Today’s News 4th December 2023

• TikTok Part Of CCP's 'Cognitive Warfare' Strategy Against US: Rep. Gallagher
  TikTok Part Of CCP’s ‘Cognitive Warfare’ Strategy Against US: Rep. Gallagher

  Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  TikTok is a key tool in communist China’s strategy to manipulate Americans and undermine the United States’s ability to respond to crises, according to experts and lawmakers.

  

  The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, will likely use TikTok in its effort to wage “cognitive warfare” against the United States, said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.).

  “The CCP calls it ‘cognitive domain warfare,’ part of their larger political warfare strategy,” Mr. Gallagher said in prepared comments for a Nov. 30 hearing of the House Select Committee on the CCP.

  Mr. Gallagher, who chairs the committee, said that the United States was struggling to respond to the threat, as the nation had no grand strategy or apparatus for confronting propaganda from authoritarian powers.

  “Cognitive warfare is not something we tend to think about here in the West. Sure, we have ideas like soft power, but they’re not a national strategy,” Mr. Gallagher said.

  “On the ‘smokeless battlefield’ of people’s minds, we don’t have a standing military at all.”

  CCP Seeks ‘Mind Dominance’

  The Pentagon’s 2022 China Military Power Report (pdf), which distills the Defense Department’s most authoritative assessments of China’s strategy and capabilities, highlighted the development of the CCP’s new method of psychological warfare.

  It said that the CCP and its military wing, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), were developing and deploying methods for conducting cognitive warfare to win military advantage.

  “As the PLA seeks to expand the reach of its influence operations around the world and to seize information dominance on the battlefield, it is researching and developing the next evolution of psychological warfare called cognitive domain operation[s] (CDO) that leverages subliminal messaging, deep fakes, overt propaganda, and public sentiment analysis,” the report stated.

  “The goal of CDO is to achieve what the PLA refers to as ‘mind dominance,’ defined as the use of propaganda as a weapon to influence public opinion to effect change in a nation’s social system, likely to create an environment favorable to China and reduce civilian and military resistance to PLA actions.”

  The report described CDO as “a more aggressive form of psychological warfare” intended to “affect a target’s cognition, decision making, and behavior.”

  Mr. Gallagher said that CCP leader Xi Jinping considered CDO as a vital weapon in the regime’s arsenal that could be used to manipulate the American people at key moments, such as during an election cycle.

  “In Xi Jinping’s view, the war has already started on the most important battlefield: your mind,” Mr. Gallagher said.

  Data Suggests TikTok Taking Direction From CCP

  Mr. Gallagher pointed to TikTok as the regime’s most powerful tool for conducting cognitive warfare.

  

  Though the company denies that it takes direction from China-based parent company ByteDance, executives have previously acknowledged its censoring and “heating” of content at the request of the CCP.

  To that end, Mr. Gallagher shared several slides suggesting that TikTok is still taking orders from Chinese communist authorities.

  The slides demonstrated that posts about “viral topics” in politics and pop culture were proportionately represented on TikTok and Instagram in relation to the number of monthly users that both apps had.

  Thus, there were about twice as many posts about Democrats, former President Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, and the “Barbie” movie on Instagram because Instagram has about twice as many monthly users as TikTok.

  That proportionality changes, however, when one looks at topics heavily criticized or censored by the CCP.

  There were about nine times fewer posts about the Uyghurs on TikTok than on Instagram, for example. And there were 30 times fewer posts about Tibet.

  Moreover, there were 153 times fewer posts on TikTok about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, a topic heavily censored by Beijing in the mainland.

  “In the best-case scenario, TikTok is CCP spyware—that’s why so many state and national governments have banned it on official phones,” Mr. Gallagher said.

  “In the worst-case scenario, TikTok is perhaps the largest scale malign influence operation ever conducted.”

  TikTok Could Cause ‘Absolute Chaos’ in 2024 Elections

  What’s more, Chinese state-owned media outlets have explicitly cited TikTok as a tool for advancing the regime’s goals, testified John Garnaut, a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank.

  Mr. Garnaut noted that the CCP Central Committee’s official paper described TikTok as a key component in its effort to “allow short video platforms to become ‘megaphones’ for telling Chinese stories well and spreading Chinese voices well.”

  Another story in the same paper said that the concepts of freedom, democracy, and human rights were invented to “compete with us [the CCP] for positions, hearts, and masses, and ultimately overthrow the leadership of the Communist Party of China and our country’s socialist system.”

  To that end, Mr. Garnaut said that TikTok was “a project of total ideological control” by the CCP, with “enormous” potential to radically shape the information that Americans receive.

  “The ability of this platform to manipulate public opinion at crucial moments … I think that’s the issue for deep concern,” Mr. Garnaut said.

  Mr. Gallagher said earlier in the week that the CCP could exploit the app to cause “absolute chaos” in the U.S. 2024 presidential election.

  Mr. Garnaut agreed with that sentiment, saying that the presence of any CCP disinformation could have detrimental effects regardless of whether it was believed. He pointed to the 2016 elections as evidence for such a phenomenon.

  “Mueller found no evidence that Russia caused the election of Trump or that Trump had colluded with Russia,” Mr. Garnault said. “Nevertheless, Russia’s interference fed perceptions that bitterly divided Americans and wounded the faith of many that the election had been free and fair.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/04/2023 – 00:00

• These Are The Critical Minerals To China, EU, & US National Security
  These Are The Critical Minerals To China, EU, & US National Security

  Governments formulate lists of critical minerals according to their industrial requirements and strategic evaluations of supply risks.

  Over the last decade, minerals like nickel, copper, and lithium have been on these lists and deemed essential for clean technologies like EV batteries and solar and wind power.

  Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti and Zach Aboulazm created the following graphic, using data from  IRENA and the U.S. Department of Energy, to identify which minerals are essential to China, the United States, and the European Union.

  

  What are Critical Minerals?

  There is no universally accepted definition of critical minerals. Countries and regions maintain lists that mirror current technology requirements and supply and demand dynamics, among other factors.

  These lists are also constantly changing. For example, the EU’s first critical minerals list in 2011 featured only 14 raw materials. In contrast, the 2023 version identified 34 raw materials as critical.

  One thing countries share, however, is the concern that a lack of minerals could slow down the energy transition.

  

  With most countries committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the total mineral demand from clean energy technologies is expected to double by 2040.

  U.S. and EU Seek to Reduce Import Reliance on Critical Minerals

  Ten materials feature on critical material lists of both the U.S., the EU, and China, including cobalt, lithium, graphite, and rare earths.

  Mineral / Considered Critical	🇺🇸 U.S.	🇪🇺 EU	🇨🇳 China
  Aluminum/ bauxite	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Antimony	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Cobalt	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Copper	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Fluorspar	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Graphite	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Lithium	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Nickel	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Rare earths	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Tungsten	Yes	Yes	Yes
  Arsenic	Yes	Yes	No
  Barite	Yes	Yes	No
  Beryllium	Yes	Yes	No
  Bismuth	Yes	Yes	No
  Germanium	Yes	Yes	No
  Hafnium	Yes	Yes	No
  Magnesium	Yes	Yes	No
  Manganese	Yes	Yes	No
  Niobium	Yes	Yes	No
  Platinum	Yes	Yes	No
  Tantalum	Yes	Yes	No
  Titanium	Yes	Yes	No
  Vanadium	Yes	Yes	No
  Tin	Yes	No	Yes
  Zirconium	Yes	No	Yes
  Phosphorus	No	Yes	Yes
  Cesium	Yes	No	No
  Chromium	Yes	No	No
  Indium	Yes	No	No
  Rubidium	Yes	No	No
  Samarium	Yes	No	No
  Tellurium	Yes	No	No
  Zinc	Yes	No	No
  Boron	No	Yes	No
  Coking Coal	No	Yes	No
  Feldspar	No	Yes	No
  Gallium	No	Yes	No
  Helium	No	Yes	No
  Phosphate Rock	No	Yes	No
  Scandium	No	Yes	No
  Silicon	No	Yes	No
  Strontium	No	Yes	No
  Gold	No	No	Yes
  Iron ore	No	No	Yes
  Molybdenum	No	No	Yes
  Potash	No	No	Yes
  Uranium	No	No	Yes

  Despite having most of the same materials found in the U.S. or China’s list, the European list is the only one to include phosphate rock. The region has limited phosphate resources (only produced in Finland) and largely depends on imports of the material essential for manufacturing fertilizers.

  Coking coal is also only on the EU list. The material is used in the manufacture of pig iron and steel. Production is currently dominated by China (58%), followed by Australia (17%), Russia (7%), and the U.S. (7%).

  The U.S. has also sought to reduce its reliance on imports. Today, the country is 100% import-dependent on manganese and graphite and 76% on cobalt.

  After decades of sourcing materials from other countries, the U.S. local production of raw materials has become extremely limited. For instance, there is only one operating nickel mine (primary) in the country, the Eagle Mine in Michigan. Likewise, the country only hosts one lithium source in Nevada, the Silver Peak Mine.

  China’s Dominance

  Despite being the world’s biggest carbon polluter, China is the largest producer of most of the world’s critical minerals for the green revolution.

