days, about six days after the deal was signed, we told readers the deal was “doomed from the start.” Since then, China has never been on pace to meet purchase commitments. And for the Biden administration to tout that they will enforce the deal is just malarkey. 

  Presumably, Biden’s “build back better” agenda does not rely on exports?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 20:00

• Bitcoin: A Second Chance For The Muslim World?
  Bitcoin: A Second Chance For The Muslim World?

  Authored by Asif Shiraz via BitcoinMagazine.com,

  Bitcoin is the sound money that the Muslim world needs to accelerate into the future…

  

  The Ottoman suppression of the printing press is a poster child case of intellectual stagnation in the Muslim world. Although there was no outright ban, there is no denying of a massively missed opportunity here: A civilization’s failure to adopt a groundbreaking technological change happening right next door. In its golden age, this same civilization that gave the world universities and hospitals, optics and algebra, even a precursor to the printing press itself, got so left behind in the later acceptance of technology, that its very own holy book, the Quran, waited for its first mass publication almost 300 years after Johannes Gutenberg chugged out the printed Bible.

  THE DECLINE

  But Islam’s Genesis Block was entirely different in character: A spirited but sundry assemblage of women and men whose most remarkable trait was their openness to new ideas. The idea of one God in a multitude of divine contenders. The idea of one bitcoin in a multitude of shitcoins … oops… sorry… mixing up my chronology! So anyway, this fraternity of early Islam, along with its keen aspiration of ushering in a just social and economic order, is also remarkable in a novel way for its time: It represents a death cross of reason’s moving average overtaking that of intuition in religious history. Bringing intellectual inquiry at par with mystical experience, it paved the way for its scions to delve into scientific skepticism, empiricism and experimental inquiry, with Robert Briffault going so far as to say that “Roger Bacon was no more than one of the apostles of Muslim science and method.”

  But eventually, the music stopped, and the market corrected! There are many explanations for the downfall, most of them partially true, spanning decades and centuries, but if we want to point fingers, as human nature dictates, at some symbolic event, then it must be the Mongol destruction of the House of Wisdom, #SackOfBaghdad. In the age of manuscripts, so many books from Baghdad’s libraries were flung into the Tigris that a horse could walk across on them and the river ran black with scholars’ ink and red with the blood of martyrs.

  As the Muslim Ummah lost so many intellectuals and intellectual capital in this tumultuous period, its reaction has been, (understandably), like that of an intern finding herself in control of mission critical servers, where all the senior sys admins suddenly stepped down, died or disappeared. Your best reaction is this: I’m not touching this system, and the only commands I’ll ever execute are those handed down by the four illustrious system admins — founders of the established schools of jurisprudence.

  And so Islamic scholarship for hundreds of years has been in a maintenance mode. In Pakistan alone, over 12,000 Madrasa routinely teach the rules and regulations of exchanging gold and silver, centuries after its daily use has been replaced by fiat.

  SURVIVAL OF CORE TENETS

  But herein lies a wonderful irony. This code-freeze on innovation, which we otherwise disapprove of, did work to an extent as it was intended: It protected the core principles from being callously compromised or deliberately diluted in the hands of opportunists. Just like the extra caution and consensus in changing the U.S. constitution protected the principles of freedom and equality enshrined in it: Islamic law, too, enshrined core financial principles, that have been a thorn on the side of would-be reformers attempting to legalize fiat and modern banking in the name of Islamic Finance. The 12,000 semi-literate Madrasa students, parroting the provisions of the fair exchange of gold and silver from a 17th century syllabus citing a 9th century scholar, unwittingly become more correct than a Harvard doctorate in finance indoctrinated in the misguided larceny of fiat money! All because Muhammad ﷺ mandated sound money, just like Mises and Hayek after him, a tenet immutably crystallized in Fiqh — Islamic Jurisprudence.

  A business man himself, the Prophet of Islam possessed a sharp acumen for economics and finance. In modern parlance, he quickly rose the corporate ladder to become one of the youngest CEOs of his time tasked with turning around the failing business empire of the urbane female entrepreneur, Khadija. Impressed with the Prophet’s personality, Khadija quickly proposed to him, creating a power couple that changed the course of history.

  Just like Jesus turned out the money-lenders from the Second Temple, the Prophet of Islam, too, had a disdain for usury and outlawed most of the accompanying capitalist machinations, that contribute to the gross wealth disparities like 10% owning 76% of the assets. So he created some fundamental rules that constitute the bedrock of Islamic financial principles:

  1. Forbade usury (Riba), including interest. Still respecting the time value of money, the prohibition’s intent is to create a financial regime where profit and risk is shared between the entrepreneur and the investor. From a sound money perspective, it prohibits the core operation of issuing interest bearing bonds and T-Bills against which the central bank can inflate the money supply.

  2. Forbade uncertainty (Gharar), embodied in his famous quote, “Do not sell a fish which is still in the water.” Eliminates the possibility of fractional reserve, since outstanding debt cannot be monetized and traded further with, unless it’s paid. It also closes the tap on a myriad of derivative instruments that further inflate the money supply.

  3. Forbade speculation (Maisir), which includes outright gambling. Some scholars consider speculative market activity, like the Dogecoin phenomena, under the ambit of this ruling.

  4. Mandated sound money. The rules of obligatory charity tax in Islam are denominated in sound money. Muslim governments take the market price of gold, convert them to fiat prices, and announce the converted value to the public to pay the religious obligation of Zakat. But from a legal standpoint, it permanently establishes gold and silver (as well as a whole class of other products) as perpetual, religiously recognized money in Islam.

  These prohibitions are strong enough in Islamic theology that anyone who violates them is technically, “at war with Allah and his Prophet.” Which is why the Madrasa’s syllabus clings to “nature’s money” (Thaman-e-Khalqi): gold and silver.

  But of course, big governments, Muslim or otherwise, are a chip off the same block: Self-interest reigns supreme over ethical principles. In Pakistan alone, the religious case against fiat banking has been delayed and obstructed for over 40 years in the courts. The politics of deficit financing are so attractive that no one wants to surrender this magical money making wand. Voldemorts, all of them!

  In spite of these prohibitions, and in countries where religion dominates social values, Muslims still grew comfortable with paper money because it initially disguised itself as “warehouse receipts for gold” which duped the scholars into permitting it, but the jurisprudence failed to catch up with the subsequent thinning of this asset backing into its current meaningless extent.

  REFORM ATTEMPTS

  As the domino roll of national independences took place, four different threads of activity around banking spread in Muslim countries.

  1. First, the mainstream implementation of modern banking took root in every Muslim State, implemented in toto like its Western counterparts.

  2. Second, Islamic banking attempted to reshape things a little. Scholars familiar with both economics and Shariah attempted to “Islamize” banking via the new academic discipline of “Islamic finance.” But instead of faithfully creating platforms for risk-sharing and equity-based financing, it just followed the Medieval Triple Contract–like approach to practically clone existing financial products, accompanied by a plethora of research papers to justify it. Like a comedic quote from the cold war era, “Communism is the longest and most painful road from capitalism to capitalism,” contemporary Islamic finance, too, turned out to become the most painful and circuitous route from traditional banking to traditional banking, decorated with Arabic names! How the professional bankers duped these scholars and hijacked this effort is excellently explained by Harris Irfan in a podcast with our own Saifedean Ammous.

