Today’s News 3rd July 2022

• Leaked Documents Reveal Wide Scope Of China's Human Rights Violations In Xinjiang
  Leaked Documents Reveal Wide Scope Of China’s Human Rights Violations In Xinjiang

  Authored by Lawrence Franklin via The Gatestone Institute,

  • One of the leaked documents, which contains “a shoot to kill order” for guards in the camp’s watchtowers, confirms that these camps are indeed prisons. Another leaked report stipulates how detainees are to be transported from one site to an alternate location: ankle shackles, handcuffs and hoods.

  • Previous leaks of official documents, unauthorized films, commercial satellite images and testimony from escaped former inmates have scripted a profile of the hell that the Chinese Communist state has crafted for the Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang. This massive province-size gulag regime includes forced abortions, sterilization and rape of female detainees, separation of husbands and wives, removal of children from the custody of parents, obligatory retraining of workers in skills supportive of CCP economic goals, and daily ideological indoctrination of inmates.

  • Democratic countries should distribute these leaks globally as cautionary warning to all societies that the CCP’s projected panda bear image of China obscures the reality of a quite different animal with an insatiable appetite.

  The massive gulag regime for ethnic Uighurs in Communist China’s Xinjiang Province includes forced abortions, sterilization and rape of female detainees, separation of husbands and wives, removal of children from the custody of parents, obligatory retraining of workers in skills supportive of Party economic goals, and daily ideological indoctrination of inmates.

  

  “The Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center,” a facility where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, north of Kashgar in Xinjiang. (Photo by Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

  Documents and photos of thousands of ethnic Uighurs arrested by Chinese authorities, made public in late May, lend additional indisputable evidence to the Communist regime’s massive human rights violations in Xinjiang. Many of the leaked documents are official Chinese Ministry of Interior dossiers of incarcerated individuals just from Shufu, one among 61 counties in Xinjiang Province. The Shufu County in the Kashgar Prefecture is the site of several large internment camps.

  One of the leaked documents, which contains “a shoot to kill order” for guards in the camp’s watchtowers, confirms that these camps are indeed prisons. Another leaked report stipulates how detainees are to be transported from one site to an alternate location: ankle shackles, handcuffs and hoods.

  The documents also contain policy papers and speeches by high-level officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) concerning the “Uyghur Question.” One speech was delivered on June 18, 2018 by Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo , the principal architect of the Uyghur Re-education Infrastructure. Chen developed his minority-suppression model while regional Party leader in Tibet from 2011 to 2016. Chen was then transferred by China’s President Xi Jinping to apply his skills to Xinjiang, where he was Party leader from August 2016 to December 2021. Chen’s replacement should not be viewed as a demotion for Chen. He remains a full (voting) member of the CCP Politburo and may be promoted even further in the upcoming 20th CCP Congress this autumn.

  In another report, authored a few days before Chen’s address, China’s Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi draws a solid line connecting Xi and the campaign supposedly to eradicate “separatism, terrorism, and religious extremism” among Xinjiang’s Turkic minorities. The imprisonment and “reprogramming” of the daily lives of millions of Xinjiang’s inhabitants is fully in concert with CCP policy. In fact, the replacement of the brutal Chen as Xinjiang’s Party boss by the hi-tech savvy former Guangdong Province Governor of Ma Xingrui probably does not signal a decision by China “to clean-up its act” in Xinjiang because of international pressure. It is more likely a sign of the regime’s confidence that the repressive infrastructure it has visited upon Xinjiang’s Muslim minorities has successfully suppressed any separatist sentiment for an independent state in China’s Far West.

  The CCP’s propaganda machine has attempted to blunt international criticism but not at price of sacrificing its abusive policies in Xinjiang. The Party has produced several propaganda documentaries on Xinjiang, some of which have been aired on the Chinese Global Television Network (CGTN). These videos of life in Xinjiang display a pluralistic society while modernizing, but that still celebrates ethnic minority traditions. Visiting dignitaries are given orchestrated and “sanitized” tours of allegedly authentic daily life in the province. China’s power, wealth and commercial prowess also tend to dampen or even mute criticism of the CCP’s anti-Islamic regulations from the world’s many Muslim nations. Any citizen of Xinjiang sporting a beard, wearing a veil, attending a religious service or downloading verses from the Koran is subject to arrest and confinement in an internment camp.

  Previous leaks of official documents, unauthorized films, commercial satellite images and testimony from escaped former inmates have scripted a profile of the hell that the Chinese Communist state has crafted for the Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang. This massive province-size gulag regime includes forced abortions, sterilization and rape of female detainees, separation of husbands and wives, removal of children from the custody of parents, obligatory retraining of workers in skills supportive of CCP economic goals, and daily ideological indoctrination of inmates. The comprehensive and intense nature of the persecution of non-Han Chinese minorities in Xinjiang amounts to a conscious plan by China’s leaders to erase the culture and values of the native populations of northwest China. Democratic countries should distribute these leaks globally as cautionary warning to all societies that the CCP’s projected panda bear image of China obscures the reality of a quite different animal with an insatiable appetite.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 23:30

• 33 Problems With Media In One Chart
  33 Problems With Media In One Chart

  One of the hallmarks of democratic society is a healthy, free-flowing media ecosystem.

  In times past, that media ecosystem would include various mass media outlets, from newspapers to cable TV networks. Today, the internet and social media platforms have greatly expanded the scope and reach of communication within society.

  Of course, journalism plays a key role within that ecosystem. High quality journalism and the unprecedented transparency of social media keeps power structures in check—and sometimes, these forces can drive genuine societal change. Reporters bring us news from the front lines of conflict, and uncover hard truths through investigative journalism.

  That said, as Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley and Carmen Ang detail below, these positive impacts are sometimes overshadowed by harmful practices and negative externalities occurring in the media ecosystem.

  The graphic above is an attempt to catalog problems within the media ecosystem as a basis for discussion. Many of the problems are easy to understand once they’re identified. However, in some cases, there is an interplay between these issues that is worth digging into. Below are a few of those instances.

  

  Explicit Bias vs. Implicit Bias

  Broadly speaking, bias in media breaks down into two types: explicit and implicit.

  Publishers with explicit biases will overtly dictate the types of stories that are covered in their publications and control the framing of those stories. They usually have a political or ideological leaning, and these outlets will use narrative fallacies or false balance in an effort to push their own agenda.

  Unintentional filtering or skewing of information is referred to as implicit bias, and this can manifest in a few different ways. For example, a publication may turn a blind eye to a topic or issue because it would paint an advertiser in a bad light. These are called no fly zones, and given the financial struggles of the news industry, these no fly zones are becoming increasingly treacherous territory.

  Misinformation vs. Disinformation

  Both of these terms imply that information being shared is not factually sound. The key difference is that misinformation is unintentional, and disinformation is deliberately created to deceive people.

  Fake news stories, and concepts like deepfakes, fall into the latter category. We broke down the entire spectrum of fake news and how to spot it, in a previous infographic.

  Simplify, Simplify

  Mass media and social feeds are the ultimate Darwinistic scenario for ideas.

  Through social media, stories are shared widely by many participants, and the most compelling framing usually wins out. More often than not, it’s the pithy, provocative posts that spread the furthest. This process strips context away from an idea, potentially warping its meaning.

  Video clips shared on social platforms are a prime example of context stripping in action. An (often shocking) event occurs, and it generates a massive amount of discussion despite the complete lack of context.

  This unintentionally encourages viewers to stereotype the persons in the video and bring our own preconceived ideas to the table to help fill in the gaps.

  Members of the media are also looking for punchy story angles to capture attention and prove the point they’re making in an article. This can lead to cherrypicking facts and ideas. Cherrypicking is especially problematic because the facts are often correct, so they make sense at face value, however, they lack important context.

  Simplified models of the world make for compelling narratives, like good-vs-evil, but situations are often far more complex than what meets the eye.

  The News Media Squeeze

  It’s no secret that journalism is facing lean times. Newsrooms are operating with much smaller teams and budgets, and one result is ‘churnalism’. This term refers to the practice of publishing articles directly from wire services and public relations releases.

  Churnalism not only replaces more rigorous forms of reporting—but also acts as an avenue for advertising and propaganda that is harder to distinguish from the news.

  The increased sense of urgency to drive revenue is causing other problems as well. High-quality content is increasingly being hidden behind paywalls.

  The end result is a two-tiered system, with subscribers receiving thoughtful, high-quality news, and everyone else accessing shallow or sensationalized content. That everyone else isn’t just people with lower incomes, it also largely includes younger people. The average age of today’s paid news subscriber is 50 years old, raising questions about the future of the subscription business model.

