Sep 03

Today’s News 3rd September 2020

  • "Poisons Regional Peace": Turkey Enraged After US Lifts Decades-Old Arms Embargo On Cyprus
    “Poisons Regional Peace”: Turkey Enraged After US Lifts Decades-Old Arms Embargo On Cyprus

    Tyler Durden

    Thu, 09/03/2020 – 02:45

    The timing significantly comes amid Turkey’s Mediterranean gas exploration standoff with Greece and Cyprus, which this past weekend very nearly resulted in shots fired, as the conflict gets increasingly militarized: the US has announced it will lift a decades-old arms embargo on Cyprus.

    For now, the US move will only allow “non-lethal” military items to be exported to EU member Cyprus. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo relayed the change to Republic of Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades in a Tuesday phone call.

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    French made missiles, via MBDA/UPI

    Pompeo further “reaffirmed US support for a comprehensive settlement to reunify the island” – given the arms embargo was imposed in the first place in 1987 in the hope it would encourage reunification, following Turkey’s military invasion and occupation of the northern half of the island since 1974.

    President Anastasiades welcomed the temporary sanctions lifting, while predictably Turkey sees it as a direct threat, immediately urging Washington to reverse course:

    “It poisons the peace and stability environment in the region,” the Turkish foreign ministry said, adding it does “not comply with the spirit of alliance” between the US and Turkey.

    If Washington did not reverse course, the ministry said, “Turkey, as a guarantor country, will take the necessary decisive counter steps to guarantee the security of the Turkish Cypriot people, in line with its legal and historical responsibilities.

    But Pompeo reaffirmed on Twitter that “Cyprus is a key partner in the Eastern Mediterranean,” and added, “We will waive restrictions on the sale of non-lethal defense articles and services to the Republic of Cyprus for the coming fiscal year.”

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    Currently the eastern Mediterranean region is witnessing rival naval drills among Turkey, and Greece and Cyprus and European allies France and Italy.

    France is an EU leader which has been most vocal in its condemnation of Turkey’s alleged violation of Greek and Cypriot waters and economic zones.

    Despite Turkey being pretty much completely isolated in its actions and expansive interpretation of maritime boundaries (with the exception of the Tripoli government in Libya), it’s remained unmoved. 

  • "We Will Never Give Up": Charlie Hebdo Republishes Mohammed Cartoons
    “We Will Never Give Up”: Charlie Hebdo Republishes Mohammed Cartoons

    Tyler Durden

    Thu, 09/03/2020 – 02:00

    Authored by Giulio Meotti via The Gatestone Institute,

    Yesterday, one day before the opening of the trial for 14 defendants accused of involvement in a string of terrorist attacks in France, which included the murders of their fellow journalists and cartoonists on January 7, 2015 at their Paris office, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished the “Mohammed Cartoons” under the title “Tout ça pour ça” (“All of that for this”).

    “We will never give up”, they said.

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    The defendants in the trial, some in absentia, “face a variety of charges related to helping perpetrators carry out attacks that killed 17 people over three days in January 2015.” In addition to the 12 victims in and around the office of Charlie Hebdo, a police officer was murdered in the street and four people were murdered in a kosher supermarket.

    François Molins, then public prosecutor of Paris, recalled his arrival at the Charlie Hebdo office. He found “the smell of blood and gunpowder. In the newsroom, it is carnage. It is more than a crime scene, it is a war scene, with a frightening tangle of bodies”.

    Charlie Hebdo‘s editor, known as Riss, has detailed the heavy security surrounding the weekly since the terror attack. Charlie Hebdo is now subsidizing part of its own protection, spending 1.5 million euros per year. “When you take 3 euros out of your pocket to buy a copy of Charlie Hebdo, 1.30 euros goes to the distributor and with the remaining 1.70 euros the magazine pays the employees, the rent, the service providers, as well as its security”, he said. After paying an even greater price in 2015 in terms of blood, and paying an exorbitant price in terms of security, it would have been understandable for Charlie Hebdo‘s editors to have stopped using their freedom of speech to subject Islam to criticism. That is not what they chose to do.

    “We have often been asked to publish other cartoons of Mohammed”, they wrote.

    “We have always refused to do it, not because it is forbidden — the law allows it — but because we needed a good reason to do it, a reason that made sense and that would bring something to the debate”.

    The last time Charlie Hebdo had run a cartoon of Mohammed was five years ago, on the cover of the issue just after the massacre, which sold eight million copies. It showed the prophet of Islam accompanied by the title “All is forgiven“.

    “We must continue to portray Muhammad; not to do that means there is no more Charlie“, said Patrick Pelloux, a cartoonist who has since left the magazine.

    Is Charlie still Charlie, many wondered after the massacre? Today, yes — but France is starting to reflect on the dramatic decline in its freedom of expression.

    Philippe Lançon, who was seriously injured in the 2015 attack by the Kouachi brothers, was still recovering when he attended a party, where he met the author Michel Houellebecq. The two had a brief conversation; Houellebecq concluded it by quoting the gospel of Matthew: “… the violent take it by force”.

    “Charlie Hebdo, freedom or death”, Le Figaro recently wrote in a headline. At first glance, yes, the battle is lost, explains the French newspaper. Political Islam, hand-in-hand with the cultural left, “advances under the guise of human rights and the fight against discrimination”. Much of the French media has been welcoming Charlie Hebdo‘s trial with a feeling of withdrawal and surrender. “My unfortunate client will be freedom and I fear that in the medium term it is a lost cause”, Charlie Hebdo‘s lawyer Richard Malka told the weekly Le Point.

    “Kouachi brothers and those who armed them won, yes … Who would publish the caricatures of Muhammad today? Which newspaper? In what play, in what film, in what book do you dare to criticize Islam?”

    In recent months, “several attacks have been averted”, said Jean-François Ricard, France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor. France is under severe jihadist threat. Former Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was quoted in Le Parisien saying that “violence has taken root in the heart of society”, the country risks “a conflagration” and he defines communitarianism (a system of small self-governing communities) as “a slow and fatal poison”. The journalist Etienne Gernelle wrote in Le Point:

    “Charlie Hebdo still lives under a death threat; what it represents, freedom, is under house arrest; France is paralyzed as soon as the word ‘Islam’ appears and political world and media celebrated Charlie and then distanced themselves”.

    Former Charlie Hebdo journalist Zineb El Rhazoui, author of the book Détruire le Fascisme Islamique (“Destroying Islamic Fascism“), regularly receives death threats. She pointed the finger at those accusing the magazine of Islamophobia. “I remember all those who contributed to Charlie’s isolation and descent into hell”, Rhazoui said.

    “They have a moral responsibility for Charlie’s fate. Is it normal that five years after this horrible crime, this horrible setback for freedom of expression and French culture, there is still a ‘collective against Islamophobia’ in France? Is it normal that five years after this attack, I have to continue walking protected by gunmen in the heart of Paris?”.

    The weekly Marianne asked: “Can the Kouachi brothers boast a posthumous victory? Yes”. They then listed five acts of capitulation from the past five years:

    First act: Charlie Hebdo‘s journalists had just been murdered when the writer Virginie Despentes wrote in Les Inrockuptibles about the terrorists: “I have loved them in their clumsiness, when I saw them, weapons in hand, spreading terror and screaming ‘we have avenged the prophet'”. Not a word about the fate of Charlie Hebdo‘s cartoonists, journalists and employees who were murdered for making fun of Islam, or the people murdered in the kosher supermarket.

    Second act: On November 17, 2015, four days after the terrorist attacks in Paris in which 130 victims were murdered, French journalist Antoine Leiris, whose wife was murdered in the attack on the Bataclan Theater, wrote: “You will not have my hate”. It will become, Marianne explained, the “informal slogan in progressive circles. Leiris’s faith prevented not only indignation but also a lucid analysis of the situation”.

    Third act: The editor of Mediapart, Edwy Plenel, held a meeting in the suburbs of Paris with the prominent Islamist Tariq Ramadan. Plenel accused Charlie Hebdo of engaging in a “war on Muslims“.

    Fourth act: In 2019, in Paris, a “march against Islamophobia” was attended by 13,500 people. The slogan from the circle of Salafist religious associations was adopted by “almost all the political leaders of the left”, according to Marianne. During the march, activists shouted “Allahu akbar“, the same cry used by the terrorists who struck Charlie Hebdo.

    Fifth act: “Can we criticize Islam without fearing for our own safety?”, Marianne asked. In January 2020, a 16-year-old girl, Mila, responded to homophobic insults (she was called “dirty lesbian” by a Muslim) on her Instagram account by criticizing Islam. Mila, threatened with death, fled from her school and was put under police protection. “Radio silence from left-wing political parties, feminist organizations and LGBT associations: when the aggressors are Muslims, the watchword is obviously to close eyes and cover ears”.

    Western democracies have paid dearly for the right to freedom of expression and, if not protected and exercised, it can disappear overnight.

    Preventive self-censorship and a “strategic retreat” in the face of Islamist fury appear only as an epic regression. With the “spirit of Charlie” retreating in France and “cancel culture” advancing in the US, it seems that freedom of expression is being dragged into court, rather than its killers and their useful idiots. In January, on the fifth anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the author Pascal Bruckner said:

    “I have the impression that our immune defenses have collapsed and Islamism is winning. Its main demands have been met: no one dares to publish caricatures of Muhammad anymore”.

    Charlie Hebdo has bravely done it again: it has published cartoons of Mohammed. It is still the last and only European magazine ready to defend freedom of expression. A French philosopher, Elisabeth Badinter, in the documentary “Je suis Charlie” said:

    “If our colleagues in the public debate do not share part of the risk, then the barbarians have won”.

