Oct 03

Today’s News 3rd October 2023

  • Putin Orders First-Ever Nationwide Nuclear Drill, Prepares Bomb-Test At Arctic Circle
    Putin Orders First-Ever Nationwide Nuclear Drill, Prepares Bomb-Test At Arctic Circle

    Via Remix News,

    Russia will hold its first nationwide drill simulating widespread nuclear strikes on the country, daily Magyar Hírlap writes.

    The one-day nuclear attack exercise is based on the assumption that NATO will launch a nuclear strike on Russia, destroying 70 percent of Russian housing and life-support facilities. In the scenario, martial law is imposed in the country and a full-scale mobilization is ordered.

    The test will also model the secondary threat posed by damage to nuclear power plants and other key facilities.

    State and regional authorities will have to organize emergency rescue teams to provide food, medical supplies and protection against radiation.

    According to the preparatory document, there is a need to prepare for an escalation of war, including a global conflict involving nuclear powers.

    The permanent relocation of the population from the life-threatened zone will be similar to Chernobyl, involving an internal population transfer on an unprecedented scale.

    Putin, meanwhile, is moving to one of his nuclear bunkers around the country to escape the simulated nuclear Armageddon. In the event of a real nuclear war, he has a fleet of “Doomsday” Il-80 Maxdome aircraft that can act as an air control center.

    The exercise is being held four days before Putin’s 71st birthday.

    Not only is the national disaster exercise seen as a training exercise for nuclear war, but preparations are also underway for a nuclear explosion test in the Arctic Circle.

    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Soygu visited Novaya Zemlya in August, signaling that tests could soon resume after a break of several decades.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/03/2023 – 02:00

  • Escobar: Nagorno-Karabakh Is No More
    Escobar: Nagorno-Karabakh Is No More

    Authored by Pepe Escobar,

    Why would the current administration in Yerevan ever care for a few lost souls in Artsakh?

    In the end, Nagorno-Karabakh – or the Artsakh Republic – is no more.

    It will cease to exist on 1 January 2024 – also the first day of the Russian presidency of BRICS 11.

    All autonomous state structures will be dissolved – according to a decree signed by the head of the Republic, Samvel Shahramanyan.

    The population – roughly 147,000, 99% of them Armenian Christians – has a choice that’s not really a choice: “familiarize themselves with the conditions of reintegration presented by the Republic of Azerbaijan” and stay, or leave to Armenia for good.

    Predictably, the exodus is on: an interminable serpent of vehicles congesting the mountain roads of a beautiful landscape where generations of Armenians lived for centuries. As of Thursday night, over 70,000 Armenians had left towards the Syunik region.

    The Azeri government in Baku sent police/security forces to Stepanakert. Former Foreign Minister Ruben Vardanyan, an oligarch, was detained by Azeri security while trying to leave for Armenia, mingling with refugees. He had renounced Russian citizenship last year when he moved to work in Artsakh. He’ll probably be freed.

    Others won’t be so lucky. Everyone leaving is being exhaustively searched. Baku has warned that every Artsakh notable – political and military – will be captured.

    This is how it sadly ends: the story of how a bunch of crooks – Team Pashinyan in Yerevan – profited personally from a geopolitical pretext.

    Armenian PM Pashinyan announced that in a few days he’ll consider there are no more Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Translation: those that decided to stay will be considered to be Azerbaijanis.

    Yet for Baku, Armenians from Artsakh will always remain Armenians – and thus an object of suspicion.

    It’s all about the Zangezur corridor

    Armenian priests are starting to ask for people power to come up with regime change in Yerevan to save the nation. It’s clear that Syunik will be the next Armenian territory to fall – considering both Azerbaijan and Turkey have their eyes on its strategic position. If Baku takes Syunik, Armenian Orthodox Christian priests will definitely be in hot water.

    The crucial fact is that the November 2020 armistice between Armenia and Azerbaïjan, with Russian involvement, was not respected either by Baku or Yerevan.

    Moscow didn’t do much except showing that Pashinyan gave Artsakh away to Baku – which in itself is outrageous and a violation of the armistice: imagine that the object of a war was relinquished by the attacked country to the attacker.

    What Baku really wanted was the opening of the Zangezur corridor – and that was also part of the armistice. The corridor was supposed to be controlled by Russian guards.

    Yerevan did nothing about it. Baku for its part kept provoking skirmishes in Artsakh and Syunik. And on top of it did not respect a clause stipulating the building of a road allowing Armenians to travel back and forth to Artsakh. In fact Baku blocked Artsakh by taking over the Lachin road.

    As corridors go, Zangezur is the proverbial Chinese win-win.

    Azerbaijan links with its Nakhitchevan enclave and Turkiye. Russia gets a road that goes through Baku and Yerevan. Armenia opens itself to international trade. And Iran is satisfied that the manager will be the former owner of the place: Russia.

    Ay, there’s the rub. The usual suspects were not happy that Russian guards would be back in Armenia. So they sabotaged this clause via their agent Pashinyan.

    The record shows how Team Pashinyan behaved these past few months: Armenia’s First Lady visited Kiev; Yerevan transferred “humanitarian aid” to Ukraine; there were joint military exercises with the U.S.; frantic back and forth by U.S. and EU politicos and NGOs.

    Relations with Moscow are deteriorating fast. Yerevan – a juicy strategic target – is being taken over by the Hegemon and its vassals. It’s not an accident that Yerevan hosts the second largest American embassy in the world.

    So only one thing is certain: the Transcaucasus will continue to be on fire.

    Empire of Chaos strikes again

    It’s not clear what will happen to Zangezur – and if and when Pashinyan will act on it. There’s always a – remote – possibility that Pashinyan, egged on by his Western handlers, may try to strike a deal with Aliyev to leave Russia out.

    The Russian Foreign Ministry has not minced its words, noting how Yerevan “flip flopped on policy and sought Western support over working closely with Russia and Azerbaijan”. And how in meetings in Prague and Brussels under the EU, Pashynian “acknowledged Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, but failed to address the rights and safety of the Karabakh Armenians.”

    The Foreign Ministry all but warns Pashynian that “unlike the West which has become quite skilled in organising color revolutions, Moscow does not engage in such activities.”

    At the same time, “a frenzied anti-Russian campaign has swept the Armenian media at the behest of the authorities. We are convinced that the Armenian leadership is making a huge mistake by deliberately attempting to sever Armenia’s multifaceted and centuries-old ties with Russia, making the country a hostage to Western geopolitical games. We are confident that the overwhelming majority of the Armenian population realises this as well.”

    Well, USAID head Samantha “Batshit Crazy” Power is in Armenia right now, “affirming U.S. support for Armenia’s democracy, sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity and commitment to addressing humanitarian needs stemming from Nagorno-Karabakh”.

    Nonsense. This is all about the Empire of Chaos conquering a strategic asset close to Russia: Armenia is a member of the CSTO and the EAEU. There are more than 25 USAID projects being implemented in Armenia. Why would the current administration in Yerevan ever care for a few lost souls in Artsakh?

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 23:40

  • Philly Police Seek Biker Who Stomped Out Back Window Of Sedan Where Two Innocent Children Sat
    Philly Police Seek Biker Who Stomped Out Back Window Of Sedan Where Two Innocent Children Sat

    Philadelphia Police are seeking help from the community trying to find a motorcyclist who jumped through the back window of a vehicle on Sunday night while two innocent children sat in the back seat. 

    On Monday morning a video started making its way around social media showing a gang of motorcycle and quad riders in Philadelphia swarming a vehicle stopped in traffic outside of City Hall in Center City, Philadelphia. 