  For outlets that rely on advertising, desperate times have called for desperate measures. User experience has taken a backseat to ad impressions, with ad clutter (e.g. auto-play videos, pop-ups, and prompts) interrupting content at every turn. Meanwhile, in the background, third-party trackers are still watching your every digital move, despite all the privacy opt-in prompts.

  How Can We Fix the Problems with Media?

  With great influence comes great responsibility. There is no easy fix to the issues that plague news and social media. But the first step is identifying these issues, and talking about them.

  The more media literate we collectively become, the better equipped we will be to reform these broken systems, and push for accuracy and transparency in the communication channels that bind society together.

  *  *  *

  Visual Capitalist is raising funds to build The VC App – the first of its kind, combining verifiable and transparent data with beautiful, memorable images. Back them now.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 23:00

• DeSantis Probe Of Human Traffickers Cleared By Florida Supreme Court
  DeSantis Probe Of Human Traffickers Cleared By Florida Supreme Court

  Authored by Gary Bai via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday gave permission to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to order a statewide probe into alleged human trafficking activities aided by transnational crime organizations (TCOs).

  

  The court approved DeSantis’s request to impanel a statewide grand jury for an initial duration of 12 calendar months to investigate TCOs and their affiliates who allegedly smuggle people—especially children—across the southern border, according to court records reviewed by The Epoch Times.

  The statewide grand jury would independently investigate the criminal activities alleged in the petition, including human smuggling, kidnapping, and laundering of illegal substances, and make recommendations on current laws and law enforcement methods if deemed necessary, according to the petition.

  Judge Ellen S. Masters, Chief Judge for the Tenth Judicial Circuit, will preside over the grand jury.

  “The purpose of the grand jury will be to investigate individuals and organizations that are actively working with foreign nationals, drug cartels, coyotes, to illegally smuggle minors—some as young as 2 years old—across the border and into Florida,” DeSantis said during a press briefing on June 17.

  “Many children who are smuggled are ‘assaulted, raped, kidnaped, and/or killed,’” the petition reads. “They are used to traffic drugs and weapons, as well as launder money.”

  The petition continued by citing government data that Border Patrol agents have apprehended over 108,000 unaccompanied children who had illegally crossed the border in fiscal year 2021.

  Almost all unaccompanied minors are being smuggled up from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

  Once apprehended, unaccompanied children are processed by Border Patrol and transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), usually within 72 hours. HHS then places the child with a sponsor, who often is a family member of the child, according to the petition.

  According to a June 17 press release on the governor’s website, the grand jury would also “investigate local governments that are aiding this smuggling scheme by intentionally violating state law, which requires them to cooperate with the federal government on immigration matters.”

  The petition names Miami-Dade County as one of the government bodies under investigation.

  “According to reports from federal law enforcement, however, Miami–Dade County is refusing to honor federal requests to take custody of criminal aliens in Miami–Dade’s detention facilities, including aliens arrested for attempted murder, domestic violence by strangulation, assault with a deadly weapon, and lewd and lascivious behavior on a minor,” the petition states.

  “Miami-Dade appears to be basing this unlawful conduct on fraudulent use of the victim and witness exception.”

  DeSantis’s petition comes as a part of what his office announced as a three-part measure to “protect Floridians from the dangerous impacts of the Biden Border crisis.”

  The two other parts include assembling a “strike force of state and local law enforcement” personnel to tackle illegal border activities and signing into law a bill (SB 1808) that will prohibit “government agencies from contracting with any common carrier facilitating the resettlement of illegal aliens into Florida.”

  Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 22:30

• Singapore Brewery Launches New Beer Made From Recycled Sewage Water
  Singapore Brewery Launches New Beer Made From Recycled Sewage Water

  How tough are things getting globally? Well, a new “admired” beer that’s breaking through in Singapore is being made from “recycled sewage”. 

  What part in the global macroeconomic cycle is this again?

  The beer, called “NEWBrew”, is a “collaboration between the country’s national water agency, PUB, and local craft brewery Brewerkz,” according to a Bloomberg report this week. The idea was first discussed in 2018 and it finally went on sale this past April. 

  58 year old Chew Wei Lian, who recently tried the beer, told Bloomberg: “I seriously couldn’t tell this was made of toilet water. I don’t mind having it if it was in the fridge. I mean, it tastes just like beer, and I like beer.”

  How’s that for a ringing endorsement? At least it’s not Busch Light.

  

  The beer uses Singapore’s “NEWater”, which is the country’s drinking water that has been recycled from sewage. The water was first used in 2003 as a project to “improve the island’s water security,” the report says. 

  It also says that the idea of processing sewage into drinking water “has been gaining support in the past decade as the world’s supply of fresh water is increasingly under stress”. 2.7 billion worldwide find water scarce for at least one month a year. 

  Singapore is hardly the first to try such endeavors. Countries like Israel have also incorporated the technology being used into their supplies. L.A. and London are also looking at similar methods to implement the technology. 

  Mitch Gribov, Brewerkz’s head brewer, said about the water: “NEWater perfectly suits brewing because it tastes neutral. The mineral profile of water plays a key role in chemical reactions during brewing.”

  But not everyone is “sold” on the idea. 22 year old student Low Yu Chen concluded: “There are many kinds of beers around. If I wanted a beer, I’d pick something made of normal water.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 22:00

• Mike Pompeo's Revealing Hudson Institute Speech
  Mike Pompeo’s Revealing Hudson Institute Speech

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via CaitlinJohnstone.com,

  Former CIA director and secretary of state Mike Pompeo gave a speech at the Hudson Institute last week that’s probably worth taking a look at just because of how much it reveals about the nature of the US empire and the corrupt institutions which influence its policies.

  

  Pompeo is serving as a “Distinguished Fellow” at the Hudson Institute while he waits for the revolving door of the DC swamp to rotate him back into a federal government position. The Hudson Institute is a neoconservative think tank which has a high degree of overlap with the infamous Project for the New American Century and its lineup of Iraq war architects, and spends a lot of its time manufacturing Beltway support for hawkish agendas against Iran. It was founded in 1961 with the help of a cold warrior named Herman Kahn, whose enthusiastic support for the idea that the US can win a nuclear war with the Soviet Union was reportedly an inspiration for the movie Dr Strangelove.

  A think tank is an institution where academics are paid by the worst people in the world to come up with explanations for why it would be good and smart to do something evil and stupid, which are then pitched at key points of influence in the media and the government. “Think tank” is a good and accurate label for these institutions, because they are dedicated to controlling what people think, and because they are artificial enclosures for slimy creatures.

  Pompeo’s speech is one long rimjob for the military-industrial complex which indirectly employs him. He repeatedly sings the praises of the weapons that are being poured into Ukraine, two of them by name: the Patriot missile built by Raytheon and the Javelin missile built jointly by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, both of whom happen to be major funders of the Hudson Institute. He repeatedly decries the “disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan,” and excoriates the Biden administration for failing to control the world’s fossil fuel resources aggressively enough in its efforts to “prostrate itself to radicals.”

  Pompeo, easily ranked among the most fanatical imperialists on the entire planet, hilariously says that “China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a form of imperialism.” He decries a “genocide” in Xinjiang and repeatedly implies that China deliberately unleashed Covid-19 upon the world, calling it “the global pandemic induced by China.” He repeatedly claims that Vladimir Putin is trying to reconstitute the Soviet Union.

  Along with praise for NATO and for the various anti-China alliances in the Indo-Pacific, Pompeo names “Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan” as “the three lighthouses for liberty” which those alliances must work to support militarily. You will notice that those three “lighthouses” just so happen to be the hottest points of geostrategic conflict with the top three opponents of the US empire: Russia, Iran, and China.

  But there are a couple of things Pompeo says which have some real meat on them.

  “By aiding Ukraine, we undermined the creation of a Russian-Chinese axis bent on exerting military and economic hegemony in Europe, in Asia and in the Middle East,” Pompeo says.

  “We must prevent the formation of a Pan-Eurasian colossus incorporating Russia, but led by China,” he later adds. “To do that, we have to strengthen NATO, and we see that nothing hinders Finland and Sweden’s entry into that organization.”