    Will those who proclaimed “Je suis Charlie” stand with them now?

  • Watch 'Jetsons Like' Flying Car Lift Off In Japan
    Watch ‘Jetsons Like’ Flying Car Lift Off In Japan

    Tyler Durden

    Thu, 09/03/2020 – 01:00

    By the passing year, it becomes more and more plausible that by the end of the decade, some of us will be driving flying automobiles, or at least vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles. 

    What’s making headlines at the end of this week is Tokyo-based SkyDrive’s latest test of a one-seater VTOL vehicle taking off and hovering six-feet above the ground for at least five minutes, reported Bloomberg. 

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    The reason why the press covered the event is that it was SkyDrive’s first human-crewed flight with the SD-03 model, as well as, the startup is backed by Toyota. A prototype two-seater version is set to debut by 2023 and could be used as a taxi service in Tokyo and Osaka. 

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    The SD-03 model is capable of flying at low speeds for 5-10 minutes. The commercial version that will debut in a few years is expected to have a flight duration of 30 minutes with speeds up to 40 mph.

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    “In developed countries, flying cars are expected to be used as a means of transportation to ease traffic jams and respond in times of disaster, while in developing countries they are likely to be used as a form of transportation that requires far less infrastructure,” the company said in a statement in early August. 

    And it’s entirely plausible, by the end of the decade, we’ll all be, or at least the ones who still have the economic mobility to do so, be flying around in VTOL vehicles, something that reminds us of the popular 1960s animated sitcom “The Jetsons.”

  • Since 9/11, The Government's Answer To Every Problem Has Been More Government
    Since 9/11, The Government’s Answer To Every Problem Has Been More Government

    Tyler Durden

    Thu, 09/03/2020 – 00:05

    Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.”

    – Anonymous

    Have you noticed that the government’s answer to every problem is more government—at taxpayer expense—and less individual liberty?

    The Great Depression. The World Wars. The 9/11 terror attacks. The COVID-19 pandemic.

    Every crisis—manufactured or otherwise—since the nation’s early beginnings has become a make-work opportunity for the government to expand its reach and its power at taxpayer expense while limiting our freedoms at every turn.

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    Indeed, the history of the United States is a testament to the old adage that liberty decreases as government (and government bureaucracy) grows. To put it another way, as government expands, liberty contracts.

    To the police state, this COVID-19 pandemic has been a huge boon, like winning the biggest jackpot in the lottery. Certainly, it will prove to be a windfall for those who profit from government expenditures and expansions.

    Given the rate at which the government has been devising new ways to spend our money and establish itself as the “solution” to all of our worldly problems, this current crisis will most likely end up ushering in the largest expansion of government power since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

    This is how the emergency state operates, after all.

    From 9/11 to COVID-19, “we the people” have acted the part of the helpless, gullible victims desperately in need of the government to save us from whatever danger threatens. In turn, the government has been all too accommodating and eager while also expanding its power and authority in the so-called name of national security.

    As chief correspondent Dan Balz asks for The Washington Post, “Government is everywhere now. Where does it go next?”

    When it comes to the power players that call the shots, there is no end to their voracious appetite for more: more money, more power, more control.

    This expansion of government power is also increasing our federal debt in unprecedented leaps and bounds. Yet the government isn’t just borrowing outrageous amounts of money to keep the country afloat. It’s also borrowing indecent sums to pay for programs it can’t afford.

    The government’s primary response to this COVID-19 pandemic—flooding the market with borrowed money in the amount of trillions of dollars for stimulus payments, unemployment insurance expansions, and loans to prop up small businesses and to keep big companies afloat—has pushed the country even deeper in debt.

    By “the country,” I really mean the taxpayers. And by “the taxpayers,” it’s really future generations who will be shackled to debt loads they may never be able to pay back.

    This is how you impoverish the future.

    Democrats and Republicans alike have done this.

    Without fail, every president within the last 50 years has expanded the nation’s debt. When President Trump took office on January 20, 2017, the national debt—the amount the federal government has borrowed over the years and must pay back—was a whopping $19.9 trillion. Despite Trump’s pledge to drain the swamp and eliminate the debt, the federal debt is now approaching $27 trillion and is on track to surpass $78 trillion by 2028.

    For many years now, economists have warned that economic collapse would be inevitable if the national debt ever surpassed the size of the U.S. economy. The government passed that point in June 2020 and has yet to put the brakes on its spending.

    In fact, the Federal Reserve just keeps printing more money in order to prop up the economy and float the debt.

    At some point, something’s got to give.

    As it now stands, the U.S. is among the most indebted countries in the world.

    Almost a third of the $27 trillion national debt is owed to foreign entities such as Japan and China.

    Most of the debt, however, is owed to the public.

    How is this even possible? Essentially, it’s a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

    First, the government requires taxpayers to pay a portion of their salaries to the Social Security Trust Fund. The government then turns around and borrows from Social Security to cover its spending needs. Then the government raises taxes or prints more money in order to pay out whatever is needed to the retirees.

    It’s a form of convoluted economics that only makes sense to government bureaucrats looking to make a profit off the backs of the taxpayers.

    According to the U.S. Debt Clock, each taxpayer’s share of the national debt is $214,000 and growing.

    That’s almost five times more than the median income for what Americans earn in a year. That’s also almost five times more than the average American has in savings, across savings accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, call deposit accounts, and prepaid cards. Almost 60% of Americans are so financially strapped that they don’t have even $500 in savings and nothing whatsoever put away for retirement.

    Just the interest that must be paid on the national debt every year is $338 billion and growing. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the fastest growing item in the budget over the next decade will be interest on the debt.

    As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reported in 2019, before COVID spending pushed the country over the fiscal cliff, “Interest payments will rise from $325 billion last year to $928 billion by 2029, a nearly threefold increase. If tax cuts and spending increases are extended, interest will exceed $1 trillion and set a new record as a share of the economy. The federal government will spend more on interest than on Medicaid or children by 2020. By 2024, interest will match defense spending.”

    Bottom line: The U.S. government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn’t have on programs it can’t afford, and “we the taxpayers” are the ones who will have to pay for it.

    As financial analyst Kristin Tate explains,

    “When the government has its debt bill come due, all of us will be on the hook.”

    Despite the tax burden “we the people” are made to bear, we have no real say in how the government runs, or how our taxpayer funds are used, but we’re being forced to pay through the nose, anyhow.

    We have no real say, but that doesn’t prevent the government from fleecing us at every turn and forcing us to pay for endless wars that do more to fund the military industrial complex than protect us, pork barrel projects that produce little to nothing, and a police state that serves only to imprison us within its walls.

    All the while the government continues to do whatever it wants—levy taxes, rack up debt, spend outrageously and irresponsibly—with little thought for the plight of its citizens.

    This brings me to a curious point: what the future will look like ten years from now, when the federal debt is expected to surpass $78 trillion, an unsustainable level of debt that will result in unprecedented economic hardship for anyone that does not belong to the wealthy elite.

    Interestingly enough, that timeline coincides with the government’s vision of the future as depicted in a Pentagon training video created by the Army for U.S. Special Operations Command.

    According to the video, the government is anticipating trouble (read: civil unrest), which is code for anything that challenges the government’s authority, wealth and power, and is grooming its armed forces (including its heavily armed federal agents) accordingly to solve future domestic political and social problems.

    The training video, titled “Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” is only five minutes long, but it provides a chilling glimpse of what the government expects the world to look like in 2030, a world bedeviled by “criminal networks,” “substandard infrastructure,” “religious and ethnic tensions,” “impoverishment, slums,” “open landfills, over-burdened sewers,” a “growing mass of unemployed,” and an urban landscape in which the prosperous economic elite must be protected from the impoverishment of the have nots.

    And then comes the kicker.

    Three-and-a-half minutes into the Pentagon’s dystopian vision of “a world of Robert Kaplan-esque urban hellscapes — brutal and anarchic supercities filled with gangs of youth-gone-wild, a restive underclass, criminal syndicates, and bands of malicious hackers,” the ominous voice of the narrator speaks of a need to “drain the swamps.”

    Drain the swamps.

    Surely, we’ve heard that phrase before?

    Ah yes.

    Emblazoned on t-shirts and signs, shouted at rallies, and used as a rallying cry among Trump supporters, “drain the swamp” became one of Donald Trump’s most-used campaign slogans.

    Far from draining the politically corrupt swamps of Washington DC of lobbyists and special interest groups, however, the Trump Administration has further mired us in a sweltering bog of corruption and self-serving tactics.

    Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same.

    Now the government has adopted its own plans for swamp-draining, only it wants to use the military to drain the swamps of futuristic urban American cities of “noncombatants and engage the remaining adversaries in high intensity conflict within.”

    And who are these noncombatants, a military term that refers to civilians who are not engaged in fighting during a war?

    They are, according to the Pentagon, “adversaries.”

    They are “threats.”

    They are the “enemy.”

    They are people who don’t support the government, people who live in fast-growing urban communities, people who may be less well-off economically than the government and corporate elite, people who engage in protests, people who are unemployed, people who engage in crime (in keeping with the government’s fast-growing, overly broad definition of what constitutes a crime).

    In other words, in the eyes of the U.S. military, noncombatants are American citizens a.k.a. domestic extremists a.k.a. enemy combatants who must be identified, targeted, detained, contained and, if necessary, eliminated.

    Funny how closely fact tracks fiction these days.