    The video — captured by a tourist sitting atop of a double decker bus — shows a motorcycle rider stop alongside a sedan before jumping on the back of the vehicle and busting out its back window. While jumping, the perpetrator’s gun fell from his pants. The female driver got out of the vehicle to confront the biker, who then headbutted her with his helmet. 

    Almost all of the vehicles in question did not have license plates, though several did but were affixed with tape to hide their plate numbers. 

    Fox 29’s Steve Keeley, who is one of the only journalists in the city with the courage to confront the crime epidemic the city is undergoing (and who has been villainized for it), reported: “9pm last night, George Colony from Florida watched helplessly as a male on motorcycle kicked in back windshield where two kids sitting.”

    Keeley also posted video of the incident:

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

    “He had a gun that fell out of his waistband as he jumped down off her car. He then headbutted her with the visor of his helmet, as she fights back despite him being armed & she being way outnumbered,” Keeley wrote. 

    He wrote that the woman is an Uber Eats driver who brings her kids with her because a babysitter is “too costly”.

    He noted that Philadelphia Police are seeking information on the motorcycle rider:

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

    Recall, Philadelphia just underwent mass looting last week that resulted in stores closing. Not unlike the crowd on Sunday, last week a crowd of 100 young people looted retail shops. 

    Police Commissioner John Stanford said the teens began looting stores around 2200 ET, which sparked a massive police presence across Walnut Street between 15th and 18th streets. 

    “What we had tonight was a bunch of criminal opportunists take advantage of a situation and make an attempt to destroy our city,” Stanford told reporters last week.

    He said, “It’s not going to be tolerated.” 

    We reported earlier this month that Philadelphia’s police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw – who has overseen years of surging crime, property destruction and violent attacks in the Northeast city – has had enough and was stepping down. 

    After overseeing a massive crime wave in Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney praised her work in the city, focusing not on the merits of her work (of which there are few), but her “reform” of “racism and gender discrimination”, stating: “Commissioner Outlaw has worked relentlessly for three and a half years during an unprecedented era in our city and a number of crisis situations, and she deserves praise for her commitment to bring long-overdue reform to the Department after years of racism and gender discrimination prior to her appointment.” 

    It doesn’t seem like any left leaning public officials are actually interested in their jobs in Philadelphia – perhaps, rather, just collecting their pensions. Recall in 2022 we wrote when Mayor Kenney said he was “looking forward to the time he will no longer lead the city”.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 23:20

  • Judge Upholds Federal Bump Stock Ban
    Judge Upholds Federal Bump Stock Ban

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A federal judge has upheld the ATF’s ban on bump stocks, devices that boost firing speed.

    A bump stock is attached to a semi-automatic rifle at the Gun Vault store and shooting range in South Jordan, Utah, on Oct. 4, 2017. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer/File)

    U.S. District Judge Jill N. Parrish ruled on Sept. 29 (pdf) that the prohibition on bump stocks imposed administratively by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) several years ago was appropriate.

    “This court concludes that the regulation is an appropriate exercise of the agency’s discretion to fill gaps implicitly left by Congress,” and so “it declines to declare the rule unlawful or enjoin its enforcement,” wrote Ms. Parrish, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

    The lawsuit opposing the bump stock ban was brought by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) on behalf of firearms instructor Clark Aposhian. It is one of several challenging the ATF’s ban on bump stocks, which are accessories that attach to semi-automatic firearms.

    Bump stocks were banned in 2019 when the Department of Justice (DOJ) amended regulations of the ATF, classifying bump stocks as equivalent to machine guns and making them illegal.

    The NCLA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. But the NCLA’s litigation counsel, Caleb Kruckenberg, earlier called the case a “perfect example, unfortunately, of what we call the administrative state.” remove

    “What I mean by that is with no intervening action from Congress with no change in the law, the ATF has said that they know better than Congress, and the ATF is trying to rewrite the statute. But that’s not their role,” Mr. Kruckenberg said in a video posted on the group’s website.

    “Congress is supposed to write the laws and the executive branch acting through the agencies are supposed to apply them,” he added.

    Congressional interest in bump stocks grew after authorities found that the gunman who perpetrated a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017 attached them to several of his semi-automatic firearms.

    Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), points to a photograph of a rifle with a bump stock during a news conference to announce proposed gun control legislation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Oct. 4, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    The ATF’s administrative rule change amended the regulatory text by adding the following language: “The term ‘machine gun’ includes bump-stock devices, i.e., devices that allow a semiautomatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of the semi-automatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter.”

    Several bump stock owners, including Mr. Aposhian, filed lawsuits challenging the ban, seeking to block it from going into effect. A common argument was that the ATF promulgated the rule in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

    While the case is technically about bump stocks, the NCLA’s Mr. Kruckenberg said it’s about much more than banning a gun accessory—”This case is about who gets to write the law.”

    In a series of decisions, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Tenth and D.C. Circuits rejected APA-based challenges to the rule, while the Sixth Circuit was evenly split, leading to a district court upholding the ban. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the three cases.

    By contrast, the Fifth Circuit ruled in January 2023 that the rule violates the APA that an act of Congress is required to ban bump stocks. This lawsuit was brought by Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works in Austin.

    “Cargill is correct. A plain reading of the statutory language, paired with close consideration of the mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm, reveals that a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machine gun’ set forth in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act,” the Fifth Circuit said in its ruling.

    A bump fire stock that attaches to a semi-automatic rifle to increase the firing rate, at Good Guys Gun Shop in Orem, Utah, on Oct. 4, 2017. (George Frey/Reuters)

    More Details

    The Fifth Circuit ruling stated that semi-automatic weapons fitted with bump stocks don’t fall under the definition of a machine gun because one pull of the trigger corresponds to the firing of a single bullet.

    “Without a bump stock or the use of an alternative bump technique, the user must provide manual input by pulling the trigger with the muscles of his trigger finger. With a bump stock, the shooter need not pull and release his trigger finger. But the shooter must still apply forward pressure to the weapon’s forebody in order to maintain the shooting mechanism,” U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Eldrod wrote in the opinion. “Again, the manual input remains, even though its form changes.”

    Dissenting judges argued that the statutory language is ambiguous enough to support classifying bump stocks as machine guns and that court used “lenity to legalize an instrument of mass murder.”

    Lenity is a principle in law that calls for any ambiguity in a criminal statute to be interpreted in favor of the defendant, resulting in a more narrow interpretation of the law.

    In April 2023, the DOJ petitioned the Supreme Court to hear its appeal of the Fifth Court’s ruling in favor of Mr. Cargill that halted the bump stock ban.

    The NCLA said in June that it supports Supreme Court review of the case, saying it believes that the ruling would uphold the Fifth Court’s decision to strike down the prohibition.

    “The Fifth Circuit held that the ‘rule of lenity’ requires that ambiguities in criminal statutes be construed against the government so that ordinary citizens will not be punished unless they have clear notice of the conduct that is prohibited,” Richard Samp, NCLA senior litigation counsel, said in a statement.

    “NCLA is urging the Supreme Court, if it agrees to hear Mr. Cargill’s case, to address whether the rule of lenity requires rejection of ATF’s rule,” he added.

    The case remains pending before the Supreme Court.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 23:00

  • Trump Lead Widens After Second GOP Presidential Debate: Poll
    Trump Lead Widens After Second GOP Presidential Debate: Poll

    Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

    Former President Donald Trump has further solidified his lead in the Republican presidential primary, following the second GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California.