  3. Third, a large but silent majority of toothless Islamic scholars continues to exist who view all forms of banking with suspicion, but the growing chasm of knowledge gap between their education and the complexities of modern finance makes them unable to take back the narrative.

  4. Lastly, a much smaller band of Islamic scholars exist, like followers of the Sufi order of a British convert and his Basque disciple, as well as a scholar from Trinidad, who successfully identified the fundamental problem with modern banking from a Shariah perspective: its monetary foundation. You cannot “Islamize” a bank if you do not fix the money it operates on! Hence, their attempt to resuscitate the traditional Islamic gold dinar as a sound money alternative to fiat.

  GOLD DINAR: THE REAL ISLAMIC ALTERNATIVE

  Fiat money and its permissibility can be viewed through an important concept in Islamic theology, the Maqasid-e-Shariah: the goals or purpose of Shariah law. To illustrate this with a controversial example, consider a Shariah law which says you cannot punish a man or woman for adultery, unless you bring four eye witnesses to the sexual act (which is normally impossible). While Islam abhors adultery, the Maqasid is an attempt by scholars to understand why, instead of having a law that easily and swiftly punishes it, there exists one that makes it practically impossible to prosecute. They rationalized that it must be to shield people’s privacy and one-off slipups from society’s nosy interference and appetite for punishment. According to Muhammad Asad, “… to make proof of adultery dependent on a voluntary, faith-inspired confession of the guilty parties themselves.” So the Maqasid points to some socially valuable goal that the law intends to achieve.

  The rationale of the financial laws of Shariah are similarly explained in terms of their goals: a just distribution of wealth, a money free from devaluation, a business contract free from usurious exploitation, and a regulatory regime that increases people’s wealth and well-being. Through a very elementary intuition, it is obvious that fiat currencies violate this principle of honesty and justice in the society: Money issuers steal the purchasing power of the people and devalue their money. To put a formal Quranic stamp to this reasoning, we can take verse 3:75, “There are some among the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) who, if entrusted with a stack of gold, will readily return it.” The modern Islamic bank, if entrusted with money equivalent to a stack of gold, returns you only 90% of its worth in purchasing power, owing to inflationary erosion, thus it’s part of a system that clearly violates the Maqasid.

  Islamic banks have thus thoroughly failed to espouse the core principle of risk sharing and eliminating interest (since interest exists in the very issuance process of the money they are built on). The only real Islamic alternative ever proposed was the Gold Dinar Movement. Starting in parallel (and in many respects earlier) than Islamic banking, (with the first modern Dinar minted in 1992), it was incisively accurate in its assessment and proposed remedy to the money problem: “The Return to the Gold Dinar.” This was an earlier time, when the golden tool in the fight against fiat was literally gold, which was then popularized by Austrian economics, advocated by upright leaders like Ron Paul, and adopted by grassroots activists like Bernard von NotHaus. The Muslim world saw its own spate of activism for sound money, led by its most vocal proponent, Umar Vadillo, and associated initiatives like Wakala Nusantara, Dinar First and my own Dinar Wakala. The Kelantan State government’s launch of Gold Dinar was our own El Zonte moment, full of euphoria and promise that made waves globally. The passion and courage of this vibrant lot of Warrior Sufis represented the best of modern-day Muslims: Profoundly knowledgeable people, engaged in grassroots activism, to fix the most pressing challenges of the contemporary world.

  However, the primary strength of gold, its physical indestructibility, came in the way of its adoption: Logistic and regulatory hindrances prevented free flow of physical gold coins across national boundaries. In the words of its founder, Shaykh Abdalqadir, “The defense mechanisms of today’s late capitalism and its crisis management surrounding the buying, moving and minting of gold have surrounded it with prohibitive pricing and taxation.” It continues to serve as a galvanizing symbol of the fight against Riba, but making it a practical inflationary hedge, or a broader Ummah-level movement for sound money, proved an elusive goal.

  Without the Gold Dinar, the horizon seemed all but bleak, except that a glimmer of hope came from the most unexpected of places: Where scholars, economists and revolutionaries had failed, nerds succeeded!

  Enter Emir Satoshi!

  ADVENT OF BITCOIN

  For us in the Gold Dinar Movement, Bitcoiners are our brothers in arms: fighting the same enemy, securing the same goal. This is what I have always advocated to my fellow activists in the dinar movement, from as far back as 2012.

  Our Prophetﷺ, as well as the Rashidun Caliphs, never debased money, nor profited from seigniorage, but gave us the right to choose our own mediums of exchange. This is fundamentally antithetical to the monstrosity of legal tender laws, which Islamic scholars have been duped into legitimizing under various pretexts (highlighting the need for increased financial literacy in this lot). This freedom to choose a currency constitutes the common ground that both us and the Bitcoiners can rally around together.

  “The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust,” writes Satoshi. He recognized the problem with fiat and set out to fix it with Bitcoin, a miraculous epiphany that has let loose this growing, global band of fervid, somewhat bumptious Maximalists, as similar in essence and ethos to us, as they look different in appearance. I see Bitcoiners, not only in their pluck and guile, but also in the sly ingenuity of their weapon of choice, as nothing less than a modern-day David taking on the Goliath of traditional banking!

  From a Muslim perspective, the operating verse of the Quran in critique of the Bitcoin movement becomes 49:13, “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Aware.” In the realm of monetary matters, the most righteous and noble are those who support sound money. It is appropriate that Allah stresses his own divine attributes in the verse, as a warning that our religiously colored conception of righteousness may not necessarily be the same as that of the knowing, the aware. (The literal term Taqwa, means something that protects you from the wrath of God.) And to the best of my belief, protecting and uplifting the poor, the downtrodden from the entrapments of a prejudiced financial system is surely a winner with the God of Abraham!

  A SECOND CHANCE

  We Muslims had set out to establish a just and fair society, and for some time, to quote David Graeber, succeeded: “Once freed from its ancient scourges of debt and slavery, the local bazaar had become, for most, not a place of moral danger, but the very opposite: the highest expression of the human freedom and communal solidarity, and thus to be protected assiduously from state intrusion.” But gradually, as our political and intellectual leadership in the world waned, we now find ourselves economically bankrupt, submerged in a rigged financial system, and enslaved to the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

  A major reason for this impoverishment was the widening gap of modern knowledge. The following vicious cycle of three circularly dependent factors is another way of modeling our current reality:

  1. Low capital allocation for education. A generally weak economy leaves little allocation for investment in education of both scientific and humanities disciplines, which is required for a productive human capital.

  2. Low human capital. The first factor results in low quality of education in the populace then manifests politically in bad national decisions, engagement in conflicts, economic mismanagement, acquisition of debt and failure to curb corruption. Economically, this unskilled workforce has low productivity, scarce entrepreneurship and ineffective technology adoption. Religiously, it permits violence and extremism to breed along sectarian fault lines.

  3. Low economic output. The second factor results in continued economic tribulations, since the whole society is now in KTLO mode, instead of “adding new features.” Which leads us again to item one.