    Just recently, in fact, I re-watched Escape from L.A., John Carpenter’s 1996 post-apocalyptic action film that imagines a future (2013, in fact) in which the United States has elected a president for life who runs the country according to his own theocratic moral law. Anyone who runs afoul of the president’s moral laws is stripped of their citizenship and either electrocuted or deported to the island of Los Angeles, a penal colony where lawlessness reigns supreme.

    As the film’s opening narrator recounts:

    In the late 20th century, hostile forces inside the United States grow strong. The city of Los Angeles is ravaged by crime and immorality. To protect and defend its citizens, the United States Police Force is formed. A presidential candidate predicts a millennium earthquake will destroy L.A. in divine retribution. The earthquake measuring 9.6 on the Richter scale hits at 12:59 P.M. August 23rd in the year 2000. After the devastation, the Constitution is amended, and the newly elected president accepts a lifetime term of office. The country’s capital is moved from Washington, D.C., to the president’s hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia. Los Angeles Island is declared no longer part of the United States and becomes the deportation point for all people found undesirable or unfit to live in the new, moral America. The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped among the shorelines, making any escape from L.A. impossible. From the southeastern hills of Orange County to the northwestern shore of Malibu, the great wall excludes L.A. from the mainland. The president’s first act as permanent Commander in Chief is Directive 17: once an American loses his or her citizenship, they are deported to this island of the damned, and they never come back.

    Carpenter is a brilliant filmmaker whose dystopian visions of the future are eerily prescient, but this film is particularly unnerving: environmental disasters; engineered viruses used like weapons to control the masses; riots and looting that leave the populace longing for law and order; religion used like a weapon; martial law; surveillance that keeps every citizen under the government’s watchful eye; and a growing awareness that the only path to freedom left for humanity is to shut down the government and start over again.

    We’re almost there now.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, unless we make some effort to reject the sorry excuse for representative government that we have been saddled with, the future that awaits us – whether it’s the future envisioned by the Pentagon in its training video or the future imagined by Carpenter – will be a living nightmare from which there is no escape.

  • Japan Plans To Provide COVID-19 Vaccine To All Citizens For Free
    Japan Plans To Provide COVID-19 Vaccine To All Citizens For Free

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 23:45

    Outgoing Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has made many of the same mistakes during the battle against COVID-19 as President Trump: After botching the handling of the “Diamond Princess” by allowing quarantines to be violated and the infection to spread, the Japanese government never followed up with stringent restrictions. Japan’s constitution forbids the type of lockdowns seen in Europe, China and the US. The state of emergency adopted by the government wasn’t nearly as robust a measure as what other countries tried.

    And yet, Japan has a relatively low rate of infection. None of this really makes sense, considering that Japan’s aged population consumes more adult diapers per year than infant diapers. Still, in an effort to quell fears, the Japanese government is reportedly planning to offer a COVID-19 vaccine free of charge to any citizen who wants one, according to a report from Nikkei.

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    People at high risk of developing severe symptoms, particularly the elderly and health care workers, will receive first priority. The full cost will be covered in the national budget, meaning the central government will pay, saving local authorities from shouldering any expense. Exactly how the program will work will be decided by a panel of ‘experts’ convened by the Japanese government.

    Currently, the Japanese government is negotiating with multiple pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and others, as it seeks to build a massive stockpile of vaccines. The country’s goal is to eradicate the virus in Japan long before the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.

  • "Infiltrated By Nazis…" – The Rise Of The New Normal 'Gleichschaltung'
    “Infiltrated By Nazis…” – The Rise Of The New Normal ‘Gleichschaltung’

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 23:25

    Authored (mostly satirically) by CJ Hopkins via ConsentFactory.org,

    On March 21, 1933, the Nazi-controlled Reichstag passed a law making it a crime to speak out against the government. The “Regulations of the Reich President for Defense from Treacherous Attacks against the Government of the National Uprising” made even the slightest expression of dissent from Nazi ideology a criminal offense.

    This new law, among other totalitarian measures, was part of a process known as Gleichschaltung… the process of achieving rigid and total ideological coordination and uniformity in politics, culture, and private communication by forcibly repressing (or eliminating) independence and freedom of thought and expression.

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    GloboCap hasn’t done anything that heavy-handed in the course of rolling out the New Normal totalitarianism, but that’s mainly because they do not have to. When you control the vast majority of the global corporate media, you don’t need to pass a lot of ham-fisted laws banning all dissent from your totalitarian ideology. This isn’t the 1930s, after all. Over the last ninety years, the arts of propaganda, disinformation, and perception management have advanced to a point that even Goebbels couldn’t have imagined.

    The skill with which GloboCap and the corporate media delegitimized the anti-New Normal demonstrations in Berlin, London, and other cities last weekend is a perfect example of the state of those arts. I’ll focus on Berlin, as that’s where I live, and the so-called “Storming of the Reichstag” incident, but it works pretty much the same way everywhere. I believe there was a curious incident involving a person with a fascist flag in London, and that the UK media have now officially chosen David Icke to be the movement’s figurehead.

    In Berlin, in the days leading up to the protests, government officials and corporate media propagandists did what officials and propagandists do… they relentlessly repeated their official narrative, namely, that anyone protesting the New Normal (or doubting the official Coronavirus narrative) is a “violent neo-Nazi extremist,” or “conspiracy theorist,” or some other form of existential “threat to democracy.”

    This official narrative was originally disseminated following the August 1 protest in Berlin, the scale of which took the authorities by surprise. Tens or hundreds of thousands of people (depending on whose narrative you believe) gathered in the city to protest the New Normal and its increasingly absurd “emergency measures.” The German media, CNN, The New York Times, and other “respectable news outlets” uniformly condemned them as “neo-Nazis,” or insinuated that they were “neo-Nazi-sympathizers.”

    Despite the finding of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution that only “individual members of far-right-groups” had taken part in the August 1 protest, and that “far-right extremists had no formative influence on the demos,” both the German and international corporate media pumped out story after story about the ultra-violent neo-Nazi hordes that were about to descend on Berlin, again!

    Der Tagespiegel, a major German newspaper, reported that the demo was being “infiltrated by Nazis.” Die Tagesschau, the German BBC, shrieked that “neo-Nazis are mobilizing!” RBB, another public broadcaster, reported that the “traveling circus of Corona-deniers” was heading straight for the city! (N.B. Any reference to any kind of “deniers” in Germany evokes Holocaust deniers, i.e., Nazis). Ver.di, the German journalists union, warned their members that they were expecting reporters to suffer “double-digit physical attacks.” And these are just a few of countless examples.

    The American and UK corporate media also did their Gleichschaltung duty, disseminating the official “Nazis are Coming!” narrative. (I don’t need to do the citations, do I?) And, of course, Antifa joined in the chorus.

    On Wednesday, three days before the demo, having successfully whipped the New Normal masses up into a state of wide-eyed panic over the imminent neo-Nazi invasion, the Berlin government banned the protests. The New Normal masses celebrated. A few concerns about … you know, democracy, were perfunctorily voiced, but they were quickly silenced when Interior Senator Andreas Geisel explained that abrogating the people’s constitutional right to freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech, and to petition their government, was not in any way a totalitarian act, but was purely a matter of “protecting the public health.”

    For good measure, Geisel also added:

    “I’m not willing to accept a second time that Berlin is being abused as a stage for Corona deniers, Reichsbürger, and right-wing extremists.”

    Then, in a particularly Orwellian twist, although the protest itself had now been banned, the Berlin government decided to approve a “counter-protest” against the banned protest. I’m not quite sure how that was supposed to work.

    The night before the demo, an administrative court overturned the protest ban. It didn’t really matter, as the authorities knew they couldn’t stop the demo in any event. Banning the protest was just part of the show (and the Gleichschaltung process the show was part of), meant to emphasize the existential threat posed by the bloodthirsty Nazi legion that was on its way to sack the city.

    On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of protesters (the overwhelming majority of whom were not neo-Nazis, or Nazi-sympathizers, or any other kind of monsters) poured into the streets of central Berlin. The police surrounded them, trapping them on the avenues, closed off the side streets so they couldn’t get out, and, once again, tried to ban the protest on the grounds that they weren’t “social distancing.” Everyone sat down in the street. Cops stalked around in their masks and body armor, sweating heavily, and occasionally pushing people. Lawyers made phone calls. It was very hot. This went on for quite a while.

    Eventually, the court instructed the police to let the demonstration go ahead.

    And the rest is history… except that it isn’t.

    According to the official narrative, there were no hundreds of thousands of protesters.

    There were “tens of thousands,” and they were all “neo-Nazis,” and “Nazi-sympathizers,” and “Coronavirus deniers,” and “stark-raving mad conspiracy theorists.”

    (Full disclosure: I was there with them, and, yes, indeed, there were some neo-Nazis among the hundreds of thousands in the streets, but, just like at the August 1 protest, these far-right boneheads were a small minority and not at all welcomed by the majority of the participants, no more than the Trotskyists and anti-Semites were welcomed at the 2003 anti-war protests before the US invasion of Iraq, although, yes, they were definitely there.)

    In any event, hundreds of thousands of protesters made their way down Unter den Linden, through the iconic Brandenburg Gate, and onward to the main demonstration, filling the Straße des 17. Juni from the Brandenburg Gate to the Siegessäule. By now, I assume you’ve seen the pictures. Or maybe you haven’t. It’s actually fairly hard to find any photos in the media that give you any real perspective.

    And, finally, we have come to the main event… which, of course, was not this enormous gathering of totally non-violent, non-Nazi people peacefully protesting the New Normal totalitarianism, nor the speech of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. No, the “story,” the official main event, was the “Storming of the Reichstag building by Nazis.”

    I’ll let Mathias Bröckers handle this part. Here’s an excerpt from his recent blog post:

    Storming of Reichstag Averted – Democracy Saved!

    How do you manage to delegitimize a peaceful mass protest against the corona measures in such a way that the media report not about a protest by hundreds of thousands, but about the “storming” of the Reichstag?

    Quite simply: you approve an application by a group of Reichsbürger to assemble directly in front of the Reichstag (N.B. the official applicant for this assembly was Ex-NPD-member Rüdiger Hoffmann) and station only three policemen in front of the west entrance despite the large police presence everywhere in the area. Then you let a crazy Q-Anon-chick scream into the microphone that “Donald Trump has declared freedom,” that “the police have laid down their weapons,” and that “everyone should now occupy the steps of the Reichstag,” and, presto, you have the images you need to dominate the coverage … a mob of a few dozen people with Reichsbürger flags “storming the Reichstag.”

    Never mind the fact that the massive demonstration at the Siegesäule (i.e., Victory Column) organized by Querdenken 711 had absolutely nothing to do with this incident, which was carried out by a right-wing-extremist splinter group. The demonstration had already been delegitimized as a protest staged by Reichsbürger extremists and tin-foil-hat lunatics in the days leading up to it, and now the visual confirmation was provided.

    In a video of the lead-up to the “Reichstag storming” incident, Tamara K., a natural health practitioner, and pretty obviously a far-right wacko, is the “crazy Q-Anon-chick” in question. You can clearly hear her advising the crowd that “there are no more police here,” which the video confirms. Or rather, the few police that were there had left the building completely unguarded and pulled back to well behind this assembly of obviously far-right-extremist-type clowns (who, remember, had been granted official permission to stage their assembly at the steps of the Reichstag). This, despite the days and weeks of warnings of a “neo-Nazi invasion” from government officials and the corporate media.

    Go ahead, call me a “conspiracy theorist.”

    Anyway, once the Reichstag steps were thoroughly occupied by far-right loonies and the Reichsflagge were in the right positions (approximately four minutes into the video), the police finally arrived to mount their defense. It was touch-and-go there for a while, but at the end of the day, democracy triumphed. Naturally, there were plenty of journalists on hand to capture this historic drama and broadcast it all around the world.

    And there you have it, the official narrative, which Saskia Esken, SPD co-leader, succinctly squeezed into a tweet:

    “Tens of thousands of far-right radicals, Reichsbürger, QAnon followers, Holocaust deniers, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, and esoterics, who declare the media, science, and politicians ‘guilty’ and openly call for the storming of the Reichstag and a coup d’état. That is the 29 August Berlin demonstration.“

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    Oh, and yesterday, as I was writing this column, I saw that the Berlin Senate had passed a new regulation requiring the participants of any future protests to all wear masks… so I take back what I wrote in the beginning. It looks like GloboCap, or at least its German branch, has some ham-fisted totalitarianism left in it.

    I’ll keep you posted on the Gleichschaltung process, and the advance of the New Normal totalitarianism, generally.

    In the meantime, remember, this is just about a virus! And the Nazis really are coming this time! And looting is a powerful tool to bring about real, lasting change in society … oh, yeah, and the chocolate ration has been increased!

  • NJ Plans To Use HFT Tax To Pay For "Social Justice" Agenda
    NJ Plans To Use HFT Tax To Pay For “Social Justice” Agenda

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 23:05

    After setting the stage for a new millionaire tax, and hiking gasoline taxes by 22.5%, New Jersey – which has emerged as the most hated state in the US – which is home to both the incorrectly named “New York” Stock Exchange (the TV studio may be located in Manhattan but the actual exchange with the microwave and laser towers  is located in Mahwah) and the Nasdaq, proposed a tax on high frequency trading. Yet while both former taxes were meant to shore up the state’s depleted coffers, the purpose of the “hi-freq” tax was a mystery. That mystery was revealed earlier today when senior NJ administration officials said that revenue from a proposed tax on electronic Wall Street trading to expand his “social-justice agenda.”

    NJ governor Murphy saw the potential windfall as a shot to expand what he calls his “stronger, fairer” agenda to close New Jersey’s wealth gap, according to the administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the legislation is in early stages. While to most this simply means even more backroom dealings in one the country’s most corrupt states, to Murphy this is the pursuit of nobility – Murphy prides himself in enacting free county college tuition for undocumented immigrants and expanding no-cost pre-kindergarten in needy communities. And by “free” we of course mean paid for in the form of soaring taxes from all other documented and legal residents.

    Perhaps it’s only fitting that those who benefit the most from HFTs end up paying a few pennies on the dollar for every dollar they make frontrunning retail investors via their unofficial subsidiary, Robinhood (something which the regulators finally figured out today).

    Additionally, Bloomberg reports that while any proceeds from levies on hundreds of millions of trades processed at data farms inside the state wouldn’t be scored for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, the bonanza from the first-of-its-kind state tax could ultimately become a long-term annual source of revenue for New Jersey.

    Oh, and it would of course boost progressive appeal for Murphy, a Democrat and retired Goldman Sachs Group senior director, if he campaigns, as expected, for a second term next year. What is it about former Goldman execs – such as Jon Corzine – running the Garden State (right into the ground)? But we digress.

    As reported previously, a bill sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman John McKeon calls for a quarter-of-a-cent tax on stocks, options, futures and swaps trading via northern New Jersey electronic data centers. McKeon, in an interview Wednesday, said the state could collect $10 billion annually from entities engaged in at least 10,000 transactions per year, which is about how many transactions HFTs make every second.

    Naturally, Wall Street has revolted at the prospect of paying fractions of a cent every time it has to frontrun retail traders, and some industry executives said such a tax would raise nowhere near such projections, predicting it could undermine the functioning of markets and New Jersey’s standing as the center of U.S. financial-data processing. Servers are warehoused in Mahwah, Secaucus, Carteret and other locations.

    McKeon, the Assembly sponsor from West Orange, described the quarter-of-a-cent rate as flexible — “a good placeholder, and now conversations take place.” He cast doubt on the ability of data centers to easily move from the Manhattan area, as trading speed can decay over distance.

    “It’s not like they can flip a switch, and that’s one motivating factor to get them to work with us,” McKeon said. Within five years, he said, he expected that trades will be done wirelessly, a disincentive to build expensive new centers elsewhere.

    In response, the NYSE has already threatened to depart the moment a tax was enacted: “We have data centers in various states and the ability to move trading outside of New Jersey in a business day,” said Hope Jarkowski, co-head of government affairs for New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange. Yes, Hope, but what happens when all the states in which you have data centers follow NJ in establishing a paywall for ultra fast trades which do nothing to make the market more efficient unless one counts surging flash crashes “efficiency.”

    The major exchange operators previously have gone to court over proposals that they said would harm markets. NYSE, Nasdaq Inc. and Cboe Global Markets even took the extreme step of suing their main regulator, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, over a transaction-fee pilot program last year. They won.

    “A financial transaction tax is a recycled idea with a lousy track record — all over the world,” said the Equity Markets Association, a trade group that represents the three companies.

    The move by New Jersey would “cause unintended and irreparable harm to the U.S. capital markets,” Cboe said in a separate statement. “A transaction tax is a direct cost shouldered by investors, who will also end up paying for the price of diminished liquidity and wider spreads in our markets.”

    Well of course those who would be taxes by the proposal would say that, and as for diminished liquidity, go shove it: there is already zero “liquidity” in this “market”. If anything, the market parasite that is HFT should be uprooted, Reg NMS should be torn apart, and broken markets should restart from scratch, ideally while eliminated the Fed. But we digress again.

    In any case, while the Assembly bill hasn’t had a hearing scheduled, and neither has an identical version, sponsored by Senate President Steve Sweeney, New Jersey’s highest-ranking state lawmaker, at a Monday news conference Murphy said the concept “is something we like a lot,” although fraught with litigation risk.

    But what the HFTax will really go toward is funding some of the ultra-liberal state’s massive underfunded pensions. New Jersey, one of the most indebted U.S. states, has unfunded pension and benefits obligations of well over $200 billion. The officials said some revenue ideally would go toward shoring up the state’s finances. But they also said the trades tax would help expand educational programs and finance new initiatives to boost middle- and low-income earners.

    Murphy said such tax revenue couldn’t be counted on for the coming fiscal year because litigation almost certainly would hold up collections. But if the proposal withstood legal challenges, the administration officials said, it could fund such programs as “baby bonds” — $1,000 investment accounts for infants from lower-income families, to be used for education or to buy a home or start a business.

    What was left unsaid is that by the time the babies turn 18, $1,000 won’t be enough to buy a hotdog thanks to the Fed’s new Average Inflation Targeting mandate.

  • Apple And Google Update Contact Tracing Software
    Apple And Google Update Contact Tracing Software

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 22:45

    Submitted by Market Crumbs,

    At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Apple and Google announced they would work together to develop a COVID-19 Exposure Notification API. Initially, access to the contact tracing software required users to download an app from their local health authorities and opt-in to receive Exposure Notifications.

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    The two companies announced yesterday that the COVID-19 Exposure Notification technology will be built directly into iOS and Android. If opted-in, the technology uses Bluetooth signals to determine how closely and for how long two phones were together and warns the other if the user tests positive for the coronavirus.

    The move is in large part due to a lack of adoption as health authorities have struggled to roll out their apps. The introduction of Exposure Notifications Express will eliminate the need for health authorities to develop and maintain their own app.

    Only about 20 countries and regions have introduced contact tracing apps, while only six of 50 U.S. states have done so. Only half of U.S. states are even considering building their own contact tracing app.

    “As the next step in our work with public health authorities on Exposure Notifications, we are making it easier and faster for them to use the Exposure Notifications System without the need for them to build and maintain an app,” Apple and Google said.

    “Exposure Notifications Express provides another option for public health authorities to supplement their existing contact tracing operations with technology without compromising on the project’s core tenets of user privacy and security.”

    Public health authorities can now simply submit a configuration file with their contact information and guidance, while users will be notified to opt-in once their state or region is available. Public health authorities will still be able to maintain other apps they’ve built if they choose to.

    “Public health agencies are carrying an extraordinary load in managing the novel coronavirus response,” CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories Scott J. Becker said.

    “Offering a turn-key solution such as EN Express can greatly reduce their burden and eliminate many of the up-front requirements of building an app and setting up servers.”

    The software will be built into iOS 13.7, which was released yesterday, while the Android version will be available later this month on Android 6.0 or higher.

  • An Imported Ford Pickup In Australia Could Cost As Much As $60,000 Above MSRP
    An Imported Ford Pickup In Australia Could Cost As Much As $60,000 Above MSRP

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 22:25

    The rising price of Ford pickup trucks in the U.S. is nothing compared to what Australians now have to pay to get one of the iconic pickups in their country. Premiums on imported Ford pickup trucks can now be as much as $60,000 above the sticker price, according to a new report by Ford Authority. 

    Since importing is the only option to get Ford trucks in Australia, where they are no Ford dealerships, a new Ford Super Duty or F-150 is likely to be marked up significantly, the report says. 

    It points out that a 2020 Ford F-350 Lariat equipped with Ford’s 6.7L Power Stroke diesel is listed as $172,750 Australian dollars (about $127,000 USD). In the U.S., the MSRP for the same truck is about half that price.

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    Australian importer Maracoonda Automotive also sold a 2020 Ford F-150 Limited equipped with Ford’s 3.5L EcoBoost V6 for about $170,000 Australian dollars. It also has a Tuscany F-150 that it is seeking to sell for $209,000.

    As of now, the Ford Ranger is the only model pickup that is available widely in Australia without an import premium. But for those that want a medium duty or heavy duty truck – prospective owners will have to ask if paying a nearly $60,000 Australian dollar premium is worth it. 

    Meanwhile, imports from Europe could become fewer and further between, as we reported days ago that Ford was planning on slashing 10,000 jobs and closing 6 factories in Europe. 

    This news came days after it was announced that Ford would be replacing its CEO on relatively short notice. Ford said last month it had tapped Jim Farley to replace a relatively still-newly appointed Jim Hackett as CEO. Hackett replaced former CEO Mark Fields and, for the most part, has failed to inspire confidence during his tenure at Ford. 

  • As Kenosha & Minneapolis Burn, Millions Of Americans Buy Guns
    As Kenosha & Minneapolis Burn, Millions Of Americans Buy Guns

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 22:05

    Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

    It’s increasingly clear to even the average American that if riots come to your neighborhood, you’re on your own. The message received is increasingly be this:

    if your plan is to wait until the police show up to provide “protection,” be prepared to wait a long time.

    Consequently, as violence appears to surge in America’s cities, millions of Americans have become first-time gun owners.

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    Government Officials Aren’t Keeping Us “Safe”

    There are two trends at work which are making Americans doubt government law enforcement is reliable and effective.

    • On the one hand, the public is witnessing nightly displays of looting, rioting, and general civil unrest.

    • At the same time, many police officers don’t appear particularly able or willing to defend the public against looters and rioters.

    Homicide rates in New York, for example, have surged among accusations of a “police slowdown.” A number of police departments (including those in Los Angeles and Atlanta) are rumored to be using strategies such as the “blue flu” in which police personnel pretend to be ill as a negotiating tactic for obtaining political favors from lawmakers. But even when police personnel are able, there are not enough of them in most cases to truly address ongoing nightly violence in many cities. And in some cases, elected officials, like in Portland and Chicago, appear uninterested in confronting rioters with much enthusiasm at all.

    It easy to see how ordinary Americans could look on current events with increasing alarm. On August 29, a man was allegedly murdered by at least one protestor among the many who have been protesting, rioting, and looting in Portland for more than three months. Two weeks ago, a truck driver sustained serious injuries, also in Portland, when he was attacked by a group of “protestors” while reportedly attempting to help a woman who was being robbed. Last week in Kenosha, protestors were seen attacking a teenager who had been attempting to protect businesses from looting and vandalism. The teen reportedly opened fire in self defense.  In Washington, DC, a mob threatened restaurant patrons, and in Minneapolis, dozens of businesses have been burned and looted.

    But even before the current rash of arson, looting, and violence, the police response to serious crime was never terribly impressive. For violent crimes, studies have shown police may take up to an hour to respond more than one-third of the time. (This summer, response times fo rthe NYPD are up by four minutes, compared to last year.) And if one survives an attack from violent criminals, one shouldn’t assume justice will be done. Fewer than half of violent crimes are ever “solved” in the United States.

    Gun Purchases Are Growing

    Meanwhile, gun purchases have surged.

    According to new estimates from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, using the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System, “there were over 12 million guns bought in the first seven months of 2020—up more than 70 percent over the same time span in 2019. This number is likely to include nearly 5 million first-time gun owners so far this year.”

    Moreover, as noted in an unsigned editorial at the Wall Street Journal,

    The FBI’s most recent gun-sale figures are stunning. They show that in July the bureau carried out 3.6 million background checks, the third highest month on record. [T]his translates to 1.8 million gun sales for July 2020—a 122% increase over July 2019. The 12,141,032 gun sales through this July is just shy of the 13,199,172 sales for all of 2019.

    Gun retailers saw a 95% increase in firearm sales and a 139% increase in ammunition sales in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2019.

    Statistically, it remains unclear that life for the average American is much more dangerous this year than it was over the past five years. After all, in 2014, the homicide rate in America hit a 51-year low. But the American public has never been one to sit back and conclude everything is fine just because homicides are relatively low.

    After all, gun purchases were already surging even before the apparent killing of George Floyd touched off a wave of protests followed by riots and looting. Gun purchases that had been fueled by general uncertainty and anxiety over the Covid-19 panic soon became gun purchases fueled by far more immediate fears of violent crime.

    Also notable is that many new gun owners are outside groups known as the usual suspects, when it comes to gun purchases. The NSSF reported that 58 percent of the new firearms purchases were by black men and women, while “women comprised 40% of first-time gun buyers.”

    Millions Aren’t Buying the Usual Pro-Gun-Control Claims

    Needless to say, these trends are going very much against the grain of the usual narrative employed by gun control advocates; a narrative that generally employs several main tenets we’ve seen many times. They include:

    • Government police agencies provide better protection than a private firearm ever could.

    • If you’re in danger, it’s best to call 911 and then wait.

    • If you buy a gun, the gun is more likely to kill someone you love, rather than stop a criminal.

    • America would be safer if fewer people had guns.

    • People who buy guns are mostly just rightwing hayseeds. Hillary Clinton calls these people “deplorables.”

    And while opponents of private gun ownership rarely say this explicitly, the sum total of their narrative is this: only police and military personnel should own guns. The basic idea here is that private gun owners cannot be trusted, and that government officials will keep us safe. But as so often occurs when there are riots—as happened in both Ferguson (in 2014) and Kenosha (in 2020) police officers and other government “public safety” personnel mostly just protect government property. The private sector must just fend for itself.

    Many Americans appear to have gotten the message.

  • India's Power Output Slumps For Sixth Straight Month As Recovery Falters 
    India’s Power Output Slumps For Sixth Straight Month As Recovery Falters 

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 21:45

    India recorded the largest single-day spike (78,761) of new COVID-19 cases on Sunday since the pandemic began. The country is easing out of strict lockdowns despite an accelerating virus pandemic—a move to restart its crashed economy that saw a record plunge in second-quarter growth. But new power generation data from the government, seen by Reuters, reveals power usage in the western industrial region of the country continues to slump, a red flag that is suggestive of a faltering recovery. 

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    For the sixth consecutive month, India’s electricity generation continued to decline in August, driven by a drop in power usage from western industrial states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat: 

    August power generation fell 0.9%, a Reuters analysis of daily load despatch data from federal grid operator POSOCO showed, slower than the 1.8% decline seen in July.

    In the second half of August, electricity generation declined 4.5%, compared with a 2.6% increase during the first fifteen days of the month.

    Power use during the second half of August in states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat, among the country’s largest electricity consumers, declined by about 15% each, compared to near parity compared to August 2019 during the first 15 days of the month. -Reuters 

    Reuters notes India’s annual electricity demand is expected to fall for the first time in four decades. The industrial sector accounts for half the country’s electricity consumption. This is just more bad news for the world’s fifth-largest economy by GDP will remain in recession through 2020. The world economy cannot recover without India.

    A flare-up in geopolitical tensions between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control could be what the Modi government needs to distract the world from a severely damaged Indian economy.

  • Buchanan: Where Will All These War Games Lead?
    Buchanan: Where Will All These War Games Lead?

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 21:25

    Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

    In northeast Syria last week, a U.S. military vehicle collided with a Russian armored vehicle, injuring four American soldiers.

    Both the Americans and Russians blame each other for failing to follow established rules of the road. Had an American been killed, we could have had a crisis on our hands.

    Query: With the ISIS caliphate dead and buried, why are 500 U.S. troops still in Syria a year after Donald Trump said we would be pulling them out? What are they doing there to justify risking a clash with Russian troops who are in Syria as the invited allies of the Damascus regime of Bashar Assad, whether we approve of his regime or not?

    Nor was this the only U.S.-Russian faceoff last week.

    Over the Black Sea, two Russian military jets swept past the nose of an American B-52, one of the bombers on which the airborne leg of our strategic deterrent depends. The Russian Su-27s flew so close to the B-52 that their afterburners shook the eight-engine bomber.

    What was a nuclear-capable B-52 doing over the Black Sea, which is to Russia what the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are to us?

    That B-52 overflight of the Black Sea was part of an exercise in which six U.S. B-52s overflew all 30 NATO nations in one day — from the U.S. and Canada to Spain and the Balkans and to the eastern Baltic Sea — in a military exercise to test Russian air defenses.

    At the end of August, the Russian navy conducted its own war games near Alaska, involving dozens of ships and aircraft, the largest such drill in these northern seas since Soviet times.

    Russia’s navy chief, Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, said 50 warships and 40 aircraft took part in the Bering Sea exercise, which involved multiple practice missile launches. Said the admiral:

    “We are holding such massive drills there for the first time ever.”

    As Trump rebuilt the U.S. military, Vladimir Putin reciprocated.

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    And, last week, Putin had a pointed warning for any nation that meddles in Belarus. With Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian autocrat facing huge and hostile demonstrations demanding he resign, Putin put out word that outside intervention to effect Lukashenko’s removal could cause Russian special forces to intervene.

    The fall of Lukashenko from power, after 25 years ruling Belarus, could lead to a crisis as NATO allies Lithuania and Poland both border on the former Soviet republic of 9.5 million people.

    Also in late August, on the other side of the world, China conducted a huge naval exercise in the South and East China seas and Taiwan Strait.

    After an American U-2 overflew its ships during the exercise, Beijing denounced the “naked provocation” and test-fired four ballistic missiles into the South China Sea. Two of those missiles have been described as “carrier killers.” They are said to have been developed to attack aircraft carriers such as the 100,000-ton vessels that serve as the backbone of the fleets the U.S. Navy deploys in these same waters.

    The U.S. has been sending its own warships into what an angry China claims are its territorial waters around the atolls and reefs it has fortified and converted into air and naval bases in the Paracel and Spratly islands.

    What exactly is our ultimate goal here?

    China has also been ramping up pressure on Taiwan by having military planes and warships circumnavigate the island and by sending aircraft across midpoint in the Taiwan Strait.

    Taiwan recently purchased 66 US F-16s for delivery over the next 10 years. Yet, its armed forces are no match for Beijing’s. And China has put the world on notice that any move by Taiwan toward independence would cross a red line and be crushed by Beijing.

    Is America prepared to fight China over fortified rocks and reefs in the South China Sea to which we have no territorial claim? Are we prepared to fight China to prevent the gradual absorption of Taiwan, which Richard Nixon conceded in 1972 we do not deny is a part of China?

    In its confrontation with Iran, the U.S. seems about to suffer a setback in the Security Council. Our attempt to effect a “snapback” of U.N. sanctions on Iran, for violating the 2015 nuclear deal, seems certain to be rejected by our three principal NATO allies, as well as Russia and China.

    How would Tehran’s victory in the U.N. over the U.S., which would open the door to sales and purchases of weapons by the ayatollah’s regime, be received?

    Potential collisions between the U.S., Russia or China are not even back-burner issues this election year. Meanwhile, we are consumed by the coronavirus, the crashed economy, racial divisions and riots that have ripped apart cities like Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis and Kenosha since the Memorial Day death of George Floyd.

    Still, Leon Trotsky had a point when he said, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”

  • "It Was A Setup": Pelosi Blames Hair Salon For Covert Blow-Out, Demands Apology
    “It Was A Setup”: Pelosi Blames Hair Salon For Covert Blow-Out, Demands Apology

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 21:11

    Despite the desperate efforts of the mainstream media and the left’s propaganda artists to suppress the story exposing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “blow-outs for me, but not for thee” caught-in-the-act hair salon visit, she has been forced to make a public statement and face the media this afternoon to “explain.”

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    Pelosi began in typical politician manner by blaming someone else – the salon owner – for the so-called “set-up” and then “apologized” for being caught in a set-up…

    “I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighborhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times,” Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday.

    “When they said they were able to accommodate people one person at a time, I trusted that. As it turns out, it was a setup.” 

    And she’s demanding an apology from the salon owner. Does Mrs. Pelosi mean she was lured to get her hair done against her will?

    She then slurred out some anti-Trump “but but but Trump killed hundreds of thousands” talking points that were handed her to on a paper note from an assistant before an intrepid reporter pressed the matter to which she angrily snapped:

    “I said, I said I’m not gonna answer. That’s all I’m gonna do! Do you have any questions about the fact that people are dying?!”

    Pelosi even had the audacity to claim that she had “been inundated by calls from people who work in the hair industry who have ‘thanked me for bringing attention to this issue’.”

    The full, brief presser is below:

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    Social media lit up as one might imagine with this disingenuous garbage.

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    San Francisco Mayor Breed quickly ran to Pelosi’s defense… “Did Nancy Pelosi violate San Francisco’s health order?” the mayor was asked.

    “So look, Nancy Pelosi has done so much for this city and even this country and in the midst of this pandemic and all the stuff that’s happening amidst this election, she is in Washington D.C. fighting against a tyrant every single day,” Breed said.

    “We need to be focused on the issues and the fact that over 180,000 people have died in this country and we have a president that continues to divide us.

    “That’s what we should be talking about.”

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    As The WSJ Editorial Board (bravely) proclaimed:

    “What is offensive, however, is our liberal glitterati’s let-them-eat-cake indifference to the nation’s shop owners and wage earners. Do they remember what it means to work for a living?”

    Finally, and most typically disgusting for the new normal,  Erica Kious, a single mother of two and owner of eSalon the owner of the salon has been forced to shut down and relocate her business and family due to outrage and threats she is receiving.

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    A GoFundMe page has been created to help.

    We hope the ‘compassionate’ and ‘tolerant’ Pelosi will disavow this action being taken by her followers.

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    Dinesh D’Souza gets the last word as he sums the whole farcical situation up rather succinctly:

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  • Trump Orders Feds To Begin Process Of Defunding New York, Portland And Other "Lawless" Cities
    Trump Orders Feds To Begin Process Of Defunding New York, Portland And Other “Lawless” Cities

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 21:08

    The feud between Trump and liberal cities which encourage protests which seeking to defund the police escalated sharply on Wednesday, when the President ordered the federal government to begin the process of defunding New York City, Portland, Seattle and Washington, cities where officials allowed “lawless” protests and cut police budgets amid rising violent crime.

    In a five-page memo sent to federal agencies on Wednesday whose subject is “Reviewing Funding to State and Local Government Recipients of Federal Funds That Are Permitting Anarchy, Violence, and Destruction in American Cities” and signed by Trump, the president orders them to report to the White House Office of Management and Budget on any funding that could be redirected. New York City, Portland, Seattle and even Washington, DC are among the initial targets of the measure.

    “My Administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones,” Trump says in the memo, which mentions New York Mayor Bill de Blasio by name twice. To ensure the federal funding is not wasted or “spent in a manner that directly violates our Government’s promise to protect life, liberty, and property, it is imperative that the Federal Government review the use of Federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities.”

    In a tweet late on Wednesday, Trump followed up the memo by saying that his administration “will do everything in its power to prevent weak mayors and lawless cities from taking Federal dollars while they let anarchists harm people, burn buildings, and ruin lives and businesses. We’re putting them on notice today.”

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    In the memo, Trump writes that the city of Seattle “allowed anarchists and rioters to take over six square blocks of the city, an area the unlawful occupiers renamed the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” and then the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.” Notwithstanding the fact that law-abiding citizens live and work in the invaded area, the local government effectively endorsed this lawlessness and taking of property by, among other things, abandoning the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct building and forbidding the police force from intervening to restore order. Tragically, the Mayor allowed the unlawful occupation to persist until two teenagers were killed and at least two other persons suffered gunshot wounds. On July 1, Seattle declared the protest zone dismantled.” He also denounced the “failed leadership” in Seattle whose Mayor Jenny Durkan tolerated the local anarchists until protesters – led by a city council member – came to her own doorstep.

    Likewise for New York, the memo said that the city has refused to prosecute rioters, rejected the offer of federal help, and cut the police budget despite an “unconscionable rise in violence.”

    In New York City, officials have allowed violence to spike. In late May and early June, State and local officials allowed looting to take place for over a week, resulting in damage to an estimated 450 businesses. As of August 16, there have been 896 shootings in New York this year, compared to 492 shootings during the same period last year. The shooting victims include children as young as 1 year old. Shootings have been rising in recent weeks, and police reported 244 shootings last month compared to 88 in July 2019 — a 177 percent increase. While violence has surged, arrests have plummeted. In a 28-day period during the months of June and July, arrests were down 62 percent from the same period in 2019. Amidst the rising violence, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council agreed to cut one billion dollars from the New York Police Department (NYPD) budget, including by cancelling the hiring of 1,163 officers.

    The memo also cites NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea’s June disbandment of plainclothes units. “Police officials have cited this decision as a factor contributing to the rise in violence,” the memo says.

    In Portland, Oregon “officials have allowed violent anarchists to unlawfully riot and engage in criminal activity on the streets, including the destruction of property.”

    These rioters have repeatedly tried to destroy property in the city, including the Federal courthouse. They have attacked Federal law enforcement personnel protecting the Federal courthouse with Molotov cocktails, mortar-style fireworks, hard projectiles, and lasers that can cause permanent blindness. Over several days in July, the rioters set fires in and around the Federal courthouse. To date, at least 140 Federal officers have been injured in Portland.”

    Trump then goes on to slam state and local officials in Portland who “have taken insufficient steps to protect the Federal courthouse, and initially rejected offers of Federal law enforcement assistance” even after the apartment building of Portland mayor was set on fire.

    The nation’s capital was not spared from Trump’s wrath: he said that “Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser allowed rioters and anarchists to engage in violence and destruction in late May and early June, requiring me to call in the National Guard to maintain law and order in the Nation’s Capital.”

    Predictably, the memo slam the performance of Democratic mayors in each city, as well as state leaders:

    “As a result of these State and local government policies, persistent and outrageous acts of violence and destruction have continued unabated in many of America’s cities, such as Portland, Seattle, and New York.”

    OMB Director Russell Vought, who according to the Post “applauded the review in a statement” was told to issue guidance on “restricting eligibility of or otherwise disfavoring, to the maximum extent permitted by law, anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of Federal grants” within 30 days, while AG Bill Barr was given 14 days to put together a list of “anarchist jurisdictions” that “permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures” to restore order.

    Vought told the NY Post that “American taxpayers who fund the great programs that our cities rely on deserve to be protected by their local city officials.” He added that the administration was “exploring all options to ensure federal resources flowing to lawless cities aren’t being squandered.”

    “The lack of law and order surrounding these riots, and response from local leadership, is a dereliction of duty. Our men and women in blue cannot be handcuffed by local leadership in their efforts to respond to riots and protect their fellow citizens.”

    The memo was drafted prior to last week’s incidents following the Republican National Convention, when angry mobs attacked those in attendance, including Senator Rand Paul in part because Bowser refused to allow additional security.

    After months of referring to the frequent rioting and looting merely as “peaceful protests,” mainstream media outlets began blaming the riots on Trump after they themselves admitted that it makes Democrats look bad in the polls. Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden denounced “all violence” earlier this week, but Republicans accused him of in effect threatening Americans with more violence unless they vote for him.

    * * *

    In response to the memo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wasted no time in slamming President Donald Trump, and in a scathing statement Wednesday night, Cuomo said from the point of view of NYC, President Donald Trump is the worst president in history amid his threats to defund the city.

    “Look, the best thing he did for New York City was leave,” Cuomo said. “Good riddance, let him go to Florida, be careful not to get COVID.”

    Cuomo “all but threatened” President Trump’s safety if he returns to New York City during an emergency press briefing within a half hour on Wednesday night to tear into Trump for the order.

    “He better have an army if he thinks he’s gonna walk down the street in New York. New Yorkers don’t want to have anything to do with him,” the Democrat said, all but threatening the commander in chief. But Cuomo, who like Trump hails from Queens, wasn’t done. “He can’t have enough bodyguards to walk through New York City, people don’t want to have anything to do with him.”

    Cuomo said he doubted the legality of Trump’s five-page memo ordering a review of federal funds that can be redirected from New York City, Portland, Seattle and Washington, DC: “It is more of the same from him. It’s political, it is gratuitous. And it’s illegal. But it is another attempt to kill New York City.”

    “President Ford said drop dead. President Trump has been actively trying to kill New York City since he’s been elected,” he said.

    Cuomo also slammed Trump’s handling of the COVID pandemic and said he is the cause of coronavirus in New York.

    “It is his negligence that brought it here and his arrogance that he won’t provide state and local funding to help states and cities recover from the pandemic that his negligence caused,” Cuomo said. When was asked what would happen if the federal funding goes away, Cuomo said that NYC receives roughly $7 billion a year in federal aid for housing, medical, health and homeland security funding.

    “I think it’s because he is from New York City and New York City rejected him always,” Cuomo said. He was dismissed as a clown in New York City.”

    He may be a clown, but he is the clown who controls the money, and for the sake of Cuomo, Trump better not get re-elected or else New York will soon transform into hellhole it was for much of the 1970s and 1980s.

  • Americans Are Set To Ditch Hotels For Log Cabins This Labor Day Weekend 
    Americans Are Set To Ditch Hotels For Log Cabins This Labor Day Weekend 

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 21:05

    Americans will be ditching hotels and resorts, along with popular travel destinations in major US cities this upcoming Labor Day weekend, seeking refuge in secluded lake homes or mountain cabins or homes in rural communities as the virus pandemic continues to rage, reported Yahoo Finance. 

    The shift in travel to rural communities has been absolutely devastating for major metropolitan areas that heavily rely on tourism. Hotel bookings are down 66% compared to this time last year, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Major travel destinations from Oahu, Hawaii; Orlando, Florida; Miami, Florida; New York, New York; and San Francisco, California have seen unprecedented declines in travel and will see further drops this holiday weekend.

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    The virus pandemic isn’t the only reason why some folks will not vacation in metro areas. There are compounding issues such as depressionary unemployment, social unrest, and surging violent crime that has deterred people not just from traveling to but also triggered a mass exodus of city-dwellers who now are packing up their bags and moving permanently to suburbia. What’s also supercharging the exodus from cities is remote working. 

    Over the last six months, despite the pandemic led to nationwide lockdowns causing mass Airbnb cancellations, triggering a collapse in rental income for hosts – the company was forced to bail out Superhosts with company funds –  there have been over 200,000 new hosts who have recently had their first bookings. Bookings, in a post-pandemic world, have surged across remote areas.  

    “Meanwhile, high-density urban centers now make up approximately 20% of Labor Day trips this year, dropping from 40% over the same weekend in 2019,” Airbnb said. 

    Top trending places on Airbnb this weekend include Hilton Head Island and Charleston, South Carolina; Big Bear Lake and Palm Springs, California; Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Fredericksburg, Texas.

    Travel trends are quickly shifting this holiday weekend, from staying at hotels and resorts in popular metro areas to now rural communities for a handful of reasons mentioned above. This trend will persist for the remainder of the year and spillover into 2021.

    Readers might be wondering what are the direct consequences of these travel shifts?

    The answer could be found in our latest piece titled “Hedge Funds Start Piling Into “The Big Short 3.0,”” as we note, CMBX 9, with its outlier exposure to hotels, could be ready for further delcines. 

  • Sound Money Is Key To Defending Our Liberties
    Sound Money Is Key To Defending Our Liberties

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 20:45

    Authored by Thorstein Polleit via The Mises Institute,

    The title of this article epitomizes what the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) called the “sound money principle.” As Mises put it:

    The sound-money principle has two aspects.

    1. It is affirmative in approving the market’s choice of a commonly used medium of exchange.

    2. It is negative in obstructing the government’s propensity to meddle with the currency system.

    And further:

    It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realise that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments. Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of right.

    Mises tells us that sound money is an indispensable line of defense of people’s liberties against the encroachment on the part of the state and that sound money is a kind of money that is not dictated by the state but is chosen by the people in the free marketplace. The world we find ourselves in is a rather different place. Our monies – be it the US dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the yen, or the Swiss franc – represent fiat currencies, monopolized by the state.

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    Fiat money is economically and socially destructive – with far-reaching and seriously harmful economic and societal consequences, effects that extend beyond what most people would imagine. Fiat money is inflationary; it benefits a few at the expense of many others; it causes boom-and-bust cycles; it leads to overindebtedness; it corrupts society’s morals; and it paves the way toward the almighty, all-powerful state, toward tyranny.

    Central Banking Is Marxist

    It is certainly no coincidence that “the state” has been expanding ever since the world adopted an unfettered fiat money regime back in the early 1970s, and that as a result individual liberties and freedoms have been under pressure ever since. The state feeds itself on fiat money. It simply issues new debt, which is then monetized by the its central bank, which is at the heart of the fiat money regime.

    Perhaps you will find it surprising that I believe that the concept of central banking is truly a Marxist concept. (I am not saying that central banking is only favored by Marxists. Not at all! There are also many other ideologies which approve of central banking.)

    In their Communist Manifesto of 1848, Karl Marx (1818–83) and Friedrich Engels (1820–95) compiled a list of measures necessary to establish communism. Measure number 5 reads as follows:

    Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.

    Against this backdrop there should be no doubt that once the state has become the absolute ruler of fiat money, the door is open for it to grow bigger and bigger, eventually turning into the dreaded deep state. And the deep state, as we know well from history, has little regard for individual freedoms and liberties.

    Making Money Great Again: Returning to Sound Money

    What needs to be done? Well, the challenge at hand is “Making Money Great Again”! This requires, first and foremost, ending the state’s money production monopoly and opening up a free market in money.  A free market in money means that people have the freedom to choose the kind of money they wish to use and that people have the freedom to provide their fellow men with alternative goods that may serve them well as money.

    As things stand, however, a final solution to the “money problem” has not arrived yet—even considering the emergence of the cryptocurrency space. This is because the financial intermediation problem is still unsolved in the cryptocurrency ecosystem; we will come back to this issue in a moment.

    But first let us address the question: How can we get from a state-controlled fiat money regime to a free market in money?

    • The first strategy is monetary enlightenment – informing the widest possible audience about the evils of fiat money and how it affects their personal lives, families, and communities. This also includes explaining to people that there is a superior and practicable alternative to a fiat money regime, namely a free market in money.

    • The second strategy is making progress in the field of alternative currencies and payment systems, especially in terms of technological disruptions and their economic profitability. This is the activity space for those among us who are propelled by entrepreneurial spirit.

    The Limits of Cryptocurrency

    The cryptocurrency community, the bitcoin community in particular, and also precious metals–based payment system providers have been making some headway in this area in recent years, but unfortunately victory has not yet been achieved.

    For instance, bitcoin still has some scalability and performance issues. Currently, the bitcoin network settles a peak of around 350,000 transactions worldwide every day, and given its present configuration, it is presumably running at almost full capacity. By comparison, the German fiat money payment system alone processes more than 75 million transactions on average every business day. From the payment processing viewpoint, bitcoin cannot outshine fiat currencies yet.

    What is more, a currency in a modern economy must provide for the possibility of financial intermediation (an issue I mentioned earlier). People typically demand payment or storage services for their money, or they want to lend and borrow money—irrespective of the kind of money they actually use. Often peer-to-peer is not enough, a third party is required.

    Providing intermediation services outside existing state regulation is difficult. In fact, it would put an upper limit on the financial sophistication of any cryptocurrency. This is a heavy drag on their competitiveness compared to fiat currencies. And if a cryptocurrency comes out into the open space, it will have the state breathing down its neck, drowning it in business-destroying regulations and restrictions. Because the financial intermediation problem is still unsolved, one has reason to remain skeptical that—given the current circumstances—existing cryptocurrencies will succeed in pushing aside the state and replacing its fiat currency just like that.

    Precious metals suffer from similar problems. In many countries, the state subjects gold and silver to value-added taxes and/or capital gains taxes. This makes them uncompetitive versus fiat currencies in terms of using them in daily transactions.

    The Key to Free Market Money Is Deconstructing the State

    In fact, is it possible that a free market in money can ever emerge as long as there is the kind of state we know today? The state is, as most of you probably know, the territorial monopolist of ultimate decision-making with the right to tax its citizens. We can rightfully expect that this kind of state will do its best to crush any competitor to its fiat money and prevent a free market in money from emerging.

    So if we want a free market in money, the sobering logical conclusion is this: we need to reform, to deconstruct, the state (as we know it today).

    Now the uncomfortable truth is out, because the state is possibly the fiercest adversary you could choose. How can we hope to achieve victory?

    Well, there is certainly no magic spell. One possible and straightforward strategy might be appealing to people’s inner self, and that is their right to self-determination.

    The right to self-determination is inalienable and it is an indisputable truth. Each and every individual is the owner of his or her body and the owner of goods acquired in nonaggressive ways (without violating the physical integrity of someone else’s property). We cannot dispute these words without causing a logical contradiction.

    The right to self-determination implies that the citizens of a state have the right (1) to make it known, by a freely conducted plebiscite, that they no longer wish to be members of the state and (2) to form an independent state or to attach themselves to some other state. In other words: the right to self-determination includes the right of secession, that is, people’s right to break up the big state and to deconstruct it into smaller units.

    Smaller political units are less powerful, more peaceful, and free market oriented. They keep taxation low, or may even go without it and become wealthier. Just think of, e.g., Shanghai, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, or Monaco. This is because small political units must compete for capital and talents with other political units. They must behave themselves nicely. Otherwise, people and capital will leave their territory. Given a great number of small political units, there is a good chance that some of them will allow for, even encourage, a free market in money, setting an example that creates emulators.

    Conclusion

    It is hard to say which route would be the most effective in “Making Money Great Again.”

    Perhaps the cryptocurrency community will somehow succeed in ending the state (as we know it today), leaving a truly free market in money in its place.

    In the meantime, however, it certainly would not hurt if we (1) kept educating the wider audience about what good money is and what bad money is and also (2) kept unmasking the state (as we know it today), showing that it is incompatible with and a violation of the inalienable right to self-determination of each and every human being.

    In any case, it is of the utmost importance to wrest the money monopoly out of the hands of the state. Otherwise, there is indeed little hope that the free society (or what little is left of it) can survive.

  • Air Travel Bust Worsens As Carriers Need More Cash 
    Air Travel Bust Worsens As Carriers Need More Cash 

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 20:25

    While the global air travel industry has partially recovered from its April low, air travel demand remains about 50% below pre-pandemic levels. 

    The crisis in demand continues through the summer end. Travelers are staying home, as the industry remains paralyzed. Governments across the world have reopened economies, adding to the surge in air travel over the last three months, though the recovery shape doesn’t resemble a “V” but rather a “Nike Swoosh.” 

    Now COVID-19 cases and deaths are surging in the US, Europe, and other regions of the world, forcing governments to re-imposing quarantines doesn’t give travelers confidence to fly this fall. 

    To shed more color on where airlines are headed, John Grant, chief analyst at OAG, and Scott McCartney, an aviation expert and travel editor at The Wall Street Journal, discussed Tuesday, during a webinar, the dire situation airlines face through 2021. 

    Grant said airline’s year-end capacity offered could be in the range of -8% to -50%, with “a best-case scenario” that would be around -50% given depressed industry conditions. He said capacity could around -55%. 

    Bloomberg summarizes the 45-minute webinar between Grant and McCartney – the biggest takeaway is that airlines will need more cash through summer 2021, airline suppliers will be hit hard, and more job losses industrywide: 

    • The situation for customers and airlines alike is very frustrating when quarantine requirements change on a weekly basis, forcing airlines to build flexibility into tickets and offer booking-change options

    • Many airlines will need a lot more cash to see them through summer 2021 and these discussions are ongoing 

    • Chapter 11 is often devastating for airline suppliers, while the airline itself often goes out in good shape

    • We will inevitably see more job losses

    In a separate interview, Grant on Wednesday (Sept. 2) said airlines underwent “dramatic capacity cuts” in the last week. 

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    Scheduled flights across the world were halved through the end of August. 

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    Grant said more seat capacity would be removed. 

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    Airlines have announced 190,000 job cuts this year. United Airlines leads all global carriers in the total number of cuts announced. On Wednesday, United said it will furlough 16,370 workers on Oct. 1. Just days before that, American Airlines said it would need another round of bailouts or it would have to slash 19,000 workers. 

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    Another week, the same story, the airline industry is in a tailspin with more layoffs ahead. As for airlines in need of cash, President Trump said the federal government could support the industry. 

  • 'Occupy Lafayette Square' Protestors Planning 50 Day "White House Siege", Warn "Things Could Turn Very Ugly"
    ‘Occupy Lafayette Square’ Protestors Planning 50 Day “White House Siege”, Warn “Things Could Turn Very Ugly”

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 20:05

    Authored by Ben Wilson via SaraACarter.com,

    On Sep. 17, the ninth anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, protestors are planning to begin a “siege” of the White House that will last fifty days – right up until Nov. 3. The website for the event is planning to bring thousands of protestors into Lafayette Square to “lay siege to the White House.”

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    The site also warns that “the possibility of a civil war breaking out sometime next year is no joke.”

    The organizers are citing two main reasons for the planned occupation:

    • an alleged lack of progress on Wall Street since the 2009 occupation;

    • and that “Trump is trying to steal the election… and things could turn very ugly very quickly as November 3rd approaches.”

    One image used depicts the White House on fire and others show large riots directly in front of the building.

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    The FBI recommended contacting the Secret Service for comment. The Secret Service and the Department of Justice have not responded to this reporter’s requests for comment in time for publication.

    The specific demands are not clear but the site raises concerns about President Trump refusing to leave office if he loses and that “white supremacists are waiting in the wings, spoiling for a violent showdown.”

    These online ramblings are calling for “#METOOers, #BLM activists, Extinction Rebels, Sunrisers, and CodePinks,” to organize and join in Lafayette Park and to create “pop-up sieges at federal buildings in dozens of cities.”

    The site used for the advertisements, Adbusters, is a Vancouver crowd-funded online magazine that gives protestors and occupiers a place to advertise plans.

    One of the postings, deemed “tactical briefings,” asked readers to submit demands.

    These planned events follow mass protests across the country, including one riot that turned into a murder when a Trump supporter was shot by an alleged Antifa criminal in Portland.

    It has yet to be seen how many individuals will turn up to the occupation on Sep. 17.

  • Pompeo Unveils Extensive New Restrictions On Chinese Diplomats In US
    Pompeo Unveils Extensive New Restrictions On Chinese Diplomats In US

    Tyler Durden

    Wed, 09/02/2020 – 19:45

    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Wednesday morning announced severe new restrictions on Chinese diplomats in the United States.

    He cited that American diplomats in China “face constant barriers to their work” and so Washington is responding in a commensurate way.

    “Today, the State Department imposed new requirements on senior PRC diplomats conducting meetings and events in the U.S. We will always advocate for fair treatment of our diplomats abroad,” Pompeo introduced.

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    Google Maps Street view of the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C.

    This includes requiring senior Chinese diplomats working in the US to seek formal approval from the State Department in order to visit any American university campus or meet with local or state government officials.

    In a press briefing the top US diplomat cited China’s own “opaque approval process” for American diplomatic personnel working in China, which ultimately prevents them from “conducing regular business, attending events, securing meetings, and connecting with the Chinese people.”

    He specifically called out restrictions facing US staff when it comes to accessing Chinese university campuses, and even engaging the local population via media or social media.

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    Even cultural events hosted by the Chinese embassy which are “off campus” – or outside Chinese missions – which include over 50 people will also require formal US approval.

    Pompeo’s remarks emphasized that Washington is in essence imposing on China the exact same set of restrictive hurdles routinely facing Americans in Beijing.

    Last year the State Department said the Chinese embassy must merely “notify” US officials in advance, but this takes things to a new level, with the US giving itself complete power of oversight on whether a meeting or event can even proceed.

    This also comes after days ago Pompeo said he hopes the state-sponsored Confucius Institue will be gone from US soil by year’s end.

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