    Former President Donald Trump speaks to a crowd during a campaign rally in Summerville, S.C., on Sept. 25, 2023. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

    “63% of potential Republican primary voters support Donald Trump for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, up from 58% in our survey released Monday ahead of the latest primary debate,” Morning Consult said in its survey released on Sept. 29.

    In comparison, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seen as Mr. Trump’s biggest rival, saw his support dip from 15 percent to 12 percent after the second debate, though the Florida governor is still in second place.

    [ZH: According to PredictIt, the figures look even worse for DeSantis…]

    The survey, which polled 1,183 potential GOP primary voters, was conducted on Sept. 28, one day after the second debate, which Trump didn’t attend. Instead, he spent the debate night in battleground Michigan, delivering a speech to striking auto workers.

    Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley both lost 2 percentage points since the debate. Mr. Ramaswamy is at 9 percent and Ms. Haley is at 5 percent.

    Former Vice President Mike Pence lost one percentage point and is at 5 percent. Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) did not see any change after the debate, remaining at 2 percent.

    “This data reinforces our view that Trump is in the driver’s seat of the Republican primary, and that Trump-less debates aren’t having much of an impact on the other candidates’ national support, and may in fact be helping the former president,” the survey concludes.

    In August, Morning Consult found that the support for President Trump went unchanged at 58 percent after he skipped the first GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee. Instead of attending the debate, the former president aired a pre-recorded interview he did with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

    The second debate, which was aired on Fox News Channel and Fox Business, drew 3.5 million fewer viewers than the first debate.

    Even with the absence of President Trump, the seven GOP presidential contenders did not make a breakthrough in the second debate, as they argued over topics including China, the border crisis, crime, fentanyl, and education.

    (L–R) North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and former Vice President Mike Pence at the second Republican presidential primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. on Sept. 27, 2023. (Pedro Ugarte /AFP via Getty Images)

    Mr. Ramaswamy finished third with 18 percent saying they were more likely to support him, ahead of Mr. Pence with 16 percent, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with 15 percent, and Mr. Scott with 14 percent.

    Following the second debate, Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to President Trump’s 2024 campaign, urged the Republican National Committee (RNC) to cancel future debates.

    “Tonight’s GOP debate was as boring and inconsequential as the first debate, and nothing that was said will change the dynamics of the primary contest being dominated by President Trump,” Mr. LaCivita said on Sept. 27.

    Mr. LaCivita added, “The RNC should immediately put an end to any further primary debates so we can train our fire on Crooked Joe Biden and quit wasting time and money that could be going to evicting Biden from the White House.”

    According to Mr. LaCivita, Mr. Trump has no plans to attend future GOP presidential debates, after skipping the first two. The third debate is set to take place in Miami on Nov. 8.

    The former president is scheduled to host the Iowa Commit to Caucus event in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Oct. 1.

    “Just landed in the Great State of Iowa,” President Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on early Sunday. “Remember, I got the farmers 28 Billion Dollars from China. Nobody else would have even thought of doing that, and if they did, wouldn’t have been able to get it done!”

    The former president was also in Iowa on Sept. 20, when he told supporters in Dubuque that he would use troops to secure the southern border if reelected.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 22:20

  • "Severe Crash" Looms For CRE Office Towers, Turmoil Lasting Years, Bloomberg Survey Finds
    “Severe Crash” Looms For CRE Office Towers, Turmoil Lasting Years, Bloomberg Survey Finds

    About seven months ago, panic gripped financial markets over the regional bank meltdown, primarily due to exposure to the commercial real estate space, specifically office towers. Since then, many market participants have forgotten the turmoil, but not all have done so. 

    A new weekly survey of Terminal users by Bloomberg’s Markets Live team finds two-thirds of the 919 respondents believe the office tower market needs to crash before a rebound can be seen. 

    Nearly half (44%) of respondents said tower prices will trough in the second half of 2024. About 29% believe 2025 or later. 

    Terminal users likely understand what Morgan Stanley pointed out earlier this year: a staggering $2.5 trillion in debt maturities and rollovers at much higher rates over the next five years:

    Last month, Kyle Bass told Bloomberg TV that the US banking industry will lose hundreds of billions of dollars from exposure to the office market amid shifting workplace trends and elevated interest rates.

    “Banks in the US will lose $200, $250 billion in office over time here,” Bass, founder of Hayman Capital Management, best known for correctly predicting and profiting from the bursting of the subprime housing bubble. He noted, “And there’s about $2 trillion of equity in the banks so it’s like a 10% hit to US banking equity.”

    What’s clear is that refinancing won’t be pretty for building owners. A Green Street commercial property index shows towers have already fallen 16% from a peak in March 2022. 

    “Nobody wants to sell at a huge loss,” said Lea Overby, an analyst at Barclays Plc. “These are properties that don’t need to be sold for long periods of time, and that means holders are likely to delay a sale as long as they can.”

    According to a March report from Goldman Sachs, regional banks hold about 30% of office tower debt as of 2022. Small banks have seen deposits shrink 2% over the last 12 months ending August. That means less funding. 

    Bloomberg noted it could take several years for some building owners to experience pressure from higher rates:

    Pain from higher interest rates can take years to filter through to owners of the US commercial real estate, which Morgan Stanley values at $11 trillion in total. Investors in office buildings, for example, often have long-term fixed-rate financing in place, and their tenants can be subject to long- term leases as well.

    It will take until 2027 for leases that are in place today to roll over to lower revenue expectations, according to research by Moody’s Investors Service published in March. If current trends hold, then revenues by then will be 10% lower than today.

    Barclays’s Overby said the office tower market “will take a long time to work out,” adding she isn’t too worried about the threat of the overall CRE market because “debt is spread across a wide enough array of investors to absorb losses.” 

    Meanwhile, a recent report from the Morgan Stanley team expects CRE prices to be down 27.4% from peak to trough in 18 to 24 months this cycle, not that far off from the -34.9% during the GFC in 34 months, which will range from a decline of 15% for apartments to a stunning plunge of 40% for office. 

    In places like San Francisco and Baltimore, some office tower prices have already crashed:

    While progressive corporate media outlets tend to attribute the decline of office towers in metro areas to Covid and the rise of remote work, there’s another seldom-discussed factor at play: disastrous social justice reforms that have triggered lawlessness, forcing companies to move to the suburbs or even to states that embrace law and order. 

    To sum up, office districts in Democrat cities will be dead for years. This will have significant impacts on recovery and taxes. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 22:00

  • New Details Emerge After Woman Found Dead In NJ Trucker's Rig
    New Details Emerge After Woman Found Dead In NJ Trucker’s Rig

    By Clarissa Hawes of FreightWaves

    A new report is offering more details about what led investigators to file murder charges against a New Jersey truck driver after a woman was found dead on the floorboard of his tractor-trailer in Maryland.

    Matthew Sidney Watley, 46, of Sicklerville, New Jersey, has been charged with first- and second-degree murder after Candice Thompson, 46, also of Sicklerville, reportedly was found dead in the cab of his truck at a Costco Distribution Center in Monrovia, Maryland.

    The charging documents state that a detective with the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office was able to positively identify Thompson with the assistance of the Winslow Township Police Department in Camden County, New Jersey, noting that their office had “a long history of domestic violence between Watley and Thompson.”

    What happened?

    According to the charging documents, a truck driver parked at the distribution center told investigators that he heard Watley say, “Help me, help me,” and went over to see if he was OK. After climbing up on the running boards on the driver’s side of the silver Freightliner Cascadia Watley was driving, the witness reportedly saw blood on the center of the dash and Watley lying down between the seats.