  To stop a “Pan-Eurasian colossus” from forming, @mikepompeo stresses the importance of #Finland and #Sweden joining @NATO as well as #Russia‘s resulting increase in military capability if they are denied entry. pic.twitter.com/er0BKvcjEK

  — Hudson Institute (@HudsonInstitute) June 29, 2022

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  That’s all the major international news stories of today are ultimately about, right there. Underlying all the smaller news stories about conflicts with nations like Russia, China and Iran, there’s one continuous story about the US power alliance trying to secure planetary domination by relentlessly working to subvert any nation which refuses to align with it, and about the nations who oppose that campaign working against it with steadily increasing intimacy.

  This is all the Russia hysteria from 2016 onward has been about. This is all the phony, hypocritical hand-wringing about Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong have been about. This is all the staged histrionics about human rights in Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba have been about. It’s all been about manufacturing international consent for an increasingly dangerous campaign to secure unipolar global hegemony at any cost.

  It’s worth calling this to mind, as NATO for the first time designates China a threat due to its alignment with Russia and as NATO’s secretary-general admits that NATO has been preparing for a conflict with Russia since 2014. It is worth calling to mind the fact that the US has had a policy in place since the fall of the Soviet Union to prevent the rise of any rival superpower to deny any serious challenge to its planetary domination. It is worth calling to mind that in 1997 the precursor to the US Space Force committed to working toward “full spectrum dominance,” meaning military control over land, sea, air, and space.

  US unipolar hegemony.

  They are right that China challenges NATO interests: the NATO cartel’s existential goal of enforcing a US global dictatorship, one that imposes neoliberalism on the planet, destroying any country that proposes a state-led, people-centered economic model https://t.co/y5HCWAGkiL

  — Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 30, 2022

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  People like to talk about secret conspiracies by shadowy cabals to establish a one-world government, but what is by far the most tangible and imminent global domination agenda has been orchestrated right out in the open. The US government has long sought to unite the world under a single power structure, no matter how much violence and devastation it needs to inflict upon humanity and no matter how much world-threatening nuclear brinkmanship it needs to engage in to do so.

  This is the US empire which corrupt psychopaths like Mike Pompeo support. A power structure which wages nonstop wars in order to keep the peace, which continually oppresses populations around the world in order to protect freedom, and which risks nuclear war with increasingly reckless aggression to in order save the world.

  *  *  *

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 21:30

• Visualizing A Decade Of Population Growth And Decline In US Counties
  Visualizing A Decade Of Population Growth And Decline In US Counties

  There are a number of factors that determine how much a region’s population changes.

  If an area sees a high number of migrants, along with a strong birth rate and low death rate, then its population is bound to increase over time. On the flip side, as Visual Capitalists Nick Routley details below, if more people are leaving the area than coming in, and the region’s birth rate is low, then its population will likely decline.

  Which areas in the United States are seeing the most growth, and which places are seeing their populations dwindle?

  This map, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, shows a decade of population movement across U.S. counties, painting a detailed picture of U.S. population growth between 2010 and 2020.

  

  Counties With The Biggest Population Growth from 2010-2020

  To calculate population estimates for each county, the U.S. Census Bureau does the following calculations:

        A county’s base population → plus births → minus deaths → plus migration = new population estimate

  From 2010 to 2020, Maricopa County in Arizona saw the highest increase in its population estimate. Over a decade, the county gained 753,898 residents. Below are the counties that saw the biggest increases in population:

  

  Phoenix and surrounding areas grew faster than any other major city in the country. The region’s sunny climate and amenities are popular with retirees, but another draw is housing affordability. Families from more expensive markets—California in particular—are moving to the city in droves. This is a trend that spilled over into the pandemic era as more people moved into remote and hybrid work situations.

  Texas counties saw a lot of growth as well, with five of the top 10 gainers located in the state of Texas. A big draw for Texas is its relatively affordable housing market. In 2021, average home prices in the state stood at $172,500—$53,310 below the national average.

  Counties With The Biggest Population Drops from 2010-2020

  On the opposite end of the spectrum, here’s a look at the top 10 counties that saw the biggest declines in their populations over the decade:

  

  The largest drops happened in counties along the Great Lakes, including Cook County (which includes the city of Chicago) and Wayne County (which includes the city of Detroit).

  For many of these counties, particularly those in America’s “Rust Belt”, population drops over this period were a continuation of decades-long trends. Wayne County is an extreme example of this trend. From 1970 to 2020, the area lost one-third of its population.

  U.S. Population Growth in Percentage Terms (2010-2020)

  While the map above is great at showing where the greatest number of Americans migrated, it downplays big changes in counties with smaller populations.

  For example, McKenzie County in North Dakota, with a 2020 population of just 15,242, was the fastest-growing U.S. county over the past decade. The county’s 138% increase was driven primarily by the Bakken oil boom in the area. High-growth counties in Texas also grew as new sources of energy were extracted in rural areas.

  The nation’s counties are evenly divided between population increase and decline, and clear patterns emerge.

  

  Pandemic Population Changes

  More recent population changes reflect longer-term trends. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the counties that saw the strongest population increases were located in high-growth states like Florida and Texas.

  Below are the 20 counties that grew the most from 2020 to 2021.

  

  Many of these counties are located next to large cities, reflecting a shift to the suburbs and larger living spaces. However, as COVID-19 restrictions ease, and the pandemic housing boom tapers off due to rising interest rates, it remains to be seen whether the suburban shift will continue, or if people begin to migrate back to city centers.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 21:00

• Rep. Stefanik Introduces Bill To Prevent Adversaries' Control Over US Agriculture Industry
  Rep. Stefanik Introduces Bill To Prevent Adversaries’ Control Over US Agriculture Industry

  Authored by Mary Hong via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is introducing a bill to address domestic food security issues and the global food supply chain by preventing foreign adversaries from acquiring U.S. agricultural companies.

  

  Stefanik’s bill, titled Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) Act, would bar anyone acting on behalf of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from taking ownership of a U.S. agricultural company.

  “Food security is national security, and I am proud to stand up against our foreign adversaries as they attempt to exploit any potential vulnerability and assert control over our agriculture industry,” Stefanik said in a press release on July 1.

  “The United States cannot allow malign ownership bids of American assets by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea to undermine the efforts of our farmers, whose hard work feeds and fuels our communities,” she said. “Especially as we witness the devastating impact of a supply chain crisis, the United States cannot cede any ownership of our food supply to those who do not share our security interests.”

  Critical Threat to National Security

  The proposed legislation included a provision that would make the Secretary of Agriculture a member of the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment. It would also require the secretary to submit a report every 180 days reviewing the risks that foreign purchases of agricultural companies may pose to the U.S. agricultural sector.

  “Adversarial nations, like China, continue to threaten our homeland, using tactics like buying American agriculture companies and stealing agriculture research to undermine our economy,” Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), who co-introduced the bill, said in a statement.

  “Washington must realize that agriculture security in national security, and we have a duty to protect our food supply and those who produce it.”

  Experts have previously told The Epoch Times that Beijing could use U.S. farmland investments to stage espionage campaigns against the United States.

  China’s Fufeng Group’s purchase of 370 acres of land in Grand Forks, North Dakota as the location for a massive new corn-milling plant was the largest single private capital investment in the region’s history.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 20:30

• Mystery Surrounds Intensifying 'Earthquake Swarm' Shaking South Carolina
  Mystery Surrounds Intensifying ‘Earthquake Swarm’ Shaking South Carolina

  A swarm of earthquakes rattled South Carolina and appeared to be getting more powerful. About 30 quakes have hit the state this year, and geologists are stumped about what’s causing “earthquake swarms” similar to those felt in Southern California. 

  Two earthquakes hit Elgin, South Carolina, on Wednesday. The first was a magnitude 3.5, and the second 3.6, according to data from the United States Geological Survey. A 3.4 magnitude earthquake hit the state days before, while a stronger 3.9 rattled parts of the Georgia-South Carolina border on June 18. 

  

  Wednesday’s earthquakes were the strongest since a magnitude of 4.1 struck the state in 2014. 

  South Carolina’s Emergency Management Division shared a video of Wendy Bohon, an earthquake geologist at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology in Washington D.C., who said about 30 quakes struck in the year’s first half. She said the swarm of quakes is different than others because “there is no mainshock, or a larger earthquake that happens first then there are lots of smaller earthquakes that happen afterward … in this case, the swam of quakes are happening a few every week without a large shock.” 

  Thank you, Dr. Wendy Bohon.

  Indeed, shift happens. https://t.co/pBHHALK9XP

  — SCEMD (@SCEMD) June 29, 2022

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  The emergency agency also tweeted the state does have several fault systems and is “one of the most seismically active states on the East Coast.” However, some geologists are puzzled at why so many swarms are happening. 