  It is the standard cycle of poverty played out at a macro scale, which many competing power bases believe they can break. The military, the Mullahs, and the Liberals, far away, even the CIA has prescriptions on how to solve our problems. But such temporary political and economic interventions bear no lasting results, since nations are built by worthy men and women, over a span of many years, who, given a free and peaceful environment, fall back on their innate drive for excellence to create a better world.

  It is the job of the revolutionary and his meteoric jolt, or at a smaller scale, your social entrepreneur giving a small push, that breaks a segment of society free from this vicious cycle: A closed ecosystem of wealth circulation, comprising of learned individuals, equipped with better technology and empowered with more capital, shielded from outside influence, and stabilized by a fair social contract, to launch the virtuous symbiosis of economic prosperity and human development which prop each other to newer heights.

  This break can start in many ways: a national independence, some strong leadership, or in case of Islam, the founding of a new religion. Islam’s own trajectory gives us a generalized three-stage pattern on which any revolution can be modeled, an excellent blueprint for our bitcoin adoption.

  1. Education: A new world view is conceived, and people are educated toward it for voluntarily placing their faith on it — Iman.

  2. Separation: The model is physically deployed, separated from existing systems, so it can grow and thrive without any negative external influences — Hijra.

  3. Protection: When the model grows strong enough to threaten the status quo, but still weak enough to be fully destructible, it needs protection, usually requiring armed conflict — Jihad.

  We in the Gold Dinar Movement believed that the break in this vicious cycle will come from financial empowerment: When Muslim people and governments adopt sound money, free from the shackles of the IMF, it will allow our bankrupt economies to manage enough disposable income that can be invested in other avenues in society, putting us on a path to progress and human development. Gold would bring back the Golden Age, producing men and women who are worth their weight in gold!

  But it could not. Let me explain why, and how bitcoin makes it possible.

  BITCOIN: A TOOL FOR REVOLUTION

  Following our three-stage model of a revolution, let’s review how bitcoin resolves the challenges of each step.

  1. Education

  The common man, humble about his knowledge of finance, expects, like John Galbraith remarked, a “deeper mystery to the process of money creation.” But which really is so simple, he goes on, that “the mind is repelled.”

  But the chasm in traditional and modern education keeps our scholars from being able to religiously evaluate the fiat system, for which they need three vital credentials: a traditional Mufti qualification, specialized research in the Fiqh of Muamalat, and a study of modern economics. Only a handful achieve this, like the globally revered Usmani, who become thought leaders in Islamic finance: The rest take the easy way out and follow what they posit. I once asked a certified Shariah advisor on LinkedIn, if he knew what fractional reserve banking meant. I expected some abstruse, rule-bending justification for it but was taken aback by his honest admission that he simply didn’t know what it was!

  So the first challenge was to educate both the people and the scholars about the fiat system. Then to enlist serious academic and industry practitioners to devise a working alternative based on gold and silver. Then to have its demand trickle down into the masses to eventually morph into enough political pressure for the government to adopt it, much to its own detriment. Highly unlikely.

  Except that with bitcoin, educating the people now becomes much more focused and result oriented. The wider goal of educating people about finance and economics remains indispensable in both gold and Bitcoin-based sound money solutions. But with bitcoin, we don’t have to wait for a third-world academia and archaic-minded scholars to sell the solution to an unwilling government: We take the narrative, and the prerogative of action, back from them. We go tactical, orange pill the masses with an Urdu translation of the bitcoin standard, and focus on what is minimally essential to achieve within our means: Teaching Muggles… sorry…. No-coiners, the very basics of money mechanics, the role of bitcoin in our strategic response, and the know-how to stack satoshis in a cold wallet! The rest will follow!

  Coming to think of it, my initial printing press analogy is poignantly relevant. The press encapsulated years of knowledge in a simple package easily disseminated to thousands, which could have overcome our knowledge gap had we adopted it earlier. Bitcoin, too, encapsulates the quintessential wisdom of centuries of humanity’s experience in what constitutes good money and allows it to be spread easily across the world. It is both knowledge, and a tool crafted out of that knowledge. If we miss the boat on it, we will not only lose to “usury capitalism,” but the Bitcoin movement, too, will be deprived of huge potential support from a quarter of the world population. We must join the rest of humanity in a last ditch attempt at wealth equality.

  2. Separation

  After educating people about money mechanics and bitcoin, the second step is the Hejira, our separation from the existing system.

  An Islamic scholar, Abdassamad Clarke defined “usury capital,” as “the use of capital that is both generated by usury and operated according to usurious principles, which permits a tiny clique of individuals, by the principle of fiat money amplified by leverage, to wield extraordinary power and accumulate unheard of wealth in such a manner as to subject the rest of humanity as menial servants in their project of self-enrichment, whether in the tyrannies of the East or the so-called free-market capitalism of the West.”

  The fundamental philosophical difference between Islamic and Western economics is how we view interest. Islam holds firm to the classical Judeo-Christian prohibition, believing that the time value of money is more fairly accounted for in equity finance style risk sharing of the invested capital, instead of a guaranteed return favoring the capitalist. Among other things, its side effect is prohibiting both the monetizing of our “future income” to issue fiat, and prohibiting the money-multiplier effect of fractional reserve, through the rulings of Riba, Bai-al-Dain and Bai-al-Madum.

  Bitcoiners and libertarians rely on an entirely different philosophical foundation to reach partially the same conclusion in regards to fiat, that it’s perverse, unjust and socially destructive.

  The end goal for both is the same: To separate ourselves from the fiat system and carve out an entirely new, independent financial system: The original idea of decentralized finance (DeFi)!

  Unfortunately, the bubble effect we so dislike in TradFi — traditional finance — is now itself widespread in the non-Bitcoin crypto world, what Ellen Farrington cites as the immense amount of “rehypothecation, leverage, and securitization,” which if misused can cause systemic risks that affect everyone. The practical reality of contemporary DeFi in the non-Bitcoin world is quite far from its theoretical goal. Looking at this aspect of “crypto,” some Islamic scholars took the liberty of invoking the gambling prohibition clause, something whose motivation we can sympathize with, even though we disagree with the conclusion.

  A lack of regulation at the administrative level cannot be countered by religious pronunciation of Haram status. It’s kind of like declaring cars as Islamically forbidden, merely because some people are driving them too fast and killing others. But presently, we are far less interested in how scholars view “crypto” than we are regarding bitcoin. The DeFi world’s shiny new investments offering unsustainable returns, its shady ICOs and the casino-like frenzy and get-rich-quick dreams of novice retail investors are far removed from what we advocate, from what we are daring to call a second chance for the Muslim world: A Bitcoin-based sound money adoption as a medium of exchange and store of value!

  But what is nevertheless commendable in the crypto world (led, of course, by Bitcoin) is the attempt to create this entirely new, independent miniverse of alternative, decentralized finance, isolated from the existing system. Building and expanding this decentralization, based on Bitcoin, is the essence of the second step of our revolutionary blueprint: the Hejira. Migrating from the old to the new. As Iqbal would have said, “Blow away this transitory world, and build a new one from its ashes” — khakastar se aap apna jahan paida karay.