    The driver told investigators that he heard a sound that made him think that Watley was cutting or stabbing himself and that he jumped down and drove to the guard station at Costco to notify security that Watley was possibly “having a medical issue or trauma.”

    Deputies with the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland reportedly used stop sticks, pepper spray and then a Taser to subdue Watley after they were called to conduct a wellness check at his truck around 1:30 a.m. Sept. 24.

    Charging documents claim deputies attempted to talk to Watley several times but that he refused to answer and was incoherent when speaking. He also refused deputies’ demands to put his vehicle in park and shut the vehicle off and “would rev the engine of the tractor-trailer.” 

    Watley’s tires slowly began to lose air after he attempted to drive out of the gate and into the Costco parking lot. 

    Deputies were able to eventually arrest Watley. The charging document states a deputy found Thompson’s body lying face down in the cab of the truck between the driver’s and passenger’s seats and observed “two large gashes that were close together on her back.” More wounds were found later on her back, right hand and face. Thompson’s cause of death has not been released.

    A claw hammer and two folding-style knives were located next to the driver’s side door of Watley’s truck, according to the report. 

    Trucking company owner speaks out

    Parminder Singh, owner of PAA Trucking LLC, of Westville, New Jersey, said Watley had worked for him for nearly six months prior to his arrest. He added that Watley had worked for him previously, about two years ago.

    “He had an accident and damaged one of my trailers. He had gone on a low bridge and hit it — and I had to fire him,” Singh told FreightWaves. “He kept calling me to come back, to give him back his job.”

    Singh said he’s unclear why Watley was at the Costco Distribution Center in Monrovia, stating he was supposed to deliver a load of pineapples to Del Monte Fresh Produce in Jessup, Maryland, about 50 miles away. 

    “I don’t know why he drove to Costco — he was supposed to be in Jessup,” Singh said. “This has really messed me up. It’s been a bad thing for my company.” 

    Singh said he met with Watley about 12 hours prior to his arrest to collect paperwork and hand him his paycheck and the new paperwork for the Del Monte load, which had to be delivered by 11 p.m. Sept. 23.

    “It was raining so he [Watley] got out of the truck and walked over to my pickup truck and we talked there,” Singh said. 

    He said that what stands out from Singh’s conversation with Watley was that the driver asked if he could go home first to take a shower and do laundry before delivering the load of pineapples.

    Singh said Watley told him he was staying at his mother’s home in Sicklerville.

    Singh said he tried calling and texting Watley around 11:30 p.m. but he didn’t answer. Singh also said Watley’s GPS tracking system had been turned off or wasn’t working. 

    Singh said he received a call from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office about 2:30 a.m. Sept. 24 that Watley had been arrested.

    Watley’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 24. He is being held without bond after waiving his right to a bond hearing, according to Jacqueline Rottmann, communications specialist for the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 21:40

  • I’m Fighting For Taxpayers: Gaetz
    I’m Fighting For Taxpayers: Gaetz

    Op-Ed authored by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) via RealClear Wire,

    I know who my bosses are. They aren’t the special interests in Washington, it isn’t party leadership, it’s my voters in Florida.

    Earlier this month, I sat down with some of my bosses in Destin, Florida for a podcast they host in their driveway. I was there to be held accountable. Congress has yet to achieve the things voters are asking for like term limits and a balanced budget.

    That’s what this fight in Congress is all about. It’s about making sure the promises we’ve made to voters are fulfilled. The Speaker made promises to me and other lawmakers in January, and I want to hold him to account. To be specific, that agreement includes a vote on term limits, a vote on a balanced budget amendment, single subject spending bills, and the full release of the January 6 tapes.

    This isn’t about politics or personality. It’s about sticking to our word, and getting our nation back on track.

    In Joe Biden’s America, families are having to pinch pennies, so Congress should too. Politicians that have spent decades running up America’s deficit are taking this personally.

    Rep. John Carter, who has been on the appropriations committee since 2005, recently attacked me as an “idiot” to a reporter. Okay. What’s idiotic is that our nation’s national debt has increased more than $25 trillion since 2005.

    Some people are desperate to make a policy battle personal, because their policy failures are personally embarrassing.

    We have to stop the fiscal insanity in Washington and get our spending under control. I’m not voting for a continuing resolution that funds Jack Smith’s election interference, dangerous chaos on the southern border, and money for the endless war in Ukraine.

    Just think about what it means for Congress to govern by Continuing Resolution. Every time we vote for a continuing resolution, we make no changes in policy or spending. It’s a vote to continue the status quo. If that’s all Congress is going to do, just replace us with AI bots, because we aren’t doing anything. The hearings are fun, but it’s the budgets where real policy changes are made.

    Moody’s chief economist recently said that the typical American household is spending $709 a month more than they were two years ago just to buy the same goods and services. That’s nearly $9,000 per year being stolen from Americans through the hidden tax of inflation.

    Americans literally cannot afford Washington’s reckless spending. Politicians in Washington DC – on both sides of the aisle – are robbing the American people and their grandchildren to pay for war in Ukraine, drag queen shows in Ecuador, an open border, free stuff for illegal immigrants, and the Biden Department of Justice’s illegal election interference.

    I came to Washington to be a voice for my voters and fix this once great nation. I’m not here to empower the Democrats’ radical agenda. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit by and do nothing while greed and corruption destroys our great nation.

    Congressman Matt Gaetz (R) represents the 1st Congressional District of Florida. He is a member of the 117th Congress currently serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 21:00

  • "It's Broken": Bill Clinton Now Opposes NYC "Sanctuary City" Laws As Migrant Crisis Spirals Out-Of-Control
    “It’s Broken”: Bill Clinton Now Opposes NYC “Sanctuary City” Laws As Migrant Crisis Spirals Out-Of-Control

    Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged Sunday that New York City’s ultra-progressive “Right to Shelter law” needs to be amended due to the migrant crisis. The open southern border policy started by the Biden administration two years ago was championed by Democrats, but now, many have ‘U-Turned’ and reversed their position on “Sanctuary City.” 

    “Gov. [Kathy] Hochul thinks it should be modified, and it probably should under the circumstances,” Clinton told host John Catsimatidis on 77 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable” show. He added the migrant crisis spreading across US cities is not a good look for Democrats. 

    Clinton argued that NYC’s “Right to Shelter” law needs to be changed as tens of thousands of migrants flooded the city this year after crossing the southern border with Mexico. 

    “It’s broken. We need to fix it… It doesn’t make any sense,” Clinton said of the law. 

    “They come here, and we’re supposed to shelter people who can’t get work permits for six months. We need to change that,” he added.

    “They ought to work. They need to begin working, paying taxes and paying their way. Most of these people have no interest in being on welfare,” Clinton said.

    Days ago, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, chief advisor to Mayor Eric Adams, said NYC should not be responsible for housing migrants on the right to shelter laws in the state. 

    Clinton, like many other Democrats, is reversing course on Sanctuary City laws because the writing is on the wall that voters are fed up with the migrant crisis. 

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

    Responding to the post above, Elon Musk said, “They did literally ask for it.” 

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

    In a separate post, Musk asked: “If New York is already buckling under the load and has run out of room, what will the situation be like a year from now?” He said, “The open border policy started under Biden two years ago. That policy was not in place under Obama, and Gov Hochul is Democrat not Republican, so this is not some D vs R political battle – it is specific to the current administration.” 