  “Most earthquakes occur where the earth’s plates come together, and they’re the result of the tension and the stress that builds up as those plates are grinding and moving, slamming into each other. That’s not happening to us here on the East Coast.

  “But there are ancient fault lines here from in the past when continents had slammed together … and they are still building up stress and strain but on a much, much slower time scale,” Bohon told the Weather Channel. 

  “If you can figure that out, you should go get your tux and pick up your Nobel Prize,” Thomas Pratt, regional coordinator of the Geological Survey’s earthquake hazard program, told The State newspaper. “The Eastern United States, in general, is not on a plate boundary, so it’s a mystery in the scientific community why in this exact location, in the middle of a plate, something would trigger this.”

  Could the rumblings under ground suggest the next big quake is nearing? The last powerful quake to shake the state was a magnitude 7.3 in 1886.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 20:00

• California Gives Free Healthcare To Illegal Immigrants
  California Gives Free Healthcare To Illegal Immigrants

  Authored by Jamie Joseph via The Epoch Times,

  California is now the only state in the U.S. to offer free healthcare to all low-income illegal immigrants after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $307.9 billion budget June 30.

  

  The allocation will give an estimated 764,000 people free healthcare coverage for $2.7 billion annually beginning 2024 under the budget provision’s expanding of the state’s Medi-Cal coverage.

  “This is what being ‘pro-life’ ACTUALLY looks like,” Newsom wrote on Twitter Thursday.

  Across the country, federal and state governments currently provide free healthcare to low-income residents through Medicaid, but it excludes illegal immigrants. Newsom’s provision will make California the only state to offer free healthcare regardless of citizenship status.

  An estimated 92 percent of Californians have some form of healthcare, but that will change once the budget is in full swing and illegal immigrants—who make up the largest group of people in the state without healthcare—receive it under the expansion.

  Various reports give different estimations of how many illegal immigrants live in the state, but according to Pew Research Center, there were roughly 2.2 million recorded in 2016. Despite not having legal status, these immigrants make up about 7 percent of the state’s workforce according to a 2020 report by the healthcare nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

  Hailed by immigrant advocates and proponents of universal healthcare, some critics worry that free healthcare will further incentivize illegal crossings at the Southern border at a time when deaths among those crossing are increasing.

  Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, told the Associated Press the expansion of Medi-Cal is “a magnet for those who are not legally authorized to enter the country.”

  “I think many of us are very sympathetic to the immigrant community, but we really wish we had better control of who enters this nation and this state,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 19:30

• Some Cities Cancel July 4 Fireworks Because Of Shortages And Fire Concerns 
  Some Cities Cancel July 4 Fireworks Because Of Shortages And Fire Concerns 

  The skies over some American cities and small towns will remain dark this Fourth of July as fireworks displays are canceled due to supply chain snarls, staffing shortages, and/or wildfire concerns amid exceptionally dry weather. 

  NYTimes said Phoenix, Arizona, canceled Independence Day celebrations because the city’s vendor couldn’t source professional-grade fireworks due to “supply-chain-related” issues. 

  Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association (APA), said high demand for fireworks and supply chain woes blended with labor shortages are creating a “perfect storm” of cancellations across the country. 

  Ottawa, Kansas, rescheduled its Independence Day fireworks show because of a shortage of mortars and labor. The small town of 12,600 people will host a fireworks show in September. 

  In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the town “blamed” construction at a park where July 4th fireworks are held and a labor shortage for the cancellation. 

  Minneapolis canceled its Fourth of July fireworks for the third straight year, but this time COVID isn’t to blame. One man who’s lived in Minneapolis his whole life calls it a gut punch to his community.https://t.co/sgdi0hXVzZ

  — Fox & Friends First (@FoxFriendsFirst) June 22, 2022

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  Fireworks in Fairfax, Virginia, will be a day late because the first fireworks company didn’t have enough pyrotechnicians. A second company was called in to conduct the show on July 5. 

  College Park, Maryland, canceled their Independence Day firework shows, while Ocean City, Maryland, rescheduled theirs due to both labor shortages and supply chain issues.

  Other cities around the country are halting shows because of the threat of wildfire. Flagstaff in northern Arizona will replace fireworks with a new laser light show. Due to environmental risks, drones will replace fireworks in North Lake Tahoe, California. 

  A popular fireworks show in northern San Joaquin Valley, California, was canceled because of drought concerns. 

  Lompoc in Santa Barbara County, California, and a town in Douglas County, Colorado, both canceled fireworks over fears of sparking wildfires.

  The Southgate Mall in Missoula, Montana, canceled theirs but did not explain why.

  Some North Carolina towns canceled Independence Day firework shows after a man was killed in a recent fireworks-related accident. 

  Those who plan to purchase consumer-grade fireworks, such as mortars, bottle rockets, firecrackers, and Roman Candles, will pay a hefty premium this year as the industry has been inundated with soaring costs, according to APA. 

  The shortage of fireworks is so severe that some vendors are ordering 18 months out. About 90% of the world’s fireworks come from China.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 19:00

• Does Sam Bankman-Fried Own Everything Now: Recap Of Last Week's Top Crypto News
  Does Sam Bankman-Fried Own Everything Now: Recap Of Last Week’s Top Crypto News

  By Donavan Choy of Bankless

  Three Arrows Capital Contagion, Act III

  The dominoes continue to fall from 3AC’s collapse. 

  The fund was ordered into liquidation by a British Virgin Island court after failure to repay debts.

  Singapore’s central bank MAS — where 3AC was previously headquartered — then stated that the fund willfully submitted false information on its balance sheets, and exceeded its allowed assets under management for several months.

  The collateral damage from 3AC’s implosion has spilled over into other crypto companies, namely Voyager Digital and BlockFi.

  Last week, Voyager halted withdrawals on its platform. This week saw Voyager issuing 3AC a default notice after the latter failed to make payments on a $670M loan.

  Meanwhile, SBF’s Alameda Ventures stepped in with a $500M loan package to save Voyager, of which $75M has already been accessed. VOYG shares have taken a hit of ~60% in the past two weeks after news of its exposure to 3AC broke.

  BlockFi’s troubles include an overcollaterized loan of $1B to 3AC, which was liquidated early on in the domino charge. In a public message released today, BlockFi reported a loss of ~$80M in the past month’s events, as well as a credit line of $400M from FTX (also an SBF joint) which to-date has not yet been drawn on.

  Both FTX and Morgan Creek Digital are competing to acquire BlockFi, as BlockFi continues to pursue a public offering.

  Current state of crypto contagion. pic.twitter.com/MDTpfweQNz

  — Ape Digest (@ApeDigest) June 25, 2022

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  How 3AC ended up in this mess is beyond the scope of this newsletter, but it’s a heady brew of bad investment decisions and poor risk management involving overleveraged loans from other institutions and DeFi protocol treasuries.

  With FTX and Alameda scooping up the rubble from the fallout across the contagion, this looks like an effective power play by Sam Bankman-Fried, see:

  • Crypto Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried Inks BlockFi Deal, Eyes Distressed Miners Next
  • Sam Bankman-Fried Says He’d Consider Acquiring Troubled Crypto Miners Next
  • Sam Bankman-Fried Out to Win Whole Crypto Market, Early FTX-Backer says
  • Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried says more exchanges will fail as the industry faces a brutal downturn

  

  Sam Centralbankman-Fried may well be the first trillionaire after all these distressed liquidations

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 1, 2022

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  * * *

  Grayscale sues the SEC

  Grayscale Investments’ application to convert its GBTC asset into a spot-based Bitcoin ETF saw rejection by the SEC this week.

  Now Grayscale is taking the SEC to court.

  We’ve filed a lawsuit against the SEC. $GBTC

  — Sonnenshein (@Sonnenshein) June 30, 2022

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  The official press release charges that:

  “… the SEC is failing to apply consistent treatment to similar investment vehicles, and is therefore acting arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and Securities Exchange Act of 1934”.

  As it stands, the Grayscale GBTC financial product is a trust that enables investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without buying it directly (with an initial lockup period of six months).

  Why buy GBTC at all when you can buy BTC directly? Because it’s a legal way for mainstream investors to gain exposure to crypto.

  But it’s also terribly market-inefficient. In theory, GBTC is meant to mirror Bitcoin in value. In reality it trades at a premium or discount depending on market sentiment. This opens an arbitrage opportunity that transforms GBTC from a “Buy this if you like Bitcoin” financial product into a hybrid speculative futures-based product.

  That lured institutions like 3AC into scooping huge stakes in GBTC when numbers were going up, and we’ve seen how that ended up.

  Of course, modern finance has an easy fix to this like: an ETF which trades at a 1:1 parity with the underlying asset.

  But access to crypto ETFs are still blocked up as the SEC continues to drag its feet on regulatory approvals. But that’s not stopping institutions from pursuing the license, as VanEck files another application this week.

  * * *

  DeFi DAO governance dynamism

  Two big DAO governance items dominated this week. The first was a contentious Maker DAO proposal to centralize the protocol’s governance in a “core unit.” It failed to pass. The proposal saw an unprecedented ~30% of MKR tokens participating.

  The most controversial governance vote of @MakerDAO…perhaps of all DAOs just finished.

  ~30% of the token supply participated. Voting has been neck and neck until the last 2 hours when a series of redelegations brought the final tally to NOs 176k, YESs 112K, and Abstains 4k.

  — GFX Labs (@labsGFX) June 27, 2022

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  The second big governance proposal is a Lido initiative to self-limit the amount of ETH deposits into the liquid staking protocol. The context of this proposal lies in the potential risks that a concentration of ETH in Lido might pose to the underlying Ethereum protocol.

  It’s hardly a surprise that the proposal was overwhelmingly shot down by LDO holders – that’s a little bit like asking an investor if you’d like to see a company you own a part of to stop growing.

  * * *

  Web3 News Roundup

  Arbitrum Odyssey paused, Optimism numbers go up

  The Arbitrum Odyssey campaign was paused this week due to blockchain congestion from the overwhelming success of Odyssey.

  📳🧑‍🚀 𝘈𝘙𝘉𝘐𝘕𝘈𝘜𝘛𝘚, 𝘍𝘈𝘓𝘓 𝘐𝘕 !

  The first week or so of the Arbitrum Odyssey has been very exciting to say the least!

  But we’ve decided to pause the Arbitrum Odyssey as of now, to be resumed after Nitro is released. ⏸️

  More info below. 👇

  — Arbitrum (@arbitrum) June 29, 2022

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  Meanwhile, Arbitrum’s closest L2 competitor Optimism is also booming, with a big uptick in DEX trading volume.

  Horizon bridge gets hacked

  The Horizon bridge by L1 blockchain Harmony endured a $100M exploit this week, allegedly by the North-Korean hackers Lazarus Group. Those are the same guys that hit the Axie Infinity Ronin bridge in March.

  1/ The Harmony team has identified a theft occurring this morning on the Horizon bridge amounting to approx. $100MM. We have begun working with national authorities and forensic specialists to identify the culprit and retrieve the stolen funds.

  More 🧵

  — Harmony 💙 (@harmonyprotocol) June 23, 2022

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  Microstrategy goes Bitcoin shopping

  Microstrategy is a small software company, but it has come a long way from doing small software things. CEO Michael Saylor shut down market rumors of any potential insolvency in perhaps the most demonstrative way possible: a $10M purchase of another 480 Bitcoins.

  MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 480 bitcoins for ~$10.0 million at an average price of ~$20,817 per #bitcoin. As of 6/28/22 @MicroStrategy holds ~129,699 bitcoins acquired for ~$3.98 billion at an average price of ~$30,664 per bitcoin. $MSTRhttps://t.co/leQYTXn817

  — Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) June 29, 2022

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  El Salvador too checks out another purchase of 80 Bitcoin.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 18:30

• 86% Of Recent Student Loan Borrowers Banked On Biden Bailout
  86% Of Recent Student Loan Borrowers Banked On Biden Bailout

  Nearly 9 out of 10 recent student debt borrowers say Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to cancel at least $10,000 of college debt affected their decision-making. And a big majority think he’ll do more than that. 

  The survey results come as Biden is reportedly considering $10,000 cancellations for federal college borrowers earning under $150,000 a year.

  At the same time, Biden faces a decision over whether to allow student debt repayments to resume after several pandemic-era pauses, but at a time when surging inflation gives postponement advocates more ammo. 

  Absent signing off on his fifth extension, borrowers would resume payments after August 31—as midterms approach and Democrats stare down the barrel of a major nationwide setback.  

  It remains to be seen whether Biden will use debt cancellation as a spoonful of sugar to help the payment-resumption medicine go down, or if he’ll pair cancellation with yet another payback postponement as a self-serving election gimmick.

  The college-focused website intelligent.com surveyed 1,000 people who’d taken on student debt since the 2020 election. A whopping 86% claim Biden’s campaign promise affected their decision to take on debt. 

  

  Of those who are still enrolled, 30% say they’re either unlikely or very unlikely to continue going to college unless Biden takes a chunk of debt off their backs and redistributes it across everyone else’s. 

  

  For this crowd of debtors, Biden’s $10,000 pledge doesn’t seem relevant, as a whopping 71% are either confident or very confident that Biden will forgive most or all of student debt. Cancelling it all would represent a nearly $1.7 trillion giveaway. 

  

  If Biden doesn’t forgive any debt, 31% of the Democratic survey participants say they’re either unlikely or highly unlikely to vote for him in 2024. 

  

  It reminds us of a sentiment that that’s been expressed in many ways and dubiously attributed to various historical figures. Its accuracy, however, is unquestionable:  “When the people find they can vote themselves largesse from the treasury, it will herald the end of the republic.”

   

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 18:00

• How Public Pensions Turn Cities Into Unlivable Hellholes
  How Public Pensions Turn Cities Into Unlivable Hellholes

  Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,

  “It’s like going to the ATM in Vegas and then going to the roulette wheel and it comes up red and you go back to the ATM.”

  The remark was recently made by Steve Mermell.  The man retired last year as city manager of Pasadena, California.  He knows a thing or two about how borrowing to enhance pension fund returns can result in spectacular losses.

  The Wall Street Journal article did not clarify whether red was a winning turn of the roulette wheel or not.  Within the article’s context it didn’t really matter.

  The main point was that public pension funds are grossly underfunded.  Consequently, more and more pension funds are borrowing money to play the markets.  The goal is to boost returns to cover their massive funding gaps.

  If you recall, public-sector retirement plans offer defined benefits, where retiree pension checks are calculated based on salaries and years of service.  Private employers, on the other hand, generally offer defined-contribution plans (like 401Ks), where payouts are based on market returns.

  If you live long enough, and are a recipient of a public pension fund you will get out far more than you put in.  If you work in the private sector, there’s a good chance you will outlive your retirement savings.

  Certainly, pension funds can attempt to fill their funding gaps by requesting increases in yearly contributions from governments and workers.  But the public-employee unions go full ape when such measures are proposed.  So the remaining option is to take on greater risk.  What could go wrong?

  The late Robert Citron could tell you.  As he discovered the hard way, even the most calculated bets will eventually go against you.

  Something Special

  Nearly 20-years ago, while providing consulting services to a county sanitation district, we crossed paths with a grumpy fellow who had only a secondary interest in providing industrious work.  His primary interest was deliberating on his upcoming retirement; he could bend your ear off.

  Between sips of coffee and bites of a glazed donut one Friday morning, he told us of an important milestone that would be reached within six months.  This would be achieved by the coalescing of two critical marks: (1) his 55th birthday, and (2) exactly 36 years of doing time at the district.

  As he explained it, after 55 years of age the retirement formula went from 2 to 2.5.  So after collecting a paycheck every two weeks for the past 36 years, something special was about to happen.

  He could take a factor of 2.5 and times it by 36 to equal 90.  Specifically, he would now receive 90 percent of his final year’s pay for the rest of his life.  He set his retirement date accordingly.

  Mr. Grumpy was an entitled member of the roughly $469 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS).  The nation’s largest public pension fund.  It’s so large it takes 2,843 full time equivalent positions to administer it.

  At last count, there were over 2 million members in the CalPERS retirement system.  Some of these people may have done good work prior to retirement.  Others were likely career loafers.  All, without question, did their time with purpose and intent and eyes squarely on the prize.

  Are they feeling lucky?

  Starting this month, CalPERS will add leverage for the first time in its 90-year history.  Perhaps it will all work out just fine.  Regardless, the fund’s managers have their work cut out for them.

  Legacy Costs

  Officially, CalPERS has roughly two-thirds of the money it needs to pay benefits that state and local governments have promised their workers.  But this is based on an assumption of future investment returns averaging 7 percent a year.  Historically, CalPERS’ returns have fallen well short of this assumption.

  Over the last 20 years, the average annual return has been 5.5 percent.  Hence, the unofficial gap between what CalPERS has and the promises it owes is much larger than advertised.

  For instance, if CalPERS investment returns assumption was lowered to its historical average, unfunded liability would rise from $160 billion to over $200 billion.  For this reason, the mega pension fund will now attempt to lever its returns.

  In the case of Pasadena and Steve Mermell’s experience, funding the local pension plan it once offered to its police and firefighters has been a decades long struggle.  In 1999, in an effort to keep pace with its inflation-adjusted benefits, Pasadena borrowed $102 million through municipal bonds.  The borrowed money went towards its pension obligations.

  The idea was simple enough.  The pension fund could immediately begin earning on a larger amount of money, while the bonds would be paid back gradually.

  But then the stock market crashed during the dot com bust in 2001-03.  Yet the city still had to make bond payments at interest rates north of 6 percent.

  Pasadena then went back to the ATM in 2004 with another pension-obligation bond.  Several years later, in 2007-09, the stock market crashed again.  Still, the city’s pension legacy costs remain.  As noted by the Wall Street Journal:

  “The local police and fire pension plan has been closed for nearly 50 years.  Pension recipients have dwindled to fewer than 180.  But the city still owes about $135 million in bond debt on the plan.  Payments on it are expected to be about $6 million in 2022.”

  What a complete cluster.

  Following Pasadena’s closure of its local pension plan, public pensions are managed by CalPERS.  To add insult, the city’s annual contributions to CalPERS have doubled since 2015, to about $70 million last year.  That’s more than the city spends on transportation.

  What to make of it…

  How Public Pensions Turn Cities into Unlivable Hellholes

  Without question, gambling with public money is a foolish thing to do.  Nonetheless, many pension funds – like CalPERS – are now using leverage to juice returns.

  According to a Municipal Market Analytics analysis of Bloomberg data, more than 100 city, county, state, and other governments borrowed for their pension funds last year.  This is twice the highest number that did so in any prior year.

  Standing behind these pension funds are state and local taxpayers – that’s you, acting as the ATM.  Moreover, when the investment returns of public pension funds fall short, governments are primarily responsible for filling the void.  This means cutting other spending and services or increasing taxes.

  Covering pension fund obligations is a massive drag on state and local government finances.  The fact is, there’s a legion of public workers out there who’ve been promised a retirement that’s no longer affordable.

  These grand promises must be broken.

  You can witness the effects when traversing through just about every city in America that has been in existence for more than 60 years.  By repeatedly reallocating spending from much needed services, the present and future conditions of cities and municipalities are being transformed to unlivable hellholes.

  Your neighbor, who retired from the city over 25 years ago, may frequently lament the shoddy conditions of the streets and sidewalks.  He may bemoan the lack of resources to address burgeoning homeless encampments and the mobs of mentally ill zombies flailing about on the tired asphalt.

  

  Yet it has never occurred to him that he and his retired cohorts are receiving money that should be used to maintain basic municipal services.  The generous promises made many decades ago – the entitlements – are now destroying the world around them.

  *  *  *

  A massive wave of municipal and corporate bankruptcies is cresting.  The longer the bear market runs, the greater the collateral damage.  Don’t leave your retirement in the hands of others.  Instead, consider trying simple, practical steps everyday Americans can take to protect their wealth and financial privacy.  The steps are documented in the Financial First Aid Kit.  If you’d like to find out more about this important and unique publication, and how to acquire a copy, stop by here today!

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 17:30

• CNN's New Boss Fails To Halt Plummeting Ratings
  CNN’s New Boss Fails To Halt Plummeting Ratings

  After two months under new management and marching orders to stop being so woke, CNN’s ratings continue to tank.

  

  The changes instituted under Jeff Zucker replacement Chris Licht have included efforts to make the network less ‘politically divisive’ and instead shift to a more neutral tone, according to the Daily Beast. Licht was brought in to deal with the aftermath of chief anchor Chris Cuomo’s implosion, as well as the network’s disastrous streaming service.

  

  Licht promised that the network would “seek to go a different way” in an environment “where extremes are dominating cable news,” and has reportedly been looking at firing partisan hosts and commentators – a rumor which has thus far not panned out.

  What’s more, Licht has ordered the network to stop sticking “Breaking News” banners on everything, and to stop calling former President Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims the “Big Lie,” and to instead use “Trump election lie” or “election lies.”

  And despite all that, ratings continue to plummet – dropping even more since Licht began his post.

  For the month of June, and despite the Jan. 6 House committee holding several blockbuster hearings that should have been squarely in the channel’s wheelhouse, CNN actually lost viewership from the previous month. Worse yet, the network had already seen drops over the previous two months.

  CNN’s primetime lineup only attracted 654,000 total viewers and 148,000 in the key advertising demographic of viewers aged 25-54—a 1-percent decline in both categories from May. And in total day viewership, CNN’s overall audience dropped to 487,000 while it attracted 104,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo, shedding 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

  And during the week of June 13 to 19, which featured quite a bit of focus on the committee hearings, the network only averaged 480,000 viewers overall, a 13-percent drop from its May averages and the channel’s worst week since November 2015.

  June 2022 was CNN’s lowest-rated month in total day viewership since July 2015. -Daily Beast

  CNN competitor MSNBC, on the other hand, saw big gains surrounding the Jan. 6 hearings and analysis, however it still finished second in all of basic cable with just 767,000 viewers – up 21% from May.

  When it comes to primetime viewers, CNN dropped 5% (660,000) and 11% in the coveted 24-54 primetime demographic (150,000) vs. April, and saw worse losses for the total day audience of 20% in that same demographic, and 14% overall.

  In May and June, CNN ranked just 12th across primetime basic cable.

  Fox News, meanwhile, has seen its audience steadily increase since the second-half of 2021.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 17:00

• Changing The "Bitcoin Is Useless" Narrative
  Changing The “Bitcoin Is Useless” Narrative

  Authored by Ray Youssef via BitcoinMagazine.com,

  There are a myriad of examples of bitcoin financially enabling people around the world despite common notions that bitcoin is useless…

  

  Bitcoin has the power to help real people, but the “Bitcoin is useless” narrative still exists. Traveling on the ground in the emerging world, I’ve heard hundreds of stories from people who’ve said that Bitcoin has changed their lives for the better. And it’s no surprise. People are using Bitcoin for remittances, e-commerce, wealth preservation and social good. It’s the strongest solution for the unbanked, giving people the opportunity to put the financial power back into their own hands. So how do we change the narrative? Only with education can we break through the noise and show the rest of the world what Bitcoin can really do.

  Over the last few months I’ve traveled through the U.S., South America and Europe, attending meetups, events and speaking with our users. One of my stops was the Oslo Freedom Forum, where I was lucky enough to meet activists from all over the world who are fighting for freedom. Bitcoin not only provides freedom from government control, but provides access to the global economy. It’s the people who are on the ground spreading this message that will really change the world.

  BITCOIN IS FREEDOM

  I’ve heard Farida Nabourema speak many times, and I continue to be inspired by her story. Her work fighting for democracy in Togo is the work of a true hero. In a country where people are silenced for speaking out, or prevented from receiving money from their family or friends outside the country, Nabourema is showing the way out. Bitcoin offers an alternative to traditional finance that is permissionless, borderless and inclusive of everyone. And now with Bitcoin, the people of Togo can take control of their financial future.

  Back in 2020, the people of Nigeria were fighting against police brutality though the #EndSARS protests. Ire Aderinokun witnessed what it was like to be shut out by the banking system when the government froze bank accounts. Instead, the Feminist Coalition turned to Bitcoin to continue raising funds for their efforts.

  Another activist I admire is Roya Mahboob, one of the first people to introduce Bitcoin to Afghanistan. Understanding the opportunities that Bitcoin could provide, Mahboob paid her female employees in bitcoin. For some, it was a way out from under the government — for others, it was a sense of independence they didn’t have before. Bitcoin not only provides sovereignty, but a sense of ownership. Thanks to people like Mahboob, more people are learning that.

  BITCOIN ON THE GROUND

  Hearing these stories confirms that the key to global adoption comes from the ground up. I strongly believe in the power of local education, and in order to get to a billion Bitcoiners, we need to listen to the needs of different communities. I’ve been on the ground in communities all around the world to learn more about how Bitcoin can help the little guy. Take El Salvador, for example: while bitcoin is legal tender there’s still a massive need for education. Nathaly Maria Cortez from El Salvador came to our education center in the country to learn more about Bitcoin. She now advises her family and friends that do not have access to banking or the traditional financial system. Another user, Don Walter, has seen firsthand how Bitcoin has transformed his community through bitcoin donations. I could go on.

  CHANGING THE NARRATIVE

  These stories are just a handful of the many voices who have now experienced the power of Bitcoin firsthand. Farida once shared that you cannot have independence without monetary independence and that is what Bitcoin truly provides for the first time. All around the world, Bitcoin is creating opportunities for people who have limited financial access. It’s only through Bitcoin education and its real use cases that we can inspire even more people to take part in this financial revolution.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 16:30

• Several NYC Election Sites Had 'No Republican Ballots' During Last Week's Primary
  Several NYC Election Sites Had ‘No Republican Ballots’ During Last Week’s Primary

  Last week’s primary voting in New York City was a complete debacle – as the city’s Board of Elections botched everything from polling locations opening late because of ‘lost keys,’ to missing equipment, to unannounced relocations of voting sites, to a lack of Republican ballots across at least three Big Apple election sites.

  

  “We showed up to the poll site in Brooklyn, we showed up at 5 a.m. … and there was no key,” Spencer Mestel, a freelance writer, told the New York Post on Tuesday afternoon, adding that he saw poll workers turn away an elderly woman with a walker because they couldn’t get in.

  “The police officer on site didn’t have a key, the Board of Elections didn’t give [the site coordinator] a key, I watched her call the Board of Election multiple times … [but] no one helped us,” added the journalist who has served as a NYC election worker for the past decade.

  The building was eventually unlocked at 7:30 a.m. by the building’s superintendent – more than 90 minutes after voters should have been able to start casting ballots.

  Meanwhile, the Board of Elections failed to deliver equipment to one south Brooklyn location.

  It’s 6:30 AM on election day and my poll site at PS 15 in Red Hook is not open because @BOENYC has not brought them equipment and they don’t know how long it will be. Voters are getting turned away.

  — Molly Moser (@MollyMoser6) June 28, 2022

  And at PS 22 in Crown Heights, New Yorkers weren’t able to vote before work, because of a “technical emergency!” according to a photo shared on Twitter by activist and writer Stephen Lurie. -NY Post

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

  Far poorer cities in far poorer countries regularly run efficient elections where everyone can vote.

  The politicians and cronies of New York City and the state *choose* our local democracy to be this bad.

  — Stephen Lurie (@luriethereal) June 28, 2022

  Also disturbing –  polling locations had been changed without the BOE informing anyone.

  Thanks @BOENYC for changing my polling place without notifying me turnout was already gonna be great today

  — Reed Dunlea (@ReedDunlea) June 28, 2022

  The BOE’s response? Election day had gone “very smoothly” and voters had been notified of site changes.

  “If a human error occurs, it’s regretful and, in large measure, we correct immediately,” said BOE deputy executive director, Vinny Ignizio. “All told, we’ll run eight elections this year and this primary election has run very smoothly.”

  Speaking of human error – at least three NYC election sites told voters they had no Republican ballots, according to the Post.

  One voter, Ed Gavin, 62, arrived at his Bronx polling site in Spuyten Duyvil around 8:15 a.m. to cast his vote for GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino but after checking in with a poll worker, he was handed a Democratic ballot instead, he said. -NYP

  “My party never came up, my political preferences were never discussed … I opened the sleeve and I saw the names of Tom Suozzi, Kathy Hochul and Jumaane Williams. These were all Democrats for governor,” said Gavin, a retired Department of Correction deputy warden. “I flipped it over because I thought maybe the Republicans were on the back but there were no Republicans.“

  “They told me ‘we don’t have any Republican ballots,'” he added. “I said to the gentleman, ‘that is very concerning.’”

  The Post verified the lack of Republican ballots at the polling site Gavin visited.

  “We couldn’t find the ballots earlier, but we have them now,” said a poll worker.

  Gavin was pissed..

  “This is the most important gubernatorial election of my lifetime because crime is on the ballot, bail reform is on the ballot, criminal justice is on the ballot,” he said, adding “[Former Gov. Andrew] Cuomo essentially ruined this state … with the state of the city right now, we need a Republican in power.”

  After he reported the problem to the BoE, a rep said they would “correct it immediately.”

  Republican strategist Candice Giove had the same thing happen in Bushwick, Brooklyn around 11 a.m.

  “I was handed a Democratic ballot and I realized when I opened the folder and I saw Kathy Hochul’s name,” she told the Post, adding that she told the poll worker ‘I’m not a Democrat, I’m a Republican,’ to which the poll worker replied, “We don’t have any Republican ballots.”

  After they went back and looked, workers found a stack of Republican ballots “shrink wrapped under a bunch” of other things – after which she was able to cast her vote.

  The list goes on:

  Harlem resident Eric Larsen, a registered Republican, told The Post an election worker provided him with a Democratic Primary ballot, before falsely insisting a Republican Primary wasn’t being held Tuesday. 

  A different staffer then apologized, acknowledged the existence of the GOP primary, and scrambled to find a Republican ballot in a cabinet. 

  “I know that Central Harlem is predominantly Democratic, but I found it hard to believe that a polling location even in a mostly Democratic location wouldn’t have had enough Republican ballots by the middle of the day on primary day,” said Larsen, who works in finance. “I did eventually get one … [but] they gave me a hard time.” -NY Post

  In short, levels of ‘human error’ are once again off the charts.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 16:00

• Over 400,000 High-Priority Incidents In Chicago In 2021 Had 'No Police Available To Send', New Data Shows
  Over 400,000 High-Priority Incidents In Chicago In 2021 Had ‘No Police Available To Send’, New Data Shows

  Authored by Matt Rosenberg via Wirepoints.org,

  As crime continues to roil economic and social life in post-George Floyd, post-COVID Chicago, getting policing and criminal justice right are crucial. City officials are failing at that task.

  We’re already seen anemic rates of arrest and prosecutions in Chicago, accompanied by finger-pointing between politicians over crime and the court system. And years of no support from city leadership, anti-policing legislation and the damaging rhetoric of the “defund” movement have taken a toll on Chicago police morale and manpower.

  All that has spread the police force so thin that, in 2021, one of law enforcement’s most basic functions, responding to high-priority emergency service calls in a timely manner, was regularly beyond their capacity.

  New data uncovered by Wirepoints through public records requests to the Chicago Police Department (CPD) reveal that in 2021 there were 406,829 incidents of high-priority emergency service calls for which there were no police available to respond.

  That was 52 percent of the 788,000 high-priority 911 service calls dispatched in 2021.

  High priority calls include Priority Level 1 incidents, which represent “an imminent threat to life, bodily injury, or major property damage/loss,” and Priority Level 2 incidents when “timely police action…has the potential to affect the outcome of an incident.”

  In pre-George Floyd, pre-COVID 2019, there were only 156,016 such instances for which dispatchers had no police available to send – 19 percent of the total number of high priority 911 service calls made that year. We have requested parallel data for 2020.

  

  The 2021 high priority numbers include, among many other calls:

  • 14,955 – assaults in progress. 

  • 17,828 – batteries in progress. 

  • 16,350 – person with a gun.

  • 5,210 – person with a knife.

  • 12,787 – shots fired (reports from people, not the city’s automated “Shotspotter”)

  • 1,352 – person shot.

  • 887 – person stabbed. 

  • 14,265 – domestic battery. 

  Nor were there police available for 49,686 domestic disturbances or 9,458 mental health disturbances. Or 3,386 dispatches for a robbery that had just occurred. Or the 2,427 dispatches about someone threatening suicide and the 2,951 dispatches stemming from reported violations of a court protection order. (For the full list of service calls, see the CPD’s FOIA response below).

  Emergency police dispatches and call backlogs

  Chicago police handled about 1.3 million dispatched 911 calls for service each year between 2019 and 2021. The data comes from a dashboard kept by the city’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). OIG numbers come straight from the Office of Emergency Operations and Communications, which runs the city’s 911 center. 

  About 800,000 of the calls for service each year are high priority (priorities 1 and 2), about 60 percent of the total.

  

  While the number of emergency calls for service has remained consistent, there has been a considerable jump in the number of periods in which 911 dispatchers could find no takers for urgent calls of help needed. 

  Those periods of backlogged dispatches are known by the somewhat misleading name of radio assignments pending or “RAP”.

  RAPs occur and are tracked on a police district-by-district basis (there are 24 separate police districts in Chicago). It’s important to note that a RAP is not one delayed response to one dispatch. Instead, police representatives informed Wirepoints it is “a range of time in which no dispatchable resources are available in the District/dispatch group.”

  A RAP is declared over only after all delayed responses to high-priority 911 dispatches have been cleared by police arriving on scene.

  The numbers of annual reported RAPs grew from 5,077 in 2019 to 11,721 in 2021, up more than 130 percent. 

  

  RAPs are to be avoided if at all possible, according to CPD’s own directive to staff on using its radio communications system. It says field supervisors should repeatedly check all available patrol and special unit personnel on duty to see if they can redeploy to new and high-priority dispatch requests, and that supervisors can deny lunches, personal breaks, and station assignments until the backlog ends.

  As the number of RAP periods have grown, so, too, have the volume of high-priority, incident-specific 911 dispatches that weren’t answered in a timely manner. As mentioned above, there were 156,000 high-priority incidents in 2019, but more than 400,000 in 2021.

  Waiting for help

  High priority dispatches can wait as long as an hour, even two hours, for a response during RAPs. 

  Last summer, a Chicago 911 dispatcher working the violent 11th Police District on the West Side was captured by Chicago Scanner’s Twitter account in revealing audio of backlogged dispatch call-outs. 

  Listen to the audio here from Chicago Scanner via crime news website CWB Chicago. 

  Listening to the audio, Wirepoints could clearly discern details of 36 specific languishing dispatch requests. There were three noise complaints, two burglar alarm calls, four batteries in progress, eight instances of shots fired and seven domestic disturbances. 

  Also backlogged with no timely response were a theft, a robbery, a stabbing, a domestic battery, a violation of a protection order, a suspicious person, a mental health disturbance, a large crowd disturbance, drag racing, another disturbance, an EMS vehicle needed, and “a citizen waiting for an assist for 102 minutes at Roosevelt and Central Park.”  

  Of the response lag times of the 36 audible incidents reported, 13 were close to or in excess of two hours; 12 were close to or in excess of an hour; and most of the rest were clustered at 20 to 40 minutes each. 

  Unfortunately, Wirepoints can’t determine just how long RAPs typically last. In a recent FOIA for 911 backlog details, Wirepoints asked for the average length of backlog periods in recent years. CPD said no such data existed. 

  Although field supervisors are instructed under a CPD directive to “note in the supervisor’s management log (CPD-11.455) the time the RAP started, efforts made to end the RAP, and the time the RAP ended,” those records are paper only, not electronic, and they are reportedly not retained.

  *  *  *

  To many observers in Chicago, the increase in RAPs is one more indication of the need to restore police manpower to previous levels. The count of active sworn officers has fallen to 11,638 in June of this year, down from 13,251 in July of 2019, according to an OIG dashboard. 

  But Chicago politicians, Cook County judges, prosecutors and state lawmakers will have to make policing a far more attractive proposition than it is today to repair the damaged morale that’s helping drive the ongoing exodus of sworn officers. 

  Appendix

  CPD 1st FOIA response: Count of Service Calls Occurring During Radio Assignments Pending, 2021

  CPD 2nd FOIA response: Count of Service Calls Occurring During Radio Assignments Pending, 2019

  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 15:30

• Ukraine Successfully Hitting Russian Command Posts With New Rocket System: Pentagon
  Ukraine Successfully Hitting Russian Command Posts With New Rocket System: Pentagon

  A little over a week ago Ukraine’s military began showing off it newly acquired long-rage rocket systems from the US by uploading videos of launches against Russian forces. 

  Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced last month, “HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine. Thank you to my colleague and friend SecDef Lloyd J. Austin III for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them,” in reference to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems.

  Already, Ukraine’s forces and their American backers are touting that they’ve been able to target and strike Russian command centers with the HIMARS, which are well past the front lines.

  

  The Hill has cited a senior US defense official who said Ukraine is now having “a good deal of success” with the recently deployed HIMARS rockets, particularly in the hotspot of current fighting, the Donbas in the east of the country.

  “Because it is such a precise, longer-range system, Ukrainians are able to carefully select targets that will undermine the effort by Russia in a more systematic way, certainly than they would be able to do with the shorter-range artillery systems,” the Pentagon official said further.

  Six 200-pound rockets slammed into the Russian position, largely destroying it, said Lt. Koval, who commands 2 HIMARS batteries (launchers). The Russian base was one of about 10 high-value positions Lt. Koval says Ukraine has hit in the 2 weeks since taking charge of the systems pic.twitter.com/vEVjsbFJGJ

  — Rob Lee (@RALee85) July 2, 2022

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  “What you see is the Ukrainians are actually systematically selecting targets and then accurately hitting them, thus providing this, you know, precise method of degrading Russian capability,” the official added. “I see them being able to continue to use this throughout Donbas.”

  At the moment, only four are reportedly in use on the battlefield, after lately arriving, but four more were pledged starting last month. The somewhat slow rollout of the systems is related to the time-gap of training Ukrainian operators on how to use them effectively.

  A Russ­ian field head­quar­ters has been frus­trat­ingly be­yond the range of Lt. Va­len­tyn Ko­val’s So­viet-era ar­tillery. That changed with the arrival of HIMARS. “We un­der­stand from this as­sistance that we’re not alone in this fight.” @stephenkalin https://t.co/JsWOHgbpNo

  — Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) July 2, 2022

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  The HIMARS being provided to the Ukrainians are estimated to be able to hit targets about 40 to 50 miles away, which from the administration’s standpoint marks a significant improvement in range, but still makes it unlikely the missiles could be used to strike within Russian territory, which Biden had expressly said he wants to avoid.

  The US has said that Ukraine’s military leadership has provided “assurances” it won’t use the newly provided systems to attack Russian territory, amid persisting fears Washington and Moscow could enter direct conflict.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 15:00

• SCOTUS To Hear Case That Could Give State Legislatures, Not Judges, Power to Regulate Elections
  SCOTUS To Hear Case That Could Give State Legislatures, Not Judges, Power to Regulate Elections

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

  The Supreme Court decided on June 30 to hear an important new case that Republicans hope will re-empower state legislatures to make rules for redistricting and governing congressional and presidential elections.

  

  Republicans say the U.S. Constitution has always directly authorized state legislatures to make rules for the conduct of elections, including presidential elections. Democrats say this idea, encompassed by the Independent State Legislature Doctrine, is a fringe conservative legal theory that could endanger voting rights. The Supreme Court has reportedly never ruled on the doctrine.

  The doctrine, if endorsed by the high court, could allow state legislatures to select presidential electors in disputed elections, something critics decry as a threat to democracy.

  Election law expert J. Christian Adams, a former U.S. Department of Justice civil rights attorney who now heads the Public Interest Legal Foundation, an election integrity group, praised the Supreme Court for granting the case, which he said was “very important.”

  “It means that the Court may take up all the nonsense that has been occurring over the last 10 years,” Adams told The Epoch Times by email.

  In a series of Twitter posts, Democratic Party attorney and election law activist Marc Elias denounced the court’s decision to hear the case.

  “The Supreme Court will hear a case next term that may validate the dangerous independent state legislature theory,” Elias wrote.

  “Congress must enact comprehensive voting rights and anti-subversion legislation before it’s too late,” he wrote, adding “the future of our democracy is on the docket.”

  The Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case next term that would give state legislatures huge power over elections is the biggest threat to our democracy since January 6. https://t.co/XHXns1ZoWZ

  — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 1, 2022

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  The doctrine has been in the news because conservative Republican activist Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent emails to 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona urging them to choose the state’s presidential electors despite the disputed popular vote tallies showing Democrat Joe Biden had won the state, The Washington Post reported June 10.

  The emails were sent Nov. 9, 2020, after media outlets had called the Arizona race for Biden. The efforts by Republicans to change the result in Arizona were unsuccessful and ultimately the state’s 11 votes in the Electoral College were awarded to Biden.

  In her emails, Ginni Thomas, a supporter of then-President Donald Trump, asked Arizona legislators to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure” and asserted that the responsibility to select electors was “yours and yours alone.” Lawmakers, she wrote, had the “power to fight back against fraud” and “ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen.”

  The emails attracted the attention of the U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, security breach at the U.S. Capitol that delayed official congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election by several hours. Democrats also say there is a conflict of interest because Justice Thomas will participate in the court case about the independent state legislature doctrine. Through her lawyers, Ginni Thomas is resisting committee demands that she testify in the ongoing probe that many Republicans, including Trump, say is a sham.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/02/2022 – 14:30

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