  China produces 60% of all rare earth elements used as components in high-technology devices, including smartphones and computers. The country also has a 13% share of the lithium production market. In addition, it refines around 35% of the world’s nickel, 58% of lithium, and 70% of cobalt.

  Among some of the unique materials on China’s list is gold. Although gold is used on a smaller scale in technology, China has sought gold for economic and geopolitical factors, mainly to diversify its foreign exchange reserves, which rely heavily on the U.S. dollar.

  ADVERTISEMENT

   

  Analysts estimate China has bought a record 400 tonnes of gold in recent years.

  China has also slated uranium as a critical mineral. The Chinese government has stated it intends to become self-sufficient in nuclear power plant capacity and fuel production for those plants.

  According to the World Nuclear Association, China aims to produce one-third of its uranium domestically.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 23:30

• Melatonin Use And Poisoning Reports Surging In Children, Revealing Concerning Problem
  Melatonin Use And Poisoning Reports Surging In Children, Revealing Concerning Problem

  Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  But recent survey findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics suggest that melatonin consumption in U.S. children and adolescents is “exceedingly common.”

  

  Around one-fifth of American children use melatonin for sleep, with some parents beginning administration to their children at the early age of 1, the authors wrote.

  The United States has seen a rapid rise in pediatric melatonin use due to sleep problems. Some clinicians attribute these sleep problems to an increase in mental illness and screen use.

  According to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) survey findings, between 2017 and 2018, around 1 percent of children and adolescents under the age of 19 consumed melatonin in the past 30 days.

  The JAMA Pediatrics study authors compared this finding to their own research results, reporting that the current data indicate a rise in use of about 20 percent. Parents surveyed also reported that their children take the supplement on average two to five days per week, and many take it daily.

  

  The common use of melatonin has also contributed to melatonin poisoning. Between 2012 and 2021, poison control centers in the United States have seen a 530 percent increase in melatonin ingestion reports among children, some of which resulted in hospitalization and death, according to research published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) publication.

  

  Insufficient Sleep Is Common Among Children

  “A lot of people think that kids don’t have sleeping problems, and that is absolutely not true,” sleep medicine pediatrician Dr. Gayln Perry, CEO of the Perry Center for Pediatric & Adult Sleep Care, told The Epoch Times.

  Kids have always had sleeping problems, and these don’t differ much from those of adults.

  COVID has also escalated problems. Around 25 percent of children suffered from disrupted sleep prior to the pandemic, and this jumped to nearly 46 percent in 2020.

  Just as stress, anxiety, and depression can cause insomnia in adults, the same can occur in children who have different worries from day to day. These may include schoolwork, pressure from peers, and social media interactions.

  Many teenagers are also over-committed in their school activities, which impacts their ability to get to bed on time.

  Additionally, homeschooling during the pandemic increased children’s screen time. Screens are highly stimulating; their light can suppress and disrupt the sleep cycle.

  There is a significant problem with electronics in general, “to the point that some parents really have lost control,” Dr. Perry said. Kids may get up in the middle of the night or early in the morning before school to get on their tablets or phones or to play video games.

  Pediatrician Dr. Derek Husmann said he believes screen use is the main problem causing disordered sleeping in children.

  Autism and attention-deficit/hyperactive disorders, whose rates have been growing among children, are also associated with poor sleep and difficulty falling asleep.

  A Cheap and Accessible Sleep Aid

  Parents and caretakers have, therefore, turned to melatonin.

  Supplements for children are accessible, unregulated, and can be bought without a prescription. Available in the form of gummies and liquids, they are also appealing to young children.

  “The majority of parents that come into my clinic have at least tried melatonin, or the child is already on melatonin—either per recommendation from a general pediatrician or on their own,” Dr. Perry said.

  Between 2016 and 2020, sales of melatonin supplements increased by around 150 percent, according to the MMWR. Beyond sleep, people also supplement melatonin for its antioxidizing, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and neuroprotective effects.

  

  Melatonin is a natural hormone the body produces to regulate the sleep-wake cycle. Light suppresses, while darkness stimulates the release of melatonin from the pineal gland.

  Generally, melatonin supplements are advised to be taken one to two hours before bedtime to mimic the natural cycle.

  “If taken later, it might be that the ‘window of opportunity’ has been missed,” Henriette Edemann Callesen, a neuropsychiatry consultant for the Danish Health Authority, wrote to The Epoch Times via email.

  Melatonin’s effects only last about two hours. “It’s going to facilitate falling asleep quicker, but it’s not going to be around long enough to impact sleep quality,” said Dr. Perry. While parents typically report a short-term benefit when administering melatonin, as time passes, the supplements may not work as well, and the dose may need to be increased.

  Dr. Husmann has seen this in his patients.

  “It used to bother me a lot when I came across those patients that have been on it for months and months. I asked them to try to wean their kids off … but there are some cases where they try, and it’s not particularly successful,” he said.

  Whether prolonged melatonin use leads to tolerance, like other sleeping pills, remains up for debate. Studies have shown conflicting evidence. However, long-term supplementation is typically not advised.

  The Dangers

  Doctors also generally do not recommend melatonin supplementation for healthy children under age 3 since difficulties falling and staying asleep in these children are almost always behavioral in nature. Yet there have been numerous cases of melatonin use in infants and toddlers.

  High melatonin levels have also been detected in deceased children.

  “I suspect the biggest issue is easy access to melatonin and its ill-perceived safety,” sleep medicine pediatrician Dr. Muhammad A. Rishi at Indiana University Health wrote to The Epoch Times via email. 

  A North Carolina autopsy report detailed seven cases of suspected melatonin involvement in pediatric deaths.

  One case was of a 3-month-old girl routinely given eight to 10 daily doses of 5 milligrams of melatonin supplements as a sleep aid. Such a dosage is well above what’s recommended for a child of any age. The child’s cause of death was inconclusive.

  Doctors still do not know why melatonin supplementation may be associated with death, given its assumed high safety profile. It should also be noted that deaths from melatonin supplements make up only a very small percentage of all melatonin poisoning reports.

  Dr. Perry said she has never had a patient die from melatonin and expects that since melatonin is an endogenous hormone—meaning it naturally occurs in the body—it should have a wide safety margin.

  “I don’t see a lot of downsides other than I wish so many kids didn’t need it in the first place,” Dr. Husmann agreed.

  However, Dr. Rishi argued that melatonin is a drug, meaning that it changes a person’s mental or physical state and, therefore, should be treated as such.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 23:00

• The Drag From China's Property Crisis Will Only Become Bigger
  The Drag From China’s Property Crisis Will Only Become Bigger

  By Charlie Zhu and Helen Sun, Bloomberg markets live reporter and strategists

  Three things we learned last week:

  1. A protracted slump in China’s property market is hampering the broader economy’s recovery. Official data showed manufacturing activities contracted in November, while the services sector also lost momentum. A surprise pickup in a private manufacturing gauge was met with skepticism.

  The latest data show there’s no end in sight for the crisis, with the decline in China’s home sales worsening. Homebuyer sentiment remained weak amid uncertain employment and income prospects, according to Fitch Ratings. Concerns over developers’ home delivery weighed on the market as more firms faced liquidity issues, analysts led by Karl Shen wrote in a report.

  Neither infrastructure construction nor high-end manufacturing can fill the missing demand from a lack of home purchases, Wu Ge, chief economist at Changjiang Securities Co., wrote in a note. Wu previously worked at the central bank’s monetary policy department.

  What’s worse, policy push to have banks offer a lifeline to developers is adding more pain to the financial sector. Lenders, which have already been suffering from soaring bad loans and record low net interest margins, face the prospect of big losses and job cuts.

  

  2. China was left out in the everything rally that lifted global assets in November, underscoring the depth of pessimism. The CSI 300 benchmark closed near its weakest level of the year on Friday, even after a report that a state entity has purchased ETFs lifted stocks off their session lows.

  Efforts at one of China’s largest investment banks to silence bearish commentary deepened investor worries about a lack of access to transparent data and research. A rally in equities traded on the Beijing Stock Exchange, which has been an outlier in the sluggish market, also lost steam.

  Still, some investors are spotting opportunities. Fidelity International is timing a re-entrance into the market as Beijing prioritizes growth, while Franklin Templeton sees valuations as too attractive to ignore.

  

  3. Amid all the gloom, the emergence of a new technology giant suggests the country is still a dynamic market. Shares of PDD Holdings Inc., an eight-year-old e-commerce platform, surged after reporting a near doubling in revenue. Its market cap outstripped Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. last week in a landmark shift for the country’s tech industry.

  More of those valuable startups originating from China may become available for public investment. Fast-fashion retailer Shein is said to have filed confidentially with US regulators for an initial public offering that could take place next year.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 22:00

• Pentagon Confirms US Warship, Commercial Ships Under Attack In Red Sea
  Pentagon Confirms US Warship, Commercial Ships Under Attack In Red Sea

  Update (1800ET):

  US Central Command provided a detailed summary of the four maritime attacks carried out by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, targeting commercial vessels on Sunday:

  Today, there were four attacks against three separate commercial vessels operating in international waters in the southern Red Sea. These three vessels are connected to 14 separate nations. The Arleigh-Burke Class destroyer USS CARNEY responded to the distress calls from the ships and provided assistance.

  At approximately 9:15 a.m. Sanaa time, the CARNEY detected an anti-ship ballistic missile attack fired from Houthi controlled areas of Yemen toward the M/V UNITY EXPLORER, impacting in the vicinity of the vessel. UNITY EXPLORER is a Bahamas flagged, U.K. owned and operated, bulk cargo ship crewed by sailors from two nations. The CARNEY was conducting a patrol in the Red Sea and detected the attack on the UNITY EXPLORER.

  At approximately 12 p.m., and while in international waters, CARNEY engaged and shot down a UAV launched from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen. The drone was headed toward CARNEY although its specific target is not clear. We cannot assess at this time whether the Carney was a target of the UAVs. There was no damage to the U.S. vessel or injuries to personnel.

  In a separate attack at approximately 12:35 p.m., UNITY EXPLORER reported they were struck by a missile fired from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen. CARNEY responded to the distress call. While assisting with the damage assessment, CARNEY detected another inbound UAV, destroying the drone with no damage or injuries on the CARNEY or UNITY EXPLORER. UNITY EXPLORER reports minor damage from the missile strike.

  At approximately 3:30 p.m. the M/V NUMBER 9 was struck by a missile fired from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen while operating international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The Panamanian flagged, Bermuda and U.K. owned and operated, bulk carrier reported damage and no casualties.

  At approximately 4:30 p.m., the M/V SOPHIE II, sent a distress call stating they were struck by a missile. CARNEY again responded to the distress call and reported no significant damage. While en route to render support, CARNEY shot down a UAV headed in its direction. SOPHIE II is a Panamanian flagged bulk carrier, crewed by sailors from eight countries.

  These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security. They have jeopardized the lives of international crews representing multiple countries around the world. We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran. The United States will consider all appropriate responses in full coordination with its international allies and partners.

  *   *   *

  Update (1409ET):

  A reporter from the Israeli public broadcasting corporation shared on X that a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces reported a UK commercial ship was targeted in the Houthi attack.

  .@IDFSpokesperson: UK ship that was hit by Houthi terrorists is “in risk of drowning”

  — Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) December 3, 2023

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

  *   *   *

  Update (1305ET):

  CNN’s Pentagon reporter Haley Britzky reports that the US Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Carney shot down two drones belonging to Yemen’s Iran-supported Houthi rebels.

  The destroy then received a “distress call from the civilian commercial vessel M/V Unity Explorer, after the Carney saw at least one ballistic missile fired at the Unity Explorer & land in its vicinity.” 

  NEW: The USS Carney shot down two Houthi drones today — one while responding to a distress call from the civilian commercial vessel M/V Unity Explorer, after the Carney saw at least one ballistic missile fired at the Unity Explorer & land in its vicinity: Defense official

  — Haley Britzky (@halbritz) December 3, 2023

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

  According to Bloomberg data, Unity Explorer is a bulk carrier and recently transited the Suez Canal. The ship’s last known position was last Tuesday, in the middle part of the Red Sea. 

  

  Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the attack. 

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

  Yemen’s Houthi rebels issued a press statement confirming that they carried out an operation targeting two vessels:

  – Bulk Carrier UNITY EXPLORER (9726035). AIS offline 5d ago.
  – Container Ship NO.9 (9340752)https://t.co/Xu3h0mxQJn

  AIS data by @MarineTraffic, a @Kpler company pic.twitter.com/WrFwFqyQFB

  — TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) December 3, 2023

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

  *   *   *

  In a significant development, AP News has reported that a US Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and two commercial vessels were targeted in the Red Sea. This incident is part of a growing trend of maritime attacks in the waters of the Middle East, which have been linked to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. 

  “We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon said.

  Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official told AP that the attack was around Sanaa, Yemen, and said Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, repelled at least one drone during the attack.

  Despite no confirmation from the Pentagon on who exactly were the attackers, one might suspect Yemen’s Iran-supported Houthi rebels, who have frequently attacked ships in the Red Sea, could be responsible. The terror group has also launched drones and missiles at Israel. 

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

  Let’s remember the Red Sea is one of the world’s most heavily traveled commercial shipping lanes. 

  

  Meanwhile, “Gulf of Tonkin” is trending on X in the US. 

  

  The latest data from intelligence firm Stratfor shows two US aircraft carriers are in the region:

  • CVN 69: The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is underway in the Persian Gulf. 
  • CVN 78: The USS Gerald R. Ford is underway in the Mediterranean Sea. 

  With an amphibious group in the Red Sea

  • LHD 5: The USS Bataan is underway.

  

  This comes weeks after the “Galaxy Leader,” a vehicle carrier vessel, was hijacked in the Red Sea. 

  “Galaxy Leader” captured by Houthis as seen on a satellite image off the coast of Yemen: pic.twitter.com/DQtICDoOdP

  — Bashkarma🌏 (@Karmabash) November 29, 2023

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

  *Developing… 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 21:45

• Yale Awards 80 Percent Of Grades In The A Range
  Yale Awards 80 Percent Of Grades In The A Range

  Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

  

  We recently discussed the runaway grade inflation at Harvard where roughly 80 percent of grades were As. Now the Yale Daily News is reporting the same percentage of As. Indeed, the percentage is virtually identical. Harvard is handing out 79 percent agrees where Yale is apparently more rigorous at 78.9.The report is apparently an embarrassment to the university since the dean of Yale College said that professors are not adhering to guidelines for grading.Yet, this could hardly be a surprise to the dean since these grades are reported and issued by the records office.

  Indeed, this average is reportedly down from the prior year where 81.97 percent of students were given As. So not getting an A at Yale meant that you were in the bottom 20 percent of the class.

  That means that for virtually all of the students at Yale there was a three-grade system that runs from A+, A, and A-.

  The percentage was higher in the African American Studies department at 82.21 percent. However, it was the Gender Students department that showed that 92.6 percent of grades were in the A range. So only 7 % of students did not receive an A in gender studies.

  For employers and other universities, it renders the grades from Yale meaningless in judging the capabilities and record of students.

  They are not apparently alone.

  At Spellman College, economics professor Kendrick Morales was fired after objecting to the school raising his grades without his consent, even after massively increasing the grades.

  Morales worked for two years at Spellman and taught two upper-level courses. In one class, he added a 28-point grade bump for one test at the request of his department chair.

  When students overall bombed the final, Morales  “pre-emptively” raised them 36 points so that a student receiving a 57 would receive an A.  Yet, even with that increase, 44 percent of that class would still fail. Indeed, they had failed, but Morales says that Undergraduate Studies Dean Desiree Pedescleaux bumped up the students’ grades again without his approval.

  He was later fired.

  The allegations not only raise questions over the academic standards at Spellman, but the violation of academic freedom.

  Grade inflation is only the latest sign of how school administrators have lost control of universities and colleges. It also reflects a growing expectation of students in terms of higher GPAs.

  It is easy to say that this is the byproduct of the “trophy generation,” but this is not their fault. Years ago, I had an interesting conversation with one of my classes over this negative image and one student said that they never wanted participation trophies. She noted it was my generation that wanted them to have them, not the kids. Another student said that she would routinely throw away trophies as meaningless and insulting.

  The same could well prove true for grades that they will become worthless and discarded if this trend continues. That will undermine a critical role of universities in evaluating the performance of students. That role not only helps future employers. It is even more important in offering students a true appraisal of their work. Often students will pursue degrees for the wrong reasons and not consider other fields that may be better suited to their talents and interests. If you are getting nothing but As in your economics or gender studies course, there is little reason to consider alternatives.

  When John F. Kennedy was given an honorary degree at Yale, he quipped “it might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.” It turns out that both now come with the same 80 percent likelihood of receiving an A. The question is not the degree but the education at either school with such grade inflation.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 21:00

• How Much Do Americans Trust The Media?
  How Much Do Americans Trust The Media?

  Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point in six years.

  Gallup began its survey on media trust in 1972, repeating it in 1974 and 1976. After a long period, the public opinion firm restarted the polls in 1997 and has asked Americans about their confidence level in the mass media – newspapers, TV, and radio – almost every year since then.

  Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti and Sam Parker illustrates Gallup’s latest poll results, conducted in September 2023, in the graphic below:

  

  Americans’ Trust in Mass Media, 1972-2023

  Americans’ confidence in the mass media has sharply declined over the last few decades.

  Trust in the mass media	% Great deal/Fair amount	% Not very much	% None at all
  1972	68	24	6
  1974	69	21	8
  1976	72	22	4
  1997	53	31	15
  1998	55	35	9
  1999	55	34	11
  2000	51	37	12
  2001	53	33	14
  2002	54	35	11
  2003	54	35	11
  2004	44	39	16
  2005	50	37	12
  2007	47	35	17
  2008	43	35	21
  2009	45	37	18
  2010	43	36	21
  2011	44	36	19
  2012	40	39	21
  2013	44	33	22
  2014	40	36	24
  2015	40	36	24
  2016	32	41	27
  2017	41	29	29
  2018	45	30	24
  2019	41	30	28
  2020	40	27	33
  2021	36	29	34
  2022	34	28	38
  2023	32	29	39

  In 2016, the number of respondents trusting media outlets fell below the tally of those who didn’t trust the media at all. This is the first time that has happened in the poll’s history.

  That year was marked by sharp criticism of the media from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

  In 2017, the use of the term ‘fake news’ rose by 365% on social media, and the term was named the word of the year by dictionary publisher Collins.

  The Lack of Faith in Institutions and Social Media

  Although there’s no single reason to explain the decline of trust in the traditional media, some studies point to potential drivers.

  According to Michael Schudson, a sociologist and historian of the news media and a professor at the Columbia Journalism School, in the 1970s, faith in institutions like the White House or Congress began to decline, consequently impacting confidence in the media.

  “That may have been a necessary corrective to a sense of complacency that had been creeping in—among the public and the news media—that allowed perhaps too much trust: we accepted President Eisenhower’s lies about the U-2 spy plane, President Kennedy’s lies about the ‘missile gap,’ President Johnson’s lies about the war in Vietnam, President Nixon’s lies about Watergate,”

  MICHAEL SCHUDSON – COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL

  More recently, the internet and social media have significantly changed how people consume media. The rise of platforms such as X/Twitter and Facebook have also disrupted the traditional media status quo.

  Partisans’ Trust in Mass Media

  Historically, Democrats have expressed more confidence in the media than Republicans.

  Democrats’ trust, however, has fallen 12 points over the past year to 58%, compared with 11% among Republicans and 29% among independents.

  

  According to Gallup, Republicans’ low confidence in the media has little room to worsen, but Democrat confidence could still deteriorate and bring the overall national reading down further.

  The poll also shows that young Democrats have less confidence in the media than older Democrats, while Republicans are less varied in their views by age group.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 20:30

• US Signs New Climate Pact To Shut Down All Coal Plants
  US Signs New Climate Pact To Shut Down All Coal Plants

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

  John Kerry, special presidential envoy on climate matters, announced Saturday that the United States has “proudly” committed to not to build any new coal plants and to get rid of existing ones entirely.

  “To meet our goal of 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035, we need to phase out unabated coal,” Mr. Kerry said in a Dec. 2 statement, in which he announced that the United States had officially joined a coalition of 56 other countries who all plan to ditch coal in the name of climate change.

  “We will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building stronger economies and more resilient communities,” Mr. Kerry said in his statement.

  “The first step is to stop making the problem worse: stop building new unabated coal power plants.”

  While no specific date was given for when the Biden administration plans to nix America’s existing coal plants, other regulatory actions by the administration zero in on 2035 as the year when coal ends.

  Just under 20 percent of U.S. electricity was powered by coal as of October 2023, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).

  

  Anti-Coal Alliance

  The anti-coal pact that Mr. Kerry said Washington had just joined is called the Power Past Coal Alliance, which was started six years ago and had 50 members until Saturday, when the United States, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Iceland, Kosovo, and Norway joined bringing the total to 56.

  Citing IEA’s Net Zero Roadmap, the Power Past Coal Alliance said in a Dec. 2 statement that, in order to “keep the 1.5°C goal within reach,” advanced economies like the United States need to immediately end the construction of new coal power plants and phase out existing plants by 2030, and by 2040 in the rest of the world.

  The 1.5°C threshold, first established in the Paris Agreement in 2015, aims to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2100.

  In 2022, coal-fired plants generated 36 percent of global electricity, outstripping all other sources. Over half of this output was in China, which is building new coal plants at a fast pace, undeterred by various climate pledges and goals that the country’s leadership has paid lip service to.

  The next three largest contributors to global coal-fired electricity are India, the United States, and Japan, which jointly account for around 25 percent of the total.

  Coal Use In China, Elsewhere

  China saw coal power projects jump in 2022 despite the country’s pledge to cut down coal consumption by the end of the decade.

  In 2022, coal power construction starts, new project announcements, and plant permissions “accelerated dramatically” in China, according to a February report (pdf) by Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), which noted that roughly two new coal power plants were being permitted per week in China.

  “50 GW of coal power capacity started construction in China in 2022, a more than 50 percent increase from 2021. Many of these projects had their permits fast-tracked and moved to construction in a matter of months,” the report said.

  “A total of 106 GW of new coal power projects were permitted, the equivalent of two large coal power plants per week,” the report continued.

  “The amount of capacity permitted more than quadrupled from 23 GW in 2021.”

  The second-largest consumer of coal, India, has also seen its coal consumption rise. According to the “Coal 2022” report  by the International Energy Agency (IEA), coal demand in India rose by 14 percent in 2021.

  Meanwhile, coal demand in the United States saw a growth of 15 percent in 2021, per the IEA report.

  Meanwhile, a recent report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found that roughly a million coal jobs could be lost by 2050 as mines retire—even without any climate policies being implemented.

  The vast majority of job losses would be in Asia, with China and India taking the brunt.

  As for the United States, the GEM report estimates more than 15,000 jobs in the coal sector will be lost per decade in the 2030s and 40s, and less than 15,000 jobs to be lost in the 2050s.

  For the current decade, the report estimates a U.S. coal job loss of below 15,000.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 20:00

• Will China Really Invade Taiwan
  Will China Really Invade Taiwan

  By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

  “I think the Chinese leadership at this juncture is overwhelmed by its internal challenges,” said Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.

  “My thought is perhaps this is not a time for them to consider a major invasion of Taiwan,” she continued, and reasonable people across the planet prayed she’s right.

  “This is largely because of the economic, financial and political challenges, but also because the international community has made it loud and clear that war is not an option, and that peace and stability serves everyone’s interest.”

  

  War, of course, is always an option.

  And peace and stability do not serve everyone’s interest, they serve almost everyone’s interest.

  For the few, war is lucrative. Which is why conflict features so prominently in human history. After a brief respite in hostilities, the war in Gaza resumed. Fighting continues unabated in Ukraine. And mankind’s enduring struggle to tame nature showed no sign of material advance. That said, the UAE announced a $30bln climate fund in partnership with Blackrock, Brookfield, and TPG. The hope is to leverage this sum to attract $250bln in investment by 2030, with an increasing focus on the Global South, which stands to suffer most profoundly in this war.

  And if you squint your eyes and gaze at the horizon, you can almost see a world where China becomes more focused on internal growth than its Taiwan ambitions. With the West increasingly intent to disengage economically and with over 20% youth unemployment, sluggish growth, and a stock market at 4-year lows, it would be in Beijing’s interest to seek peace and stability.

  The prosperous nations of the Middle East seek peace and stability as they determinedly drive to diversify their economies away from oil and gas. And it’s not inconceivable that we are approaching an end to the conflict in Ukraine, having accomplished little more than untold suffering.

  Take those three conflicts off the table, focus humanity’s efforts on our battle with nature, perhaps throw in some productivity gains due to AI, and you have the makings for an increasingly prosperous world. Let’s hope this is what the market in its infinite wisdom sees, rather than the recent rise in asset prices being little more than hopes for a Fed pivot.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 19:30

• Gold Spikes To Record High Over $2,130, Bitcoin Soars Above $40,000 As Market Calls Powell's Bluff
  Gold Spikes To Record High Over $2,130, Bitcoin Soars Above $40,000 As Market Calls Powell’s Bluff

  On Friday, shortly after Powell failed to hammer the hawkish case in his “fireside” chat with stocks eager to take out 2023 highs, we said that Powell has a big problem on his hands not so much because if the market was indeed correct about imminent easing that only assures that inflation will come back with a vengeance and Powell would indeed be the “second coming” of a former Fed Chair – only Burns not Vlcker  – but because the kneejerk surge higher in gold (and digital gold) meant that the once again deathwatch for the dollar – and fiat in general – had resumed.

  Well, with futures having opened for trading on Sunday night, what we joked about on Friday, namely that Powell – having seemingly once again lost control of the hawkish narrative – may be leaking emergency rate hikes though Nick Timiraos on Dec 12, ahead of the December FOMC (now that the Fed is in blackout mode)…

  Smells like Powell will be leaking emergency rate hikes through Nikileaks on Dec 12

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 1, 2023

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

  … is all too real because suddenly everything that is non printable is soaring, starting with gold, which has exploded as much as $60, spiking to a new all time high of $2,135…

  

  … while bitcoin, and the entire crypto sector following closely, spiking above $40,000 for the first time since May 2022.

  

  The bitcoin move was to be expected after what we reported yesterday, namely that cryptos had just seen their largest inflows in two years… and Friday’s comments by Powell only guaranteed even more capital would flow into the largely illiquid asset class.

  

  “Bitcoin continues to be supported by optimism around SEC approval for an ETF and Fed rate cuts in 2024,” Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG Australia Pty, wrote in a note. Technical chart patterns point to $42,330 as the next level to watch for, he added.

  As for gold, everything is suddenly going in its favor, and not only the violent resumption of the Israel-Hamas war (which now includes attacks on US warships in the Gulf)…

  

  … as well as the relentless buying out of China which we discussed last week in “Behind The Mysterious Explosion In Gold Prices: China’s “Massive Accumulation Of Gold” which noted the staggering divergence between Shanghai and London gold prices, a clear proxy for outsized demand for physical gold on the mainland…

  

  … but also years of market reflexes which prompt algos to buy gold any time the Fed is set to ease, something which markets assigned 80% odds on Friday could happen as soon as March.

  And so, going back to square one, Powell is once again boxed in: either he pushes back on the market’s sudden dovish euphoria which could well send dollar sparling lower, and in turn send commodities exploding higher guaranteeing that all the worst aspects of Burns Fed make a triumphant return, or he does nothing, and we see gold go parabolic.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 19:26

• Hundreds Of Illegal Chinese-Owned Marijuana Operations Taking Over Maine
  Hundreds Of Illegal Chinese-Owned Marijuana Operations Taking Over Maine

  Authored by Jana J. Pruet via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Hundreds of illegal Chinese-owned marijuana growing operations have been popping up across Maine over the past three years.

  

  On Tuesday, Nov. 28, local law enforcement shut down an illegal marijuana grow that was being operated in a building located behind a licensed marijuana cultivation facility in Franklin County.

  Officers from the Wilton Police Department were assisting investigators from the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) during a routine follow-up inspection of a licensed facility in Wilton when they raided the illegal operation, authorities said in a press release posted on social media.

  “It’s a place that has been on the radar,” State Rep. Mike Sobeleski (R) told The Epoch Times, adding that he had visited the facility previously. The Republican lawmaker said he had learned about the raid just minutes before Tuesday’s interview with The Epoch Times to discuss the illegal marijuana operations being run by Chinese nationals throughout the state.

  Earlier this month, a man identifying himself as the property manager told the Maine Wire that the building was being used to grow marijuana and that operators paid about $30,000 per month in rent.

  He also reportedly told the news outlet that the facility was being run by four Asian men who claimed they were from New York, California, Washington, and Massachusetts.

  The property owner “has no connection to the internal operations of either the licensed or unlicensed marijuana cultivation facility,” according to authorities. The building is the former Bass Shoe Factory and is currently on the market for $6 million.

  The facility had been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for possible ties to Asian transnational organized crime, the Maine Wire reported.

  Marijuana is legal for recreational use for adults 21 and over in Maine. State law also allows adult residents to grow up to three mature plants and 12 immature plants for personal use.

  OCP is responsible for the licensing, compliance, and general oversight of legalized cannabis for medical and adult use in the state.

  In July, state law enforcement had identified 270 suspected illegal marijuana operations with an estimated revenue of $4.37 billion, according to an internal federal law enforcement document that was being circulated among Border Patrol agents. The Daily Caller originally reported the information after it obtained a copy of the memo.

  In response to the reports, lawmakers in Maine sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting information about the alleged illegal Chinese marijuana growing operations.

  “These illegal growing operations are detrimental to Maine businesses that comply with State laws, and we urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) to shut them down,” Republican Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, along with Democratic Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree wrote in their letter dated Aug. 24.

  They posed a series of questions regarding the agency’s knowledge of the alleged Chinese connection to the illegal growing operations and what actions the DOJ is taking to shut them down across the state.

  “What is the DOJ doing to address illegal operations, including illegal operations that are run by foreign governments or entities?” they asked.

  They further inquired, “How are the profits from these illegal operations being returned to the country of origin?”

  It is unclear whether the attorney general has responded to the August inquiry.

  Ms. Collins’ office did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for more information.

  Vague Enforcement Laws in Maine

  Mr. Sobeleski said the state’s enforcement laws make it difficult for state and local authorities to shut down illegal operations until the feds get involved.

  “They’re not sure who’s going to be the responsible [agency] to go in there based on the fact that this is a legal person on the property, and there are guidelines you have to go by on that,” he explained. “So, there’s no clarity in who enforces the law.“

  Through an investigation, the Maine Wire located over 100 illegal marijuana facilities that are allegedly operated by Chinese nationals. Many of them are operating in homes that are often near schools and childcare facilities.

  Joe Turcotte, a spokesperson for Mr. Sobeleski, said residents become frustrated when they file multiple complaints with local authorities who refuse to help.

  Mr. Soboleski said he had visited many of the houses where the illegal operations occur. He said the operators have boarded up the windows and doors to cover up the illegal activity inside. Neighbors complain of the constant smell of marijuana coming from the houses and trash litters the lawns and roadways.

  There is also a safety issue when home-cultivating operations illegally run 400 amps of electricity into buildings housing grow operations, posing a fire hazard.

  “We’ve actually had houses burn from the heat and electricity from these grow operations,” Mr. Turcotte explained.

  Another concern is that the houses are being used for other illegal activities.

  “They could be used for trafficking other harder narcotics,” Mr. Soboleski said, adding that illegal immigrants could also be staying in the homes.

  The Maine Wire reported that law enforcement has raided only two other properties in the state.

  A raid in the town of Carmel led to the seizure of over 3,000 marijuana plants. Four Chinese men were arrested in connection with that operation and are facing felony charges.

  Nearly 1,000 plants were seized in another raid in Dexter. However, no arrests were made.

  Mr. Soboleski recently sponsored legislation that would provide state and local law enforcement agencies with the authority to enforce laws against illegal marijuana operations.

  His bill, known as “An Act to Provide Investigative Authority to the Maine State Police, Sheriffs, and Local Police Regarding Maine’s Recreational Cannabis Laws and Ordinances to Ensure Proper Enforcement,” was “shut down” by the legislative council earlier this month, he said.

  “We have the mechanisms to take these [illegal marijuana operations] out, but it’s a matter of the political will to do it,” Mr. Turcotte said.

  A National Problem

  Illegal marijuana grows are being operated in numerous states across the country.

  The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) seized more than 72,000 pounds of illegal marijuana in Wagoner County and another 250 pounds in Lincoln County on Nov. 9.

  “Our state has been overrun with criminals who are trafficking drugs in our local communities and throughout the country,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a press release on Nov. 14. “I will not tolerate this serious threat to public safety. I am proud of the work of the Organized Crime Task Force and our law enforcement partners for their efforts to eliminate this blight on our communities.”

  The Wagoner County seizure was among the largest in state history.

  A week later, OCTF, along with the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, served search warrants on six medical marijuana grow operations in Pottawatomie County, where they seized 77,236 untraceable and untagged plants, nearly 2,000 pounds of untraceable marijuana, and several firearms, according to a separate press release Nov. 17.

  “We are sending a clear message to Mexican drug cartels, Chinese crime syndicates, and all others who are endangering public safety through these heinous operations,” Mr. Drummond said in a statement. “And that message is to get the hell out of Oklahoma.”

  Oklahoma voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 2018. Earlier this year, voters rejected a state initiative to allow for the recreational use of the drug.

  In California, the Unified Cannibas Enforcement Taskforce (UCETF) seized more than $101 million in illegal marijuana during the third quarter of 2023, the agency announced in October.

  “Many of these illegal cannabis operations are linked to organized crime, and in addition to threatening the environment and communities, the products [from] these operations pose a direct threat to consumer health and the stability of the legal cannabis market.”

  Since the task force’s formation in 2022 through the third quarter of 2023, UCETF served more than 200 search warrants and seized nearly $300 million in unlicensed marijuana.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 19:00

• "Two Words… Tucker Carlson": Greg Gutfeld Gores Fox After Musk Blasts Activist Advertisers
  “Two Words… Tucker Carlson”: Greg Gutfeld Gores Fox After Musk Blasts Activist Advertisers

  Greg Gutfeld just took a major shot at his employer, Fox News, saying what we all knew: Tucker Carlson, the highest-rated on-air host in television history, was fired due to pressure from special interest groups.

  

  While discussing Elon Musk’s “fuck you” moment over advertiser attempts to blackmail the billionaire, Gutfeld joked that it would be like “extorting Jerry Nadler with salad, or blackmailing sports fans by threatening to cancel PBS.”

  He then said that Musk was the last man standing against “the censorship-industrial complex, which is made up of government, media and tech forces.”

  Then, Gutfeld stated what we’ve all suspected since it happened…

  “He [Musk] realizes that advertisers have no spine and can be easily cowed by special interest groups in cahoots with political allies – if you don’t believe me I got two words for ya – Tucker Carlson.“

  Watch (h/t Modernity.news):

  Carlson says ‘global freedom hinges on Musk and X’

  Meanwhile, in an interview with VC David Sacks, Tucker Carlson says he thinks that the fate of free speech hinges on X.

  “I’m worried about the pressure being brought to bear on X because it’s the only huge international free speech platform with hundreds of millions of people,” said Carlson, adding “The existence of X where anyone around the world can get for free a whole range of opinions that aren’t controlled — that changes everything.“

  Tucker Carlson Says Global Freedom Hinges on the Success of @ElonMusk & @X

  “I’m worried about the pressure being brought to bear on X because it’s the only huge international free speech platform with hundreds of millions of people.”

  “The existence of X where anyone around the… pic.twitter.com/WRK7tHrT9X

  — KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) December 2, 2023

  Watch the full interview below:

  E155: In conversation with @TuckerCarlson (plus 25+ mins at the end breaking down the @OpenAI chaos)

  — departure from Fox News

  — biggest issue facing the US today: rediscovering national alignment

  — why prosperity begets self-destruction

  — media control

  — current… pic.twitter.com/IKWQQOPl9N

  — The All-In Podcast (@theallinpod) December 1, 2023

   

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 18:25

• Democrats Unveil What NRA Calls 'Most Sweeping Gun Prohibition Bill Of The 21st Century'
  Democrats Unveil What NRA Calls ‘Most Sweeping Gun Prohibition Bill Of The 21st Century’

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

  The latest push to curb Second Amendment rights comes in the form of a Democrat-led bill that seeks to impose a sweeping firearms ban with exceptions that gun rights groups say are so fuzzy that the prohibition could prohibit nearly all semi-automatic handguns.

  

  The bill, dubbed the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion Act (GOSAFE) that a gun rights group panned as “perhaps the most sweeping gun prohibition bill of the 21st Century,” was introduced on Nov. 29 by a number of Democrat senators, along with an Independent—with no Republicans joining.

  Generally, the key idea of the bill is to ban firearms that can be fired quickly (along with accessories that increase firing speed) and have the ability to accept magazines with a capacity of 10 rounds or more, all in a bid to limit “a firearm’s ability to inflict maximum harm in a short amount of time.”

  Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the bill’s co-sponsor, said in a statement that the measure seeks to keep “those firearms that are inherently dangerous and unusually lethal, designed for maximum harm, out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves or others.”

  Gun control group Everytown hailed the measure as “innovative,” while the National Rifle Association (NRA) called it “perhaps the most sweeping gun prohibition bill of the 21st Century” and a violation of Americans’ constitutional rights.

  

  What’s in the Bill?

  The GOSAFE Act seeks to impose a series of new regulations on the sale, transfer, and manufacture of many types of semi-automatic firearms.

  For instance, it would require that all semi-automatic rifles above .22 caliber have a permanently fixed magazine capacity of 10 bullets or fewer while imposing an outright federal-level ban on all such magazines.

  The bill also has a requirement for the capacity of gas-operated semi-automatic rifles above .22 caliber to be “permanently fixed,” meaning that any such firearm capable of taking a larger capacity magazine would be banned.

  Another provision prohibits any modifications—such as installing bump stocks or Glock switches—while also banning build-it-yourself ghost gun kits.

  The bill would also require government approval of any future semi-automatic firearm designs before manufacture, and it would establish a list of prohibited firearms.

  There are exemptions to the bill’s sweeping scope, including bolt action rifles, semi-automatic and recoil-operated shotguns, any rifle or shotgun with a permanently fixed magazine of 10 rounds or less, and any handgun with a permanently fixed magazine of 15 rounds or less.

  

  The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), and Angul King (I-Maine).

  No Republicans have expressed support for the measure.

  Susan Collins (R-Maine) issued a statement to media outlets reacting to the bill, saying that she “will carefully consider it” but that she’ll continue to focus on measures to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and people with mental illness.

  Reactions

  The bill drew praise from gun control groups and critical reactions from gun rights defenders.

  Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, hailed the new bill while decrying what it called the widespread availability in the United States of what it called “weapons of war.”

  “We applaud Senator Heinrich for introducing innovative legislation that would regulate assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, which are capable of creating devastating destruction in an instant,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. “We urge Senator Heinrich’s colleagues to pass this bill before yet another community is forever scarred by someone filled with hate and armed with an AR-15.”

  By contrast, the NRA’s legislative arm, the NRA-ILA, called the measure “perhaps the most sweeping gun prohibition bill of the 21st Century” that targets law-abiding gun owners “while leaving armed criminals unperturbed.”

  The NRA-ILA warned that the exemptions in the bill are unclearly drafted and so risk banning all semi-automatic handguns.

  “The exemption in the bill for semi-automatic handguns is so poorly written that it wouldn’t apply to many popular self-defense handguns, and, depending on its interpretation, may not apply to any handguns,” the NRA-ILA wrote in a note. “Meaning the bill could ban all semi-automatic handguns.”

  For example, the bill’s handgun exception applies to “a handgun that . . . is a single or double action semi-automatic handgun that uses recoil to cycle the action of the handgun,” which the NRA-ILA says could be interpreted to “exclude the popular Browning short recoil operating system that is used by essentially all modern handguns of 9MM or larger caliber.”

  The bill’s provisions banning devices that “materially increase the rate of fire” of semi-automatic firearms also drew objections from the NRA-ILA.

  “This would likely ban things such as bump stocks and binary triggers, but what about more subtle upgrades that make a firearm operate more smoothly or efficiently for competitive or disabled shooters?” the group asked. “As usual, the law’s reach is impossible to determine based on its bare text.”

  In general, the NRA-ILA said it believes the bill “aims to demoralize and intimidate as many people as possible into giving up their right to own firearms” and that the measure “clearly violates the Second Amendment.”

  “We have said it many times before when it comes to ‘assault weapons’ bans, but it bears repeating: the guns targeted by this bill are primarily owned by law-abiding people who keep them for defensive and other lawful purposes,” the group said.

  “They are, in fact, the most popular guns sold in America today. And, semi-automatic rifles are actually underrepresented in murders, behind not just other guns but other types of weapons, including knives and even hands and feet.”

  Mr. King, the bill’s co-sponsor, defended the measure, claiming it’s narrowly focused on restricting firearms that have shown to be particularly lethal—meaning ones that are effective at what firearms are meant to do.

  “For years, I have said that rather than using the appearance of these guns to restrict them, we should instead focus on how these weapons actually work and the features that make them especially dangerous,” Mr. King said in a statement.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 18:00

• San Francisco 'Poop Map' Has Been Updated, And Things Are Sh**tier Than Ever
  San Francisco ‘Poop Map’ Has Been Updated, And Things Are Sh**tier Than Ever

  During Thursday night’s debate between Gavin Newsom (D) and Ron DeSantis (R), the Florida governor busted out the San Francisco ‘poop map’ created by OpenTheBooks.

  DeSantis holds up a map to Newsom that people use to know where poop is on the streets of San Francisco and then points out that he cleaned it up for Xi Jinping pic.twitter.com/6Ha5qhZfmA

  — Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 1, 2023

  The map, created in 2019, plotted nearly 120,000 case reports of human feces on the streets of San Francisco between 2011 and 2019 using the city’s open records portal and 311 call information posted by city officials.

  The problem is so bad that San Francisco has been employing so-called ‘poop patrollers’ making upwards of $185,000 per annum to clean up their mess. (And of course, the guy in charge of it was arrested on felony fraud charges and sentenced to seven years in prison).

  

  It’s been updated…

  According to Adam Andrzejwski of OpenTheBooks, here it is in all it’s brown glory – only now it’s got an additional 125,506 cases in just three years – more than double the amount reported in the initial eight-year period.

  

  You can even interact with the map below:

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 17:30

• The Failure Of Western Feminism When It's Most Needed
  The Failure Of Western Feminism When It’s Most Needed

  Authored by Phyllis Chesler via RealClear Wire,

  On Nov. 25, the United Nations initiated its annual Sixteen Days of Global Activism Against Gender-Based Violence against women and girls. This will continue until Dec. 10, which is Human Rights Day.

  

  My people are the feminists at the UN. They also head NGOs, occupy chairs at foundations, human rights organizations, national women’s organizations, and Women’s Studies/Gender Studies departments, and are prominent Talking Heads in the media. For eight whole weeks, they have remained silent about the genocidal rapes of Israeli women on Oct. 7.

  Some of these women once waged brave and determined battles against rape, incest, and domestic violence; supported the #MeToo Movement; and at least issued statements condemning the rapes of women in Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, and the Yazidi women who were kidnapped by ISIS.

  They also supported the idea that rape is a war crime, at least in a battle zone.

  However, these once visionary feminists have not only betrayed Israeli women – they have also betrayed women of color who live under Sharia law.

  Most have remained relatively silent about the normalized mistreatment of Muslim women in Muslim countries and communities. They have not organized campaigns to end forced face veiling, polygamy, child marriage, routine girl- and woman-battering, or honor killing (femicide), either in foreign countries or in the West.

  Why? Even though the victims of such injustices are primarily women of color, Western feminists have been very cautious about accusing men of color, especially men whose countries may once have been colonized, of crimes. They fear doing so might be seen as “racist.” Or “Islamophobic.”

  Worse, some feminists in the West have actually glorified the forced wearing of the Islamic veil as a form of anti-colonial resistance. During the Women’s March in Washington, some women fashioned hijab out of American flags. Many anti-Israel rallies and marches feature both women and men, leftists and Muslims, sporting Palestinian keffiyehs as a way to signal their support – for the oppression of women.

  They do so even as the brave girls and women in Afghanistan and Iran are risking death for the right not to be forced by the state, the mullahs, or their families to wear hijab, niqab, or burqas. These women and their male allies have led demonstrations for which they have been beaten, arrested, raped, and murdered.

  I have conducted and published four academic studies about honor killing. Most academic feminists in the West, including our icons, have never acknowledged this work about femicide. I delivered some of my initial findings at a G8 conference in Rome in 2008 and at the New York Supreme Court in 2010. This work also qualified me as an expert witness in cases in which women in flight from the threat of honor killings are applying for political asylum in America.

  My strongest supporters, and those who actually read, cite, and use this work are, of course, women and men of color who live in the Arab Middle East and in central Asia (Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, India, etc.).

  I was once held captive in Kabul long ago. I’d gone there willingly but unwisely as a bride, and I found myself trapped in the 10th century without a passport back to the future.

  Therefore, when my friend and colleague, Mandy Sanghera – the British-Indian human rights activist –called to ask whether I wanted to co-lead a grassroots team to rescue women from Afghanistan, I said, “I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for decades.”

  Together, our team rescued 400 Afghan women in 2021. I’ve taken personal responsibility for a brilliant young Afghan woman who is now flourishing in graduate school in America.

  Talk about sisterhood! When Mandy learned that my presentation about my honor killing studies had been canceled by an American law school, she swiftly convened a panel on the subject at University College London so that I could present my findings. At the time, she said that she could “not accept that such important work had been so dishonored.”

  The good news: Feminism exists among communities of color, including Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh anti-Islamists both in the West and abroad.

  In fact, it is mainly anti-Islamist Muslim feminists, both women and men, who have been raising the alarm on behalf of Muslim women.

  Like the Israeli women, they are also frustrated and puzzled by the Western feminist silence about Islamic gender apartheid. I have been privileged to know and work with many of these heroes.

  In 2008, in Rome, I presented my preliminary findings at a G8 conference. I had the honor of bonding with a group of Muslim feminists, both religious and secular, over our many shared concerns. They told me that they had felt “abandoned” by Western feminists who refused to take a stand on issues such as honor killing, forced veiling, and the subordination of women – lest they be considered “racists” or “Islamophobes.” Many of these women were wearing hijab (headscarves) and they were all fearless, energized, and fabulously feminist.

  That is where I first met Turkish-German feminist lawyer and now imam, Seyran Ates.

  Seyran’s work on behalf of Muslim women has earned her the hatred of Muslim male (and female) Islamists. In 1984, she was shot three times for providing legal counsel to abused Muslim girls; her client, a 15-year-old, was murdered. Seyran expressed her dismay that, in addition to being preyed upon by Muslim fundamentalists, Western leftists and feminists had discredited her work. “They call me a racist and an Islamophobe, too,” she said, “and I am a religious Muslim.”

  Seyran is not alone. I am also talking about Qanta Ahmed, Dalia Al-Aquidi, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Soraya Deen, Manda Ervin, Yasmine Mohammed, Asra Nomani, and Raheel Raza.

  There are also Muslim and ex-Muslim men who are standing for women’s rights in the Muslim world such as Ali Alyami, Bassem Eid, Zhudi Jasser, Khaled Abu Tomeh, and Ibn Warraq.

  They all write articles, they publish books, they appear in the media. Please follow them. I am honored to be among them as one of the founding members of the Clarity Coalition – Champions for Liberty Against The Reality of Islamist Tyranny.

  This coalition has publicly condemned Jihad as well as Hamas’ terrorist attack against Israel. They are all defending Western civilization and universal, post-Enlightenment values.

  I stand with them. These are the feminists whom I recognize as such.

  Today’s world needs real feminism as never before. A politically correct, identity-obsessed version of Marxism will not do.

  Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D., is an emerita professor of psychology at City University of New York. She is a bestselling author, legendary feminist leader, and retired psychotherapist. She has lectured and organized political, legal, religious, and human rights campaigns in the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, Central Asia, and the Far East.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 17:00

• Jeff Bezos Hires Elon Musk For Rocket Launches 
  Jeff Bezos Hires Elon Musk For Rocket Launches 

  Jeff Bezos’s space efforts at Amazon and his space company, Blue Origin, have been hit with ‘frustrating delays’ including a rocket engine explosion during a routine test earlier this year. With mounting delays, Amazon was forced to sign a deal with rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX for future rocket launches.

  In a press release on Friday, Amazon announced that it had “signed a contract with SpaceX for three Falcon 9 launches to support deployment plans for Project Kuiper, Amazon’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband network.” 

  Project Kuiper has only a handful of satellites in orbit compared with SpaceX’s Starlink, which has over 4,000 satellites in service. Amazon’s earlier procurement of 77 heavy-lift rockets was from Arianespace, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance. However, Blue Origin’s delays forced Amazon to tap SpaceX for more launch capacity. 

  “Project Kuiper has contracted three Falcon 9 launches, and these missions are targeted to lift off beginning in mid-2025,” Amazon said. 

  This is the first time Bezos has turned to Musk for help in its space endeavors, and a sign that all is not well with Blue Origin. 

  

  In August, Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, or CB&T, sued Amazon’s Board of Directors for breach of duty by not considering SpaceX for Project Kuiper launches. 

  “By completely abdicating its fiduciary duties, the Board has already exposed Amazon to substantial harm and placed the Company’s entire Kuiper program at needless risk. And with each passing day, as Amazon’s chosen launch partners (Blue Origin in particular) continue to struggle and SpaceX continues to prove itself, this Board-inflicted harm continues to grow,” CB&T wrote.

  CB&T continued, “Bezos, it must be assumed, could not swallow his pride to seek his bitter rival’s help to launch Amazon’s satellites.” 

  Bezos has finally done that… Also, maybe the billionaire should not have bought a half-billion dollar yacht that emits 447 times the entire annual carbon footprint of the average US household and spent that money more wisely on progressing rocket engine technology. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 16:30

• "No One Cares About Your Dividends"
  “No One Cares About Your Dividends”

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  One of my favorite investors that I love reading and following, Harris Kupperman, has offered up his thoughts on dividends versus buybacks this week.

  Harris is the founder of Praetorian Capital, a hedge fund focused on using macro trends to guide stock selection.

  

  Harris is one of my favorite follows and I find his opinions – especially on macro and commodities – to be extremely resourceful. I’m certain my readers will find the same. I was excited when he offered up his latest thoughts, published below. Content has been edited slightly for grammar.

  Please be sure to read both my and Harris’ disclaimers, located at the bottom of this post.

  ---

  Just Smash the Buybacks

  Great! Another E&P that raised the quarterly dividend by two cents. Who F*cking Cares!?

  The debate about buybacks vs. dividends has been going on for over a century. I’m not here to try and change your mind. I can see the relative merits of both, especially as many buybacks have been undertaken at insane valuations, leading to value-destruction.

  However, I’m going to make a special point when it comes to my “basket of deplorables,” or those companies that trade at mind-numbingly cheap valuations as they don’t quite check the ESG box. Look, I think if you trade at less than five times full-cycle cash flow, you should first make sure that you’re de-levered, with a rainy-day fund as well—trust me, no one is coming to save you when things go bad.

  After that, you should probably plow every last cent into buybacks. M&A and growth initiatives always sound sexy, but they are never as sexy as buybacks. Buybacks are the value creator. For that matter, while I’m sympathetic to trying to time the buyback to coincide with pullbacks in the equity price, most management teams are terrible at trading their shares. Besides, the consistency of the buying is what creates the value. Just turn on the VWAP machine and forget about it. Every quarter, tell the world that you bought back a few percent of the shares outstanding. Give all the value investors hope that when they need to sell, there’s going to be a bid in there, because we know that no one else will be deploying capital into the “deplorables.”

  Here we are, a few years into this ESG cycle, and the outcomes delivered by various capital allocation strategies cannot be starker. Some companies “rewarded” shareholders with dividends and their shares have gone nowhere. Arguably, their performance has been made worse as value funds sold at a loss, following the underperformance caused by these companies’ shares not appreciating, and the redemptions that they engendered. Other companies have been multi-baggers as they consistently applied almost all the cash flow to buybacks.

  ---

  💥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: For those that aren’t paid subscribers yet, you can take 50% off an annual plan, for life: Get 50% off forever

  ---

  Just think about how accretive it is to buy back your shares at a low-single-digit multiple of cash flow and a fraction of replacement cost of your assets. Especially as there are now constraints on ever adding more capacity in many of these industries. The accretion is just insane, and shareholders are starting to wake up to this fact when they decide which “deplorable” to invest in. It makes me wonder why anyone would ever issue a dividend, yet these management teams keep doing it.

  

  Look, no one cares about your dividends, and no one cares when you increase the dividend as no one ever believes that the dividend is sustainable. You aren’t a REIT that’s supposed to grow the dividend each quarter, you’re a cyclical business with volatile quarterly earnings. You’re a clunky business that even your shareholders probably wish they weren’t invested in. They only own you because you’re too cheap to ignore. Their biggest worry is that the shares stay cheap indefinitely and their clients yank their money to buy MAG7, since that actually goes up.

  Dividends won’t fix this. There are already hundreds of companies with low-teen yield that everyone has forgotten about. Yield investors won’t be attracted as they know you’ll cut the dividend during the down-cycle, generalist investors still cannot own you, and that yield isn’t enough to overcome the undertow of value investors getting redeemed for underperformance. Besides, it’s not even tax efficient to pay dividends.

  It’s time that we hold these management teams accountable and tell them to just smash the buyback button. If someone will sell the shares cheap, then take advantage of those idiots. Look at some of the coal companies that have bought back huge percentages of the shares outstanding over the past few years. Despite that, they still trade at between two and four times cash flow! Imagine how much worse the share-price performance would have been without the buybacks?

  Guys aren’t selling these coal companies because they’re no longer cheap—they’re the same cash flow multiples that they were a few years ago. Rather, guys are selling because they have redemptions. Just keep taking advantage of this fact, until the situation changes. Smash the buyback button…

  

  

  QTR’s Disclaimer: I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

  Harris’ Disclosure: Funds that I control are long companies with dividends instead of buybacks. (I intend to have words with these management teams). More: FULL DISCLAIMER

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 16:00

• Leftist Hatred Of Kyle Rittenhouse Is Boundless As He Announces New Book
  Leftist Hatred Of Kyle Rittenhouse Is Boundless As He Announces New Book

  There is a long list of evils that are associated with the concept of “cancel culture,” but perhaps the worst is the reality that cancel culture mobs never admit they are wrong. They cannot be wrong, for if they admit that cancel culture makes mistakes then they must also admit that the mob is not qualified to arbitrate what is correct for society. Cancel culture is about power – the power to influence public perception, but also the power to influence politics and even legal outcomes.  It’s the power to influence judges, lawyers and juries.  It’s the power to destroy people, even if they are innocent.

  

  The political left and the media lied incessantly about Kyle Rittenhouse and his encounter with violent rioters in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 25, 2020. They called him a racist, a white supremacist, they claimed he broke federal and state gun laws and that he came to Kenosha with plans to murder people. They claimed that he attacked first and that he invoked a reaction from protesters.  They lied about the criminal status of the people Rittenhouse shot, lied about them being unarmed and even lied about them being black.  

  They were wrong about everything, and yet, many activists to this day still believe all of the above is true. Either they are ignorant of the facts, or, they don’t want to hear the facts. Why do they hate Rittenhouse so much?  Because for them, Rittenhouse became a symbol of conservative rebellion against the mob. He faced down the full might of cancel culture  and he survived. The problem is, the pettiness of cancel culture never really dies.  

  Leftists are determined to make Rittenhouse pay.  He shot three criminals in self defense, including a convicted pedophile, but those criminals were in Kenosha representing woke interests and that is all that matters to the left.  In cancel culture you aren’t even guilty until proven innocent, you are just guilty, forever.  

  This helps explain the online rage on display after it was announced the Rittenhouse will be releasing a book about his experiences in Kenosha, the facts behind what happened, the trial and his life since being acquitted. The book, titled ‘Acquitted’, (digital download here, pre-order soft cover here, and signed pre-order here), and in reaction to the promotional campaign, woke activists have renewed their efforts to smear the 20-year-old with the same false claims made during his trial.

  

  They have also latched onto a statement by his lawyer, Mark Richards, in a discussion with Court TV in which he debunked the notion that Rittenhouse became wealthy during the trial.  In fact, Rittenhouse’s legal funds have dried up and he supports himself with a regular job, the lawyer noted.  Leftist spin doctors conflated the statement to mean that Rittenhouse is “broke” and some claimed he could not hold down a job.  Activists cheered the false news on social media and declared it to be karmic punishment for Kyle’s “misdeeds.” 

  Rittenhouse is not broke, he’s just not wealthy or sitting on a vast legal fund.  And like most 20-year-olds, he’s working to make ends meet.  But the joy leftists displayed when they thought he was broke reveals a lot.  

  It shows them to be dangerously obsessive.  The young man was judged and a jury found him to be innocent, but leftists still want him to pay for what they perceive to be crimes against their cult.  The American legal system means nothing to them unless it happens to decide in their favor.  When it doesn’t they think they should have the final say.

  Rittenhouse told Piers Morgan this week: “Well I’m not writing the book to make money, I’m writing the book to tell the story of what happened,” adding “I’m trying to change the narrative that media keeps putting out there that I’m some type of white [supremacist], racist person when that’s just not true. I’m a 20-year-old kid who was put in a situation to where I was forced to defend myself, and I wrote a story and put that in a book so I could share that with everybody so they can understand what I went through, how my childhood was growing up, and the difficulties I deal with today.”

  Piers Morgan asks Kyle Rittenhouse how he feels about what he did. pic.twitter.com/iPIy7acKwz

  — Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) November 29, 2023

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

  Rittenhouse has stated in interviews that he deals with PTSD from the day of the shooting and that he regularly receives death threats.  And perhaps this is the ultimate purpose of cancel culture – To make people not want to stand up, not want to defend themselves.  If the price is a life of perpetual threats and targeted harassment, some might be convinced to think that it’s better to keep their head down, stay quiet, and never oppose the woke in any capacity.  The goal is to make examples out of the brave, and make everyone else fearfully complacent.   

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 15:30

• The Dublin Riots & BLM – A Comparison Of Reactions
  The Dublin Riots & BLM – A Comparison Of Reactions

  Authored by Gavin O’Reilly via The Ron Paul Institute,

  Last Thursday afternoon, news would spread throughout Ireland of a horrific knife attack on three young schoolchildren and their teacher outside a Gaelscoil (Irish-language school) in Dublin city center. At the time of writing, the youngest of the victims, a five year old girl, remains gravely ill in hospital.

  With it soon emerging that the suspect was an immigrant who had previously been served a deportation order in 2003, tensions that had been building across the country over the past year in response to the immigration policy of Leinster House, which has seen large amounts of male migrants placed into wildly unsuitable locations such as an inner city office block and a children’s school, would come to a head. Calls for a protest in Dublin later that night would rapidly spread throughout social media.

  

  Such protests have become a mainstay across Ireland over the past year, with the government of WEF ‘Young Global Leader’ Leo Varadkar labelling protesters as ‘’far-right’’ and carrying out surveillance of organizers in response, a strategy that has served only to exacerbate tensions even further.

  Last year in Canada, under the rule of fellow WEF ‘Young Global Leader’ Justin Trudeau, a similar response would take place to the Freedom Convoy, a protest movement launched by Canadian truckers following the decision to mandate jab passports for drivers returning from the US, the largest land-border in the world and a key component of the Canadian economy.

  Just as open borders policies serve the interests of the global elites that the WEF represents, via the undermining of national sovereignty and the devaluing of labor, jab passports served their interests by acting as conditioning for the introduction of an eventual mandatory digital ID, which in line with the Great Reset initiative would allow the government-corporate alliance to have an unprecedented level of control over its citizens’ finances in a cashless society.

  The fraught tensions that had spurred on Thursday’s planned protest however, would seemingly attract an opportunistic element, one that had engaged in looting and the burning of vehicles in Dublin on the night. Unsavory scenes, though it cannot be understated that, in terms of magnitude, they are a universe apart from the stabbing of children.

  The establishment media however, did not hold the same view; with the unrest that swept Dublin dominating newspaper headlines alongside accusations that it had been ‘’organized by the far-right’’, the brutal attack on the children and their teacher being consigned to a mere afterthought.

  Security Minister for the southern Irish state, Helen McEntee announced that legislation would be fast tracked to introduce Facial Recognition Technology – another key component of the Great Reset – in response to the riots, and it was announced that MMA star Conor McGregor was being investigated for ‘’inciting hate’’ over a post on X that he had sent the night BEFORE the stabbings.

  A lockstep response of condemnation, though one that lies in stark contrast to the response towards the riots that swept the United States following the death of George Floyd in May 2020, for which a minutes silence was held in the southern Irish Parliament, something that has so far not occurred for the victims of last Thursday’s mass-stabbing.

  Is there more to this than meets the eye? 🇮🇪#DublinRiots #HateSpeechBill pic.twitter.com/nhdtttr4WB

  — Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) November 29, 2023

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

  To understand why, one must look at the wider political context at the time of George Floyd’s death.

  Four days prior to the footage of Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck going viral, Joe Biden, the then-Democrat candidate for that years US Presidential election, infamously declared that whoever voted for the incumbent Donald Trump over him ‘’Ain’t black’’ in an attempt to garner support amongst the black community of the United States for his Presidential campaign. A PR disaster, and one that confirmed he was in need of the black vote in order to guarantee an electoral victory.

  Thus, the death of George Floyd was weaponized to guarantee such a result, with violent riots sweeping the United States in the aftermath. In contrast to the one night of looting and arson that took place in Dublin however, the mainstream media would provide cover for the months-long unrest in the US, with corporate outlet CNN notoriously describing it as ‘’fiery but mostly peaceful’’ at one stage.

  

  Key to this was the involvement of George Soros, a significant donor to both the Democrat Party and the Black Lives Matter organization via his Open Society Foundations, a globalist support-network that has sponsored color revolutions from as far afield as Ukraine and China.

  It is also why last week’s night of unrest in Dublin, carried out amidst a wider political context of opposition to globalist policies in Ireland, came in for far more media condemnation than the months of BLM-led riots that took place in the United States in 2020.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/03/2023 – 15:00

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