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

    Musk noted over the weekend, “US Border Patrol just reported the highest number of recorded illegal immigrants in history at over 260,000 this month.” 

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

    Mayor Adams warned last month that the migrant crisis will ‘destroy NYC’ and slammed the Biden administration for doing nothing about the problem they created.

    Even the liberals on The View don’t want migrants anymore

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

    These migrants that Democrats welcomed into the US with open arms will be in for a cold awakening with the upcoming winter in NYC. 

    So what’s next? 

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 20:40

  • Victor Davis Hanson: California, The Great Destroyer
    Victor Davis Hanson: California, The Great Destroyer

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    In 1996, the California legislature created the high speed rail authority.

    In 2008, voters passed a $33 billion bond to build an envisioned 800 mile project eventually to link Sacramento with San Diego.

    Fifteen years later, a scaled-down plan from Bakersfield to Merced remains not even half finished. Yet the envisioned costs will exceed that of the original estimate for the entire project.

    The rail authority now estimates that just the modest 178 mile route—only about a fifth of the authorized distance—will not be completed at least until 2030. Past high speed estimates of both time and cost targets have been widely wrong and perhaps deliberately misleading.

    Total costs for the entire project are now estimated at nearly $130 billion.

    Many expect that figure to double in the next quarter-century.

    Planners also concede there will likely not be much high speed rider demand from San Joaquin Valley residents willing to pay $86 to travel at a supposed 200 mph from Bakersfield to Merced.

    Nine years ago voters amid drought and water shortages also passed a state water bond, authorizing $7.5 billion in new water projects and initiatives.

    Some $2.7 billion was targeted for new dams and reservoirs. The current water storage system had not been enlarged since the early 1980s, when the state population was 15 million fewer residents.

    So far not a single dam or new reservoir has been built.

    And Californians expect more water rationing statewide anytime the state experiences a modest drought.

    In 2017, a $15 billion bond authorized a complete remodeling of Los Angeles International Airport—recognized as one of the more congested, disorganized, and unpleasant airports in America.

    Now the cost to complete the project has grown to an estimated $30 billion, with a proposed finish date of 2028—11 years after the project was authorized.

    And the ongoing LAX remake is considered one of California’s more successful public construction projects.

    In 2002, California began construction on the eastern span replacement of the iconic San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge—less than half of the bridge’s total length.

    It was scheduled to be finished in five years at a cost of $250 million.

    The job in fact took 11 years. And it cost $6.5 billion—a 2,500 percent increase over the estimate.

    In contrast, original construction of the entire Bay Bridge began in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression. Yet the job was completed in a little  more than three years.

    The list of such delayed, canceled, or prolonged projects could be expanded, from the proposed widening of the state’s overcrowded, antiquated, and dangerous north-to-south “freeways” to the now inert Peripheral Canal project that would have allowed the California aqueduct to transfer needed water southward by precluding the present inefficient pumping into and out of the San Francisco delta.

    So what happened to the can-do California of former governors Pat Brown, Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian, and Pete Wilson? They had bequeathed to the Baby Boomer generation a well-run state, renowned for its state-of-the-art infrastructure.

    All four governors, a Democrat and Republicans, had ensured the nation’s most sophisticated higher education system, iconic freeways, and model water transference systems.

    The current disaster has many parents.

    A coastal culture of globally rich elites began passing some of the most stringent environmental and zoning regulations in the nation. Such Byzantine roadblocks deliberately stalled construction and skyrocketed costs—all of little concern to the “not-in-my-backyard” wealthy in their secluded coastal enclaves who had ensured the virtual end of infrastructure investments.

    The state’s public unions and bloated bureaucracies guaranteed Soviet-style overhead, incompetence, and unaccountability. The more California raised its income taxes—currently the nation’s highest topping out at 13.3 percent—the more it borrowed, spent, and ran up huge annual budget deficits.

    The nation’s highest gasoline taxes along with steep sales and property taxes—coupled with unaffordable fuel and housing, a homeless epidemic, dismal public schools, out-of-control crime, and mass, illegal immigration—soon all led to a bifurcated state of rich and poor.

    The middle class either became poor or fled.

    Indeed, businesses and millions of the middle class hightailed it out of California over the last three decades in one of the greatest state population exoduses in our nation’s history. But they also took with them the very prior experience, expertise, and capital that had once made California the nation’s envy.

    In contrast, millions of impoverished illegal immigrants arrived over the last 30 years without legality, English, or high school diplomas.

    And thus millions were immediately in dire need of costly state-supplied health, education, housing, and food subsidies. Currently well over half of all California births are paid for by Medi-Cal. Well over a third of the resident population depends on the state to provide all their health care needs.

    Twenty-seven percent of California’s resident population was not born in the United States. That reality created a vast challenge of civic education to ensure assimilation and integration. Unfortunately, millions entered California at precisely the time of a new tribalism and racial essentialism that has taken hold of the state’s government, media, schools, and universities. Tribalism, not the melting-pot, is California’s paradigm.

    California is a one-party state.

    There are no statewide Republican elected officeholders. Progressive Democrats also enjoy a supermajority in both houses of the legislature. Only 12 of 52 congressional seats are held by Republicans. And almost all of California leftwing politicians are funded or influenced by Silicon Valley—the richest corridor in civilizational history, with $9 trillion in market capitalization.

    In sum, a now broke California became a medieval society of Leftwing ultra-rich and Leftwing ultra-poor.

    On one end, there was no longer the skill or expertise to modernize the state.

    And on the other, an elite became more interested in dreaming of heaven on earth for itself as it ensured a veritable hell for others.

    There is one thing, however, that California does quite well: demolition.

    Currently it is destroying four dams on the Klamath River that had provided clean hydroelectrical power, water storage, flood control, and recreation. The media, the bureaucracy, and the politicians acted with unaccustomed dispatch to obliterate the dams and thus supposedly to liberate salmon to swim better upstream.

    And the state is blowing up these dams partly by directing hundreds of millions of dollars voters had allotted for reservoir construction—adding insult to the injury of state voters.

    A haughty green California also regulated timber companies out of business. It ceased traditional selective logging and clearing of brush from its forests.

    It also limited cattle grazing of grasses and shrubs. And it embraced  new “natural” forestry initiatives that postulated that rotting dead trees, dense brush, and tall summer grasses—dry kindling for devastating forest fires—created a rich “sustainable” ecosystem for wildlife. Letting nature be would prompt occasional “natural” corrective fires as in the nineteenth-century past.

    The predictable results were massive, destructive—and once preventable—forest fires in the Sierra Nevada mountains and foothills. During California summers, their vast plumes of soot and smoke have polluted the skies for months and sickened residents, destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, and wiped out billions of dollars in valuable timber even as lumber prices soared.

    And California’s lesson for the nation?

    If you want to topple a statue, re-label an historically named street, burn up millions of pine and fir trees, blow up a dam, turn parks and the public square into dangerous and toxic squatter cities, then the state can do all of that and in record time.

    But try building something to ensure Californians can travel quickly and in safety, or have affordable power, homes, and fuel, and assured water?

    All that is simply beyond the current state’s comprehension, ability, and desire. So like modern Vandals or Goths, contemporary Californians are far better destroying the work of others than creating anything of their own.

    And what is next? We await the 2024 national elections, when a few California politicians may run for our highest offices, no doubt with the campaign promise, “I can do to America what I did to California.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 20:20

  • Starlink Now Operational Across Entire US As Elon Musk Becomes 'Uncancellable'
    Starlink Now Operational Across Entire US As Elon Musk Becomes ‘Uncancellable’

    For those living off-the-grid or using Starlink as a network redundancy in case of a grid failure, the SpaceX-owned space internet company announced on X that the service is now available across the Lower 48 after deploying next-generation satellites. 

