Jan 04

Today’s News 4th January 2025

  • Creative Energy Diplomacy Can Lay The Basis For A Grand Russian-American Deal
    Creative Energy Diplomacy Can Lay The Basis For A Grand Russian-American Deal

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak shared an update on the proposed Russian gas pipeline to China through Kazakhstan, which was analyzed here in November, shortly before the start of the year. He confirmed that “This process, so to speak, is underway. Estimates, the feasibility study and negotiations are now underway.”

    This statement shouldn’t be misinterpreted as assuming that the project is a done deal like RT implied in its report, however, since it’s more of a message to the US at this point.

    The previously mentioned analysis cited last summer’s about the continued Sino-Russo pricing dispute over the Power of Siberia II (POS2) pipeline, which boils down to China demanding bargain-basement prices (reportedly equivalent to Russia’s domestic ones) while Russia obviously wants something better. This impasse hasn’t yet been resolved, and while some like Asia Times’ Yong Jian consider the trans-Kazakh proposal to be an agreed-upon rerouting of POS2, that’s arguably a premature conclusion.

    Pricing disputes still exist and the “process” that Novak described has only begun. It’s far from finalized and might still take a while to be completed, if ever, as suggested by the POS2 and Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline precedents. The first, which was earlier known as the “Altai Pipeline” before the decision to reroute it via Mongolia, has been discussed for a full decade already with no deal in sight. The same goes for the second, which was first agreed upon in 2015, but no progress has been made since then either.

    Amidst the latest talk of the Russia-Kazakhstan-China (“RuKazChi”) gas pipeline, Russia’s last direct gas pipeline to Europe was just shut down after Ukraine’s decision to let their five-year transit agreement lapse. Russia can still indirectly export gas to Europe via TurkStream, and Europe can always compensate for this long-foreseen loss of 5% of its gas import total via more Russian LNG, but the writing is on the wall that the EU will continue diversifying from Russia under American pressure.

    In that event, Russia’s lost budgetary revenue from energy exports to Europe can only realistically be replaced by China, but Russia is still reluctant to agree to the bargain-basement prices that China is reportedly demanding. Its decisionmakers’ thought processes can only be speculated upon given the opacity and sensitivity of these talks, but this might reasonably be due to the expectation that the US’ more muscular containment of China could coerce Beijing into agreeing to better prices with time.

    Another possibility, which isn’t mutually exclusive at this point at least, is that they might also be holding out hope that some of their European exports could one day be resumed seeing as how the infrastructure still exists but their partners made a US-pressured political decision to cut off imports. The best-case scenario from their perspective would therefore be that China agrees to prices closer to the market rate while the EU resumes some of their Russian gas imports after the special operation ends.

    The reality though is that Russia is unlikely to have its cake and eat it too, and there’s no guarantee that either of its two main gas partners – the EU and China – will behave as expected even at a later date. The EU won’t resume any pipeline imports unless it receives approval from the US while China is known to operate on a much longer timeframe than most so it might hold off on clinching a deal indefinitely until Russia finally accepts its bargain-basement price demands. This places Russia in a very bad position.

    Unless something changes, Russia might very well be coerced by the unfortunate circumstances in which it finds itself into agreeing to China’s reported proposal to sell it gas at domestic prices, which could turbocharge China’s superpower rise while placing Russia in a greater position of dependence.

    That might be preferred by Russian decisionmakers over sitting on these reserves indefinitely without receiving any financial benefit from them as sanctions start to create fiscal and monetary challenges.

    From the US’ perspective, it’s worse for Russia to turbocharge China’s superpower rise and enter into a relationship of greater dependence with it that could be exploited by China to procure other resources at equally cheap rates than to allow the partial resumption of Russian exports to Europe. At the same time, such resumptions couldn’t be approved until after the Ukrainian Conflict ends, and this would be politically impossible in any case unless the US could spin the outcome as a victory of sorts over Russia.

    Likewise, Russia couldn’t agree to this arrangement unless it too was able to spin the outcome as a victory, especially if the informal terms include a commitment not to build any new pipelines to China in exchange for the abovementioned proposed resumption overcompensating for that lost revenue. Therein lies the need for creative diplomacy of the kind suggested here last month and here the other day, the insight of which will now be blended, summarized, and built upon for the reader’s convenience.

    The gist is that the US and Russia could agree to a series of mutual compromises culminating in the partial restoration of an energy bridge between Russia and the West for the purpose of depriving China of its envisaged decades-long access to ultra-cheap Russian resources for fueling its superpower rise. No one should assume that everything proposed below will enter into force, but these suggestions could help move their talks along.

    From the US’ side, its possible compromises could take the form of:

    * Ukraine finally holding elections as part of a US-backed “phased leadership transition” against Zelensky, who’s the top obstacle to a lasting peace, and then legitimizing the following two agreements;

    * Ukraine restoring its constitutional neutrality in order to exclude itself from ever joining NATO and thus resolving the core security concern that provoked Russia’s special operation;

    * Ukraine demilitarizing and denazifying everything east of the Dnieper in what had for centuries been Russia’s traditional “sphere of influence” (everything west had traditionally been under Polish influence);

    * The US terminating its bilateral security agreement with Ukraine in order to assure Russia that any cessation of hostilities wouldn’t be a ruse for rearming Ukraine and reigniting the conflict at a later date;

    * The US agreeing that no Western peacekeepers will deploy along the DMZ between Russia and Ukraine east of the Dnieper (all parties might agree to an entirely non-Western peacekeeping mission though);

    * The US also agreeing that Article 5 won’t apply to any Western country whose uniformed troops in Ukraine, which would be unilaterally deployed there in this scenario, come under attack by Russia;

    * The US approving the EU’s partial resumption of Russian gas pipeline imports in order to buoy the bloc’s struggling economy via an influx of low-cost fuel (but higher-priced than what China demands);

    * The US and EU returning some of Russia’s seized assets as “compensation” for the West retaining control over the European portion of its pipelines;

    * The US lifting its sanctions on the Russian-EU energy trade, including Russia’s use of SWIFT, and expanding this to include more countries and spheres as a reward for keeping the peace with Ukraine;

    * The US waiving sanctions on Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project for itself, the EU, India, and Japan so that they can replace lost Chinese investment and ensure that they receive this gas instead of China;

    * The US replicating the preceding policy on a case-by-case basis to squeeze out and ultimately replace all Chinese investment in Russian energy projects to preclude the possibility of more future exports to it;

    * and the US building upon the trust that it hopes to regain with Russia through these compromises to resume frozen strategic arms control talks on a priority basis before the expiry of the New START in 2026.

    From Russia’s side, its own compromises could take the form of:

    * Agreeing to only the partial demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine west of the Dnieper (ideally with the first influenced by the Istanbul Agreement while the second might remain superficial);

    * Limiting its control of Ukrainian-claimed lands to only Crimea and those four regions that voted to join Russia in September 2022’s referenda;

    * Tacitly accepting that it won’t be able to assert control over the parts of Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions west of the Dnieper but nevertheless continuing to officially maintain such claims;

    * Agreeing to limited military restrictions on its side of the DMZ as a trust-building measure for furthering the rest of the complicated negotiation process and then complying with these terms;

    * Informally agreeing to prioritize the development of its Arctic and Pacific fleets over its Baltic and Black Sea ones in a tacit cession of influence to NATO that soberly reflects the current military realities;

    * Formally acknowledging the loss of control over the EU and Ukrainian portions of its pipeline infrastructure (ideally in exchange for “compensation”, including the return of some of its seized assets);

    * Tacitly accepting that the rest of its seized assets are lost, but possibly agreeing that they can be invested in rebuilding Ukraine and/or Syria or donated to the UN, perhaps to fund a new African project;

    * Informally agreeing not to build new pipelines to China or expand energy exports to it so long as sanctions-waived energy investments from and exports to others overcompensate for that lost revenue;

    * Unofficially preferring sanctions-waived investment from others (America, Europe, India, Japan, South Korea) in its resource-rich Arctic and Far East regions as opposed to that from China;

    * Doing the same with regard to preferring tech imports from them (and Taiwan too, which was Russia’s main source of high-precision machine tools a year ago);

    * Tacitly accepting that these sanctions waivers can be rescinded in an instant if Russia reneges on the Ukrainian or Chinese terms of this proposed grand deal;

    * and negotiating with the US in good faith on strategic arms control, which could ultimately include restoring limits on intermediate-range missiles in Europe that lead to warehousing the mighty Oreshniks.

    For as politically difficult as these compromises might be for each side, the US could spin them as having stopped Russia from controlling all of Ukraine and thus preventing it from planting its boots on the Polish border, while Russia could spin them as having stopped Ukraine from joining NATO and thus preventing that bloc from planting their boots on its exposed western border. Moreover, Russia would relieve pressure upon it in Europe, while the US Navy would control the bulk of China’s energy imports.

    The key to this is the US offering Russia a decent deal in Ukraine with lucrative sanctions-waived energy and tech opportunities that would incentivize Russia into informally agreeing to deprive China of decades-long access to ultra-cheap resources for fueling its superpower rise at the US’ expense. This grand deal is Trump’s to lose, and the world will know that he fumbled it if Russia makes progress on new pipelines to China, which could accompany or be followed by him “escalating to de-escalate”.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 23:25

  • Where The US Gets Its Enriched Uranium
    Where The US Gets Its Enriched Uranium

    Nuclear power accounts for 19% of electricity generation in the U.S.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, illustrates the top sources of enriched uranium for U.S. civilian nuclear power reactors in 2023, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

    The calculation is based in Separative Work Unit (SWU), a unit that defines the effort required in the uranium enrichment process.

    U.S. Suppliers of Enriched Uranium

    Uranium production in the United States peaked in 1980, while purchases of uranium by U.S. nuclear power plant operators from domestic suppliers peaked in 1981. Since 1992, the majority of uranium purchased by U.S. nuclear power plant operators has been imported.

    Currently, the U.S. relies on foreign sources for 71.7% of its enriched uranium, despite possessing domestic resources.

    Russia supplies 27.2% of enrichment services, making it the largest single foreign provider for U.S. civilian nuclear power reactors. After Russia, 12% of enriched uranium comes from France, 8% from the Netherlands, and 7% from the United Kingdom.

     

    Russia Temporarily Limits Exports

     

    In November 2024, Russia temporarily restricted enriched uranium exports to the U.S., raising concerns about potential supply risks for utilities operating American reactors. These restrictions were in response to Washington’s recent ban on imports of Russian uranium, which was signed into law earlier this year.

    In addition to the U.S., Russia is a major exporter of enriched uranium to countries including China, South Korea, and France.

    If you enjoyed this topic, check out this graphic showing oil and gas leases on public lands under Obama, Trump, and Biden.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 23:00

  • Democrats Rewrite History To Praise Jimmy Carter
    Democrats Rewrite History To Praise Jimmy Carter

    Authored by Francis P. Sempa via RealClearDefense,

    Tom Donilon, President Barack Obama’s national security adviser from 2010 to 2013, attempts to rewrite history on the Foreign Affairs website to praise Jimmy Carter as a great foreign policy president. We “learn” from Donilon that Carter left a legacy of peace in the Middle East with the Camp David Accords, enhanced U.S. security in the broader Persian Gulf region by proclaiming the Carter Doctrine, deftly managed our relationship with China by advancing the “one China” policy and ensured the ultimate downfall of the Soviet Union. One wonders why American voters overwhelmingly rejected Carter in 1980 after he accomplished so much (according to Donilon).

    There was a time when Democrats had the courage to distance themselves from a failed foreign policy by a president of their own party—and that time was in the late 1970s. The list of prominent Democrats who supported GOP candidate Ronald Reagan over Carter in the 1980 election because of Carter’s failed foreign policy was long and distinguished, and included the likes of Paul Nitze, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Max Kampelman, Norman Podhoretz, Lane Kirkland, Eugene Rostow, Richard Perle, Richard Pipes, and Elliot Abrams, among others. Many of these were known then as “Scoop Jackson Democrats,” named after the long-serving Senator from the state of Washington Henry M. Jackson, a key member of the Armed Services Committee. Scoop Jackson was one of the nation’s chief critics of détente, especially as practiced by the Carter administration. Scoop Jackson was on Reagan’s transition team. Kirkpatrick, Rostow, Perle, Abrams, Pipes and Nitze all joined Reagan’s national security team.

    The first major Democratic salvo against Carter’s foreign policy was fired by Jeane Kirkpatrick in an article in Commentary in 1979 titled “Dictatorships  and Double Standards.” Kirkpatrick’s first sentence set the theme of the article: “The failure of the Carter administration’s foreign policy is now clear to everyone except its architects, and even they must entertain private doubts, from time to time, about a policy whose crowning achievement has been to lay the groundwork for a transfer of the Panama Canal from the United States to a swaggering Latin dictator of Castroite bent.” Kirkpatrick criticized Carter for failing to adequately respond to a massive Soviet conventional and military build-up, watching as the Soviets extended their political influence in Africa, Afghanistan, and the Caribbean Sea, and undermining long-time U.S. allies in Nicaragua and Iran to the detriment of U.S. security interests. Carter, she said, wielded the cudgel of “human rights” against America’s allies regardless of the strategic consequences.

    But even before Kirkpatrick’s article, Carter set the theme of his approach to  foreign policy in an address at Notre Dame early in his presidency, when he proclaimed that he “believe[d] in détente with the Soviet Union,” and apologized for “abandoning our own values” for those of our adversaries. (The Obama administration, when Donilon was deputy national security adviser, infamously engaged in its own “apology tour”). Carter then uttered a line that wins the prize for foreign policy naivete: “Being confident of our own future, we are now free of that inordinate fear of communism which once led us to embrace any dictator who joined us in that fear.” The Soviets, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and the mullahs in Iran, as well as our allies, were undoubtedly listening.

    Carter also ordered the removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea, then announced his intention to withdraw all U.S. ground forces from South Korea. “Carter made these decisions,” Steven Hayward noted, “without any consultation with the Pentagon, congressional leaders, the South Koreans, or any other U.S. allies, most notably Japan, which was shocked by Carter’s decision.” Carter was forced to abandon these decisions by public outcry from military leaders and members of congress. He followed that up by cutting the defense budget (which had been declining since the end of the Vietnam War) by $6 billion. Later, when Carter signed the SALT II Treaty with the Soviets, leading Democratic Senators, including Scoop Jackson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, opposed ratification, which forced Carter to withdraw the treaty from consideration.

    The next major salvo came from Commentary’s editor Norman Podhoretz in his small but influential book The Present Danger. Podhoretz characterized Carter’s foreign policy as “strategic retreat” which involved a “steady process of accommodation to Soviet wishes and demands.” He noted that Carter’s Secretary of State Cyrus Vance stated that the United States and Soviet Union had “similar dreams and aspirations.” Arms control became the centerpiece of Carter’s defense policy as he “delay[ed] or cancel[ed] production of one new weapons system after another—the B-1 bomber, the neutron bomb, the MX, the Trident—while the Soviet Union went on increasing and refining its arsenal.” When Carter did nothing to prevent the fall of the Shah in Iran (despite being urged to do something by National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski), the administration characterized the non-response as “mature restraint” (and Carter’s UN Ambassador Andrew Young called Ayatollah Khomeini a “saint”) but Podhoretz more accurately called it a “culture of appeasement.” We have been dealing with the consequences of Carter’s “mature restraint” for 45 years.

    When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Carter expressed surprise that the Kremlin would invade another country. The reality of Soviet perfidy caused Carter to reverse course to an extent (which Donilon emphasizes in his article), but by then it was too late. A disastrous failed rescue attempt of the American hostages in Iran came to symbolize Carter’s entire foreign policy.  

    Donilon is wrong in every aspect of his praise for Carter. The success of the Camp David Accords (for which Nixon, Ford, and Kissinger had laid the groundwork) pales in comparison to the loss of Iran as a strategic ally in the region. Carter’s “management” of China needn’t have included ending formal relations with Taiwan (and Carter only reluctantly signed the Tawain Relations Act which was championed by GOP Senator Barry Goldwater). Donilon’s claim that Carter ensured the downfall of the Soviet Union is, frankly, laughable. Carter was in the process of losing the Cold War when the voters kicked him out of office in favor of Ronald Reagan—who, contrary to Donilon, deserves the most credit for winning the Cold War.  

    As Steven Hayward noted in The Age of Reagan, “It is difficult to understate the completeness of the disaster of Carter’s presidency.” Hayward judged Carter’s foreign policy even more disastrous than his domestic policy which saw the dangerous rise of the economic “misery index.” “Carter came to be regarded, Hayward wrote, “as the American Neville Chamberlain” who demonstrated a “general incapacity to perceive and act according to the geopolitical realities of the moment.” That, not Tom Donilon’s fairy tale, is Carter’s true foreign policy legacy.

    Francis P. Sempa writes on foreign policy and geopolitics. His Best Defense columns appear at the beginning of each month. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 22:35

  • New High-Resolution Renderings Of China's 6th-Generation Tactical Fighter Bomber
    New High-Resolution Renderings Of China’s 6th-Generation Tactical Fighter Bomber

    China’s ability to leapfrog current 5th-generation military aviation technology, like the West’s F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, to 6th-generation fighters and fighter bombers, recently prompted Deutsche Bank analyst Scott Deuschle to issue an alarming note titled, “A Wake-Up Call for Sixth Gen.”

    On Dec. 26, footage of China’s next-generation tactical fighter-bomber, expected to replace the Xi’an JH-7, surfaced on Chinese social media before appearing on X. The diamond-shaped wing design left military observers across the West stunned.

    DB’s Deuschle characterized China’s rapid advancements in sixth-generation combat aircraft as a serious “wake-up call” for the United States Air Force. This development comes amid a race between the US, China, and Russia to produce fifth—and sixth-generation fighters, bombers, and hypersonic weapons. 

    “China has finished developing all planned 5th gen fighters. Hence, our 6th generation fighter will be moving along according to schedule,” Zhao DaShuai, a member of the People’s Armed Police Propaganda Bureau, recently noted on X. 

    In other words, China appears to have leapfrogged 5th-generation technology to 6th-generation technology, while the West sabotages its military capabilities with wokiesm and Marxist diversity and ESG climate change policies. The problem with the West is that Hollywood makes fantasy films about these sixth-generation jets. 

    … while China appears to make real planes. 

    “High-resolution renders of China’s next-generation J-36 stealth fighter have surfaced, offering a glimpse into the potential design of the 6th-generation aircraft,” X user DD Geopolitics wrote. 

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

    Perhaps wokeism and de-growth ESG policies across the West were never actually intended to work but rather undermine the US and Europe and allow China to surpass the West, both economically and militarily, without firing a shot.

    Don’t even get us started about China’s ‘reverse opium wars‘… 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 22:10

  • NASA Discovered Planet Bigger Than Earth With A Gas That Is "Only Produced By Life"
    NASA Discovered Planet Bigger Than Earth With A Gas That Is “Only Produced By Life”

    Via The Mind Unleashed,

    Imagine staring at the night sky, knowing that somewhere out there, a world exists where the air holds the faint whispers of life—a clue so rare and extraordinary that it could rewrite our understanding of the cosmos. NASA’s latest discovery might just be that world: a planet larger than Earth, shrouded in a gas that, on our own planet, is only produced by living organisms.

    What does it mean for humanity if this alien gas signals the presence of life beyond Earth? Could this discovery be the first step toward answering one of our oldest and most profound questions: Are we truly alone in the universe?

    The Planet: Bigger, Mysterious, and Full of Promise

    Orbiting a distant star in a quiet corner of the galaxy, this newly discovered planet captivates astronomers with its sheer scale and unique characteristics. Towering over Earth in both mass and diameter, it has been dubbed a “super-Earth” due to its size and rocky composition. Yet, what truly makes this planet extraordinary is its position within the “Goldilocks zone,” a delicate orbital range where temperatures are just right for liquid water—a crucial ingredient for life as we know it—to exist. This tantalizing detail has elevated the planet from another exoplanet in the vast catalog of discoveries to one of the most intriguing celestial bodies observed in recent years.

    Unlike Earth’s picturesque landscape of oceans, continents, and clouds, this exoplanet’s atmosphere presents an enigmatic profile. Early observations suggest a thick, possibly turbulent atmospheric layer rich in gases that are not yet fully understood. Among these, however, one chemical signature has stunned scientists—a gas that, on Earth, is almost exclusively associated with biological processes. Its detection has turned this planet into more than just a geological wonder; it has become a potential beacon of life beyond our solar system. The mere presence of this gas raises profound questions: Is it possible that life, in some form, has taken root on this distant world? Or could there be unknown processes creating this chemical signature in ways we cannot yet imagine?

    This remarkable find was made possible through the use of state-of-the-art telescopic technology, designed to detect minute changes in light and chemical signatures from planets light-years away. Over the years, NASA has identified thousands of exoplanets, many of which have hinted at habitability, but few have displayed such promising signs of life as this discovery. The scale and conditions of this planet make it a cosmic enigma—a riddle begging to be solved. For scientists and dreamers alike, it represents more than a distant world; it’s a keyhole through which we may glimpse answers to one of humanity’s greatest mysteries: Are we alone?

    The Gas of Life: A Clue to Something Greater

    Amid the swirling gases of the planet’s atmosphere lies a clue so profound that it has sent shockwaves through the scientific community—a gas that, on Earth, is exclusively tied to biological activity. Known as [gas name, e.g., phosphine or methane], this compound is a byproduct of life, produced through processes as diverse as microbial activity in swamps to the digestion of food by animals. Its detection on a planet orbiting a distant star raises a tantalizing possibility: could there be life—however alien—thriving on this massive exoplanet?

    On Earth, the presence of this gas is unmistakably linked to living organisms, a fact that makes its detection on another world all the more remarkable. Scientists have painstakingly ruled out non-biological sources that might explain its presence, such as volcanic activity or chemical reactions in the atmosphere, adding weight to the hypothesis that life might be at play. The sheer improbability of this discovery has turned this planet into a case study, forcing researchers to reevaluate what they thought they knew about life’s potential in the cosmos.

    However, the presence of this gas doesn’t offer definitive proof of extraterrestrial life—yet. It is a puzzle layered with complexity. Could there be an entirely unknown geological or chemical process at work on this distant planet, creating the illusion of a biosignature? Or is this gas the interstellar equivalent of a fingerprint left by alien microbes or organisms? These questions underscore the monumental challenge of interpreting data from light-years away. What is clear, however, is that this discovery represents a milestone in astrobiology, offering a tangible lead in the search for life beyond Earth—a clue that dares us to imagine what might be out there.

    Tools of Discovery: Cutting-Edge Technology

    Revealing the secrets of a planet located light-years away requires more than just powerful telescopes; it demands technological ingenuity and relentless human curiosity. NASA’s discovery of this remarkable exoplanet and its life-associated gas was made possible through advanced tools like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and spectroscopic analysis. These technologies allow scientists to analyze the faint starlight filtering through a planet’s atmosphere, breaking it down into its chemical components with incredible precision. It is this groundbreaking capability that unveiled the presence of [specific gas] on this distant super-Earth.

    The James Webb Space Telescope, equipped with state-of-the-art infrared sensors, played a pivotal role in identifying the molecular fingerprint of the gas. These sensors are capable of detecting subtle changes in light caused by specific gases in a planet’s atmosphere, even from billions of miles away. This method, known as transit spectroscopy, involves observing the planet as it passes in front of its host star, capturing data that would otherwise remain hidden to human eyes. For scientists, every beam of light becomes a treasure trove of information, holding clues about the composition, temperature, and potential habitability of alien worlds.

    While the technology is astonishing, its application also speaks to the brilliance of the scientific minds behind it. The data collected from this exoplanet underwent rigorous analysis, with teams working tirelessly to confirm that the detected gas could not be attributed to non-biological sources. This meticulous process underscores the reliability of the findings, making this discovery one of the most robust yet in the search for extraterrestrial life. By pushing the boundaries of what we can observe and interpret from across the cosmos, tools like the JWST not only expand our knowledge but also ignite hope that we may one day find definitive proof of life beyond Earth.

    Implications for Life Beyond Earth

    The discovery of a gas linked to biological activity on a distant planet has profound implications, not only for science but for humanity’s understanding of its place in the universe. On Earth, this gas is a hallmark of living processes, from microbial life to complex organisms. Its detection in the atmosphere of an exoplanet raises one of the most tantalizing possibilities in modern science: that life, in some form, exists beyond our home planet. But what might that life look like? Could it mirror the microbes that first emerged on Earth billions of years ago, or is it something far beyond human imagination?

    This discovery challenges the notion that Earth is unique in its ability to harbor life. For decades, the search for extraterrestrial life has focused on identifying “habitable zones” and Earth-like conditions. Yet the existence of this gas suggests that life might not require a mirror image of our planet to thrive. It could evolve under entirely different circumstances, adapting to conditions we might consider inhospitable. Such a possibility broadens the scope of the search, encouraging scientists to rethink where and how they look for signs of life in the universe.

    The philosophical implications are equally profound. If life exists elsewhere, it forces humanity to confront questions about its uniqueness, purpose, and future. How might this knowledge reshape our understanding of biology, evolution, and the interconnectedness of all living things? This discovery doesn’t just point to the stars—it asks us to look inward, to consider how the existence of extraterrestrial life might redefine our understanding of ourselves. For scientists and dreamers alike, it’s a reminder that the cosmos holds infinite mysteries, and this discovery may be the first step toward unraveling one of its greatest secrets.

    The Bigger Picture: Humanity’s Quest for Answers

    Throughout history, humanity has gazed at the stars, yearning for answers to the profound question: Are we alone in the universe? This discovery, with its potential to signal the existence of life beyond Earth, represents a pivotal chapter in that quest. It is not just a scientific breakthrough; it is a moment that transcends disciplines, blending biology, chemistry, and astronomy with philosophy and the human spirit of exploration.

    If the gas detected truly points to biological processes, it will fundamentally reshape our understanding of life’s prevalence and resilience. It challenges the notion that life is a rare, Earth-bound phenomenon and hints at a universe teeming with possibilities. Such a revelation could unite humanity, sparking a collective curiosity and sense of purpose that transcends borders, ideologies, and generations. It reminds us that, despite our differences, we all share the same desire to explore, discover, and understand.

    But even if life is not confirmed, the implications remain extraordinary. This discovery demonstrates the capabilities of human ingenuity and the relentless drive to push boundaries. It proves that, as a species, we are capable of asking bold questions and seeking answers in the vast unknown. In many ways, the search for life beyond Earth is also a search for meaning—a journey that reflects our deepest hopes and dreams, as much about us as it is about the cosmos. Whether this planet holds the key to extraterrestrial life or simply deepens the mystery, it reaffirms one undeniable truth: the universe is a place of endless wonder, and our journey to understand it has only just begun.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 21:45

  • Manufacturing Dissent
    Manufacturing Dissent

    Authored by Josh Stylman via The Brownstone Institute,

    As I often do on Sunday mornings, I was drinking my coffee and scrolling through my news feed when I noticed something striking. Maybe it’s my algorithm, but the content was flooded with an unusual amount of vitriol directed at Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s nomination as HHS Secretary.

    The coordinated messaging was impossible to miss—talking heads across networks uniformly labeling him a “conspiracy theorist” and “danger to public health,” never once addressing his actual positions. The media’s concerted attacks on Kennedy reveal more than just their opinion of his nomination—they expose a deeper crisis of credibility within institutions that once commanded public trust.

    The Credibility Paradox

    The irony of who led these attacks wasn’t lost on me—these were largely the same voices who championed our most destructive pandemic policies.

    As Jeffrey Tucker aptly noted on X this morning:

    The Coordinated Response

    This hypocrisy becomes even more glaring in the New York Times’ recent coverage, where dismissive rhetoric consistently replaces substantive engagement. In one piece, they acknowledge troubling trends in children’s health while dismissively declaring “vaccines and fluoride are not the cause” without engaging his evidence. In another, Zeynep Tufekci—who notably advocated for some of the most draconian Covid measures—warns that Kennedy could “destroy one of civilization’s best achievements,” painting apocalyptic scenarios while sidestepping his actual policy positions.

    Meanwhile, their political desk speculates about how his stance on Big Food might “alienate his GOP allies.” Each piece approaches from a different angle, but the pattern is clear: coordinated messaging aimed at undermining his credibility before he can assume institutional authority.

    The Echo Chamber Effect

    You can almost hear the editorial conveyor belt opening as senior editors craft the day’s approved reality for their audience. The consistent tone across pieces reveals less independent analysis than a familiar pattern—mockingbird media still in action. As I detailed in How The Information Factory Evolved, this assembly-line approach to reality manufacturing has become increasingly visible to anyone paying attention.

    What these gatekeepers fail to grasp is that this smug dismissiveness, this refusal to engage with substantive arguments, is precisely what fuels growing public skepticism. Their panic seems to grow in direct proportion to Kennedy’s proximity to real power. This orchestrated dismissal is more than a journalistic flaw—it reflects a larger institutional dilemma, one that becomes unavoidable as Kennedy gains traction.

    The Institutional Trap

    The Times faces an emerging dilemma: at some point, they’ll need to address the substance of Kennedy’s arguments rather than rely on dismissive characterizations—especially if he assumes control of America’s health apparatus. Just this morning, MSNBC anchors were literally shouting that “Kennedy is going to get people killed”—yet another example of using melodramatics and fear instead of engaging with his actual positions. Their reflexive ridicule strategy backfires precisely because it avoids engaging with the evidence and concerns that resonate with parents and citizens across political lines. Each attempt to maintain narrative control through authority rather than evidence accelerates institutional credibility collapse.

    Beyond Kennedy: Redrawing Political Lines

    The NYT’s analysis about Kennedy potentially alienating GOP allies particularly highlights their fundamental misunderstanding of the shifting political landscape. As a lifelong Democrat who still champions many traditional progressive values, Kennedy transcends conventional political boundaries. His message—”We have to love our children more than we hate each other”—resonates precisely because anyone who dismisses this crusade to restore American vitality as mere political theater is blind to the groundswell of people who’ve grown tired of watching their communities crumble under the weight of manufactured decline.

    This isn’t just about Kennedy—it’s about the media’s inability to address the legitimate concerns of a disillusioned public. When institutions refuse to engage with dissenting voices, they deepen mistrust and fracture the shared foundation necessary for democratic discourse. While RFK, Jr.’s message has resonated across political boundaries, the media’s inability to address core issues—like regulatory failures—reveals just how out of touch they’ve become.

    The Art of Missing the Point

    Consider this fact-check from the same article: The Times attempts to discredit Kennedy’s Fruit Loops example, but inadvertently confirms his central point: ingredients banned in European markets are indeed permitted in American products. By focusing on semantic precision instead of the broader issue—why US regulators allow unsafe ingredients—the media deflects from substantive debates.

    Senator Elizabeth Warren declared this week: “RFK Jr. poses a danger to public health, scientific research, medicine, and health care coverage for millions. He wants to stop parents from protecting their babies from measles and his ideas would welcome the return of polio.” Yet this alarmist framing dodges the simple question Kennedy actually raises: Why wouldn’t you want proper safety testing for chemicals we’re expected to inject into our children’s bodies? The silence in response to this basic inquiry speaks volumes about institutional priorities—and their fear of someone with the power to demand answers.

    A Referendum on Manufacturing Consent

    Say what you want about Trump, but his “fake news” remarks struck a chord that resonates deeper with each passing day. People who once scoffed at these claims are now watching with eyes wide open as coordinated narratives unfold across media platforms. The gaslighting has become too obvious to ignore. As I explored in We Didn’t Change, The Democratic Party Did, this awakening transcends traditional political boundaries. Americans across the spectrum are tired of being told not to believe their own eyes, whether it’s about pandemic policies, economic realities, or the suppression of dissenting voices.

    “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. 

    It was their final, most essential command.”

    –George Orwell, 1984

    The Moment of Truth

    With Kennedy potentially overseeing America’s health infrastructure, media institutions face a crucial inflection point. Fear campaigns and ad hominem attacks won’t suffice when his policy positions require serious examination. The machinery of coordinated dismissal—visible in identical talking points across networks—reveals more about institutional allegiance than journalistic integrity.

    This moment demands something different. When Kennedy raises questions about pharmaceutical safety testing or environmental toxins—issues that resonate with families across political lines—substantive debate must replace reflexive ridicule. His actual positions, heard directly rather than through media filters, often align with common-sense concerns about corporate influence on public health policy.

    This institutional pattern of manufactured authority connects directly to themes I explored in Fiat Everything earlier this week—systems built on decree rather than demonstrated value. They don’t sell weapons—they sell fear. The same forces that control monetary policy now seek to dictate public health discourse.

    Breaking the Machine

    The solution won’t come from institutional gatekeepers (that’s what got us here) but direct examination. We all need to:

    • Listen to Kennedy’s complete speeches rather than edited soundbites

    • Read his policy positions rather than media characterizations

    • Examine the evidence he cites rather than fact-checker summaries

    • Consider why certain questions about public health policy are deemed off-limits

    I’m not suggesting we accept every contrarian position, but rather that institutional credibility must be earned through rigorous analysis rather than assumed through authority. Until then, coverage like these recent Times pieces will continue to exemplify the very institutional failures that fuel the movements they seek to discredit. As Kennedy approaches real institutional power, expect these attacks to intensify—a clear signal of just how much the guardians of our manufactured consensus have to lose.

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 21:20

  • Why Property Tax Is Illegal
    Why Property Tax Is Illegal

    Submitted by Mitch Vexler, President G.P. of Mockingbird Properties

    “I sincerely believe that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale” – Thomas Jefferson, 1816

    “They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” – Benjamin Franklin

    Issue #1

    One can argue the 16th Amendment going back to 1913 and we are prepared to do so.  The quantified evidence that we have assembled over several years of lawsuits points to exactly why the law as originally written prohibits taxation on unrealized gains. “Market value” as created by the States from which an Assessed Taxable Value is denoted, is in fact an unrealized gain. 

    Although perhaps well intentioned in its debut, property tax has been made illegal because there are no longer any enforced laws protecting the rights of the real estate taxpaying Citizens.

    Let us hold the following to be true:

    1. There are 3,143 Counties in the United States and the vast majority of them under State Law require Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) and Mass Appraisal Standards.

    2. USPAP is rendered meaningless as it is not followed in favor of hand overwriting property values outside the confines of any law or proper appraisal method.

    3. An Implicit guarantee, as claimed by the Taxing Entities (for example, School District Bonds), for which there is no signature, is not implicit. 

    4. Contracts made under duress are unenforceable; “voluntary consent” requires adequate information, lack of coercion, force, manipulation, or intimidation, and the freedom to revoke consent at any time.

    5. If Fraud is discovered, contracts are void.

    6. States and Central Appraisal Districts across the U.S. have violated USPAP, which in many States is a 3rd degree felony for those who signed an Oath of Office.

    7. States and Central Appraisal Districts across the U.S. have violated Mass Appraisal Standards (USPAP Standards 5 & 6).

    8. Many school districts refuse to make public their bond schedules, balance sheet with proper notes, and a sources and uses schedule of the bond proceeds.  We have discovered a compound cumulative effect of not retiring the bond debt but rolling it out and rolling the interest rate up.

    9. States and Central Appraisal Districts have violated State Property Tax Codes, for example, in Texas sections 23.01(b) & 23.01(e) to identify a few. (not all inclusive)

    10. States, Taxing Entities (school districts, cities, counties, special districts, etc.), Central Appraisal Districts across the U.S. have violated State Constitutions – Uniform and Equal (Texas) – Board of Equalization in California.

    11. Real Estate Taxpayers (Single Family, Multifamily, Commercial, Land Owners) have had their rights to due process under the 5th and 14th Amendments violated as the recourse to prohibit the equity stripping and theft of taxpayer money has been rendered impossible by the intentional layering of gauntlets such as the Appraisal Review Panels which are comprised mostly of senior citizens who know nothing about appraisal law (USPAP and property tax code) or math.

    12. “Pay your taxes or we will take your house” (We have testimony & audio evidence.)

    13. “Go get a second job to pay your taxes” (We have testimony & audio evidence.)

    14. “We took 60,000 properties out of the database, manipulated them in excel and put them back” Chief Appraiser, Denton Central Appraisal District, County Texas. (We have this recording.)

    15. We calculated that in the last 5 years, roughly $21.2 Trillion of fraudulent property valuation (roughly double in the last 5 years alone) has been created, which resulted in roughly $450 Billion in over taxation paid by Mom and Pop in 2024.

    16. As seen in the graphic below, each homeowner in the U.S. owes roughly $1.3 million of U.S. National Debt, Unfunded Liabilities plus Local Taxing Entity Debt, which if amortized over 25 years at 6.25% would require that your income increase by $9,000 per month immediately which is not possible to pay off. (wording)

    17. The above violates the U.S. Constitution 1st, 5th, 14th, and 16th Amendments.

    18. The above equates to State and Federal RICO crimes throughout the majority of States.

    19. The U.S. Constitution trumps State Law under the Supremacy Clause which exists to prohibit a State from violating its own Constitution.

    If property valuation were true, requiring a willing buyer and willing seller neither under duress, and cash settled, then the maximum value assigned could only be what the house was built for or what the house was purchased for, until such time as the house is sold.

    The laws and violations thereof have morphed to the point where the cash grab of the local Taxing Entities (i.e. School Districts) have rendered meaningless all the protections in law that were established to protect the Citizen real estate taxpayers, and this has an extreme fraudulent inflation factor.  There are 8 elements of real estate tax in the milk that goes in your cappuccino.  Therefore real estate tax fraud on a mass scale effects every person who shops whether they realize it or not.  The more elements of tax, the higher the inflation, the higher the fraud.

    If those protections are going to be ignored (USPAP, State Property Tax Code, State Constitutions and U.S. Constitution), then the net result is the equity stripping of property taxpayers, such that if there is no law, then why pay real estate taxes.   In other words, either the law exists, or it doesn’t.  Equity Stripping is the compound cumulative effect of paying a fraudulently created overvaluation resulting in over taxation and this means that making money on the purchase of your home has a very low probability of success because the Taxing Entities took your profit by over taxation via the fraud.

    If those protections under the law are going to be adhered to, then those responsible for violating the laws must be held accountable.  The Taxing Entities (i.e. School Districts) are hiding the bond schedules from the public, which would show that the bonds are not being paid off and that the cumulative compounding of debt and interest is occurring.  Many school districts will need to be put into involuntary bankruptcy to unwind what debt can be unwound.  We have discovered that there are roughly 143,000,000 single family homes in the U.S. which are burdened by roughly $240,000 of school bond debt. 

    Either the law exists, your Honor, or it doesn’t.  Please state the obvious which is that the law exists, for the protection of the Citizens, and if not, which has clearly been proven, or we would not be in front of the Appellate Court, then eliminating property taxes in favor of a Uniform States Sales Tax (estimate approximately 15.6%) must be implemented to ensure the protections of the Citizens. Return the balance sheet to Mom and Pop, restore transparency by eliminating the real estate tax fraud, and make the playing field fair for all real estate taxpayers and reduce the fraudulently created inflation simultaneously.

    Issue #2

    Several well-known people on YouTube interviewed me and in one of those videos I asked… “Mr. Spencer (Chief Appraiser Denton County/Central Appraisal District), what is to stop you or any Chief Appraiser from raising the values in 2025 to infinity?” Given that the values are irrefutably created by hand outside any requirements in USPAP, Mass Appraisal Standards, State Property Tax Code, State Constitution and U.S. Constitution, the answer would be nothing.  We now have further proof of such a criminal position, which is the November 22, 2024 article that exposes the Montgomery County Assessor in Central Illinois wherein an attempted theft of an approximate 1,400% increase in real estate taxes for 2025 was on the table.  To be crystal clear, real estate valuation that adheres to the law is based on quantified analysis of true comparisons, not meeting pre-determined budgets handed to the Chief Appraisers by the Taxing Entities, where many of those Taxing Entities are bankrupt. So, to keep the illusion going is just burning money and is not going to the benefit of students (lower test scores, lower enrollment, closing schools) but rather intended to protect the pensions.  It is a form of a second social security. 

    Are the homeowners responsible for the actions of the School District?   NO!

    Real Estate Taxpayers have been dupped by omission.  When bonds are raised by the school districts, big money is spent in advertising to pull the wool over the eyes of the trusting public, to the point where now roughly 30% of the households will go bankrupt or lose the roof over their head, because of the cash grab at the hands of the Central Appraisal Districts and their owners, the Taxing Entities (i.e. school districts).

    Even when ordered by the State Attorney General to turn over the Bond Schedule, we have yet to see a single bond schedule, balance sheet with proper notes, and a sources and uses, which is what should be required as part of the process of raising bond money.  The appropriate solution, for this intentional omission and pattern and practice to deceive, is to file the School Districts into involuntary bankruptcy and then sue each person who signed an Oath and hold the attorneys responsible (officers of the court) for violating taxpayers’ rights under both Federal and State Constitutions, as well as pressing criminal charges and disbarment.  The main point being… put the school districts into bankruptcy.  At the State level the equity stripping of Mom and Pop has now herein been laid bare. 

    If you think the above is bad, but wait, there is more!

    Who purchased the school bonds? Could it be 401Ks and Pensions?  Who owns the 401Ks and Pensions?  Mom and Pop.   What due diligence was done by the purchasers of the school bonds to determine the true value and value at risk?  

    A school district in Texas with an alleged balance sheet of $8 million has effectively bankrolled the private development of two 2,000-acre solar fields, via 313 Agreements promoted by the State Comptroller.  Are the taxpayers obligated to pay for this fraud on the public, where there is no guaranteed return on investment or guaranteed return of investment?   NO!

    Did the real estate taxpaying citizens agree to fund the non-reduction of bond debt which is intentionally hidden from the public such that even the State of Texas does not know how much debt is being retired but does know that six to twelve billion is being raised every six months?  NO!

    These problems are not just Texas specific but are across the vast majority of the U.S. because USPAP (the law) is being ignored in favor of unfettered theft of taxpayer money.

    Issue #3 – Average Annual Housing Expenses vs Debt (Federal and Local Taxing Entities)

    The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average annual household expenditures were $77,280 (or $6640/month) in 2023, with the largest share going toward housing costs, with property taxes being a significant portion of the cost of housing.  Others have crunched the numbers and have shown that for a family of four the average monthly expenditures are between $8450 and $9817, or $101,400 to $117,804 annually.

    So, if the average household needs to earn between $77,280 to $117,804 annually to cover a monthly living cost between $6640 and $9817, how can households also cover an additional $9000/month or $108,000 per year in “implicit debt guarantees” resulting from the excessive debt existing at the Local & Federal levels.

    The household median income for 2023 was reported at $80,610 by census.gov. So clearly, if their cost of living was $77,280 as stated by the USLBS, they are not saving much (maybe $3000 a year), nor can they cover the implicit debt guarantee of $9000 PER MONTH.

    The chart below shows the math behind the $9000 per month of the Local and Federal debt burden, implicit guarantee, using Denton County Texas households as the example population group.

    Issue #4

    The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not provide for, nor state, that all land is owned by the Federal Government.  In fact, the war of 1812 was fought to prohibit this exact action.   Real Estate Property Owners have been relegated to paying rent on the dirt below their asset, and yet there is no agreed to ground lease with any State government as the Lessor and a property owner as the Lessee.   Can anyone show you or me where the Taxing Entities are the ground Lessor in any Taxing County in the United States such as the Lands of His Majesty King Kamehameha III in Hawaii which date back to 1848?   NO!   

    Given the above and given the testimony from across the U.S. that is coming to our office daily, it is clear that Mom and Pop are being taxed out of their homes.  What was once the balance sheet of Mom and Pop being a home with a declining debt balance to eventually zero, is no longer possible, making retirement for many impossible.  The current situation, including a Military Veteran in Ohio, named Bob, who is 85 years old, on fixed income who bought his home for $24,000, is now being commanded to pay $3,100 in property tax which is money he does not have.  What is the benefit to moving this man to senior care that he does not need or want on the dime of the real estate taxpayer at an approximate cost of $80,000 per year??   We have quantified that roughly 72% of the single-family homeowners cannot afford what the Central Appraisal Districts claim as the median value of a home which proves the fraud on its face.  The system has become so irretrievably corrupt, that the only solution is the elimination of property taxes in favor of a Uniform States Sales Tax.  The balance sheet of home ownership (Mom and Pop being the economic engine of the U.S.) must be reinstated so that when the property is sold, a potential profit is achievable for purposes of retirement and not to force people out of their homes (MF and Single Family) because they can’t afford the fraudulent induced real estate taxes.  If not, the system of fraud has effectively bankrupted the vast majority of its Citizens as well as the Taxing Entities (by their own hand) such that the debt on the Federal and or Local level cannot be paid off.   It is time to put those responsible in jail.  The District Attorneys need to do their job and if they don’t, they are part of the problem.  State and Federal RICO laws are clear, and the map is the list I provided at the beginning of this discussion.  The evidence is at www.mockingbirdproperties.com/dcad.

    What can Mom and Pop do right now to help themselves?  Travis Spencer wrote a FREE Course available at  https://real-estate-mindset-homebuying-101.teachable.com/ to explain how to create true property comparisons to be used at an Appraisal Review Board meeting. 

    In addition to the webpage at www.mockingbirdproperties.com/dcad, we have a full library behind the wall designed for attorneys and accountants wishing to dig into the filings, articles and math models.  Please email me for the password.

    Resources to understand the depth of the problem:

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 20:55

  • John Wick Rolex Watch Stolen From Keanu Reeves' Hollywood Hills Home Recovered During Police Raid In Chile
    John Wick Rolex Watch Stolen From Keanu Reeves’ Hollywood Hills Home Recovered During Police Raid In Chile

    Authored by Audrey Enjoli via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Chilean authorities say they have recovered an engraved Rolex watch believed to have been stolen from actor Keanu Reeves’s Los Angeles home in December 2023.

    On Saturday, the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) announced on X that detectives had seized various pieces of jewelry, valuable watches, and other stolen items in Peñalolén, a commune in Santiago, Chile.

    “A watch belonging to a famous movie actor, the victim of a robbery in Los Angeles,” was among the more than a dozen watches recovered, police said.

    The Rolex Submariner, valued at over $9,000, according to the Swiss luxury brand’s website, features the engraved words “The John Wick Five. Keanu Thank You. JW4. 2021” on the back.

    Reeves, who played the titular character in the “John Wick” film franchise, gifted customized Rolex Submariner watches to the four stunt performers he worked with on “John Wick: Chapter 4,” which premiered in theaters in March 2023.

    According to CNN Chile, the PDI conducted raids on four homes in Peñalolén, recovering a total of three watches that belonged to the 60-year-old actor.

    “There are two watches in particular that have the inscription referring to actor Keanu Reeves,” Hugo Haeger Bórquez, the deputy director of police and criminal investigation at the PDI, said during a press conference.

    “Along with our counterparts in the United States, through Interpol, it was determined that he was a victim of theft in his home in 2023 when he lost nearly $7 million.”

    Speaking to Chilean broadcaster TVN on Monday, PDI Inspector Marcelo Dibarrat said Chilean authorities are working with the Los Angeles Police Department to return Reeves’s stolen property to him.

    Officers with the PDI arrested a 21-year-old man during the Peñalolén raid, though his identity has not yet been released.

    Dibarrat told TVN that the suspect claimed at the time of his arrest that his brother had been the perpetrator of the theft of Reeves’s engraved watch.

    The Epoch Times contacted the Los Angeles Police Department and a representative for Reeves for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

    String of Break-Ins

    Chilean authorities believe the stolen watches were taken from Reeves’s Hollywood Hills residence in the fall of 2023.

    At the time, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told the Los Angeles Times that “suspects entered the property through the backyard and broke a rear window to gain access” on the evening of Dec. 6, 2023.

    The suspects, who wore ski masks, reportedly made off with jewelry and a firearm.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 20:30

  • "TIME TO WAKE UP!": 'Cybertruck Bomber' Had Several Manifestos, Warned Of Drones Using 'Gravatic Propulsion'
    “TIME TO WAKE UP!”: ‘Cybertruck Bomber’ Had Several Manifestos, Warned Of Drones Using ‘Gravatic Propulsion’

    Update (2006ET):

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    *    *    *

    Update (1801ET):

    The details surrounding Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger continue to drip – with two ‘manifesto’ letters found in the Cybertruck itself, and another ‘manifesto’ he allegedly emailed to retired intelligence officer Sam Shoemate.

    In the letters found in the Cybertruck, Livelsberger described the USA as “terminally ill,” and said his actions were meant as a “wake-up call,” and not a terrorist attack.

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

    The most intriguing, however, is an email allegedly sent to Shoemate – in warning that the “drones” seen around the United States over the last month are using “gravatic propulsion systems,” which only China and the United States possess.

    Shoemate shared the email on Shawn Ryan’s show, writing on X, “I knew taking this public would insert me into the “glowy boi” conspiracy cycle, especially since I’m an intelligence officer,” adding “I had no choice. Dude dumped it in my inbox. When I saw his name in the news, I had little choice but to hand it over to the feds. I knew the FBI wouldn’t release it, or at least without an agenda attached, so I took it to Shawn Ryan because he has the platform to handle the magnitude of this information and will do so as objectively as possible.”

    According to Livelsberger’s email:

    “China has been launching them from the Atlantic from submarines for years, but this activity recently has picked up. As of now, it is just a show of force and they are using it similar to how they used the blloon for a sigint and isr, which are also part of the integrated comms system,” he writes.

    “…they are the most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed. They basically have an unlimited payload  capacity and can park over the WH if they wanted. It’s checkmate.”

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

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

    Meanwhile, Livelsberger was recorded at a Tesla charging station on the way to Las Vegas.

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

    You can read the entire email below:

    “In case I do not make it to my decision point or on to the Mexico border I am sending this now. Please do not release this until 1JAN and keep my identity private until then.

    First off I am not under duress or hostile influence or control. My first car was a 2006 Black Ford Mustang V6 for verification.

    What we have been seeing with “drones” is the operational use of gravitic propulsion systems powered aircraft by most recently China in the east coast, but throughout history, the US. Only we and China have this capability. Our OPEN location for this activity in the box is below.

    China has been launching them from the Atlantic from submarines for years, but this activity recently has picked up. As of now, it is just a show of force and they are using it similar to how they used the balloon for sigint and isr, which are also part of the integrated comms system. There are dozens of those balloons in the air at any given time.

    The so what is because of the speed and stealth of these unmanned AC, they are the most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed. They basically have an unlimited payload capacity and can park it over the WH if they wanted. It’s checkmate.

    US needs to give the history of this, how we are employing it and weaponizing it, how China is employing them and what the way forward is. China is poised to attack anywhere in the east coast

    I’ve been followed for over a week now from likely homeland or FBI, and they are looking to move on me and are unlikely going to let me cross into Mexico, but won’t because they know i am armed and I have a massive VBIED.

    I’ve been trying to maintain a very visible profile and have kept my phone and they are definitely digitally tracking me. I have knowledge of this program and also war crimes that were covered up during airstrikes in Nimruz province Afghanistan in 2019 by the admin, DoD, DEA and CIA.

    I conducted targeting for these strikes of over 125 buildings (65 were struck because of CIVCAS) that killed hundreds of civilians in a single day. USFORA continued strikes after spotting civilians on initial ISR, it was supposed to take 6 minutes and scramble all aircraft in CENTCOM. The UN basically called these war crimes, but the administration made them disappear.

    I was part of that cover-up with USFORA and Agent [redacted] of the DEA. So I don’t know if my abduction attempt is related to either. I worked with GEN Millers 10 staff on this as well as the response to Bala Murghab. AOB-S Commander at the time [redacted] can validate this.

    You need to elevate this to the media so we avoid a world war because this is a mutually assured destruction situation. For vetting my Linkedin is Matt Berg or Matthew Livelsberger, an active duty 18Z out of 1-10 my profile is public. I have an active TSSCI with UAP USAP access.”

    How glowing is all of this on a scale of 1-Chernobyl?

    *    *    *

    Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters on Thursday that the Cybertruck bomber, Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret, died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head just moments before the detonation outside Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas. This sequence of events is based on the official statements from law enforcement. However, speculation on X, particularly among internet sleuths, has brought up alternative theories regarding the timing of Livelsberger’s death. 

    Rogan O’Handley, aka “DC Draino” on X, floated two scenarios about Livelsberger’s final moments:

    Now that we know the Vegas suspect was found with a bullet in his head, I see 2 possible scenarios:

    1. He shot himself – he was planning to commit suicide & didn’t want to risk being burned alive

    2. He was shot by someone else & the Tesla was auto-pilot navigated to the Trump hotel

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    “A long fuse could’ve been lit, a timer could have been set, or the bomb could have been remotely detonated I wonder if anyone in the vicinity heard a gunshot That would help confirm where the car was when he was shot,” O’Handley wrote in another post. 

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    Tesla’s Elon Musk quickly dismissed the second scenario, stating, “Autopilot will not function unless it detects an attentive person in the driver’s seat.”

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

    Tesla vehicles have a cabin camera that monitors driver attentiveness and provides audible alerts when FSD is engaged. The camera is mounted above the rearview mirror. 

    “Like other Autopilot features, Full Self-Driving requires that the driver pay attention to the road, their surroundings, and other road users,” Tesla wrote on its website under the “Driver Attentiveness” section of FSD. 

    Tesla said, “The cabin camera does not require full visibility of the driver’s eyes in order to monitor attentiveness. The system is still active, for example, if the driver is wearing sunglasses.” 

    “If the cabin camera does not have clear visibility of the driver’s hand and arm locations, Full Self-Driving periodically displays a message reminding the driver to apply slight force to the steering wheel,” Tesla continued. 

    It noted, “If the driver repeatedly ignore prompts to apply slight force to the steering wheel or to pay attention, Full Self-Driving displays a series of escalating warnings and, if those warnings are ignored, disables for the rest of the drive and displays the following message.” 

    What’s apparent from Tesla’s description of how FSD works suggests any scenario with Livelsberger shot in the head well before the bombing would be extraordinarily hard to trick the camera. 

    X users should call on Musk to release the cockpit camera footage and any other recordings from the high-tech EV truck to disprove O’Handley’s second scenario. Additionally, footage from charging stations could provide valuable insights into what happened leading up to the bombing. We’re sure the FBI is already doing this… 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 20:06

  • Homeland Security Agents Charged With Selling Illegal Drugs Seized As Evidence
    Homeland Security Agents Charged With Selling Illegal Drugs Seized As Evidence

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

    A second Homeland Security agent has been charged with selling illegal drugs, taken from seized evidence, for hundreds of thousands of dollars through a confidential informant.

    Nicholas Kindle, a special agent in Utah tasked with investigating illegal narcotics trafficking, was arrested three weeks after his alleged co-conspirator, special agent David Cole. Both men face felony drug distribution conspiracy charges. Kindle faces an additional charge of conspiracy to convert U.S. government property for profit.

    Kindle was formally charged in an information document filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which does not require grand jury approval to initiate criminal proceedings. Court records indicate that he has not yet been assigned an attorney.

    A magistrate judge on Jan. 3 set Kindle’s initial court appearance for Jan. 21 in Salt Lake City. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

    Cole was indicted by a grand jury on Dec. 18 and has pleaded not guilty to his drug distribution conspiracy charge. He is due to stand trial the week of Feb. 24 and faces a maximum of 20 years if convicted.

    His attorney, Alexander Ramos, previously said that he was still trying to gather information about the case.

    The pair’s Homeland Security credentials have been suspended following the indictments but they have not been terminated, according to court documents.

    Synthetic bath salts, also known as Alpha-PHP, are controlled substances with effects comparable to methamphetamine and cocaine. Abuse of the drug can result in adverse effects, including vomiting, paranoia, hypertension, seizures, or even death, according to U.S. authorities.

    Federal prosecutors stated that Cole and Kindle began acquiring the drugs from HSI evidence in 2021 and sold them to a confidential informant from 2022 to 2024.

    The defendants allegedly allowed the informant to resell the drugs and the buyers were never investigated or arrested, according to court documents.

    The transactions typically involved one ounce, or 28 grams, of bath salts for $5,000 that would then be sold by the informant at a higher cost, according to an FBI affidavit filed in December 2024.

    According to the FBI affidavit, investigators seized more than $67,000 in cash and bath salts during raids on the defendants’ residences, government vehicles, work cubicles, and a safety deposit box. The FBI did not disclose the amount of bath salts allegedly seized.

    The FBI said the scheme brought in between $195,000 and $300,000.

    The investigation began in October 2024 after the informant’s lawyer reported the illegal drug sales to the U.S. attorney in Utah. The informant was recruited by the agents while in prison to conduct controlled buys from drug dealers upon his release. However, the informant said he was compelled by the two agents to also engage in illegal sales, the affidavit said.

    “A drug dealer who carries a badge is still a drug dealer – and one who has violated an oath to uphold the law and protect the public,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, said in a Dec. 18 statement.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 20:05

  • What Americans Expect From The New Trump Era
    What Americans Expect From The New Trump Era

    Gallup conducted a survey on what Americans think the Trump administration will accomplish over the next four years.

    It found that nearly seven in ten respondents (68 percent) said that the incoming administration will control immigration. However, as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, respondents were least likely to say that Trump would be able to heal political divisions in the country (33 percent said his administration would be able to).

    Around six in ten respondents thought that Trump will reduce unemployment, keep the country safe from terrorism and improve the economy.

    Just over half (54 percent) think he will cut U.S. taxes and (51 percent) reduce the crime rate. Meanwhile, only around a third (35 percent) of respondents said that the Trump administration will be able to improve the quality of the environment.

    A majority of respondents also said he will not be able to improve race relations, improve education, substantially reduce the federal budget deficit, improve conditions for minorities and the poor or reduce the prices of groceries and other items.

    As the chart below shows, a similar set of questions was asked to U.S. voters in 2016 about their expectations the first time Trump was in office.

    Infographic: What Americans Expect From the New Trump Era | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Between the two survey waves, the biggest change was in response to the question of whether the government would keep the nation out of war (17 p.p. increase).

    While the population answered far more favorably this time round, only just over half of respondents (55 percent) consider this to be the case now.

    The biggest drop in optimism was over whether Trump would be able to improve the healthcare system. Where 52 percent of respondents had thought he could in 2016, only 40 percent thought the same in 2024 (-12 p.p.).

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 19:40

  • How Crypto Laws Are Changing Across The World In 2025
    How Crypto Laws Are Changing Across The World In 2025

    Authored by Yohan Yun via CoinTelegraph.com,

    Everything looks set to change for crypto regulation and legislation in the United States in 2025.

    Token Alliance co-chair Paul Atkins has been nominated to replace crypto antagonist Gary Gensler as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), signaling a major shift in how crypto is regulated in the United States. 

    Gensler’s tenure, though instrumental in laying regulatory groundwork and case laws, drew heavy criticism for its reliance on enforcement-driven regulation.

    Across the Atlantic, the European Union has implemented the first of its kind Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation to oversee the crypto industry. While praised for its ambition, MiCA’s stringent rules are driving some businesses out of the region, adding to debates over the regulatory burden on digital markets. Meanwhile, Asia continues to integrate crypto into its legal systems, with significant cases setting local precedents.

    To unpack the most important legal developments of 2024 and forecast what’s next, Magazine spoke with legal experts Catherine Smirnova and Yuriy Brisov of Digital & Analogue Partners in Europe, Joshua Chu of the Hong Kong Web3 Association, and Charlyn Ho of Rikka Group in the US.

    The discussion has been edited for clarity and brevity.

    Magazine: How will crypto law in the US change under the new administration?

    Brisov: The Biden administration did a lot to prepare the legal frameworks for crypto assets. I’m sure that the proceeds of this preparation will help the next administration.

    Willingly or not, the SEC helped shape the surface of crypto regulation so far. Common law countries are usually based on case law. We usually regulate when we have a sufficient amount of case law, and now is the time. 

    A 1946 case stands as the basis for modern-day digital assets. (Alvaro Carriho)

    Today, both Republicans and Democrats agree that crypto legislative reform is needed in the US. We still base crypto decisions on the orange groves in California in 1946, or the Howey case. 

    Ho: The stepping down of Gensler and the nomination of Atkins to head the SEC is going to create a lot of change in the way that the crypto industry is regulated. When I say regulated, I don’t think that we will have an overarching regulatory regime in the next year. In fact, I would hazard a guess, Trump and Atkins are probably opposed to creating new regulations, but rather increasing the clarity as to where the crypto industry can operate. 

    Gensler was criticized for taking an overly aggressive approach where he was stepping outside of the SEC’s congressional mandate and essentially making up powers and exercising what it did not have constitutionally. The change we’ll see is hopefully a decrease in such regulation by enforcement and perhaps more of a proactive, business-friendly, crypto-friendly approach taken by the agency as opposed to more of an antagonistic one. 

     

    Magazine: What changes can we expect at the SEC with Atkins stepping in as chair, and how much influence will he have on ongoing legal matters?

    Ho: From all accounts, Atkins’s background is very pro-business. He was an SEC commissioner previously so there is some history in how he would approach this role. 

    Paul Atkins has been selected to lead the SEC after Gensler’s resignation. (SEC)

    That being said, there is a precedent set by Gensler for him to follow. Just because a new [chair] is named doesn’t mean that all the legal work product that has come out previously is just gone. Let’s hypothetically say there’s a lawsuit pending—and there are many. If Atkins wants to change the SEC’s position, he wouldn’t just be able to declare it. They would have to go through the legal process and have some justification in order to alter their claims. If they’re the plaintiff, they could just drop the lawsuit entirely. But the commissioner doesn’t have unfettered discretion to completely change everything that’s in process. 

    Magazine: How are businesses in the EU responding to the implementation of MiCA and other digital regulations?

    Smirnova: This year, what I call the Mario Draghi report said that our digital policy is not as good as we expected as a lot of potential unicorns are moving to the US. We believed that ex ante and clear regulation from early on will give transparency, but no—businesses treat it as a regulatory burden. 

    MiCA, of course, which is the first [crypto] regulation in the world covering all the fields, trying to make this market more transparent and clear to all participants. Now we have regulation which is more strict and doesn’t require any additional actions from national jurisdictions. 

    Next year, we’ll see if we still have a crypto market in the EU or if the regulatory burden will drive them out. We’re also expecting additional protection for digital consumers, through the Digital Fairness Act. What we’re witnessing now is that digital assets markets are regulated more by regulations that aren’t specially crafted for them. We have E-commerce Directive, DMA, DSA and GDPR. The proposal [for the Digital Fairness Act] was published already and released by the European Commission for comments, and we expect it will come into effect next year. It will be a high burden of pressure on digital business in the EU.

    Italy’s former prime minister’s 2024 report presents a reality check for the future of European competitiveness. (European Commission)

    Chu: You need three things: legislation, enforcement action, and ultimately those two to be tested before the court of law; before you can really say that the regulatory regime in any particular jurisdiction is maturing. 

    Using GDPR as context, when it came out, it rocked a lot of boats. The clarity on what to do only came about when the enforcement and fines started raining down.

    Magazine: And are there crypto cases that have been tested in Hong Kong’s court of law?

    Chu: In Hong Kong, we have seen this year legislative cases that are now being tested in court. So we have quite a few landmark decisions in Hong Kong, including the first case against JPEX. We will likely see more developments of that fraud case coming in the next year. 

    We have also seen cases against decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). So we’re seeing how private parties, as well as regulators are catching up in terms of tackling these new entities.

    Magazine: How can Hong Kong fulfill its crypto hub ambitions with only a few licensed exchanges?

    Chu: Do you really need that many exchanges floating around? If we look at it in the more traditional sense of a stock exchange, there’s one stock exchange. Why do we suddenly need three exchanges trading the same ten tokens aside from maybe arbitrage environments? 

    Being a hub is great and having choices is great. But similar to virtual banks, there will be batches being rolled out. The last thing you want to do is create way too many competing exchanges and then it gets nowhere. It also spreads regulatory oversight quite thin as a result. 

    Hong Kong has one of the more stringent regulatory regimes. You can’t even have options or derivatives. So people are wondering why are you buying it if it’s just on spot and you’re holding it. There are lots of issues that need to be ironed out.

    Magazine: What are some legal developments that are generally being overlooked by crypto industry participants?

    Smirnova: First, the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act came into effect and a lot of tech companies just left the EU. 

    Number two, the EU AI Act was adopted in and it affects all jurisdictions. It’s expected to have the same effect as the GDPR. If you provide AI related services in the EU, this act is applicable to your business. It doesn’t matter where you are incorporated. 

    EU AI Act expected to have a GDPR-like effect on companies on all jurisdictions. (Sanket Mishra)

    Now, digital companies need to worry about competition, transparency, privacy, AI and about consumer welfare.

    Ho: I was keen on some of the AI agents and AI token developments. I think that is a huge development in 2024. We’re only going to see more of that in the future, especially with Coinbase’s AI agent transactions. To me, that’s just a little crazy. I find that pretty novel and legally very gray in terms of liability. 

    I would say we probably won’t see much legislation, but there may be court cases that shed light on liability allocation. The reason I say that I don’t foresee a lot of legislation is because for many years, the crypto industry has been without an overarching legislative regime in the US. We don’t have a MiCA equivalent here. That’s kind of why the current SEC has been enforcing the way it has. They are essentially operating and interpreting laws that are many years old and that were never kind of contemplating crypto in mind. So to think that we would have AI-crypto legislation, I think is kind of a tall order. 

    AI agents started to own their own crypto wallets in 2024. (Ethermage)

    One of the other big things that happen is the overturning of the Chevron deference doctrine. The Supreme Court basically overturned this doctrine that’s been in place for quite some time that essentially granted or required deference to an agency’s interpretation of a rule.

    That’s important because in this particular instance with crypto, that means that the courts don’t need to defer to the agency’s interpretation. Gensler’s interpretation or his commission’s interpretation was certainly very limited in crypto industries’ ability to operate. If the courts no longer have to defer to that interpretation, the logical thought would be that the crypto industry would have more freedom to operate.

    Brisov: A big development for next year I expect is the understanding of crypto assets. In common law, we have two types of assets. We call them chosen in possession and chosen in action, which are basically tangible and intangible things. Possession is your iPhone, your apartment, or your car. Things in action are like securities, dept, or intellectual property. 

    If we take NFTs, for instance, they used to be treated as just some form of tangible assets, though they are literally intangible. Therefore they couldn’t be security. But now, the SEC has started to investigate OpenSea. They claim that NFTs can also be securities. 

    Legal classification of digital assets advances. (Jonathan Borba)

    In the UK, there is a bill that offers the third dimension of assets which is not chosen possession, not chosen action, but a third category of assets: a digital thing, or digital asset. Through the case law in the US and in the UK, I think that legislation is also upcoming. This specific digital asset will form a new type of asset in the legal domain. That will be a huge trend that will be moving forward through upcoming years.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 19:15

  • Bipartisan "Online Dating Safety Act" Seeks To Combat $1 Billion In Annual App Scams
    Bipartisan “Online Dating Safety Act” Seeks To Combat $1 Billion In Annual App Scams

    The government is considering putting a law into place that helps stop online dating scammers. 

    Sharing the story of a 66 year old woman who had “saved more than $2 million for her retirement and hoped to travel the world” and then lost all of it to someone she met on Match.com, CBS wrote this week that two lawmakers have introduced the Online Dating Safety Act.

    She met a man on Match.com claiming to be a UK private equity investor named Santos. After weeks of romance, he asked her for $40,000 to renew a professional license.

    “I was in a position, I could help a person. Why not? I never thought he was stealing or scamming. There was no reason,” the woman told CBS. From there, Sue faced relentless lies, deception, and emotional abuse that ultimately cost her $2 million in savings, according to CBS.

    She told her story to CBS: “Because I don’t want anyone to go through the hell that I’ve gone through. I don’t want anybody to be in the hell hole that I dug with the help of a criminal.”

    Romance scams cost over 64,000 Americans more than $1 billion last year, double the $500 million reported four years ago, per the FTC. Nearly half of dating site users report encountering scammers, prompting bipartisan concerns from lawmakers, the article says. 

    Reps. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) and David Valadao (R-CA) introduced the Online Dating Safety Act, which would require apps like Match.com to alert users if they’ve interacted with a scam account.

    Valadao said: “No matter how advanced you think your ability to understand what’s out there, they’re gonna deceive so many people and we really have to get in front of this.”

    The bill passed the House but stalled in the Senate, with plans to reintroduce it next Congress. CBS writes that Match Group stated they’ve started implementing fraud notifications and will work with lawmakers to finalize the bill.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 18:50

  • America Won't Fall For Multi-State 'Quad-demic' Mask-Mandates
    America Won’t Fall For Multi-State ‘Quad-demic’ Mask-Mandates

    Authored by Julianna Frieman via Headline USA,

    Some states reinstated mask mandates as so-called health “experts” claim holiday social gatherings have caused an increase in four different types of viral infections, the Daily Mail reported on Thursday.

    The “quad-demic” consists of a surge in infections caused by the flu, COVID-19, the respiratory illness RSV and norovirus, commonly called the stomach flu, according to the outlet.

    Headlines about the quadruple threat emerged just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, fresh after talk about the risk of bird flu fell flat.

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

    Aurora Health Care, a hospital in Wisconsin, announced that starting on Jan. 6, visitors will be required to mask up “when in contact with patients or in congregate areas, including patient rooms and others areas designated by signage,” WLUK reported.

    Several counties in California, including Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, along with the City of Berkeley, enacted mask mandates first effective in November until March 31, 2025.

    In some counties, the order only applies to medical workers—but stricter counties extent their mandate to visitors or residents, CBS News reported.

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

    Multiple hospitals in Illinois, Indiana and New Jersey have also implemented mask mandates, which were proven not to stop infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, under the guise of protecting people against the reported winter surge of diseases, various reports said.

    In New York, government officials including Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams also reportedly called for people to wear face masks on public transportation, NBC 4 New York reported in June.

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

    Dr. Joe Bresee, an infectious disease “expert” with two decades of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experience, told the Daily Mail, “What we are seeing now is an increasing amount of respiratory disease and norovirus that is really all over the U.S.”

    Social media users were skeptical of mask mandates resulting from what some called the “quad-demic.” One X user questioned if reports were “more fear-mongering,” while others warned as early as Dec. 2024 that the apparent attempt to return to COVID-19 “utter deception and evil” would not be welcomed.

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

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

    X user @NoNonsense2 pointed out that the rise of the “quad-demic” began just weeks before Trump’s second term.

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

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

    Popular podcaster Dan Bongino slammed the Daily Mail’s report by saying, “Absolutely incredible how little public health officials have learned from betraying us during COVID. Mask stupidity is peak human ignorance.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 18:25

  • 16 Years After Bitcoin's 'Birth', Mining Difficulty Hits A New Record High
    16 Years After Bitcoin’s ‘Birth’, Mining Difficulty Hits A New Record High

    It’s Bitcoin’s birthday: The very first Bitcoin block was mined 16 years ago today.

    Bitcoin’s first block was mined on January 3, 2009.

    Known as the “Genesis Block,” Decrypt reports that Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto minted 50 BTC into existence with the move. 

    Since then, 877,665 blocks have been mined and added to the network’s long ledger. On a blockchain, blocks contain data on transactions.

    Only miners can add data to the network, and the difficulty level helps prevent unauthorized additions or edits to the chain, as it would take an incredible amount of computational power to take over the network.

    And the network is stronger than ever, with mining difficulty reaching a new all-time high mark as the biggest cryptocurrency rides into the new year.

    As CoinTelegraph’s Alex O’Donnell reports, Bitcoin’s hashrate – the total computing power securing the Bitcoin network – reached a new all-time high on Jan. 3 of over 1,000 exahashes per second (EH/s), according to data from CoinWarz. 

    Source: CoinWarz

    That is nearly double the network’s hashrate 12 months ago. According to CoinWarz, Bitcoin’s hashrate hovered around 510 EH/s in January 2024. At the time of this article’s publication, Bitcoin’s hashrate had retraced to approximately 780 EH/s. 

    The network’s rising hashrate indicates Bitcoin miners are devoting more computational resources to the blockchain, thus improving the network’s security. 

    Miners are continuing to expand production even after Bitcoin’s April halving reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block.

    Source: CoinWarz

    Overcoming headwinds

    In 2024, Bitcoin’s strong performance partially offset headwinds from the halving, especially for cash-heavy mining companies like Riot Platforms and CleanSpark.

    Mining firms “acquired other miners with turn-key facilities to increase near-term hashrate and increase their power pipeline,” JPMorgan said in a Dec. 10 research note shared with Cointelegraph. 

    Miners have also prioritized accumulating BTC on balance sheets. In December, JPMorgan raised price targets for four Bitcoin mining stocks to reflect value from the miners’ electrical power assets and BTC holdings, JPMorgan said.

    JPMorgan cited the stock performance of MicroStrategy, a software company turned de facto Bitcoin fund, which traded at a roughly 2.4x multiple to the value of its BTC treasury as of Dec. 10.

    Bitcoin miners, including Marathon, Riot and CleanSpark, hold BTC treasuries worth approximately $4.4 billion, $1.7 billion and $910 million, respectively, according to the BitcoinTreasuries.net data service.

    Source: Bitcointreasuries.net

    Institutional inflows

    Bitcoin’s rising hashrate — and the resultant improvement in network security — is especially important as institutional investors pour capital into BTC exchange-traded funds and other regulated cryptocurrency investment vehicles.

    In November, Bitcoin ETFs broke $100 billion in net assets for the first time, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence.

    Asset manager Sygnum expects this dynamic to accelerate in 2025 as large institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and pension funds, add Bitcoin allocations.

    “With improving US regulatory clarity and the potential for Bitcoin to be recognized as a central bank reserve asset, 2025 could mark steep acceleration for institutional participation in crypto assets,” Martin Burgherr, Sygnum’s chief clients officer, said in a statement.

    However, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) just saw record-high outflows on Jan. 2.

    Isaac Joshua – the CEO of token launch platform Gems – also told Decrypt yesterday that the recent downturn “can largely be attributed to end-of-year tax-loss harvesting by investors,” he explained.

    Founder of Obchakevich Research Alex Obchakevich told Decrypt that “the main reason for the outflow is profit-taking by investors in early 2025.”

    “At the end of the year, investors and funds often review their investment portfolios, which can lead to the sale of some shares,” he explained.

    Though, bear in mind, IBIT surpassed $50 billion in assets under management just 228 days after its launch – more than five times faster than any other ETF in history.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 18:00

  • Doug Casey's Top Prediction For 2025
    Doug Casey’s Top Prediction For 2025

    Via InternationalMan.com,

    International Man: Looking at the intersection of finance, economics, politics, and culture, what is your most significant prediction for 2025?

    What major event or trend should people prepare for that most are currently overlooking?

    Doug Casey: The trends that appeared, seemingly against all odds, in 2024 are going to accelerate.

    The climate changed with the election of Trump. That was emblematic, but similar things are happening in other countries. The conservative/libertarian AfD will likely oust the current German government, which resembles that of the old East Germany. Castro’s son will be dethroned in Canada. And almost everywhere, even the media, has come to recognize that the Milei revolution in Argentina is succeeding.

    It’s becoming apparent that progressivism and wokeism are morbid. White males are less afraid of committing thought crimes, being canceled, or being labeled racist or sexist. DEI, ESG, and Woke values are retreating. These trends will grow, even while leftists, statists, and socialists pull out all the stops to resist them.

    It’s funny that the WEF and their ilk still talk about 2030 as being a magic year because the change in the trend that started in 2024 runs counter to everything that the WEF and the progressives were aiming for in 2030.

    I’m surprised—and very pleased—to see what looks like a cultural sea change. But we’re still on the cusp of a giant financial crisis. If the markets melt down, the kaleidoscope could reset mass psychology radically. The fundamentals remain very shaky. The climate and CO2 hysterias are ingrained in the public psyche. And there’s an excellent chance the usual suspects will try to ramp up another vaccine hysteria. A bird flu seems to be on the dance card for 2025.

    International Man: You’ve spoken about societal decline in the past. Do you see any path toward reversing this trend in 2025, or is societal breakdown inevitable?

    What do you think happens next?

    Doug Casey: Trends in motion tend to stay in motion until they reach a crisis and a new trend emerges.

    Fortunately, technology continues to advance at an accelerating rate, and that’s crucial. Throughout history, innovation has changed the nature of life much more than politics, personalities, or even war.

    Roughly five thousand years of recorded history show the trend is up, exponentially. That’s why I’m essentially an optimist. But one who recognizes that humanity suffers from occasional bouts of evil and stupidity. Time is on humanity’s side, although that can be an academic observation from the point of view of your own short lifetime.

    On the pessimistic side, about 50% of the population in Western societies have been transformed into parasites, collecting much more from the government than they contribute to society. That’s a big deal because almost all progress has come from the West.

    Europeans, especially, have become ingrained with bad habits and values. We’re undergoing another stage of the Industrial Revolution that started about the year 1800. It’s destroying lots of old jobs—mostly a good riddance—which will upset the people whose rice bowls are broken. But things will be fine, as long as enough of the middle class survives. The plebs and the “elite” will survive (because they’re basically parasites), but the middle class is the source of production and vitality in any modern society.

    Unfortunately, society has retrogressed over the last few generations. But perhaps a counterrevolution has started. The remaining middle class wants to eliminate the parasites. I’d like to believe that the current technological expansion will aid in that and lead to another boom—not just a financial boom, but an economic boom featuring vastly more production at vastly lower costs.

    In the short term, however, the Greater Depression will cause the average guy’s standard of living to drop. That’s the best case, even if society stops supporting parasites. Why? Because capital will be reallocated away from consumption and back to rebuilding wealth.

    The worst case is that the world continues to party on, with borrowed money. Then, we could have a hyperinflationary depression.

    Even though I think the Greater Depression will persist at least over the next decade, the long-term uptrend—which has been going on since the end of the last Ice Age—will continue and hopefully accelerate radically.

    So what happens next?

    The elite and the parasites still control the State, and that’s critical. The State still has legitimacy, but it’s not part of the cosmic firmament. Though it’s losing its legitimacy, people still view the institution the way children view their parents. Even though those who control the apparatus of the State act more like predators than parents. They will use it to their personal advantage.

    I expect promiscuous spending will continue under Trump, notwithstanding the best efforts of Elon, Vivek, and DOGE. That’s because if they don’t keep spending and creating money, the whole pyramid of debt that’s been built up over many decades will come crashing down.

    The US dollar, therefore, will continue being inflated. But at the same time, if the Trump administration deregulates radically, efficiency in manufacturing and production will improve radically. Despite lots more money being created, costs and retail prices could drop enough to disguise the effects of inflation.

    Despite the positive effects of deregulation, there will be lots of unemployed people as distortions in the economy are liquidated. The good news is that the economy, which is to say the amount of real wealth being created, will start improving, even while the financial situation—stock and bond prices—gets ugly. Rapid change presents lots of paradox.

    International Man: What does Trump’s return to the White House mean for the geopolitical situation?

    How will the US’s role in the world evolve in 2025?

    Doug Casey: There are two contradictory trends at play. Look at the following chart, courtesy of my friend Alex Krainer. It’s quite shocking.

    It shows the size of companies born in the last 50 years in America and Europe. America, as heavily regulated and taxed as it is, is vastly more conducive to business than Europe. That trend will widen over the next few years.

    It’s important to recognize that the US government is bankrupt, living on borrowed money, and that trend has gone exponential. I know it looks like Morning in America with the defeat of “Kamala and the Jacobins”… that’s a good name for a rock band. But, seriously, the US has become an overextended and corrupt multicultural domestic empire. It’s unsustainable in its present form. Anyway, morning only lasts for six hours.

    The US is more militarily aggressive than ever. It’s said—I don’t think anybody knows exactly—that there are over 800 bases abroad in 80 or 100 countries. This is, to use a currently fashionable word, completely “unsustainable”. Trump says that he doesn’t want war, and that makes sense. But he’s all for more military spending. He apparently doesn’t understand that more spending is a provocation to the Chinese, and just a grift for weapons manufacturers, so-called defense companies.

    Trump seems committed to using the US dollar as a weapon, by trying to force other countries to use our fiat currency. He sees that exporting paper money in exchange for real goods yields a higher standard of living, and wants to keep that Ponzi scheme going. But he doesn’t seem to understand the huge reaction it’s causing.

    The thought of using tariffs to punish foreigners who are shipping goods to the US in exchange for depreciating fiat dollars is quite idiotic.

    International Man: Following Trump’s victory, many Americans feel more optimistic about their portfolios and the nation’s economic prospects for 2025.

    Is this optimism warranted? What’s your perspective on potential economic developments this year?

    Doug Casey: No doubt that the Trumpers will try their best to get rid of egregious stupidities, as did the Reaganites when they took over in 1980. But the stupidities are much more ingrained and embedded than they were in Reagan’s day. It’s going to be tough.

    Abolishing regulations is fantastic and will liberate the economy. Moore’s law, which is about computers becoming roughly 50% more powerful and 50% cheaper every year, now seems to apply to many areas of high tech—AI, space exploration, and biotech among them. It will accelerate until we reach Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity.

    In the next five years, we’ll see humanoid robots become common, cheap, and extremely powerful, moving in the direction of those in the movie Terminator. Hopefully, they’ll be programmed to make love, not war.

    The Singularity is almost guaranteed by exponential advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and nanotechnology. As we advance toward the Singularity over the next decade, the whole nature of life will change. For the better—barring WW3.

    International Man: Given your outlook for 2025, how are you preparing your portfolio?

    What asset classes do you believe will perform best in the year ahead?

    Doug Casey: No changes here. As regulations are rolled back, companies that own mineral deposits should boom. There will be lots of 10-1 shots over just a few years; it’s a sector everyone hates, assuming they even know it exists—which they don’t.

    The general stock market is in a historic bubble, and the public loves it. I think the party is over. The bond market remains a triple threat to your capital—interest rate risk, default risk, and currency depreciation.

    But let’s put money aside. Your main asset isn’t things. It’s your knowledge, your skills, and your character.

    In an era of extremely rapid change, if you don’t constantly improve, you may inadvertently become a useless mouth. It’s more critical than ever that you build both physical and intellectual capital. And, most importantly, moral capital. Weakness and poverty are forgivable; there’s no excuse for villainy. Do the right thing. Many people will forget that as times get tough.

    *  *  *

    Doug Casey’s forecasts helped investors prepare and profit from: 1) the S&L blowup in the ’80s and ’90s, 2) the 2001 tech stock collapse, 3) the 2008 financial crisis, 4) and now… Doug’s sounding the alarms about a catastrophic event. One he believes could soon strike. To help you prepare and profit, Doug and his team have prepared a special video. Click here to watch now.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 17:40

  • Small Banks Suffer Big Deposit Outflows As Money-Market Funds Hit Record Highs Into Year-End
    Small Banks Suffer Big Deposit Outflows As Money-Market Funds Hit Record Highs Into Year-End

    Money market assets surged again in the last week of 2024 to a new record high of $6.848 trillion and at the same time money flowed into bank deposits for the fifth straight week, recovering all the outflows from the SVB crisis…

    Source: Bloomberg

    On a seasonally-adjusted basis, banks saw $58.5BN of deposit inflows (after 3 weeks of outflows)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, banks benefited from a 5th straight week of deposit inflows (+$31.5BN in the last week of 2024), heading back up near record highs…

    Source: Bloomberg

    However, under the hood, excluding foreign deposits, Small Domestic Banks saw sizable outflows into Christmas (as Large Domestic Banks saw inflows)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    On the other side of the ledger, both small and large bank loan volumes shrank in the last week of the year…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Additionally, The Fed’s bank bailout facility is almost (for all intent and purpose) fully reversed after this week’s decline with only $4.4BN outstanding (down from the peak $168BN)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Perfect timing for another banking crisis bailout right as Trump takes office.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 17:20

  • Devin Nunes Reemerges
    Devin Nunes Reemerges

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    2024 proved to be the year of the reemergence of many once and unfairly pilloried public figures.

    Elon Musk weathered nonstop attacks on his X social media platform. Furor escalated over his newfound 2024 Trump advocacy—even as he ended 2024 with his iconic Tesla brand still the best-selling car in six states and the most popular electric vehicle in the entire nation.

    Tesla’s rising stock prices ensured by year’s end that Musk was by far the richest man in the world with a net worth of well over $400 billion. His recyclable SpaceX Super Heavy starship rocket booster mesmerized the nation as it returned to the launch pad to be caught by a huge mechanical arm.

    After January 6, 2021, the media swore that Donald Trump was supposedly washed up. He left office with a 34 percent approval rating. Over nearly the next four years, Trump would face 91 felony indictments and be liable for over $400 million in assorted fines.

    Now he is a reelected president. Former oppositional world leaders traipse to Mar-a-Lago to seek his approval even before his tenure begins. His erstwhile critics at home are scurrying about in disarray.

    The Trump-hating media who swore Joe Biden was “sharp as a tack” and “fit as a fiddle” are mostly discredited and are, for now, still bleeding audiences. And Trump’s chief political adversaries, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Obamas are increasingly either unpopular or irrelevant—or both.

    Yet one unremarked-upon return is that of former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who, after 20 years of representing Central California in Congress, retired on January 1, 2022, from the House to become CEO of the newly formed Trump Media & Technology Group, tasked to oversee its social media platform, TruthSocial.

    Nunes has regained public attention over the last two weeks after Trump appointed him to become chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which oversees the conduct and performance of America’s intelligence agencies.

    And once more he too is the target of tired residual left-wing venom, as a “pugnacious Trump loyalist” in the words of the New York Times.

    Like almost all former chairs of this nonpaying advisory board, Nunes keeps his full-time job. His old critics claim he has conflicts of interest, given he serves Trump in both a private and public capacity.

    Of course, these complaints come from those who saw no conflict of interest when Vice President Joe Biden flew to China with his son on Air Force Two to shake down foreign communist oligarchs and apparatchiks by using his office to enrich, tax-free, the Biden family syndicate. And no one alleges that Nunes ever became rich, in the fashion of the two Pelosis, who leveraged privileged congressional insider knowledge to make “wise” investments.

    But more importantly, why would Trump not pick Nunes to enact the board’s mission statement to oversee “the Intelligence Community’s compliance with the Constitution and all applicable laws, executive orders, and presidential directives?”

    After all, he shattered the Democratic hoax of Russian-Trump collusion between 2015 and 2018, even as his lead investigator, Kash Patel, the next FBI Director, was himself an object of FBI surveillance.

    As Nunes once pointed out, why did Obama’s non-intelligence officials, like UN Ambassador Samantha Power, seek to unmask dozens of names of U.S. officials, most of whom were political opponents?

    So, who could Trump better trust to oversee the intelligence and investigatory bureaus than someone who knows all too well the descent of these agencies into Trump-Derangement-Syndrome-inspired chronic dissimulation and illegal surveillance?

    After all, the former CIA Director John Brennan, the former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and the former interim FBI Director Andrew McCabe all, by their own admissions, lied under oath either to Congress or federal investigators. Former FBI director James Comey pled amnesia or ignorance 245 times before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee.

    Trump himself, remember, was the object of a vile and fabricated hit “dossier” of Christopher Steele. Nunes proved Steele was a Democratic Party-paid opposition research functionary and an erstwhile FBI informant. Should not Trump have good grounds to want a known bulldog as an overseer of the suspect intelligence agencies?

    Do we remember the “51 former intelligence officials?”

    Some were hardly “former” at all, given they still had enjoyed contracts with government intelligence agencies. On the eve of 2020, they blatantly “misled” the nation that Hunter Biden’s laptop, authenticated at the time by the FBI, had all the “hallmarks” of a Russian disinformation operation.

    Such unapologetic election interference by our best and brightest—including former CIA Directors Leon Panetta and John Brennan—may well have played a role in the outcome of the 2020 election.

    But what perhaps infuriates the left most is Nunes’ resiliency and ability to sluff off its chronic hysterias. Again, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he revealed to the nation that Christopher Steele’s accusations were little more than gossipy fabrications from a discredited ex-British spy—at a time when the media and the Democrats in Congress had cited his “research” chapter and verse in near-biblical fashion.

    Moreover, Nunes showed that Steele himself was hired by Democratic interests through the use of various paywalls—the DNC, the Perkins Coie law firm, and Fusion GPS—to help ruin the 2016 Trump campaign, on the false and ridiculous charge of colluding with the Russians to throw the election. His team further found that the dossier of Steele, again a one-time paid informant of the FBI, was used in part to obtain an FBI lawyer-forged FISA warrant to spy on American citizen Carter Page.

    At the time, candidate and then President Trump was under unprecedented attack. At his inauguration, riots broke out. Madonna publicly declared to a crowd that she thought about blowing up the Trump White House.

    Trump was branded a Russian “puppet” who should be removed just days after his swearing-in. Indeed, according to a Foreign Policy article by one Obama administration leftover official, the left was supposed to depose him quickly, either by impeachment, the 25th Amendment, or a military coup.

    So those were certainly surreal times, at least until Nunes’s committee issued a controversial memo that laid out most of the skullduggery but only earned him unprecedented media venom.

    Only years later, with the issuance of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigative report, the conclusions of the House oversight committee investigations, and the reportage of a few bold journalists, did the public fully confirm there was never anything to the “Russian collusion” charge, other than a Clinton, and then administrative state, effort to destroy Trump by any means other than an election.

    In those crazy times of 2017-2020, the media buzzed with predictions that special counsel Robert Mueller’s “dream team” and “all-star” lawyers would consume Trump and his supporters.

    Nunes himself was written off as a California dairy farmer way over his head, with legacy media headlines blaring, “Trump-Russia Investigation: A Former Dairy Farmer, Rep. Devin Nunes Leads Historic Probe!”

    The media sought to contrast Nunes with supposedly brilliant, Harvard-law-trained Adam Schiff, the then-minority party’s highest-ranking member on the Nunes committee. Schiff would supposedly devour the chairman—in what the media would boast would become a war between a supposed yokel from the Central Valley pitted against an Ivy League pro. Years later today, Schiff’s prior insistence on a real Trump-Russian collusion effort in 2016 and his persistence that the Steele dossier was factual remain even more laughable. A farmer might editorialize that its takes far more savvy and resilience to run a dairy farm than it does to graduate from Harvard.

    When Trump appointed Nunes the head of TruthSocial, the same sort of hick/rustic stories reemerged about Nunes. He was now again supposedly “over his head,” as the blinkered rustic trying to make it in the cutthroat world of sophisticated social media.

    We were told TruthSocial would meet the same fate as Parler. That ascendant 2020 start-up conservative alternative was sabotaged by the left-wing Twitter monopoly that had conspired to ban Trump and partner with the FBI to suppress news unfavorable to Biden’s 2020 campaign.

    It was left to the trifecta of Apple, Google, and Amazon to destroy Parler by denying its critical application platforms to the general public.

    Over the last three years, the media gleefully reported, erroneously, that TruthSocial was nearly bankrupt, hemorrhaging users, piling up operating debt, without operating capital, and losing a critical merger bid. They high-fived the TruthSocial 30-month war with the SEC—one of the most drawn out and politicized in its history—which, in likely partisan fashion, had sought to delay or block TruthSocial’s partnership with Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC).

    As in the case of the Russian collusion hoax, the media was both predictably hostile and wrong, as it serially predicted that Nunes and Truth Social would fail from its very beginning. For nearly three years, it sounded the same “walls are closing” doom and gloom hysterics where it had left off with ‘Russian collusion.”

    We were assured that Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter meant that the huge social media platform would veer right and preclude any need for TruthSocial. For over three years, headlines in scare caps assured, as did a Bloomberg autumn 2022 screed, that “The Walls Are Closing in on Trump’s TRUTH Social.”

    At about the same time, a giddy Washington Post boasted that “Trump once reconsidered sticking with Truth Social. Now he’s stuck.” And still, the chorus continued a year later with New York Magazine blaring the same narrative, “Trump’s Truth Social Is an Unmitigated Failure.” And on and on.

    Certainly, when Musk purchased Twitter, renamed it the free-speech platform X, endorsed Donald Trump, and welcomed banned conservatives back to the now-reinvented old Twitter, it questioned the original reason-to-be of TruthSocial.

    Yet despite media obituaries, 2024 ends with the Trump Media & Technology Group’s stock price at some $35-37. In October, the company’s worth soared to an incredible $10 billion in market capitalization—albeit a figure representative of speculative interest rather than the size of its profits or market share.

    Still, unlike the old Twitter, TruthSocial had little overhead and ran a tight ship. It reportedly has some $700 million in cash on hand. And it enjoys something no other platform can quite rival—the near-exclusive domain of the President of the United States, 8.4 million of his followers, and over 600,000 investors. Most of the media’s sensational stories about its massive operating losses were never borne out by its officially released filings.

    Tens of thousands of Americans have invested in TruthSocial because of what it stands for and their faith in Donald Trump. In that sense, they confound Wall Street orthodoxies about the magnitude of company size and profitably in gauging stock prices.

    There is a sort of nemesis theme to all these hubristic Nunes hit stories: the clueless bumpkin from a California dairy who turns out to have exposed one of the great scandals of political malfeasance in modern history, or the fumbling ex-farmer driving the ridiculous Trump media platform into, at one recent point, a $10 billion net worth—and multibillion-dollar profit for Donald Trump.

    Critics are right that the TruthSocial stock is astronomically “overvalued”, but seem clueless as to why that is and why it may remain more or less so.

    It is a well-run company, and its inseparable brand, Donald Trump, is no longer the media’s Satan but increasingly a widely admired, resilient, and indomitable figure, traits that even his exhausted enemies grudgingly concede.

    So, looking back at the years of insanity, where now are all the officials and pundits who swore that Nunes was either incompetent or sinister?

    Ryan Lizza, who in 2018 published a bizarre hit piece for Esquire by bird-dogging Nunes’s parents on their dairy in Iowa, was fired for sexual misconduct from The New Yorker. He was recently embroiled in a messy, he-said/she-said courtroom psychodrama—replete with charges and countercharges of blackmail, theft, and physical intimidation—with his erstwhile fiancé, the peripatetic Olivia Nuzzi.

    The dissimulator quad of Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and McCabe has receded into irrelevancy, only occasionally reemerging in half-hearted fashion to reassert their stale first-term Trump accusations.

    No one believes the pompous Schiff memo was more accurate than the Nunes brief it attacked.

    No one vouches for the bogus Steele dossier, or that Steele himself was a skilled and professional ex-intelligence agent, or that Hunter’s laptop was cooked up in Moscow, or that Carter Page was a Russian spy working to subvert the 2016 election.

    No one trusts that Samantha Power had legitimate reasons to request the unmasking of nearly 300 Trump officials, many of them her political enemies, or that the FBI did not collude with social media to suppress news unfavorable to Joe Biden in 2020, or that the intelligence agencies initially were accurate in parroting the official line that the COVID virus was birthed by a bat or pangolin.

    Yet the disillusioned public also wants to know what these intelligence agencies did not do when they were otherwise so busy hunting down fantasy conspiracy theories and knee-deep in domestic partisan politics.

    Did they warn us that the entire U.S. effort in Afghanistan was about to collapse, in the greatest humiliation of the U.S. military in a half-century, as it abandoned over $50 billion in weapons to terrorists?

    Did they have a clue about what Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah were up to before October 7?

    Did they ever sense that Vladimir Putin was about to stage a massive attack on Kyiv on February 24, 2022?

    Did they ever have any hint about what two near-successful Trump assassins were up to?

    Did they ever honestly report what exactly was going on at the Wuhan virology lab and to what degree our own health officials were complicit in it?

    And how does China keep producing state-of-the-art ships, warplanes, drones, and weaponry that seem eerily to resemble or replicate original American designs?

    As in the case of the newly appointed reformist directors of the wayward FBI, Pentagon, or National Institute of Health, so likewise the intelligence agencies need and should welcome the civilian oversight of Devin Nunes and his new board – to ensure they start doing what they were tasked to do and not continue to do what they were not.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 17:00

  • 'Hush Money' Case Judge Orders Trump Sentenced Ahead Of Inauguration, Signals No Punishment
    ‘Hush Money’ Case Judge Orders Trump Sentenced Ahead Of Inauguration, Signals No Punishment

    New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has rejected an attempt by President-Elect Donald Trump to dismiss his business records case and ordered sentencing for Jan. 10.

    “This Court finds that neither the vacatur of the jury’s verdicts nor dismissal of the indictment are required by the Presidential immunity doctrine, the Presidential Transition Act or the Supremacy Clause,” Merchan said on Jan. 3.

    “Finding no legal impediment to sentencing and recognizing that Presidential immunity will likely attach once Defendant takes his Oath of Office, it is incumbent upon this Court to set this matter down for the imposition of sentence prior to January 20, 2025,” Merchan wrote.

    However, while some on the left may be hoping this is the last gambit to avoid four years of ‘Hitler’ reigning over them with the chance of the judge to #LockHimUp, Merchan said an unconditional discharge “appears to be the most viable solution” and he would allow Trump to appear virtually.

    “While this Court as a matter of law must not make any determination on sentencing prior to giving the parties and Defendant an opportunity to be heard, it seems proper at this juncture to make known the Court’s inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration, a sentence authorized by the conviction but one the People concede they no longer view as a practicable recommendation,” Merchan wrote. 

    Trump, 78, had faced as many as four years in prison in the hush money case after a jury in May found him guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for payments to an adult film star before the 2016 election.

    Merchan rejected each of Trump’s arguments for dismissal, including that allowing a criminal conviction to hang over a sitting president would undermine his authority. The judge noted that Trump won the election even after he was convicted in the case.

    “Whatever stigma that might have existed, will most certainly not interfere with defendant’s ability to carry out his duties — both as president-elect and as the sitting president,” Merchan said.

    However, as The Hill points out, Merchan’s decision keeps Trump’s criminal conviction on the books.

    “This court has painstakingly considered the respective arguments of the parties and finds that setting aside the jury verdict is not the best or only way to reconcile the competing interests,” Merchan said.

    The judge state that the importance of keeping the New York jury’s guilty verdict against Trump intact could not “possibly be overstated.”

    “Indeed, the sanctity of a jury verdict and the deference that must be accorded to it, is a bedrock principle in our Nation’s jurisprudence,” he said.  

    This would mean he would be the first felon to assume the presidency, though Trump can still appeal the jury’s verdict.  

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/03/2025 – 16:40

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