  The only serious prior attempt for sound money among Muslims was the Dinar movement. But it only works in a physical jurisdiction: Where to mint, where to store, how to transport, how to coordinate electronic payments, how to deal with banking regulations, taxes and government interference? Theoretically, it was possible to instantiate an entirely independent ecosystem of issuance, storage, transport and trade using gold, but real progress on it was very slow.

  At the same time, the Bitcoin ecosystem has matured so much to be classifiable as an independent and isolated system, free from all interference from legacy finance. The Core Bitcoin Timechain, Lightning and Layer 2 smart contract solutions, and the globally distributed miner, node operator and supporter community, all combine to form a platform on which we can build and experiment with truly Islamic financial contracts of the form that are not possible with TradFi.

  In this ecosystem, we can resuscitate Islamic social and financial institutions like the Bait-ul-Maal, the Suq, the Waqf, the Guilds, the Hawala, the Wahdiya, the Qirad and the Musharaka, free from the restrictions of any government, securities commission or central bank.

  3. Protection

  And once this isolated system is deployed, we need to protect it.

  A story is told in Islamic lore, that when Abu Dharr Ghifari came looking to meet the Prophet, Ali told him to walk a few paces behind him, and if he senses anyone suspicious he will stoop down to tie his shoelaces and Abu Dharr should continue walking ahead. Kind of like a coinjoin to obfuscate where he was actually going. When you are small, you must remain in stealth mode and operate under the radar. Later on, when the small state of early Islam was established in a nearby city, it needed a number of armed conflicts to defend itself from being nipped in the bud!

  Deploying a sound money system, too, may need a precarious window in which the sapling would need fierce protection before it grows into a tree. The hellacious powers issuing the yuans and dollars of the world are way too formidable for any third-world nation state to get away with a head-on collision. In fact, we cannot even withstand assaults from individual speculators, let alone a concerted effort by the global financial cabal to preserve its status quo. El Salvador and the like are definitely interesting trailblazers to watch out for here, but it is too early to tell.

  If a sufficient number of first-world citizens band together to defy their government in adoption of sound money, the response of fiat-powered regimes would (probably) be much more restrained in handling them versus some rogue state from a third-world country attempting to defy the dominant currency. I was told by a prominent Islamic banker that when Mahatir toyed with the idea, he was sent a very stern signal to “cease and desist” by the powers that be!

  So, can a Muslim government adopt and get away with either the dinar or bitcoin? I believe only in the latter. Only bitcoin has the necessary technological edge in terms of its unstoppability and indestructibility that can substitute for the need of a national military power strong enough to protect a traditional sound money built on gold.

  THE ISLAMIC STATE VERSUS BITCOIN

  But many Islamic revivalists believe otherwise and their goal is usually larger in scope than financial reform alone. It is a more holistic quest to resuscitate the political, social and legal structures of precolonial Islamic governments. Encouraged by the spectacular rise of early Islam that dared challenge superior powers like Byzantine and Sassanids, they believe it possible to recreate the traditional theocracy along similar lines, one of whose side effects would be to eradicate fiat currency also. Such ambitious projects downplay the urgency of fixing our financial system: No need to separately struggle for it if it comes as a natural corollary to the larger political renaissance.

  Now the specter of such pan-Islamic revival has been thoroughly demonized in Western imagination, owing from our own side to violent extremism, owing from their side to a deep-rooted Islamophobia, and owing generally to ideas (or realities?) like the clash of civilizations. But my Bitcoiner friends — whose libertarian ethos is so refined to even self-censure the slightist hint of authoritarian enforcement in El Salvador’s legal tender adoption of bitcoin — will surely agree that it is entirely within the rights of the Muslim world to voluntarily experiment, on their land, with whatever form of government they fancy: caliphates, sultanates or kingdoms!

  But the reality of this dream in the minds of the majority of modern Muslims is quite different from what the world perceives. The moderate Muslim just wants Islamic principles to be the guiding source of their political and social order. But the strength of this desire is often encashed by opportunists, resulting in two recent distorted models of political Islam:

  1.The Iranian model: Somewhat broad-based and sustainable but toothless and symbolic. They are the political twins of Islamic banks, offering no real change to the common man, except moral policing. Financially, there even exists the oxymoronic Central Bank of the Islamic Republic. Why would you have an Islamic bank if you were truly an Islamic republic?

  2. Second, is the Taliban and ISIS model: Narrow-based, extremist and unsustainable, divorced from the comity of nations. ISIS did reportedly issue the Gold Dinar but to no one’s avail, except perhaps as a recruitment propaganda. News out of Kabul promises a more restrained and balanced government this time around, but is it a genuine change of heart or just political expediency?

  So, while the Muslim world waits for a true Islamic reformation, and the world holds its breath on how the next such attempt turns out, my issue with this ubiquitous political quest in the Muslim imagination is just NGMI — it’s not gonna make it! We can’t stall the effort of immediate financial reform on some future promise of a bigger change happening to facilitate it. As an Urdu saying goes, na nau munn tayl hoe ga, na Radha naachay gi: Neither shall the king be able to provision nine gallons of lamp oil, and nor will the stage ever be lit enough for his dancing girl, Radha, to perform!

  Nevertheless, assuming for a moment that a mature, viable, modern Islamic government does get established by some geopolitical miracle, faithful to Islam’s core tenets, and broad-based in popular support, the next and more pertinent question becomes: Will it have sufficient political, and if necessary, military power, to deploy a gold-based sound monetary system in their country, and then get away with the sanctions and isolation that follow?

  And this is where bitcoin, once again, outshines other alternatives. The one trait that sets it apart from all “crypto”, and indeed, all monies in human history: true, sovereign-grade censorship resistance, from both your own government and foreign powers. Without needing any battalions or bombs, bitcoin enables us to fight the good fight ourselves and win. And if the broader Islamic reformation materializes, bitcoin can support it, too, for bypassing potential sanctions and increasing national wealth!

  God has a knack for defeating evil by the simplest of designs — the mighty Goliath with a slingshot, the persecutors of the Prophet with a humble spider — as if to compound the humiliation of defeat by the plainness of its bearer. Who could have thought that the Kremlins, Zhongnanhais and White Houses of the world would be made helpless by the confluence of two elementary ideas: proof of work and difficulty adjustment! But this simple, easily overlooked and less understood killer combination of traits makes bitcoin an undefeatable tool in the hands of us, the 99%. We do not need to wait for anyone. We can do it ourselves with bitcoin.

  THE WAY FORWARD

  While the wallet addresses, exchange accounts, market cap, and of course, the hype around crypto is constantly rising in Muslim countries, much of this activity is from the perspective of a shiny new investment vehicle, a get-rich-quick bandwagon to which everyone wants to hitch! This has engendered the animated debate of investor protection, scam avoidance and the whole academic deliberation of whether they are at all Halal owing to a perceived lack of intrinsic value and being free from government control. While all of these objections on bitcoin from the Shariah perspective have been thoroughly refuted by various scholars and are easily searchable on the internet, the continuance of this superfluous debate is dangerously distracting: In the process, we are losing sight of the higher frequencies of this amazing once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.

  Aye ahle-e-nazar zauq-e-nazar khoob hai laikin
  Joe shay ki haqeeqat koe na dekhay woe nazar kiya

  We need bitcoin, not because it’s a great investment (which incidentally it is), but because it’s a great store of value and a medium of exchange: A free medium of exchange, which can uplift us collectively if we just adopt it, en masse, as our money.

  To my fellow Muslims, here is a parting thought.

  We love and honor our Prophet to such an extent that even the minutest of his actions, Sunnahs, is recorded, revered and repeated, even if it be as simple as the table manners of cutting some fruit. But here is another Sunnah of bigger import: success.

  The change that he set out to achieve in the world, he did achieve it. As he breathed his last in the arms of Ayesha, he had already delivered on the promise he had made to his companions in the lowest ebb of their persecution: “… a traveler from Sana to Hadrarmaut will fear none but Allah.”

  Although bordering a little on logical fallacy, I would point out that he didn’t cite something more symbolic like the establishment of the Caliphate, or the conquests, or the subsequent power. He chose to cite, as evidence of success to what they were suffering for, the establishment of a certain social order: One in which an anonymous citizen would not fear physical or financial insecurity. I say anonymous, not a private citizen, because the choice of the word “traveler” is very telling. While you are known in your city, protected by your identity, and potential clout from a corporation or clan, it is suddenly removed when you are in a strange land. They do not even know your name, unless you tell them: You are just a wallet address. But this traveler is not afraid of loss of wealth, or being robbed, or not having the right passport, or the right vaccine passport! He can move himself, and he can move his money.

  We Dinarists and Bitcoiners always equate inflation with theft. Whether you snatch 50 rupees from a poor man, or the free fall of your currency leaves him with 50 rupees less of a purchasing power, it is the same. While every ill is not caused by our monetary system, there is the obvious administrative incompetence and a dismal economic performance to account for — but inflation is definitely a huge factor. And all our high talk, slogans, research papers, reform movements, activism and militarism have deviated from this one Sunnah: The success of delivering safety to this traveler again.

  Bitcoin can help us succeed. Like now! Not 20 years later. Not when some promised leader will part the seas for us again. But now, when the poor illiterate, helpless man on the street looks at us educated and privileged elites and asks: What did you do to level the playing field for me? The Islamic banker may say, “Oh, I developed this intricate Shariah compliant profit and loss sharing contract for you, approved by the council of scholars, and backed by the gold dinar, just wait for it to be deployed.” I will say, “Dude, here, let me help you buy a few satoshis and get you a Lightning wallet so you don’t have to revert back to the rupee when paying for your next meal!” I think you should do the same.

  Bitcoin deserves a fresh look from us Muslims. Let’s think about it. Let’s use it correctly. Let’s spread it. Let’s understand it. Let’s use Bitcoin.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 19:30

• US Successfully Conducts Hypersonic Booster Test In Utah 
  US Successfully Conducts Hypersonic Booster Test In Utah 

  The US Navy successfully tested a booster rocket motor to launch a hypersonic vehicle on Thursday. The test comes a week after China stunned the world with the launch of its hypersonic missile.

  A “static firing” of the hypersonic rocket booster motor was conducted in Promontory, Utah, according to a Navy statement.

  

  The US Navy “successfully conducted a second test of the First Stage Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) on October 28, 2021, in Promontory, Utah, as part of the development of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) offensive hypersonic strike capability and the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW).”

  

  “Today’s successful test brings us one step closer to the design validation of our new hypersonic missile that will be fielded by both the Navy and the Army,” said Vice Adm. Johnny R. Wolfe Jr, Director, Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs, which is the lead designer for the common hypersonic missile.

  “We are on schedule for the upcoming flight test of the full common hypersonic missile. Our partners across government, industry, and academia are continuing the excellent work that is essential to providing a hypersonic capability to our warfighters as quickly as possible,” said Wolfe. 

  The latest SRM test follows a series of ones validating the services’ new hypersonic weapon. The last tests were on May 27 and August 25. The Navy said that this one focused on testing the first stage solid rocket motor included a thrust vector control system.

  Last week, the services announced three hypersonic component prototypes were tested at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. A statement from the Pentagon at the time said the tests would help “inform the development of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) and the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) offensive hypersonic strike.” Flight tests of the booster rocket and hypersonic weapon are set for the second half of 2022. 

  The latest round of US tests comes just days after China stunned the world with its hypersonic missile launch. Even though Beijing later denied and downplayed it as a “routine spacecraft experiment,” – General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bloomberg TV the hypersonic developments from China are similar to a “Sputnik moment.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 19:00

• Bidenvilles For Christmas
  Bidenvilles For Christmas

  Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,

  “I used to be a conspiracy theorist.  But then all the conspiracies I followed turned out to be true.”

  The remark was made by a friend and Wealth Prism Letter subscriber over a recent phone conversation.  We’ll have more on this in just a moment.  But first, some of what prompted the comment…

  Here in the land of fruits and nuts things have always been a little whacky and wild.  The people and the politics in the state’s urban centers have the uncanny ability to bring out the worst in each other.  The coronavirus travesty has only magnified these character failings.

  For example, all the stimmy checks, generous unemployment payments, and eviction moratoriums have had a predictable outcome.  They’ve created a burgeoning class of people who would rather loaf and invite their soul over plying their time and talents toward something gainful.

  At 7.5 percent, California’s tied with Nevada for the highest unemployment rate in the country.  For perspective, the U.S. unemployment rate in September was 4.8 percent.

  Moreover, unemployment claims in California now account for one-third of the nation’s total claims.  Yet the state, while the most populous, only accounts for a little over 12 percent of the nation’s total people.

  At the local level, San Francisco and Los Angeles have been in an exhilarating competition for what city can be most stupid.  Los Angeles recently sprinted into the lead.

  Just this week, for instance, and with a nod to Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, the City of Los Angeles announced a universal basic income pilot program.  It’s called Big:Leap.

  The mechanics of the Big:Leap program are simple enough.  Roughly 3,200 low-income families will be chosen at random to receive $1,000 a month for one year starting in January.

  Mayor Garcetti calls the program, “an instrument of racial equality.”

  Why the colon mark is inserted into the syntax is a mystery.  And how the program will help people in poverty is equally mysterious.

  Poverty, remember, for a majority of people that live with it, is more of an attitude than a financial condition.  Giving someone free money for a year does nothing to adjust their attitude of poverty.  Rather, it reinforces their dependence.

  So it was with this backdrop, among other mad happenings, that one friend and reader offered the following anecdotes and observations…

  Tin Foil Hats

  “As I was saying, I used to be a conspiracy theorist.  But then all the conspiracies I followed turned out to be true.

  “Turns out the Wuhan flu, for example, did in fact originate inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

  “And now we know the National Institute of Health did fund the Wuhan lab’s dangerous gain of function experiments. Fauci lied, again!

  “And we all know what happened to Seth Rich.”

  “What happened to Seth Rich?” we asked, trying to recall if there was something we should know.

  “Let’s just say, Vince Foster.  And leave it at that.”

  “But there is one thing I can’t quite put a finger on.  Do you think U.S. supply chain disruptions, and the massive logjams at the ports, are deliberate?

  “I mean, could the lunatics in government be trying to further collapse the economy so they can create an even larger population of dependents?

  “The deranged push to get everyone vaccinated, in some way, seems to be part of this.

  “These ports – LA and Long Beach – have been in operation for over 100 years.  There have been world wars, economic depressions, dock worker strikes.  You know…  Bloody Thursday, Harry Bridges, and all that.

  “But nothing ever backed up the cargo ships quite like this.  Why now?

  “Have you been down to Bluff Park or up to Signal Hill?  The view of them all littered offshore with Catalina in the background is absolutely nuts.

  “I’m telling you, if something doesn’t give in the next 30 to 60 days we’ll all be up the creek without a paddle.

  “And that’s exactly where Empty Shelves Joe wants us.  And that’s exactly why I’m thinking this is deliberate.

  “Now I’d put my old tin foil hat on to shield my brain from mind control.  But, as I said, these conspiracy theories all keep coming true.  This one seems no different.”

  [At this point we could tell our friend was just warming up.  So, we settled back into our chair and made ourselves comfortable…]

  Bidenvilles for Christmas

  “I heard you were in Reno last week, yeah?  You know what they say about Reno?  It’s so close to Hell you can see Sparks.

  “Speaking of being close to Hell.  What the eff’s up with the LBC?

  “I mean, the city’s always had a seedy underbelly.  Most port cities do.

  “My dad graduated from Poly High in the early 60s.  I remember him telling me the area just east of where Ocean Blvd. crosses the LA River used to be called The Jungle.  It was the city’s preeminent oceanfront slum.

  “And when the Pike and the Cyclone Racer slipped into decay and disrepair in the mid-60s it turned really ugly.  The amusement seekers disappeared.  But the carnies, winos, and pyromaniacs remained.

  “That was back when Long Beach was still a Navy town.  Every now and again some sailor would get snockered at Clancy’s or Joe Jost’s and stumble down “Whore Alley” over there and get rolled and roughed up by the souteneurs and hustlers.

  “But at least it was contained.  Seems like The Jungle has now spread like a virus to infect the entire city.

  “Like in front of the library at the end of your block.  Have you been by there at night, lately?

  “It’s a full blown Bidenville – with barrel fires and everything.  So is the lot behind the vacant Sears across the street.

  “Several months ago I heard they were going to convert that old Sears building to a homeless shelter.  But I don’t know what ever came of it.

  “What I do know is that Long Beach city officials are trying to out-stupid Los Angeles and San Francisco.  They’re now talking about sanctioning homeless encampments.

  “Can you believe it?  Government sanctioned Bidenvilles?

  

  “Maybe the city will deliver them for Christmas.  Ho ho ho!

  “In truth, this is more Governor Newsom’s and Mayor Garcia’s doing than Biden’s.  But I still call them Bidenville’s.  Anytime I can hold this illegitimate President in ill-repute, I do.

  “Let’s go Brandon!

  “You know what that means, don’t you?”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 17:30

• 'Squid Game' Cryptocurrency Soars 40,000% In A Week
  ‘Squid Game’ Cryptocurrency Soars 40,000% In A Week

  The hit Netflix series “Squid Game” has inspired a new cryptocurrency, which saw its value skyrocket by 40,000% this week in just a handful of trading days.

  As of 0745 ET Friday, the “Squid Game” token, aka “SQUID”, stood at $5.41, up from $0.01235 when it started trading on Tuesday, according to data from Coin Market Cap.

  The relatively obscure crypto is up more than 200% in the past 24 hours and it now commands a market capitalization of more than $419 million.

  While the rapid spike in price may tempt more traders into the coin, CoinMarketCap warned on its site that some people appear to not be able to sell the coin once they buy it.

  “We have received multiple reports that the users are not able to sell this token in Pancakeswap. Please exercise caution while trading!” CoinMarketCap warns. Pancakeswap is a popular decentralized cryptocurrency exchange.

  The inability to sell the coins could be tied to an “anti-dumping mechanism” that the creators of the coin described in a white paper associated with the cryptocurrency.

  

  Like the South Korean show “Squid Game” in which 456 deeply indebted people compete in deadly children’s games for a grand prize of more than $38MM, the Squid token was launched as a way to buy into the Squid Game project, a crypto play-to-earn platform that will culminate with an online in a squid-game-esque tournament next month.

  The online tournament will mimic the six rounds of games featured in the hit series, but, as the white paper says, “we do not provide deadly consequences.”

  “Your experience will only reflect on the joy of winning rewards and sorrow of losing money when the game failed,” the white paper says.

  Another difference is that the online tournament will not cap the reward money for winning nor will there be a maximum number of players.

  Contestants will have to fork over a preset amount of the SQUID token in order to compete in each round of the tournament. At the crypto’s current price, the fee for the final round of the tournament, for example, stands at roughly $81,000.

  Entry fees from each of the rounds are split between developers, who said they’ll take 10%, and the reward pool, where the remaining 90% of the coins will be deposited.

  t the crypto’s current price, the fee for the final round of the tournament, for example, stands at roughly $81,000.

  And throughout the tournament, players will have the opportunity to earn non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, by winning rounds. The NFTs also appear to be for sale on the behind the token’s website, and they can be traded among contestants.

  Throughout the game, users will also earn Marbles Tokens, which is another reference to the show. Those tokens will allow users to eventually sell their SQUID coins and cash in, according to the white paper.

  Of course, while the international crypto community has embraced the game, the NYC school system sees the trend as a liability, and ha banned all students from dressing up s characters from the show for halloweem

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 17:00

• The $1 Trillion Child Tax Credit Is Really Universal Basic Income
  The $1 Trillion Child Tax Credit Is Really Universal Basic Income

  Authored by Adam Andrzejewski via RealClearPolicy.com,

  In the Democrat-backed $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act that funds so-called “human infrastructure,” is money categorized as a child tax credit but acts as a universal basic income for people with children.

  This expansion of the social safety net is a “turbocharged child tax credit that is really a universal basic income, which will discourage work and cost $1 trillion,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board said.

  

  While the bill extends the tax credit through 2025, the editorial board argues neither Republicans nor Democrats running Congress or the White House will ever repeal it.

  Democrats expanded the 2021 credit to $3,600 for children under age six and $3,000 for older dependents as part of the March Covid-19 relief bill.

  It was an increase from the $2,000 that Republicans offered in their 2017 tax reform plan, which was an increase from $1,000.

  Since it’s a “refundable” credit, it’s paid in a check to those who don’t owe any income tax.

  In July, the IRS started paying part of the credit in monthly checks, “all the better to get recipients hooked on regular government payments,” the WSJ editors said.

  “It has kicked free of any connection to income or taxes and is now a full-fledged entitlement.”

  Some proponents argue it could cut child poverty in half.

  However, Robert Doar, who ran welfare programs in New York, warned that sending families checks without considering the circumstances of a household could make families appear less poor on paper but could do little or nothing to actually change their circumstances.

  In America today, there are 10 million jobs and not enough workers to fill them. Instead of paying people to stay home, people should get a job.

  

  *  *  *

  The #WasteOfTheDay is presented by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 16:30

• Multi-Millionaire Activision CEO Signals Virtue With 99.9% "Gender Equality" Pay Cut
  Multi-Millionaire Activision CEO Signals Virtue With 99.9% “Gender Equality” Pay Cut

  Before President Trump rode down the golden escalator to destiny, before Twitter exploded into an online battle between free speech and wokism, there was GamerGate.

  Beginning in early 2014, GamerGate was a backlash against what many (mostly male) supporters saw as the growing influence of a handful of female game developers and game journalists, whom – the GamerGaters’ insisted – were trying to force video game culture to become more progressive in fit in better with their far-left ideals.

  

  Given that most gamers are men (few of whom would identify as radical feminists), the backlash against game developers such as Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu, and feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian – to name a few, quickly escalated to online bullying, threats and doxxing, according to Bloomberg.

  Since then, ‘woke’ gaming studios that hired an army of ‘protected class’ employees to avoid public scrutiny have been grappling with sexual misconduct scandals, transgender scandals, and other issues that arose thanks to years of walking on eggshells. It’s also resulted in a glut of big-budget games falling flat on their faces thanks to a forced diversity agenda that left the overwhelmingly male gaming demographic with a bad taste in their mouth. (If only Obsidian would make a Fallout 4 sequel)…

  Some have even criticized GamerGate as the seed corn from which the world-shaking events of 2016 grew – namely, Brexit and the election of President Trump. Which is perhaps why so many Gamer CEOs are taking such dramatic steps to prove that they’re doing everything in their power to give women a “fair shake” in an industry where lawsuits are still being filed over “frat boy culture” where women don’t feel comfortable.

  To wit – Activision-Blizzard, the maker of the popular Call of Duty franchise, has found itself in a tough situation after its lawyers failed to convince a California court to temporarily halt an ongoing sexual harassment and discrimination case against the firm that was fired by a small group of female workers.

  On their behalf, California’s civil rights agency sued the video game maker in July, accusing it of fostering an uncomfortable environment for female employees. In response, Activision denied some claims while firing or nearly 2 dozen workers and cancelling an annual event.

  “Activision denied some claims while taking steps to punish those accused. It recently ousted 20 employees, it said, and called off an event for its biggest annual convention in February.” –Bloomberg

  Now, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has announced perhaps the world’s most text book example of virtue-signaling.

  After receiving a massive $154.6 million in compensation last year, which follows $30 million earned in 2019, Kotick has gregariously agreed to take a 99.96% pay cut.

  In a speech to Activision Blizzard employees, Kotick apologized that he hadn’t kept “the guardrails in place” when it came to the company’s culture, and that fixing the ‘frat boy’ culture is now his responsibility.

  “The guardrails weren’t in place everywhere to ensure that our values were being upheld,” Kotick said in a letter to employees dated Oct. 28. “In some cases, people didn’t consistently feel comfortable reporting concerns, or their concerns weren’t always addressed promptly or properly. People were deeply let down and, for that, I am truly sorry.” -Bloomberg

  According to the report, Kotick is instituting the following changes:

  • His pay will be reduced to the lowest he’s legally allowed to receive among California Law, and has asked to receive no bonuses. This represents a 99.96% rate cut.
  • Before Kotick can get his old pay package back, his company will need to increase the percentage of women and non-binary people to its workforce by 50% and invest $250MM to accelerate opportunities for diverse talent.
  • He also plans to launch a ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy for harassment.
  • And take steps to increase the visibility of pay equality
  • While also waive required arbtrage for sexual harassment and discrimination claims.

  We’re sure this will improve the quality of games, and totally won’t ruin them further like the most recent season of Rick and Morty.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 16:00

• Carriers Must Move 60K Containers Out Of Los Angeles/Long Beach By Halloween
  Carriers Must Move 60K Containers Out Of Los Angeles/Long Beach By Halloween

  By Lori Ann LaRocco of FreightWaves,

  Halloween is going to be an extra scary day for the logistics world. A total of 60,000 containers have been marked as beyond the dwell time and need to be moved out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by the carriers or the penalties will start racking up. A total of 33,000 containers need to be rolled out of the Port of Los Angeles and 27,000 loaded containers for the Port of Long Beach — a whopping $2,633,940,000 value in trade.

  

  Carriers were put on notice this week when the ports announced that, starting next Monday, a daily surcharge of $100 per container will be levied. Did this light a fire and a surge of containers being moved? No. 

  The pace of trade moving out of the ports could be characterized as more of a pregnant pause than a surge. Live webcams of the Port of Los Angeles terminals show more images of empty lanes than robust activity.

  Turn times at both terminals tracked by the Harbor Trucking Association and GeoStamp also paint the snail pace of trade both before and after the announcement. 

  

  “We are having an emergency harbor meeting Friday morning to vote on this,” explained Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “I need to see progress on the movement of loaded containers. We need to show America we are doing whatever we can to get trade moving.”

  Noel Hacegaba, COO of the Port of Long Beach, emphasized this container push would be significant in alleviating the congestion plaguing productivity.  

  “This is roughly 40% of all containers sitting on the terminals today,” he said. “Pulling all of these containers by Sunday will take an unprecedented coordinated effort but it must be done.”

  Importers have told American Shipper they are afraid they will be on the hook for the fees. Some have already received letters notifying them of the additional charges.

  “The carriers have always passed on fees and surcharges,” said one importer who asked for anonymity out of fear of retaliation. “Why would the Biden administration, which is behind this penalty, think the carriers would not pass it over? The Federal Maritime Commission is already looking into the excessive demurrage costs we are paying! Carriers are making record profits.”

  Maersk sent a letter to customers on Wednesday detailing the penalties.

  

  When asked if the penalties would be passed over to customers, Maersk responded it was a work in progress since it has clients that have clauses in their contracts that stipulate no new additional charges.

  “This penalty was not intended to be a passed-on cost,” explained Mario Cordero, Port of Long Beach executive director, at a port update press conference.  Hacegaba added, “We are using every tool at our disposal to move containers.”

  The National Retail Federation and the American Apparel and Footwear Association tell American Shipper if these charges are passed on, it will only add to the mounting inflationary logistic charges importers have been paying.

  Hacegaba stressed, “We need the entire supply chain to step up.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 15:30

• "We Like The Cube" – Thousands Of Crypto Traders Are Paying Top Dollar For Tungsten
  “We Like The Cube” – Thousands Of Crypto Traders Are Paying Top Dollar For Tungsten

  We couldn’t dream up a better allegory for contemporary markets – where JPEGs are selling for millions of dollars and cryptocurrencies have become the market’s preferred means of hedging inflation – if we tried.

  Over the years, we have reported on the phenomenon of scammers producing fake gold bars using tungsten, an extremely dense metal. These types of stories would often provoke outrage among major bullion buyers, forcing them to verify their inventories with ultrasound spot checks. Stories like these have prompted us to question how much of the gold sitting in bank vaults might actually be tungsten. But as it turns out, even if this were true, contemporary investors probably wouldn’t care, because in our environment of topsy turvey markets, turns out, tungsten prices are surging thanks to the same army of online investors that sent GME, doge coin and BTC to the moon.

  

  According to WSJ, which published a story on the tungsten phenomenon on Thursday, traders are buying and holding cubes of tungsten. 1.7x as dense as lead, Amazon.com’s product page describes tungsten cubes as “surprisingly heavy”…and a “great conversation piece”. Amazon Prime members can get free shipping if they buy the cubes.

  The demand for tungsten came out of twitter and chat service Telegram. Crypto traders and other tungsten enthusiasts prompted a major run on tungsten supplies in recent weeks, with some paying $400 apiece for 2-inch cubes weighing around 5 lbs, and others paying $3,000 for the 4-inch version, which is about as heavy as “a low-horsepower outboard motor”, according to WSJ.

  Why are traders so fascinated by these metal cubes? The paper quoted a Florida lawyer lawyer named Drew Morris who works at a blockchain intelligence company. Morris bought his 1½-inch cube after friends discovered the trend. He said he found the density “mind-blowing.”

  “I keep it on my desk as a reminder of what motivates me—keep going, keep working,” said Mr. Morris, who also invests in cryptocurrencies. “One day, I’ll be able to upgrade to a larger-size cube.”

  Specifically, WSJ credited a “FinTwit” member and crypto influencer, Neeraj Agrawal, director of communications at Coin Center, an organization that lobbies for the crypto industry’s interests in Washington, for helping kick-start the trend with a joke post claiming crypto traders were causing an imaginary global tungsten shortage. “I’m going to be buried with my cube, probably,” he told WSJ.

  Nic Carter, another crypto influencer, has also been credited in helping grow the trend.

  Cube review @nic__carter @NeerajKA pic.twitter.com/nRD0aNV8nk

  — The Bitcoin Rabbi (@thebitcoinrabbi) October 18, 2021

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

  Those who have bought into the craze even have their own “rallying cry”: “We like the cube”, a play on “we like the stock”.

  Midwest Tungsten, a producer of the cubes, has seen its inventories hammered by the demand for the cube.

  Even NFTs of the metal cubes have sold out.

  Fintwit users who haven’t gone all-in on tungsten mostly find the whole thing hilarious.

  The Onion couldn’t have come up with this: pic.twitter.com/QkDxLUwbkv

  — Conor Sen (@conorsen) October 28, 2021

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

  We can’t argue with that. But like they say, truth is often stranger than fiction.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 15:00

• US, EU Near Last-Minute Deal To Roll Trump-Era Tariffs On Steel And Aluminum
  US, EU Near Last-Minute Deal To Roll Trump-Era Tariffs On Steel And Aluminum

  Nobody ever said ‘Free Trade’ was easy. As it happens, it isn’t particularly “free” either.

  But for months – practically the entire summer – President Biden’s top trade representative Katherine Tai has been engaged in time-consuming negotiations with the EU’s Valdis Dombrovskis about a new system that would prevent a trade dispute with the EU that began during the Trump era from spiraling out of control.

  A few weeks ago, sources told Reuters that the US Trade Rep Katherine Tai felt she could resolve the dispute by the end of October. And according to a Bloomberg report published over the weekend, it looks like a deal to remove the steel and aluminum tariffs is finally within reach.

  

  But with Halloween just one day away, it looks like a good-old-fashioned Democratic can-kick might the only option left, with the new deadline Dec. 1 – which, incidentally, is the day US tariffs on EU goods would double without a deal.

  A deal would allow the US and the EU to remove tariffs on steel and aluminum that would eliminate more than $10 billion in export costs each year. It would also help reverse the protectionist stance that President Trump made a hallmark of his presidency, and which President Biden has often copied.

  For those who were around for the beginning of the Trump Trade Wars, they should remember that the dispute with the Europeans began in 2018, when Trump slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum from Europe, Asia and pretty much everywhere else, using a provision of the American trade law allowing a supposed threat to national security to be invoked as an excuse to jack up tariffs. Specifically, Trump slapped a 25% duty on steel imports and 10% on duty on inward-bound shipments of aluminum from producers, with a handful of exceptions allowed for the NAFTA agreement. Tariffs on European metal and goods continue to escalate under Trump.

  

  Still, Trump justified the tariffs with section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, which deems competition in the international metals market a national-security threat. The statute allows for tariffs to be imposed without approval from Congress if the president claims that the imports represent a national security risk.

  Of course, unwilling to simply sit back and allow Trump to victimize them with his aggressive economic nationalist policies, the EU quickly retaliated, and slammed its own tariffs on products EU leaders felt symbolized quintessentially American industries: For example, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Levi Strauss jeans and Kentucky Bourbon.

  Hope for a more broad-based deal intensified over the summer when Boeing and Airbus, the world’s two biggest rivals in the aerospace industry finally dropped their years-long dispute at the WTO.

  Now, if a deal isn’t reached by the end of the year, even more barriers to trade will rise, which would be particularly problematic at a time when supply chains from Asia, to Africa, to Europe to the Americas are snarled in a way that has no real precedent.

  For months now, Bloomberg and Reuters have reported that the two sides have been using a so-called “rate quotas” as a basis for their negotiations. A quota would, for example, impose a threshold on the amount of certain commodities that both sides can important from one another. However, if that threshold is broken, the tariff rate would revert to that first imposed during the Trump era, when President Trump started picking trade fights with American allies and geopolititical enemies alike.

  But in the post-pandemic era, the US and EU face a greater common threat when it comes to trade: the growing influence of China.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 14:31

• 20 Years Of Work For An Apartment?
  20 Years Of Work For An Apartment?

  If you want to buy an apartment in Hong Kong, Paris or London, you’ll have to come up with a considerable sum.

  Statista’s Martin Armstrong explains that. according to the Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2021 from UBS, a highly skilled employee in the service sector with an average salary can only afford a centrally-located 60m2 apartment in Hong Kong after 20 years – in Paris it is 17, in London about 14 years.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Overall, the situation has tightened in most real estate markets around the world. For some of the cities listed here, the risk of a real estate bubble is very high.

  Singapore is one of the few markets to manage to ease the situation somewhat – while employees still had to work about 16 years for the apartment near the center in 2011, it will be three years less in 2021.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 14:00

• Biden Hits Iran With New Sanctions Ahead Of Nuclear Deal Talks
  Biden Hits Iran With New Sanctions Ahead Of Nuclear Deal Talks

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  A few days after Iran said it was ready to ready to return to negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, the Biden administration has hit Iran with fresh sanctions.

  The Treasury Department said the sanctions targeted two senior members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and two companies the US accuses of exporting drones.

  

  Because the US has already blacklisted the IRGC as a “terrorist” organization, all of its members are already under sanctions, so the new measures will have little impact. But the move is symbolic and sends a signal to Tehran that the US is not serious about giving Iran sanctions relief to revive the JCPOA.

  Iranian officials said Tuesday that Tehran plans to return to JCPOA negotiations in Vienna by the end of the month. A date hasn’t been set, but the EU said Friday that Iran and the other powers involved in the talks are working on setting one.

  According the The Associated Press:

  Iran has yet to commit to a date to return to the nuclear talks in Vienna but has signaled it will do so next week with a target of late November for resuming the negotiations. The U.S. and others have expressed skepticism about Iranian intentions…

  Iran’s decision to return to the talks came after the new government of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reviewed the progress made in the initial rounds of negotiations that lasted from April to June.

  Raisi has good reasons to doubt that the US is serious about reviving the deal since the Biden administration refused to lift all Trump-era sanctions in the earlier talks. This forces Iran to negotiate limited sanctions relief, and the two sides remained far apart on key issues.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/30/2021 – 13:30

Digest powered by RSS Digest