    “Deployment of our second generation Starlink satellites, which have 4x more capacity than the first gen, enable us to connect even more people no matter where they live,” Starlink wrote in the post. 

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

    It added: “Starlink is now available across the United States.” 

    Before this announcement, large swaths of the US were pending service, with notes on the map that read coverage would expand by late 2023 or early 2024. 

    Data from the website Starlink Satellite Tracker shows that 5,039 satellites have been launched into low Earth orbit over the last several years.

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

    Of that, 4,207 are active, 591 have burned up, and 241 are inactive. 

    In recent weeks, Starlink announced over 2 million active users on the network worldwide, a doubling in active users in only nine months. 

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

    We noted in August that the number of Americans searching “live off-grid” on the internet rose to the highest level in five years. We said at the time, “The driving force behind finding a rural piece of land for dirt cheap, buying or building a tiny home, installing solar panels, and sourcing your own food and water might have to do with the worst inflation storm in a generation while Democrat cities implode under the weight of soaring violent crime.” 

    Here’s what X users are saying:

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

     

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

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

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

    How are you going to get high-speed internet in the sticks? Well, not through Jeff Bezos’ Kuiper, but instead Musk’s Starlink. 

    Democrats have tried to cancel Musk over the Starlink controversy in Ukraine. The fact is, as of right now, that’s impossible as the Pentagon needs the billionaire’s rockets and space internet as world war threats continue to emerge (read: here). 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 20:00

  • Gaetz Moves To Formally Remove McCarthy As Speaker
    Gaetz Moves To Formally Remove McCarthy As Speaker

    Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Monday moved to force a vote to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after McCarthy enlisted Democrats to pass a Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded through mid-November, and cut a secret side-deal for Ukraine funding.

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

    A vote on the motion will now be brought up within two legislative days, however the chamber can first use legislative maneuvering to kill or delay it, such as voting to table the resolution.

    Gaetz says he’ll try to oust McCarthy repeatedly, saying “Real chaos is when the American people have to go through the austerity that is coming.“

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsOn Sunday, Gaetz appeared on ABC‘s “This Week” to say that McCarthy will get his wish, and that he was going to file the motion this week.

    In a Monday op-ed, Gaetz wrote:

    We have to stop the fiscal insanity in Washington and get our spending under control. I’m not voting for a continuing resolution that funds Jack Smith’s election interference, dangerous chaos on the southern border, and money for the endless war in Ukraine.

    Just think about what it means for Congress to govern by Continuing Resolution. Every time we vote for a continuing resolution, we make no changes in policy or spending. It’s a vote to continue the status quo. If that’s all Congress is going to do, just replace us with AI bots, because we aren’t doing anything. The hearings are fun, but it’s the budgets where real policy changes are made.

    Of course, there’s no Republican in the House who both wants the job and could get the votes, after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said he’s out.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 19:30

  • NY Gov. Hochul Suddenly Shifts Gears On Illegal Immigration As Her State Is Overrun
    NY Gov. Hochul Suddenly Shifts Gears On Illegal Immigration As Her State Is Overrun

    Only a year ago NY Governor Kathy Hochul adamantly supported illegal immigration, and some argue she encouraged it by stating publicly that New York was “desperate for workers” and that the migrant were “good for the economy.”  However, as NYC and the state in general is being overrun with hundred of thousands of illegals, suddenly the governor has changed her tune – Now she believes at least “some restrictions” should be put in place to limit the number of people who enter the country. 

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

    The abrupt change of heart follows a swiftly derailing situation in the sanctuary state, as local governments struggle to house and feed the surging invasion of asylum seekers demanding access to welfare services.  Reports from a year ago should have made the outcome obvious, with Illegals canvassing door-to-door in NYC asking for handouts and homeless shelters packed to capacity.  At the time, Hochul was more concerned with wristbands put on migrants bussed from Texas that had barcodes designed to show that they arrived safely to New York, calling the practice inhumane. 

    Today, Democrats from Washington DC to New York to Chicago are finally getting a taste of their own Robitussin and they really don’t like it.  The concept of open borders and sanctuary cities was perfectly acceptable to them, as long as they never had to deal with the direct consequences.  How quickly people adjust their thinking when the crisis they caused is on their doorstep.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 19:20

  • Sidney Powell Paid For Georgia Election Machine Examination Upon 'Threat', Her Lawyer Says
    Sidney Powell Paid For Georgia Election Machine Examination Upon ‘Threat’, Her Lawyer Says

    Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

    Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor charged with breaching election machines in Georgia, had nothing to do with the breach, save for paying for it after the fact, and only because the forensic firm that did it threatened to dump the data online, her lawyer said in a recent court filing.

    Sidney Powell, author of the bestseller “Licensed to Lie” and lead counsel in more than 500 appeals in the Fifth Circuit, in Washington on May 30, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

    Ms. Powell was charged as part of the election interference case against former President Donald Trump that was brought on Aug. 14 by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. It alleges that the efforts of President Trump and 18 others, including Ms. Powell, to challenge the 2020 election results amounted to a racketeering conspiracy.

    Ms. Willis has accused Ms. Powell of participating in the alleged conspiracy and conspiracies to commit computer trespass, computer theft, computer invasion of privacy, election fraud, and defrauding the state.

    The charges are tied to a Jan. 7, 2021, incident in which personnel of data forensic company SullivanStrickler copied data from election machines and computers in Coffee County, Georgia.

    The lawyer for Ms. Powell, Brian Rafferty, has vehemently denied the allegations and is seeking dismissal of the charges.

    Mr. Rafferty has argued that examination of the machines wasn’t a crime because it was authorized by the Coffee County Election Board. Even if the board didn’t ultimately have the authority to allow the examination, the people involved operated under the belief that their action was authorized. For their actions to be criminal, they would have to have been undertaken with a knowing lack of authority.

    Further still, however, Ms. Powell didn’t organize or participate in the incident, Mr. Rafferty asserted.

    “There are no communications of any kind between Ms. Powell and any of the alleged coconspirators or unindicted coconspirators that evince any agreement by Ms. Powell to have SullivanStrickler personnel to travel to Coffee County or to contract for their services for Coffee County—much less to do so for any illegal purpose,” he said in a Sept. 28 filing.

    Ms. Powell challenged the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona, but she never represented President Trump, he said.

    “It cannot be disputed that Ms. Powell went her own way following the election, and she never reached an agreement on a course of action with any indicted or unindicted coconspirator,” he said.

    She did share evidence used in her lawsuits, all of which failed, with President Trump and his aides, and she advised him on his authorities in case of foreign interference in the election, Mr. Rafferty acknowledged.

    “All those substantive communications, limited as they were, effectively ended by December 19, 2020,” he said.

    He also acknowledged that “Defending the Republic Inc., a non-profit Ms. Powell founded, paid a bill from SullivanStrickler,” but he added that it did so only upon the company’s “threat to post information publicly online after its technicians apparently collected data from Coffee County machines.”

    SullivanStrickler didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    “Ms. Powell did not request that trip; she did not even know of that trip—much less authorize it,” Mr. Rafferty said.

    “Accordingly, she did not agree with anyone to undertake the collection of Coffee County data—even though it was done with permission of Coffee County officials—and the State has no evidence she conspired with anyone to violate any law.”

    Ms. Powell and another defendant, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, asked for a speedy trial, which is scheduled to commence on Oct. 23. Other defendants will be tried separately, though it’s not clear when. Several defendants are also trying to have the case removed to a federal court. In some of the latest developments, lawyers for President Trump informed the court that they will not joint the removal effort.

    President Trump is facing another indictment for his election challenges in a federal court in the District of Columbia. He’s also fighting charges of illegal retention of defense information in Florida and more charges in New York for allegedly fraudulent bookkeeping entries. In a separate civil suit targeting his businesses, a New York judge recently ordered his businesses in the state dissolved.

    President Trump has denounced the legal cases against himself as politically motivated efforts to interfere with his 2024 presidential run.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 19:00

  • Fifth Circuit Court Rules Against Biden's ATF In Ghost Gun Case 
    Fifth Circuit Court Rules Against Biden’s ATF In Ghost Gun Case 

    The Fifth Circuit has partially granted, but essentially denied, the government’s motion to cancel a district court’s injunctions in the Firearms Policy Coalition’s lawsuit (VanDerStok v. Garland) challenging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “frame or receiver” rule. The injunctions will now only apply to two plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

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

    The case involves so-called “ghost guns,” weapons that are sold in ready-to-assemble kits. President Biden has pushed hard to require background checks and serial numbers for buying sets of gun parts under the pretext that these are ‘readily convertible’ and, therefore, firearms. The ruling today means the plaintiffs, Defense Distributed and Blackhawk Manufacturing Group (incorporated, doing business as 80 Percent Arms), can sell every kind of ghost gun kit to their customers while the courts review ATF’s 98-page rule. 

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

    Since the plaintiffs, Distributed and Blackhawk Manufacturing, were the only ones permitted to sell ghost gun kits, this essentially grants them a monopoly on selling the kits nationwide. The government, by implementing this rule, has essentially crushed the industry. But they’ve now inadvertently established a monopoly in the process.

    Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson explains more on this:

    “These are the kinds of accidents integral to Executive and agency overreach in the federal courts. Should have stayed out of the People’s business. Someone will have to break the bad news to Kamala and her lackeys in the new WH Office of Gun Violence Prevention.” 

    Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t even two weeks into her new role as ‘Gun Czar‘ and has already been delivered a blow as Biden’s war on guns has been squarely pointed at ‘ghost guns.’ 

    Remember this: 

    It’s likely that anti-gunner organizations like Giffords and Everytown and their billionaire backers like Michael Bloomberg will be displeased with Defense Distributed being allowed to sell ghost gun kits again.

    Here is constitutional attorney Mark W. Smith breaking down what happened today: 

    Since this is a ruling in favor of the Second Amendment, we doubt Reuters, Bloomberg, and or any other left-leaning corporate media outlets will be reporting on this. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 18:40

  • Sisi Tells Egyptians 'Hunger A Price Worth Paying For Progress' In Bizarre Speech
    Sisi Tells Egyptians ‘Hunger A Price Worth Paying For Progress’ In Bizarre Speech

    Via Middle East Eye

    In a widely condemned televised speech, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has said his people should accept the prospect of going hungry as the price of the country’s success.

    In the remarks on Saturday, Sisi also called his opponents “liars, saboteurs and wicked”, as critics questioned the billions spent on infrastructure projects that he has undertaken as many Egyptians struggle to make ends meet. 

    AFP: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at a meeting with the French foreign minister in Cairo on 14 September 2023

    “Don’t you Egyptians dare say you would rather eat than build and progress,” Sisi said. “If the price of the nation’s progress and prosperity is to go hungry and thirsty, then let us not eat or drink,” he added.

    “Don’t undermine the cause of our nation and make us the world’s laughing stock. Stand fast and transform the cruel circumstances we are going through into a gift. The harder you stand fast, the sooner it [the economic crises] will pass.”

    In a meandering and times informal dialogue, the Egyptian president suggested ways in which he could “destroy” Egypt, if he were so inclined, by distributing pills to foster chaos in the country. 

    Sisi said that he spoke with the Supreme Judicial Council regarding how easy the country would be to destroy and had concluded that giving 100,000 people in “difficult circumstances” tramadol, a strong opioid, would do the trick at a cost of no more than $30m. It is unclear why he publicized such remarks but his comments were widely condemned online.

    Ahmed Tantawi, who is positioning himself as Sisi’s main opponent in the country’s upcoming election, condemned the president’s speech in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. Directly addressing Sisi, he wrote: “Egyptians actually starved during your rule because of your administration. They did not see any of the development that was promised.”

    Tantawi further accused Sisi of spreading lies and accumulating “high-rise buildings, cities and palaces built in deserts, even if it is at the expense of [the ordinary] man and his right to a decent life and education”. “[The government] has stripped citizens of social protection, leaving two-thirds of Egyptians living below and around the poverty line, while the conditions of most of the remaining third has deteriorated dangerously,” he said.

    Other users on the platform said that Sisi represented the “cartoon of a madman” while another social media user said that the president’s comments could technically land him in jail. As Sisi faces a deepening economic crisis, his reaction to criticism has become increasingly erratic. 

    Egypt will hold a presidential election between 10 and 12 December, brought forward from the original date in 2024, with Sisi widely expected to win a third term.

    Looming economic crises

    Analysts have predicted that Egypt is the country second most at risk of a debt crisis, coming just after war-torn Ukraine. 

    Nevertheless, Sisi, who was undaunted about the mounting economic problems, asked the country: “What kind of country do you want to live in? Do you want to build Egypt and make it a nation of note, or not? Do you consider building an adventure? Do you consider reform an adventure?”

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

    Egypt has been gripped by an economic crisis for years, a situation exacerbated by the war in Ukraine which has severely affected food prices in the country.

    Official figures showed annual inflation in Egypt reached a new record 39.7 percent in August, while the Egyptian pound has been on a dramatic slide against the dollar. A dollar buys 30 Egyptian pounds today compared to just under 20 exactly a year ago.

    Egypt has been dependent on bailouts from its wealthier allies in the Gulf and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in recent years, as investors pull billions out of the country.

    While the financial crisis has a range of causes, many opposition figures have pointed fingers at the increasing grip the military has held over the economy following the 2013 coup that ousted the elected government of Mohamed Morsi.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 18:20

  • Newsom Fills Feinstein's Empty Senate Seat With Wealthy Black Lesbian From Maryland
    Newsom Fills Feinstein’s Empty Senate Seat With Wealthy Black Lesbian From Maryland

    In 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) vowed to replace any Senate vacancies with a black woman.

    On Sunday, he did just that following the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), appointing the first black lesbian to ever openly serve in Congress.

    Laphonza Butler, president of of pro-abortion organization EMILY’s List who served as a senior adviser to Kamala Harris’ very failed 2020 presidential campaign, and currently a resident of Maryland, was announced as Feinstein’s replacement in a Sunday night announcement by Newsom.

    Butler will finish Feinstein’s term, which runs until 2024, after which she may face off with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who had been hoping Feinstein would live till the election so he could slide into the Senate.

    “As we mourn the enormous loss of Senator Feinstein, the very freedoms she fought for — reproductive freedom, equal protection, and safety from gun violence — have never been under greater assault,” said Newsom, adding “Laphonza will carry the baton left by Senator Feinstein, continue to break glass ceilings, and fight for all Californians in Washington D.C.”

    Butler was born in Magnolia, Mississippi, where she began her career as a union organizer. In 2009, she moved to California, where she served as president of SEIU United Long Term Care Workers, where she was instrumental in raising minimum wage, and hiking taxes on wealthy Californians. She also served as a University of California regent for three years, until she moved to Maryland in 2001.

    After advising Kamala Harris on her 2020 campaign, Butler left SCRB strategies to become Airbnb’s director of public policy and campaigns in North America. Wile working for Harris, she was hired by Uber during an organized labor dispute – when Harris’s brother-in-law, Tony West, was Uber’s chief legal officer.

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

    Many have made light of the fact that Butler doesn’t actually live in California.

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

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

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 18:15

  • 2-Out-Of-3 Gen Z-ers Still Get Financial Help From Their Parents
    2-Out-Of-3 Gen Z-ers Still Get Financial Help From Their Parents

    A recent poll surveying 1,000 U.S. residents reveals that a sizable number haven’t ventured as far from home as they once imagined they would. Close to one-third remain in the town where they grew up, and astonishingly, 40% of that group still share a roof with their parents.

    And the reason many haven’t left home seems to be clear: nearly 2 in 3 Gen Zers receive financial help from their parents. 29% of Americans still live in their home town, according to a newly released study and data aggregated by AllStar Home. 

    The median distance that U.S. residents reside from their birthplace is a mere 30 miles. Those who haven’t crossed state lines are, on average, just a 47-minute drive away from their original stomping grounds, the study found. 

    The report noted that of the 29% who haven’t left their hometown, 41% intend to stay put indefinitely, while a majority of 52% have plans to relocate within the next half-decade. Interestingly, more women (47%) than men (38%) expressed surprise at still living in their hometown at this point in their lives. The primary factors keeping people close to home include emotional attachment and a sense of comfort, followed by financial constraints, employment opportunities, and a general apprehension about venturing into the unknown.

    The term ‘townie,’ representing individuals who spend their entire lives in their birthplace, is embraced by nearly one in four respondents—24% to be exact. Among these self-identified townies, the majority are unapologetic about their lifestyle choice; a notable 51% claimed to wear the ‘townie’ label with pride.

    The study also found that among those who have stayed in their hometown, 38% have remained in the home where they grew up, and an additional 40% are still living with their parents. The trend is especially pronounced among Gen Z, where an eye-opening 86% who remain in their hometown also live with their parents. This compares with 28% of Millennials. Although 85% of people view it as socially acceptable in 2023 to reside with parents post-education for financial reasons, a third (30%) admit to feeling some level of embarrassment about it.

    In an intriguing twist dubbed the “reverse-boomerang effect,” it’s not just the young staying put; some parents are gravitating toward the places their adult children have moved to. Among those who have left their home state, 20% report that their parents followed suit. For Gen Zers who relocated out of state, this figure jumps to 40%.

     

    The predominant motive for parents’ migration is the desire to be nearer to their offspring. Others cited a fondness for the new state or said that necessity and caregiving responsibilities drove the move. As for financial support, while 19% of respondents have financially assisted their parents this year, parents are more likely to return the favor; nearly one-third (31%) state that they have received financial help from their parents in 2023.

    Half of the respondents identified as male, while 48% were female and a minority of 2% identified as nonbinary. The age spectrum of those surveyed spanned from 18 to 77 years, with the mean age landing at 43. In terms of generational representation, the pool was evenly divided: a quarter each from Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. When it comes to living arrangements, 64% reside in standalone houses, 24% in apartments, 5% in townhomes, 4% in mobile homes, and a mere 3% occupy condominiums. 

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 18:00

  • Unlocking The Psychology Of Bitcoin's Bear Market
    Unlocking The Psychology Of Bitcoin’s Bear Market

    Authored by Kane McGukin via BombThrower.com,

    Bear markets in Bitcoin are brutal… and long. They’ve historically seen prices fall 70-80%+ and last about 1,000 days.

    However, each time (3) the market tends to forget just how bad a Bitcoin bear market is. That’s where we are now.

    You’re hearing calls that this is the worst bear market ever and it’s so much longer than before. It’s not. It’s inline and has similar characteristics to all of the past Bitcoin bears. From a valuation standpoint, Bitcoin was this cheap on a relative basis back in 2011, ‘12, ‘15, ‘16, 2020, and now.

    Bitcoin is in that part of the bear, the last third, where you see everyone’s hands go up. Everyone throwing in the towel, even the most gung ho Bitcoin influencers begin losing their steam and questioning their maximalist stance. It’s not openly said, but you can tell by the posts or lack thereof. However, Bitcoin bears are when Bitcoin is built. So, there is a necessary beauty to this evil pain.

    In general, I get the psychological nature of it. We all do. Because losing’s no fun. Just ask Deion Sanders. He’s a winner first and only likes to win. He’s open about it. Flamboyant about it.

    Here are a couple of noteworthy quotes of his that help us relate.

    Time is a Wonderful Storyteller

    This really fits!! Bitcoin halvings, the epochs, each have its own story and they require time to be told properly. Relatively speaking, a lot of time… Four years worth of time.

    Each is slightly different, but yet is still the same as any other monetary story throughout history.

    All money stories are filled with one key ingredient – man’s battle with the highs and lows tied to greed. Bitcoin’s story just so happens to be telling us how we’re transitioning money from the physical world to a digital one.

    In the worst case, I believe it’s telling us how we’re building a parallel financial network that mimics the one we already know (image below). And at best, it’s telling us how we’ll fix broken money altogether.

    What’s a Bitcoin Halving? How Long Do They Last?

    In each Bitcoin block, the first transaction is a coinbase transaction that holds the block reward and fees for mining the block.

    The block reward, the amount of bitcoin in each block, halves roughly every 210,000 blocks or every 4 years.

    From this, we can make some assumptions related to how bear and bull markets work. Especially with 14 years and 3 halvings under our belt. P.S. the next, the fourth, is estimated to happen in April of 2024.

    Based on the data above and with a representative history of past Bitcoin bear and bull markets, we can make a fair number of assumptions and estimates about the life of a Bitcoin bear market.

    Additionally, we can add traditional charting techniques to further verify, support, or deny these assumptions. It’s just another tool in the belt.

    Putting it All Together

    • A full halving: 4 years or 210,000 blocks

    • bitcoin bulls (to high date): historically last 1/3 of a halving or an average of 73,832 blocks.

    • bitcoin bears (to next breakout, not low): historically lasts 2/3’s of the time or an average of 136,168 blocks.

    • On average, the bears have lasted roughly 979 days. That’s from the high day to the next breakout day. This is where the charts come into play.

    • If past patterns hold true, then we can expect this bear to last another roughly 300 days (almost a year) taking us to July 2024 or so (discussed a little more in the podcast above).

    • If this bear is like 2013 it last until around May 2024, just after the halving. If it’s like 2017, it could be September 2024.

    Either way, we don’t have to be 100% right. We just need to listen to what the markets are telling us, what the fundamentals are saying, and have a general understanding of how history has played out. That’s the goal.

    Will market action repeat, who knows? Will Bitcoin moon to an all-time new high? I don’t know that either. But, I do have enough information to see that Bitcoin is here to stay. The monetary rails we are comfortable using are being rebuilt to include this asset in one way or another.

    The fundamental signs are there and growing. Like the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s recent announcement in favor of accounting rules that pave the way for companies to hold Bitcoin on the balance sheet.

    Moves like this, along with a number of other fundamental cookie crumbs, don’t happen unless the table is being set for big boys, big banks, big funds, and big corporations to come to market.

    Let’s see how the next bull plays out… When it finally gets here 😉

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/02/2023 – 17:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest