Today’s News 4th July 2021

• Why Isn't The US Preparing For EMP War Like The Rest Of The World?
  Why Isn’t The US Preparing For EMP War Like The Rest Of The World?

  Authored by Jeff Thompson via The Organic Prepper blog,

  You’re likely already familiar with the 2009 EMP Commission Report. It was this report that raised the issue of EMP-preparedness for the American public. It’s notorious stating that just one year after an EMP attack, 90% of the American population would be dead, caused alarm throughout multiple sectors of society.

  Books began to be written on the subject. Sales of Tedd Koppel’s Lights Out, Forstchen’s One Second After, and Crawford’s Lights Out quickly reached blockbuster levels. And while I believe that these books (and that report) brought the issue of an electromagnetic pulse to light for Americans, I don’t believe it showed Americans just how real of a threat it is.

  To truly understand just how very real of a risk this is, I believe all we have to do is look at the battle plans of some of the nations that hate America most.

  

  Let’s start with Russia

  **Non-Contact Warfare was the name of Russian General Vladimir Slipchenko’s military textbook. Within this text, he explains how EMPs are the greatest revolution in military affairs in history. According to Slipchenko, the possession of an EMP renders an enemy’s armies, navies, and air forces completely obsolete, and it’s hard to argue with him there.

  If you can’t get your missile defense systems online, if your tanks won’t run, if your planes have all just fallen out of the sky, you’re kind of screwed, aren’t you?

  The flagship journal of the Russian General Staff, Military Thought, further echoes this concept. An article within the journal titled “Weak Points of the US Concept of Network-Centric Warfare” specifically points out the use of an EMP as a possible means of defeating the US.

  Aside from the concern that comes from foreign military journals, specifically hatching battle plans against your country, Russia now possesses what is known as a “Super-EMP.” A weapon of drastically increased pulse amplitude capable of disabling spacecraft, radar sites, ICBMs, energy supply systems, military command systems, and economies as well.

  And to top things off, it’s designed as a first-strike weapon—just food for thought. As of 2017, the US had no Super EMPs (that the public was aware of).

  What About China? 

  Things are no different here. EMP capabilities, theory, and defenses seem to be going relatively fast here, just like Russia.

  In the PLA textbook The Third World War – Total Information Warfare, author Shen Weiguang notes the importance of developing China’s EMP defenses to neutralize and check the US if needed.

  Other Chinese military journal articles specifically state that the US “is more vulnerable than any other country in the world” to EMP attacks. I believe that this singling out of Americans should cause eyebrows to be raised.

  Iran

  In Iran, not only are EMP attacks fully endorsed but battle plans for their use are being drawn up as well. Military textbook Passive Defense – published in 2010 – echoes Russian General Slipchenko’s ideas on EM. **Former Director of the CIA, James Woolsey, points out that “Tehran’s military is planning to be able to make a nuclear EMP attack…”

  Woolsey goes on to say, “Passive Defense and other Iranian military writings are well aware that nuclear EMP attack is the most efficient way of killing people, through secondary effects, over the long run. The rationale appears to be that people starve to death, not because of EMP, but because they live in materialistic societies dependent upon modern technology.”

  Another Iranian military journal, in an article titled “Electronics to Determine Fate of Future Wars,” notes that the key to defeating the United States is through an EMP attack. The article goes on to say, “if the world’s industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults, then they will disintegrate within a few years….American soldiers would not be able to find food to eat nor would they be able to fire a single shot.”

  Whether this is a veiled threat or not is up for you to decide

  What I will expressly state is that Iran is gearing up for the capability of doing such. **We know that they’ve reportedly attempted to purchase radiofrequency weapons from Russia, that the Iranian news agency MEHR reported Iran is protecting itself against EMP attack. Ambassador Henry Cooper, former Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative, has also warned that some Iranian satellite launches appear to be practice for such an attack against the US.

  Our next nation on this list seems to have taken things just a bit further, though.

  North Korea

  What did you expect? Of course, they would make this list!

  **On April 9, 2013, North Korea’s KMS-3 satellite orbited the US at the perfect trajectory to evade US early warning radars and National Missile Defenses. And all while at the ideal altitude and location to launch an EMP field over the continental US.

  **On April 16, 2013, they did it again – this time orbiting the satellite over the DC-NYC corridor. If an EMP had been activated, we would have lost the entire Eastern Grid, where 75% of US electricity comes from. On that very same day, unknown parties used Ak-47s to attack the Metcalf transformer substation that services Silicon Valley as well. 

  Coincidence?

  In July of 2013, a North Korean freighter was found in the Panama Canal after passing through the Gulf of Mexico with SA-2 missiles mounted on their launchers hidden under bags of sugar. While the missiles weren’t armed at the time, they were of the type that could very easily have been used to execute an anonymous EMP attack via offshore freighter.

  At a House hearing October 12, 2017, experts warned members of Congress that a North Korean EMP attack could kill 90% of Americans within one year, calling it an “existential threat.”

  [ Source ]

  What about in the states? 

  While electric power lobbyists are fighting against EMP protection of the US grid in Washington, it seems like the rest of the world is doing the opposite. This doesn’t seem to make much sense from a self-preservation standpoint, does it?

  However, it’s not all bad news.

  Whether you like him or not – Donald Trump seems to have been the first president in years to have done anything to better prepare the USA against an EMP attack.

  On October 13, 2016, Trump signed Executive Order 13744 – Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events. While this was most certainly not directed towards EMP preparedness, the fact of the matter is that space weather and EMP preparedness often overlap.

  A few short years later, on March 26, 2019, Trump signed Executive Order 13865 – Coordinating National Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses. It was here that EMP-preparedness seemed to become a priority of the US military. Shortly after this EO was given, the Department of Homeland Security began investigated research-proven techniques to better protect critical American infrastructure against EMP attack. (Likely the most significant step that the US government has taken to date to defend itself against an EMP.)

  Final thoughts

  So while the US has taken some steps to better research what we can do to protect ourselves against EMP, it doesn’t appear as if we’re anywhere near as ready as many other nations worldwide are – particularly those who would love to see America fall.

  What conclusions can we draw from such? I’ll leave that up to you to decide, but just know, for the moment, it looks as if we’re showing up to a fight empty-handed.

  Daisy wrote a piece, How to Make a Faraday Cage in 4 Easy Steps, you may find useful. There is information on what a faraday cage is for and why you may need one.

  *  *  *

  All of the above information is readily available by reading EMP expert Dr. Pry’s 2017 Report to the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. It’s a more extended file, but it’s in the public domain, and you can easily access it HERE. I believe it’s well worth the read. For those seeking more references to the subject, you can find that HERE.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 23:30

• Long Waves: Visualizing The History Of Innovation Cycles
  Long Waves: Visualizing The History Of Innovation Cycles

  Creative destruction plays a key role in entrepreneurship and economic development.

  Coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942, the theory of “creative destruction” suggests that business cycles operate under long waves of innovation. Specifically, Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld points out that as markets are disrupted, key clusters of industries have outsized effects on the economy.

  Take the railway industry, for example. At the turn of the 19th century, railways completely reshaped urban demographics and trade. Similarly, the internet disrupted entire industries—from media to retail.

  

  The above infographic shows how innovation cycles have impacted economies since 1785, and what’s next for the future.

  Innovation Cycles: The Six Waves

  From the first wave of textiles and water power in the industrial revolution, to the internet in the 1990s, here are the six waves of innovation and their key breakthroughs.

  

  Source: Edelsen Institute, Detlef Reis

  During the first wave of the Industrial Revolution, water power was instrumental in manufacturing paper, textiles, and iron goods. Unlike the mills of the past, full-sized dams fed turbines through complex belt systems. Advances in textiles brought the first factory, and cities expanded around them.

  With the second wave, between about 1845 and 1900, came significant rail, steam, and steel advancements. The rail industry alone affected countless industries, from iron and oil to steel and copper. In turn, great railway monopolies were formed.

  The emergence of electricity powering light and telephone communication through the third wave dominated the first half of the 1900s. Henry Ford introduced the Model T, and the assembly line transformed the auto industry. Automobiles became closely linked with the expansion of the American metropolis. Later, in the fourth wave, aviation revolutionized travel.

  After the internet emerged by the early 1990s, barriers to information were upended. New media changed political discourse, news cycles, and communication in the fifth wave. The internet ushered in a new frontier of globalization, a borderless landscape of digital information flows.

  Market Power

  To the economist Schumpeter, technological innovations boosted economic growth and improved living standards.

  However, these disruptors can also have a tendency to lead to monopolies. Especially during a cycle’s upswing, the strongest players realize wide margins, establish moats, and fend off rivals. Typically, these cycles begin when the innovations become of general use.

  Of course, this can be seen today—never has the world been so closely connected. Information is more centralized than it has ever been, with Big Tech dominating global search traffic, social networks, and advertising.

  Like the Big Tech behemoths of today, the rail industry had the power to control prices and push out competitors during the 19th century. At the peak, listed shares of rail companies on the New York Stock Exchange made up 60% of total stock market capitalization.

  Waves of Change

  As cycle longevity continues to shorten, the fifth wave may have a few years left under its belt.

  The sixth wave, marked by artificial intelligence and digitization across information of things (IoT), robotics, and drones, will likely paint an entirely new picture. Namely, the automation of systems, predictive analytics, and data processing could make an impact. In turn, physical goods and services will likely be digitized. The time to complete tasks could shift from hours to even seconds.

  At the same time, clean tech could come to the forefront. At the heart of each technological innovation is solving complex problems, and climate concerns are becoming increasingly pressing. Lower costs in solar PV and wind are also predicating efficiency advantages.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 23:00

• Why COVID Is Like AIDS
  Why COVID Is Like AIDS

  Authored by Alex Berenson via Unreported Truths (emphasis ours),

  In 1981, doctors in New York and Los Angeles saw healthy young men sicken and die within months, their immune systems apparently destroyed.

  The deaths set off a frantic search for the culprit. By 1983 virologists had identified a novel pathogen they would call Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

  Over the next decade, scientists learned much more about HIV, which early on had a fatality rate close to 100 percent, worse even than Ebola or smallpox. Ultimately they tamed it – perhaps the greatest success for scientific and medical research in the late 20th century.

  But the political story of AIDS is much trickier. Scientists realized quickly that gay men and intravenous drug users were at far higher risk of contracting HIV than the general public. But they feared people might not support funding for AIDS research – and stigmatize those groups further – if they explained that reality openly.

  So they didn’t.

  

  As Smithsonian Magazine reported in 2013:

  “Federally-funded campaigns sought to address a large number of people from all backgrounds–male, female, homosexual or heterosexual. The America Responds to AIDS campaign, created by the CDC, ran from 1987 to 1996 and became a central part of the “everyone is at risk” message…”

  The deception probably increased the public’s willingness to fund research. But it came with serious side effects. Smithsonian went on to explain:

  “Some AIDS organizations, especially those providing service to communities at the highest risk for contracting HIV, saw the campaign as diverting money and attention away from the communities that needed it the most.”

  It also caused needless fear in people at vanishingly low risk, especially heterosexual women.

  Perhaps most important, it was fundamentally untrue.

  That fact should matter to anyone who believes truth – even unpleasant truth – ought to drive public policy decisions.

  Which brings us to COVID.

  SARS-COV-2 isn’t even in the same time zone as HIV as a killer. But it is like HIV in one crucial way. It plays favorites.

  After a year, most of us know that the elderly are at much higher risk from coronavirus (though even well-informed people may not be aware HOW much higher the risk is).

  But what public health authorities have gone out of their way to obscure is how much obesity – especially severe obesity – drives the risk of the coronavirus in younger people.

  In April, British researchers published a definitive paper on the subject in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, a peer-reviewed journal. The researchers examined the medical records of almost 7 million people in England to look at the link between obesity and severe outcomes from Covid, including hospitalization and death.

  The topline findings show only a moderate link between extra weight and Covid risk. But when the researchers looked more closely, they found that’s because in older people, being overweight does NOT drive excess risk.

  So the researchers divided the patients into four age ranges: 20-39, 40-59, 60-79, and over 80. They found that in the two younger groups – including adults up to age 60 – being obese was associated with nearly ALL the risk that Covid would lead to intensive care or death. The findings held even after they adjusted for many different potential confounding factors, like smoking, non-weight-related illnesses, and wealth.

  The excess risk was extremely high even for people who weren’t morbidly obese – defined as a body-mass index of 40 or more. A person between 40 and 60 with a BMI of 35 – someone who is 230 pounds and 5’8” – had about five times the risk of dying of Covid of a person of normal weight. For younger adults, the excess risk was even higher, and for morbidly obese people even higher still.

  In contrast, people of normal weight under 40 are at essentially no risk of death from Covid. The researchers found their rate to be under 1 in 10,000 per year. Even in the 40 to 59 age range, normal-weight adults had an annual risk well under 1 in 1,000.

  

  The researchers did not include those stunning findings in the main body of the paper, only its appendix. Still, they were clear in their discussion about the overall results:

  “Our findings from this large population-based cohort emphasise that excess weight is associated with substantially increased risks of severe COVID-19 outcomes, and one of the most important modifiable risk factors identified to date.”

  In fact, the findings suggest that for people under 60, weight loss would be the single best way to reduce the risk of Covid – probably even more than a vaccine (and with no side effects).

  But of course you haven’t heard about this paper.

  No one has. The public health establishment has decided that an honest discussion of who is really at risk from Covid might smack of victim-blaming – just as it did a generation ago with HIV.

  This time, though, we haven’t just frightened a bunch of people at essentially no risk. Our viral lockdown theater has been far more destructive, for kids who have lost a year of school and everyone else. In one final irony, lockdown-related weight gain may have actually worsened the risks last year.

  It’s long past time to tell the truth.

  Subscribe to Alex’s substack here.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 22:30

• NYC Suburban Housing Boom Slows As "Inventory Ran Out" 
  NYC Suburban Housing Boom Slows As “Inventory Ran Out” 

  City-dwellers have been fueling a housing boom across several New York City suburbs for at least a year. But, new housing data suggests surging home prices, fierce bidding wars, and low inventory have caused fatigue among buyers. 

  “Losing your fifth bidding war on a property is discouraging,” said Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. “Part of this is consumers being fatigued with the process, and having other options in life these days, like vacations and travel.”

  Low mortgage rates (thanks Powell) and remote-working lifestyles sparked a surge in demand for spacious homes with backyards across NYC’s suburbs. Over the last year, home sales in Greenwich, Westchester, and Long Island have been on fire since the pandemic and social unrest across the metro but have slowed in June. 

  Bloomberg, who first cited the Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman Real Estate report, said Long Island contracts to purchase single-family homes were up 14% in June from a year earlier. However, that’s down from May and April, when deals jumped 160% versus the same periods a year ago. 

  

  In Westchester County, sales were up 20% in June compared with the same month last year, though the annual sales rate has been fizzling out since May after soaring 81%. In Greenwich, Connecticut, June’s 50% jump in sales was the smallest yearly increase dating back to last July. 

  “You know what happened? We ran out of inventory,” said Scott Durkin, president of Douglas Elliman, who was referring to the latest drop in listings for single-family homes that fell 45% in Westchester, and 3% in Long Island, and 11% in Greenwich last month. 

  The suburban buying frenzy may not be over, but certainly, low inventory is slowing down sales. The question now is how long will the surge in demand last as urban exiles continue hunting for homes in rural areas, or perhaps they may broaden their search to other rural communities further from the Big Apple. 

  Here are other places where Manhattanites have fled over the past year. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 22:00

• Former Police Officer Recounts Witnessing "Industrialized" Organ Harvesting In China
  Former Police Officer Recounts Witnessing “Industrialized” Organ Harvesting In China

  Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times,

  At the sound of gunshots, prisoners fell lifeless to the ground. Their bodies, still warm, were carried to a nearby white van where two white-clad doctors awaited. Behind closed doors, they were cut open, the organs carved out for sale on the transplant market.

  The grisly scene, which sounds more like the plot of a horror movie, took place in China more than 20 years ago at the direction of state authorities. It was witnessed by Bob (pseudonym), then a police officer who provided security at the execution sites where death-row prisoners were executed.

  “The harvesting of death-row prisoners’ organs was an open secret,” Bob, a former public security officer from central China’s Zhengzhou City who is now based in the United States, told The Epoch Times in an interview.

  Bob described being an unwitting participant in an “industrialized” supply chain that converted living humans into products for sale in the organ trade. The players in this macabre industry include the judicial system, police, prisons, doctors, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials who issue the directive.

  

  Doctors carry fresh organs for transplant at a hospital in Henan Province, China, on Aug. 16, 2012. (Screenshot via Sohu.com)

  The former officer used a pseudonym in sharing his experience to protect his safety. The Epoch Times has verified his police ID and other personal information.

  His account from the mid-1990s sheds light on one stage in the disturbing evolution of the CCP’s long-running practice of harvesting organs from non-consenting donors. While Bob witnessed organ extraction from prisoners who were already dead, in the following years the regime would go on to implement—and deploy on a mass scale—a practice far more sinister: harvesting organs from live prisoners of conscience, particularly Falun Gong practitioners.

  The Execution

  Bob joined the police force in 1996 and worked as a civilian police officer. From time to time, he assisted in maintaining order at a court where executions are confirmed and various execution sites in the city. Later, in 1999, as a result of an online post critical of the authorities, Bob himself was put in detention for more than a year. Inside, he was able to observe the handling of death-row prisoners,, and thus piece together the process from conviction to execution to organ harvesting.

  After being sentenced to death, an inmate would be slapped in hand and ankle cuffs, the latter weighing up to 33 pounds to prevent a possible escape. One or two other prisoners would keep them on watch at all times. A blood test—a step to identify possible donors—and a check up on their mental and physical health would also run during this time at a dedicated medical room in the detention center.

  “As far as I know, no one told the death-row prisoners their organs would be extracted,” Bob said.

  Executions typically occurred ahead of major holidays, he said.

  Death-row prisoners would have to attend a public hearing at a higher court, where a judge would confirm or overturn the death sentence assigned by the original court.

  Those destined for execution—ranging from a handful to more than a dozen each time—were then marched out of the courthouse to a procession of 20 to 30 vehicles waiting outside, according to Bob. The convoy also transferred local officials assigned to witness the executions. They included the vice director from the local public security bureau, the judge, and other personnel who handled the cases.

  All the cars had red cloth or paper taped over the windows and carried a numerical marking.

  The prisoners determined to be suitable to have their organs extracted (as a result of the tests) would get injected with a drug said to relieve their pain. Its actual goal, though, was to prevent blood to coagulate after brain death and damage the organs, Bob said.

  Those slated for organ harvesting were typically young, healthy men, usually in their 20s and 30s without a history of major illness, according to Bob.

  At the execution site, prisoners were arranged in a line to be shot in the back of the head.

  The closest convict would stand roughly three to five meters (3.3 to 5.5 yards) away from Bob.

  

  Adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong act out a scene of stealing human organs to sell during a demonstration in Taipei on July 20, 2014, against China’s persecution of the group. (Mandy Cheng/AFP via Getty Images)

  The White Van

  After the shootings, an on-site medical examiner would check the bodies to confirm death. After this, a black plastic bag would be used to cover the prisoners’ heads. The bodies slated for organ extraction were then rushed to a white van waiting nearby. The van’s rear door was usually kept shut, and its window curtains were pulled down to keep out prying eyes.

  Bob once caught a glimpse inside when the rear door chanced to be open. He saw an operating bed and two doctors donning a white gown, masks, and gloves. Plastic wrapping covered the ground in case of blood spills. The doctors swiftly closed the doors after realizing someone was watching.

  No one but the doctors would know what happened afterward. When the bodies came out, they were in a black cadaver bag and sent directly for cremation.

  The dead convicts were lumped together and burned in one kiln. As a result, it was impossible to distinguish which ashes belonged to who, Bob said. “They simply grabbed some from the heap, and gave it to each family.”

  The families were none the wiser.

  “The great majority of these death row prisoners’ families would have no idea their relative’s organs were extracted when they collected the ashes,” Bob said.

  With rare exceptions, those inmates had no chance to see or talk with their relatives during their last moments. Nor could the family see the bodies after their loved ones’ death.

  “All the family got was a box of ashes.”

  

  A woman adjusts banners in support of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, a group banned in mainland China, in Tung Chung, an area popular with tourists from the mainland, in Hong Kong on April 25, 2019. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)

  A Well-Oiled Machine

  The process was quick—because fresh organs must be promptly transported to the hospital for surgery—and meticulous planning was key for it to run smoothly, Bob said.

  “To them, it’s plenty clear which organ of a certain prisoner [they were going to harvest],” he said.

  “It was very explicit which [prisoner’s body] would be placed on the van … the people on the van knew exactly which organs to take because everything was arranged beforehand.”

  From this, Bob surmised that these practices had been running for a long time before he started the job.

  “The workflow, the adeptness they showed, and the closeness in their cooperation could not have happened in just one or two years,” he said. Even the price of the harvested organs was known beforehand, Bob added.

  China performed its first human organ transplant in 1960. Since the country did not have an official organ donation system until 2015, most of the organs for transplant came from executed prisoners, the regime has claimed. But from the 2000s, the domestic transplant industry saw a sudden boom and the number of executed prisoners simply couldn’t account for the number of transplants taking place.

  Chinese hospitals, seeking to entice organ transplant tourists from abroad, promised organ transplants in a matter of weeks or even days—unheard of in developed countries with established organ transplant systems where wait times could stretch on for years.

  The surge in transplants coincided with the onset of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong, a meditation discipline whose 70 million to 100 million adherents have faced arrests, torture, and jail over the past two decades.

  

  Falun Gong practitioners hold a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles for those who have died due to the Chinese regime’s persecution, on Oct. 15, 2015. (The Epoch Times)

  Over the years, evidence mounted pointing to a sprawling system of live organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience orchestrated by the CCP. In 2019, an independent people’s tribunal concluded that the regime, for years, was killing prisoners “on a significant scale” to supply its transplant market, and was continuing the practice. The main victims, the tribunal found, were imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners.

  The regime said it banned the use of executed prisoners’ organs in 2015, claiming it would exclusively source from organs from voluntary donors under the organ donation system set up the same year. But still, official organ donation figures cannot explain the high number of transplants conducted, the tribunal concluded.

  The Machine Keeps Running

  Bob’s account aligns with those of multiple other eyewitnesses who took part in the opaque organ transplant business in China around the same period.

  George Zheng, a former Chinese medical intern, recalled assisting in an organ removal operation in the 1990s alongside two nurses and three military doctors, in a mountainous area near an army prison close to Dalian, a city in northeastern China.

  The patient, a young man, was unresponsive but his body was still warm. The doctors had removed two kidneys from the man and then instructed Zheng to extract his eyes.

  “At that moment, his eyelids moved and he looked at me,” he told The Epoch Times in 2015.

  “There was sheer terror in his eyes … My mind went blank and my whole body began to shake.”

  The memories of those two eyes haunted Zheng for years.

  

  George Zheng, now living in Toronto, recounts how he witnessed live organ harvesting in Shenyang Province, China, in the 1990s. (Yi Ling/The Epoch Times)

  In 1995, ethnic Uyghur doctor Enver Tohti from the far west Xinjiang region similarly helped two chief surgeons to extract the liver and two kidneys from a live prisoner who had just been shot in the chest.

  “There was bleeding. He was still alive. But I didn’t feel guilty. In fact, I didn’t feel anything but like a full-programmed robot doing its task,” he told a July 2017 panel.

  “I thought I was carrying out my duty to eliminate … the enemy of the state.”

  The surgeons later told him to remember that “nothing happened.”

  A seemingly on-demand organ transplant trade appears to be continuing in recent years in hospitals in Zhengzhou, where Bob once worked, based on investigations by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), a U.S.-based nonprofit.

  One nurse from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University told the WOIPFG in 2019 that their hospital ranked among the country’s top five in terms of kidney transplantation and did around 400 surgeries the previous year.

  “We haven’t stopped since the Chinese New Year and haven’t taken any days off,” she told undercover WOIPFG investigators posing as prospective organ transplantees, adding that they had a kidney match that day.

  Another doctor from the hospital, during a phone call in 2017, told undercover investigators they did most of the liver transplant surgeries overnight as soon as they arrived.

  “If you don’t utilize these times and only do them during the daytime, how can you possibly do so many surgeries? How can you outcompete the other folks?” he said.

  The organ transplant abuse Bob witnessed had sickened him and went against his values, which helped him make up his mind to quit less than three years into the job, he said.

  Despite having long left the police force, Bob saw no reason that the forced organ transplant industry would stop running.

  “Driven by the huge profits, there’s no place for the so-called human rights and humanitarian concerns,” he said.

  Bob’s hope is for the Chinese population to free themselves from the Chinese regime’s authoritarian rule and find freedom in democratic countries.

  By a twist of fate, the city committee secretary who ordered his detention ended up in jail himself for taking bribes. He later died in prison serving a life sentence.

  “No one is safe under the CCP rule,” he said. “What happens to someone else may very well happen to you tomorrow.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 21:30

• "Huge Economic Boost" – New West Virginian Law Makes Gun And Ammo Purchases Tax-Free
  “Huge Economic Boost” – New West Virginian Law Makes Gun And Ammo Purchases Tax-Free

  West Virginian lawmakers have eliminated the sales tax on all small firearms and ammunition and are also offering weapon manufacturers tax credits in hopes of sparking an economic boom, according to local news WOWK. 

  “If you are going to buy that $2,000 riffle, it’s going to be $120 cheaper here in West Virginia than compared to our neighboring states,” said Delegate Gary Howell, (R) District 56.

  The law was passed in House Bill 2499, which went into effect on July 1. Customers can purchase handguns, shotguns, rifles, and whatever their heart desires (chambered up to .50 caliber) without sales tax. 

  The state hopes to get in on the action of record gun sales and millions of first-time gun owners sparked by the virus pandemic and social unrest of 2020. With millions of new guns owners, parts and ammo will be needed, and West Virginia plans to capitalize on that.  

  WOWK’s Audra Laskey calls the new law a “huge economic boost” for the state. 

  🦌CALLING ALL HUNTERS AND SPORTSMEN🔫 A new law goes into effect today regarding buying small firearms and ammunition! Tune in to @WOWK13News for more on these new changes. pic.twitter.com/clriDCoQcH

  — Audra Laskey (@AudraLaskey) July 1, 2021

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

  “It’s definitely going to spike gun sales for the foreseeable future. Then after that, I think it will steadily increase in terms of your mid and high-range arms. So, I think over the long term that it will defiantly be a boost in business,” said Taylor Collins, gun and ammo salesman for Bridgeport.

  The law also promotes tax credits to gun and ammo manufacturers: 

  “If they do a $1 million piece of equipment, we will tax it as if it’s a $50,000 piece of equipment. That’s to encourage investment in the state,” said Delegate Howell.

  Already, one bullet manufacturer, Ranger Scientific, recently announced it would be building an ammo plant in the state because of the new law. The new plant will provide 400 jobs to residents in Montgomery. 

  “It makes West Virginia the single best place to locate arms or ammunition manufacturing plant,” said Delegate Howell.

  If you build it, they will come – and it appears the tax law could spark an exodus of gun manufacturers from other states to West Virginia.

  According to Noah Davis of sanctuarycounties.com, West Virginia is a huge Second Amendment state sanctuary state. 

  The Biden administration is losing the war on guns as more than 61% of American counties are now Second Amendment sanctuaries. 

  

  West Virginia could see a considerable boost in ammo sales as prices have come down, and no sales tax will make the cost per round even cheaper.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 21:00

• How China Became The Big Winner Of The COVID Era
  How China Became The Big Winner Of The COVID Era

  By Greg Miller, of FreightWaves,

  When news first broke of the COVID lockdown in Wuhan, the initial prediction was: The virus will cripple the economy of China, which is the engine of global trade, and that will be terrible for the shipping business.

  

  Eighteen months and 3.9 million deaths later, the pandemic has had the opposite effect. Ships are full and, ironically, the country where the outbreak began has seen the biggest and broadest economic upside.

  Chinese exports are now much higher than they were before the outbreak, courtesy of pandemic-induced changes in consumer behavior and COVID-driven fiscal stimulus from the world’s governments. 

  The only major economy to grow in 2020 was China’s. GDP growth continued in Q1 2021. Business is at an all-time high for Chinese liner operators, shipyards and container-equipment factories.

  U.S. demand for Chinese exports is increasingly urgent as sales continue to offset inventory rebuilds. Trade has revved up in the opposite direction, as well: China is buying more American soybeans, crude oil, propane and natural gas.

  Pandemic boosts Chinese trade

  Nerijus Poskus, vice president of global ocean at Flexport, recently told American Shipper, “Back in 2020, if you’d asked 100 economists what would happen when COVID first hit China, all of them would have probably said that economies will go down, consumption will go down and prices for shipping will fall. Well, all of them would have been wrong.”

  Very wrong: China’s export value in January-May averaged $247.5 billion per month, up 29% from January-May 2019, pre-COVID, according to the country’s customs data.

  As more goods are going out, supporting container-shipping demand, more raw materials and commodities are coming in, employing tankers, bulkers and gas carriers. China’s import value averaged $206.8 billion per month in January-May, up 25% from the same period in 2019.

  Turning trade into even more business

  When demand for ocean transport surges, so too does demand for shipbuilding, container manufacturing and global liner operations. The U.S. has virtually no presence in these sectors. China is the world leader in the first two and a major force in the third.

  As of Jan. 1, 2020, pre-COVID, Chinese shipyards had commercial orders totaling 29.8 million compensated gross tons (CGT), according to U.K.-based valuation and data provider VesselsValue. At that point, China — which was already the world’s largest shipbuilding nation — accounted for 38.7% of the global orderbook.

  The Chinese yards’ orderbook was 26.9 million CGT as of Thursday, according to VesselsValue. While that is down from pre-COVID (orders dropped worldwide in Q1-Q3 2020 and partially rebounded thereafter), China’s share of the global orderbook is now 40.5%, even higher than it was before the pandemic.

  China’s dominance is far more extreme in container-equipment manufacturing. Over 96% of all the world’s dry containers and 100% of reefer containers are manufactured in China. Factories produced 2.66 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers in the first five months of this year, according to data from U.K.-based consultancy Drewry.

  “I would be surprised if the 5-million-TEU mark is not exceeded in 2021,” commented John Fossey, Drewry’s head of container equipment and leasing research. The previous record was 4.42 million TEUs in 2018. If 5 million TEUs were produced this year, it would represent a 61% increase compared to last year and a 77% increase versus 2019.

  In the liner sector, China’s COSCO Group is the world’s fourth-largest container player, with a fleet capacity of 3 million TEUs, according to Alphaliner. Like all ocean carriers, COSCO is reaping historic profits from COVID-era consumer demand. The shipping division of COSCO posted a profit of $2.7 billion for Q1 2021, more than it earned in all of last year.

  China is now the world’s second-largest shipowning nation, behind Japan, according to VesselsValue. During the pandemic, China passed Greece to move up from third to second place.

  Containerized imports from China

  The ships at anchor waiting to unload at California ports highlight the strength of demand for Chinese goods. 

  The value of America’s goods imports from China averaged $37.7 billion per month in January-April, up 8% from the same period in 2019, pre-COVID.

  To gauge U.S. importer exposure to China, American Shipper analyzed Census Bureau data on five categories of imports from China transported by container: computers and electronic products, electrical equipment and appliances, furniture and fixtures, apparel and accessories, and miscellaneous manufactured commodities.

  The combined value of imports in these categories rose 10% in January-April versus the same period in 2019. The computer/electronics segment — the largest of the five categories by value — was up 10%, electrical equipment 17% and miscellaneous manufactured commodities 40%. Furniture was down 11% and apparel was down 29%.

  

  Despite all the talk of supply chain diversification over the years, American sourcing remains very China-centric. In January-April, China’s average share of total U.S. import value of furniture was 37%, computers 35%, electrical equipment 33%, miscellaneous manufactured goods 33% and apparel 22%. 

  

  U.S. importers reliant on Chinese sourcing face a new headache. The recent COVID outbreak hitting operations in the Chinese port of Yantian and surrounding ports in June will have a major impact on trade flows going forward. Yantian and surrounding ports handle about one-quarter of China’s containerized exports to America. 

  Ocean carrier Maersk told customers that “both the extended duration of the disruption and the sheer number of sailings that had to omit calling Yantian” mean that it will take “weeks if not months to recover.”

  “What should not be understated is the sheer magnitude of the task ahead as peak season volumes continue to ramp up,” warned Maersk.

  US commodity exports to China recover

  Amid the trade turmoil initiated by the Trump administration, China retaliated by curtailing purchases of American agricultural goods and energy commodities such as propane, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil. 

  The good news is that China is buying more American exports again. 

  Soybeans — China’s most important role as a buyer is in the soybean market. U.S. soybean exports to China collapsed in 2018 due to trade politics and the African Swine Flu’s impact on China’s pig population (soybeans are used to feed pigs).

  Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that Chinese buying recovered by 2020, when 54% of U.S. soybean exports went to China. Total U.S. exports jumped to a record 64.1 million metric tons last year. Chinese buying continues this year, with the country taking 47% of Q1 2021 U.S. export volumes. 

  

  U.S. soybean exports to China have recently helped propel rates for dry bulk ships in the Panamax class (bulkers with capacity of 65,000-90,000 deadweight tons) to decade highs.

  Propane — In the tanker markets, China is an important destination for American propane. The propane is transported aboard large 84,000-cubic-meter liquefied petroleum gas tankers and is used by China for residential consumption and as a feedstock for plastics manufacturing.

  U.S. propane sales to China evaporated in 2019 during trade hostilities. But in full-year 2020 and Q1 2021, China came back to the market, taking 10% of U.S. seaborne propane exports, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. 

  

  LNG — China overtook Japan last year to become the world’s largest importer of LNG. China stopped buying U.S. LNG in 2019 amid trade tensions, but accounted for 9% of America’s LNG exports last year. In Q1 2021, 8% of U.S. exports went to China, according to EIA data. 

  

  Crude oil — Chinese imports from America play a key role in demand for ships called very large crude carriers (VLCCs, tankers that carry 2 million barrels of oil). VLCC demand is measured in ton-miles: volume multiplied by distance. The sailing distance from the U.S. Gulf to China is more than double the distance from the Middle East to China. Thus, the more China imports from the U.S. instead of from the Middle East, the better for VLCC rates.

  China accounted for just 5% of U.S. export volume deliveries in 2019, at the height of the trade war. Its share bounced back to 17% in 2020 and 13% in Q1 2021, according to EIA data.

  

  Trade balance no better than pre-trade war

  Overall, U.S. goods exports to China averaged $11.6 billion per month in January-April, up 38% from the same period in 2019. 

  The U.S.-China goods trade balance (exports minus imports) averaged minus $26.1 billion in the first four months of this year — slightly better than in January-April 2019, pre-COVID, due to the higher U.S. exports.

  

  As for the effectiveness of the Trump administration’s tariffs, which have not been reversed by President Joe Biden, the average goods trade balance was minus $25.5 billion in January-April 2016, before Donald Trump’s election. 

  In the same period this year, the balance was 2% higher, in favor of Chinese exports to America.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 20:30

• Exxon Lobbyist Caught On Film Saying Company-Backed Carbon Tax "Unlikely To Happen"
  Exxon Lobbyist Caught On Film Saying Company-Backed Carbon Tax “Unlikely To Happen”

  It’s almost as if the entire ESG push has been one giant case of virtue signaling… 

  Along those lines, Exxon has been forced to apologize this week after one of its lobbyists was caught on camera saying that a carbon tax the company has been pushing for years is “unlikely to happen”, according to Bloomberg.

  The lobbyist was caught on video saying: “Nobody is going to propose a tax on all Americans. And the cynical side of me says, ‘Yeah we kind of know that.’ But it gives us a talking point. We can say well what is ExxonMobil for? Well we’re for a carbon tax.”

  Exxon CEO Darren Woods came out and said the company was “deeply apologetic” about the comments after a Greenpeace investigator caught lobbyist Keith McCoy making the comments.

  Woods said this week: “Comments made by the individuals in no way represent the company’s position on a variety of issues, including climate policy and our firm commitment that carbon pricing is important to addressing climate change.”

  

  Woods continued: “We condemn the statements and are deeply apologetic for them, including comments regarding interactions with elected officials.”

  “They are entirely inconsistent with the way we expect our people to conduct themselves. We were shocked by these interviews and stand by our commitments to working on finding solutions to climate change,” he concluded.

  McCoy is also seen in the footage suggesting that Exxon had “joined shadow groups to work against some of the early efforts” of climate change. “There’s nothing illgeal about that,” he says on film. 

  While Bloomberg wasn’t able to reach McCoy, a statement on his LinkedIn read: “I am deeply embarrassed by my comments and that I allowed myself to fall for Greenpeace’s deception. My statements clearly do not represent ExxonMobil’s positions on important public policy issues.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 20:00

• Biden's Bloated White House Payroll Is Most Expensive In American History
  Biden’s Bloated White House Payroll Is Most Expensive In American History

  By Adam Andrzejewski, of OpenTheBooks.com,

  If the White House payroll is a leading indicator of the president’s commitment to expand government then taxpayers have a reason for concern. Projected four-year costs of Biden’s White House payroll could top $200 million. For comparison, inflation adjusted, the Trump administration spent $164.3 million (2017-2020) and the Obama administration spent $188.5 million (2009-2012).

  

  On July 1st, the Biden administration released the annual Report to Congress on White House Office Personnel. President Biden hired czars, expensive “fellows,” “assistants,” and spent on a much larger First Lady (FLOTUS) staff.

  The payroll report included the name, status, salary and position title of all 567 White House employees costing taxpayers $49.6 million. (Search Biden’s White House payroll and Trump’s four years posted at OpenTheBooks.com.)

  

  Since January, the Biden administration has quickly staffed up. Here are some key findings from our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com:

  • There are 190 more employees on White House staff under Biden than under Trump (377) and 80 more than under Obama (487) at this point in their respective presidencies.
  • $9.6 million increase in payroll spending vs. the Trump FY2017 payroll. In 2017, the Trump White House spent $40 million for 377 employees, while the Biden payroll amounts to $49.6 million for 567 employees. All spending amounts are inflation adjusted.
  • Hires include 320 female staffers ($28.9 million salaries) vs. 240 male staffers ($20.8 million salaries). In terms of top staffers — Special Assistants — there are 53 female ($6.3 million salaries) vs. 37 males ($4.4 million).
  • Currently, there are 12 staffers dedicated – at least in part – to Dr. Jill Biden vs. five staffers who served Melania Trump in her first year (FY2017).
  • Counts of the “Assistants to the President” – the most trusted advisors to the president – are the same (22) in for the Biden administration and the Trump and Obama administrations. This year, these advisors make $180,000.
  • This year’s list of key advisors includes names such as Ron Klain (Chief of Staff), Susan Rice (Domestic Policy Council), Jennifer Psaki (Press Secretary), and Kate Bedingfield (Communications Director), Mike Donilon (Senior Advisor), and Steve Ricchetti (Counselor).
  • In the Trump first-year, Steven Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Omarosa Manigault, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer and 17 others made salaries of $179,700. In Obama’s first-year, David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel and twenty others held the title with top pay of $172,000.
  • The most highly compensated White House Biden staffer? The top paid is Molly Groom ($185,656), Policy Advisor For Immigration, a crisis issue for the administration. The second highest paid is Elizabeth Hone ($183,164), Senior Policy Advisor For Broadband. The administration proposed $100 billion in government ownership of broadband.

  In Trump’s administration (2017), Mark House, Senior Policy Advisor, had a salary of $187,500. In Obama’s Administration (2009), David Marcozzi earned $193,000 “on detail” from Health and Human Services.

  

  FLOTUS Staff

  Dr. Jill Biden has 12 staffers including press, communication, and advance trip directors; media coordinators and schedulers. There are senior advisors, and even a couple of social secretaries. Five of the employees also serve the president in some capacity.

  In 2009, former First Lady Michelle Obama faced criticism for her twenty-four assistants, advisors, aides, and social secretaries. Laura Bush had a staff of eighteen. In 2017, Melania Trump, in her first year, had a staff of five employees.

  These 12 White House employees serving First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (five also serve the president in some capacity) cost taxpayers $1.35 million and include:

  • Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, Chief of Staff to the First Lady and White House Gender Policy co-chair ($180,000);
  • Elizabeth Alexander, Director of Communications for the First Lady ($155,000);
  • Carlos Elizondo, Social Secretary ($155,000) and Deputy Social Secretary, Liz Hart ($80,000)
  • Press Secretary, Michael LaRosa, $100,000

  Special Initiative Czars

  Starting in 2009, President Obama came under fire for hiring special initiative czars. From 2017-2020, we found no evidence of “czars” on Trump’s payroll. 

  However, Biden has czar(ed) up – naming at least 21 czars to date, with plans to fill 55 positions. These include:  National Climate Advisor Regina McCarthy ($180,000) and a Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry – who is listed in press accounts, but doesn’t appear in the payroll data. Others include Jeff Zients ($36,000), the COVID-19 czar.

  Critics at Politico have already questioned, “How many czars does the Biden administration need?”

  

  White House Leadership Development Fellows

  Starting in 2015, President Obama instituted a new fellowship – a White House Leadership Development program with an initial class of sixteen. During the Trump years, the program was dormant.

  On June 4th, Biden appointed 22 members to the fellowship program. None of these appear in the payroll disclosure.

  Like most presidents, Joe Biden doesn’t donate his salary. Donald Trump was the first since John F. Kennedy to donate his pre-tax quarterly salary to government agencies.

  Following tradition, Dr. Jill Biden isn’t paid as First Lady. However, she is the 1st First Lady to maintain an outside income – her government salary as a community college professor at Northern Virginia Community College.

  Although the White House personnel budget is an infinitesimal part of the $4+ trillion federal budget, it could be a leading indicator of Biden’s commitment to expand the size, scope, and power of the federal government.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 19:30

• How Has The Flood Of Information Changed Wall Street Since 1990
  How Has The Flood Of Information Changed Wall Street Since 1990

  In a world where Wall Street admits that it increasingly gets its most precious commodity – information – from social networks such as Twitter, Reddit and Facebook…

  

  … it got us thinking about the changing nature of information flow in finance and how it may be impacting markets.

  Conveniently, in a recent note from DataTrek’s Nick Colas, the former SAC portfolio manager takes a big picture look at just this topic, writing that when he started covering stocks in 1991 back at Credit Suisse, there was no Internet, no smartphones, no “Big Data”, no quarterly earnings conference calls, and no real regulation around how companies disseminated potentially market-moving information. All those things exist today, and according to Colas, the fact that the world’s financial decision-makers are flooded with instant (and constant) information may well explain part of why US stocks trade at such premiums to prior cycles. But, as Colas also notes, more information can also make investors overconfident.

  Below we excerpt from the DataTrek founder’s latest note about the changing nature of information as it relates to the investment process over the last 30 years.

  Too Much Information, by Nicholas Colas

  We’ll start in late 1991 when these words first came out of a CFO’s mouth: “We should do a conference call after the quarter.” The speaker was Jerry York, then Chrysler’s chief financial officer. The company had just done a “save the firm” equity issuance to fund production of the then-new Grand Cherokee.

  He felt that the institutional buyers of that deal should hear directly from the management team right after Q4 earnings were made public. They had taken a big risk buying Chrysler, which at the time was essentially insolvent. Keeping the lines of communication open with this group of investors was important. After all, the company might need to tap them again if the US economy didn’t continue to rebound.

  I was at that first call, which was a hybrid in-person/teleconference held at the old Sky Club on top of what was then the Pan Am building in New York City. Some big investors in the deal traveled to New York to attend, and others dialed in. It did what Jerry wanted. Investors got to ask their questions directly and also hear management’s take on the business.

  As effective as that form of shareholder communications was, quarterly earnings conference calls only slowly caught on through the 1990s. For many years, analysts more commonly waited for earnings reports to come through on PR Newswire. We would then print those out on a dot matrix printer and call the company’s CFO or investor relations person. We’d then wait for a call back and ask our questions about the numbers. Sometimes it would be the same day, sometimes the next. And if the company didn’t like you, that return call would simply never come.

  Other differences between 1991 and now, as far as the investment process goes:

  • No Internet back then, at least as far as its utility to Wall Street. No Google, no Wikipedia, no “Big Data”.
  • No smartphones. If you were on the road and wanted a price quote or the latest news, you called your trading desk.
  • No email – analysts’ reports were printed and mailed/messengered to clients.
  • No Fed press conferences after FOMC meetings. Only Fed Chair Alan Greenspan spoke on policy, and infrequently at that.
  • No regulations requiring analysts to share their views with all clients at once.
  • No regulations requiring that companies disseminate market-moving information broadly. Most just used their favorite Wall Street analysts to update investors on earnings guidance.

  I think about all these differences every time I look at a 1990 – present history of the CBOE VIX Index. Has more, and more-widely available, information made US stocks less volatile? In theory, it should. Volatility is, first and foremost, a function of how much relevant fundamental information is embedded in stock prices.

  Here’s that VIX history back to 1990, which shows that the period from 2012 to 2019 did see generally lower volatility than the prior 2 economic up cycles. There were other forces at work, certainly … A long expansion makes for more predictable corporate earnings, which should make for lower equity price volatility. But seeing a VIX that reliably traded below 19 (its long run average) for the better part of a decade is still notable. The truly “different” thing about this period versus the previous ones is the change in the quantity and speed of information flow.

  

  What’s also striking about that chart is that volatility shocks (which always bring lower asset prices) still routinely occur despite the much greater amount of information available to markets and investors. Chalk that up to human nature. Prospect Theory says humans “feel/fear” loss about twice as much as equivalent gains. That asymmetry explains the old trader’s saying that “the market takes the stairs up, but the elevator down” when an unexpected event occurs.

  Now, what does all this mean for current US equity market dynamics? Three thoughts:

  1. Everything else equal, more complete information about company/macro fundamentals should make for higher equity valuations now relative to prior cycles. It’s hard to prove statistically that this is the case, but it makes intuitive sense to me.
  2. More information now should also allow markets to reset more quickly after a shock than prior cycles. Imagine if we’d had the Pandemic Recession in pre-Internet 1990 instead of 2020. Would investors have as much confidence in a global economic recovery if they couldn’t see it forming through data from Google Trends, smartphone-enabled mobility tracking, and other 21st century sources of data? I doubt it.
  3. Greater levels of available information can, however, lead to investor overconfidence.

  We’ll close out with a cautionary tale about “too much information” that relates to that last point:

  • Back in the 1970s, US researchers ran a study with 8 professional horse racing handicappers as their subjects.
  • They had the subjects list all the horse-specific datapoints they found most useful in predicting the outcome of a race, ranked from most to least important.
  • The handicappers received their top 10 data choices for the horses in an upcoming race and were asked to predict the winners.
  • For the next race, they saw their top 20 choices and made predictions based on that now-larger base of information.
  • Finally, they got their top 40 choices for relevant predictive data and forecast the outcome of the last race.

  The surprising finding: while the handicappers’ confidence about their predictions increased with larger amounts of information, their accuracy in picking winners did not.

  The lesson, profoundly relevant to investing: use the wealth of information available in a 21st century world with caution. More is not always better.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 18:30

• The Super Rich Are Back Partying In The Hamptons This Summer
  The Super Rich Are Back Partying In The Hamptons This Summer

  After a very brief break in 2020 due to Covid, it looks at though it is back to fun in the sun, ritzy gatherings and massive parties by the super rich in the Hamptons this summer.

  The elites of the Hamptons – people like Mike Novogratz, Larry Gagosian and Kathy Rayner – are all back to hosting their normal gatherings this summer as life returns back to somewhat of a post-Covid normal, according to Bloomberg.

  And with the super rich comes super rich topics of discussion. At Novogratz’s recent Sunday gospel brunch, Goldman Sachs’s Ashok Varadhan said he was reaching academic papers on cryptocurrency while music executive Jason Flom spoke to Novogratz about his podcast and his new 1959 Corvette.

  And it looks like the summer is just getting started. Joey Wolffer, of the Sagaponack winery family, commented: “I haven’t been out to a party in a year-and-a-half, and I had events five nights in a row last week. I came home one night and my kids had epic meltdowns. We didn’t ease into this at all.”

  Steve Israel, former New York Democratic Congressman, noted that political fundraising was also helping people get together: “Ordinarily it would be quieter in an off-year, but political fundraising is coming back with a vengeance.”

  He said most Democrats in the Hamptons this summer aren’t complaining about President Biden’s tax increases: “Virtually all of them believe that wealth inequity is a major economic problem that has to be addressed. They also realize that if wealth inequality continues, at some point there will be pitchforks at the hedgerows.”

  

  All that means is they’re literally OK with throwing money at the problem of people wanting to riot to make it go away – it just happens to be called paying more in taxes, in this case.

  Regardless, there is some preparation being made for the increases. Leonard Ackerman, an East Hampton lawyer, said: “The most anxiety right now is over Biden’s tax plan, because if you’re not going to have a stepped-up basis, people who have homes here and sell them, upon someone passing, they’re going to get whacked twice, first on capital gains doubled, and on estate taxes. A substantial amount of equity built up over the years is going to get wiped out. So there’s potential for a lot of older homes to come on the market.”

  Up in the air is how many people partying in the Hamptons this summer will wind up back in NYC. One couple at Novogratz’s brunch said they pulled their kids out of private school and put them into public school in Amagansett, which they love. Another family matriarch said she was stayin in the Hamptons year-round while her husband commuted to the city for school with the kids. 

  On the agenda for the rest of the summer are numerous benefits, including one that will be held on Kathy Rayner’s estate. Guests can take in her carefully prepared gardens while sipping on home-made margaritas and home-grown strawberries. 

  Andrea Grover, the head of Guild Hall, concluded: “Having that cocktail party at her house was the top. She’s the consummate hostess who really attends to every detail of a party. The napkins were linen embroidered with elephants and golden thread.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 18:00

• Pentagon Rolls Out New Embassy-Based Military Command For Afghanistan
  Pentagon Rolls Out New Embassy-Based Military Command For Afghanistan

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  On Friday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has approved a new military command structure that will be based out of the US embassy in Kabul, which will oversee Afghanistan operations after most US combat troops leave the country.

  The new embassy-based military office, dubbed Forces Afghanistan-Forward, will be headed by Navy Rear Admiral Peter Vasely. The US has tried to portray its plans to keep troops at its embassy in Kabul as only for security purposes. But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby described what sort of operations the new office will oversee, which goes beyond guarding the embassy.

  

  “That presence will remain focused on four things over the course of the coming period. One, protecting our diplomatic presence in the country. Two, supporting security requirements at Hamid Karzai International Airport. Three, continued advice and assistance to Afghan National Defense and Security Forces as appropriate. And four, supporting our counterterrorism efforts,” Kirby said.

  Kirby said the embassy office would be supported by another Afghanistan office that will be established in Qatar. Under the plan, the authority to bomb Afghanistan will be transferred from the top US commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller, to Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command. Airstrikes in Afghanistan will be carried out by warplanes based outside of the country, mostly in the Gulf region, what the Pentagon has dubbed “over the horizon capability.”

  Although nothing has been confirmed, reports say the US plans to leave 650 troops at the embassy. The US embassy in Kabul is a sprawling 36-acre compound and has the room to host thousands of people. That means besides troops, there could also be CIA or civilian contractors that don’t need to have a declared presence.

  The US might also leave some troops to help Turkey control the Hamid Karzai International Airport, which is also in Kabul. The US sees control of the airport as key to its post-withdrawal plans, and Washington and Ankara are working out an agreement that would keep the approximately 500 Turkish troops at the airport that are currently guarding it.

  U.S. forces pulling out of a 20-year war and President Biden doesn’t want to answer questions about Afghanistan because it’s the #FourthOfJulyWeekend https://t.co/RJvGrTBJ2l

  — James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) July 2, 2021

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

  Recent media reports said the bulk of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan would be completed by July 4th. But both the Pentagon and the White House said on Friday the drawdown would probably be done by the end of August.

  “We currently expect it to be completed by the end of August. So, as you know, the president decided to withdraw remaining US troops from Afghanistan and finally end the US war there after 20 years,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday.

  While Psaki said President Biden wants to remove all “remaining troops,” it’s clear based on the fact that Austin approved a new military command for Afghanistan that troops will stay. The plan will fuel more violence since the Taliban will view it as a clear violation of the Doha agreement that called for all foreign forces to leave Afghanistan.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 17:30

• Amazon Uses Artificial Intelligence To Terminate Delivery Drivers 
  Amazon Uses Artificial Intelligence To Terminate Delivery Drivers 

  A Bloomberg report details how artificial intelligence systems employed by Amazon have hired and fired contract drivers. 

  Called “Flex,” Amazon uses AI to determine how many drivers are needed for deliveries. The app, installed on drivers’ smartphones, measures whether they delivered packages on time and followed customers’ special requests. 

  If a driver misses the mark, they are subjected to an automatic firing. 

  That’s exactly what happened to Stephen Normandin, 63, an Army veteran who Flex recently fired. He said algorithms tracked his every move as he delivered packages around the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. 

  

  Normandin said Amazon unfairly punished him for things way beyond his control – such as locked apartment complexes. He said every job he’s “given 110%,” but the algorithm failed to see external factors that may affect deliveries. 

  “This really upset me because we’re talking about my reputation. They say I didn’t do the job when I know damn well I did,” he said. 

  At the world’s largest e-commerce retailer, algorithms are the boss, hiring and firing and monitoring hundreds of thousands of workers with hardly any human oversight. 

  Flex began operations in 2015 as a way for Amazon to get its packages out the same day to regional customers. Here’s more from Bloomberg: 

  But the moment they sign on, Flex drivers discover algorithms are monitoring their every move. Did they get to the delivery station when they said they would? Did they complete their route in the prescribed window? Did they leave a package in full view of porch pirates instead of hidden behind a planter as requested? Amazon algorithms scan the gusher of incoming data for performance patterns and decide which drivers get more routes and which are deactivated. Human feedback is rare. Drivers occasionally receive automated emails, but mostly they’re left to obsess about their ratings, which include four categories: Fantastic, Great, Fair, or At Risk. -Bloomberg 

  Bloomberg interviewed 15 Flex drivers who allege a robot wrongfully terminated them. They say there’s no way to dispute their firing as Flex is entirely automated. One can appeal through arbitration, but that costs $200. Amazon knows delegating human resource work to machines is cheaper and more efficient. 

  

  But many of these drivers say the algorithms don’t factor in real-world problems for failing to deliver a package on time, such as traffic, locked buildings, vehicle troubles, among other things. An Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg:

  “We have invested heavily in technology and resources to provide drivers visibility into their standing and eligibility to continue delivering and investigate all driver appeals.”

  Being hired and fired by AI is the new dystopic reality the working-poor must face. Amazon has a huge PR problem in treating their workers, mostly exposed during the virus pandemic. Sooner or later, Amazon will run out of workers as its high churn rate has alarmed executives. 

  But don’t worry, automated delivery vans and warehouses are coming and will eventually displace humans working for the company. later on this decade. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 17:00

• "Too Much Advocacy For Violent Offenders": Chicago's Police Chief Shifts Blame On Crime Wave
  “Too Much Advocacy For Violent Offenders”: Chicago’s Police Chief Shifts Blame On Crime Wave

  Authored by Cara Ding via The Epoch Times,

  As Chicago aldermen took turns questioning Police Superintendent David Brown about an alarming crime wave on Friday, Brown said police officers had done their utmost and that the blame should be directed at the court system which had sent too many violent offenders back on the street.

  

  About 20 aldermen requested the special city council meeting with Brown following two violent weekends that saw 24 people killed and 114 injured in Chicago. The day before the meeting, a 1-month-old baby and a 9-year-old girl were both shot in the head; another 8-year-old girl was shot in the arm.

  “This is happening because there is too much advocacy for violent offenders and too little consequences for their behaviors in the courts,” Brown told the aldermen at the meeting.

  Brown highlighted the growing number of violent suspects sent back into the community before trials by Cook County judges on the electronic monitoring system, a GPS-style tracking device attached on suspects’ ankles for monitoring whereabouts.

  He cited a Chicago Tribune analysis which found over 90 suspects charged with murder were out on electronic monitoring by mid-May; whereas four years ago, that number was about 30. And about 570 suspects charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon were out on electronic monitoring by the same time; four years ago, that number was about 180. In total, violent suspects on electronic monitoring have bloomed from hundreds to thousands this year.

  According to Brown, some of these suspects soon committed violent crimes again, including murder. Last month, Dominique Johnson, while out on electronic monitoring, killed his girlfriend and then committed suicide on the South Side of Chicago. In March, Dakari Davis, while out on electronic monitoring, shot at a 45-year-old man twice in an attempted carjacking.

  Alderman Byron Lopez repudiated Brown’s reasoning, citing Loyola University research that suggests pretrial releases have not significantly increased crime following a 2017 Cook County felony bail reform.

  The research collects data up until late 2019 and does not account for the pandemic period when courts drastically increased jail releases.

  “I would ask those researchers to move over to the South and West Side of Chicago and come back with their conclusions. Just one night,” Brown said. South and West Side bear the brunt of shootings in the city.

  “When you say ‘a few people’ recommitted crimes [while out on electronic monitoring], to the victims, that’s everything,” Brown said. “‘A few people’ are problematic in our neighborhood. ‘A few people’ committed a murder-suicide this month. ‘A few people’ stabbed someone to death this month. That ‘few people,’ for the victims, is everything.”

  The special council meeting took place right before the Fourth of July weekend, traditionally one of the most violent weekends for Chicago. Last year, 17 were killed and 63 others were injured over the weekend.

  Chicago Police Department (CPD) Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott also briefed aldermen on the deployment plans for the Fourth of July weekend and the rest of summer. He said the CPD will be laser-focused on the fifteen most violent neighborhoods on the South and West Side of Chicago. CPD will also work with other governmental agencies and community organizations to collectively combat the crime.

  As of July 2, 364 people were murdered and 1,654 injured this year in Chicago, largely due to gunshots. This year’s record almost matches that of 2020, the pandemic year that saw sharp increases in shootings in the city.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 16:30

• Strong Demand For RVs Expected To Roll Into 2022 
  Strong Demand For RVs Expected To Roll Into 2022 

  Months after we discussed the “unprecedented demand” for Recreational Vehicles, which we said was on pace for a blowout 2021, RV sales continue to soar to record highs. Over the past year, many Americans have rediscovered national parks, small towns, and rural communities that are RV friendly instead of traveling on planes to resort towns packed with people. The virus pandemic fundamentally changed how Americans travel, and the RV lifestyle is one of the hottest trends this year that will likely roll into 2022. 

  “The key driver here appears to be a more diverse demographic and an influx of first-time buyers seeking safe, socially-distanced and family-oriented activities, with the RV lifestyle checking all the boxes. While this has prompted investor concerns regarding the sustainability of this demand as consumers return to their pre-pandemic lifestyles, we believe the expansion of this addressable market for RVs is a long-term positive for the industry,” analysts from financial firm Raymond James wrote in a note to clients. 

  

  “As such, our base case is that the industry will see stabilization in 2022, with retail flat to down modestly, followed by a resumption of slow and steady demand closer to the longer-term average beginning in 2023,” the note added. 

  According to the RV Industry Association’s May 2021 survey of manufacturers, a total of 49,241 RVs were shipped to dealers, which was the best May wholesale shipment on record. 

  May 2021 shipments jumped 75.9% compared to the 27,999 units shipped during May 2020. 

  

  The RV boom is likely to remain through this year into next. More Americans than ever are rediscovering national parks and rural communities, and the joy of being with their families in a safe and controlled environment. 

  Demographically, demand for RVs is coming from baby boomers and millennials, which may be another reason why demand will stay elevated. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 16:00

• Canadian Government To Extend "Pride Month" To The Whole Summer
  Canadian Government To Extend “Pride Month” To The Whole Summer

  Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

  The Canadian government has announced this it is expanding ‘Pride Month’ for the entire summer and calling it ‘Pride Season’.

  

  Yes, really.

  A post on the official government ‘Canadian heritage’ website reveals the change, meaning that LGBT events and narratives will be promoted every year from June until the end of September.

  “In Canada, local Pride events span over the course of several months,” states the website.

  “Pride Season is a unifying term that refers to the period between June and September when LGBTQ2 communities and allies come together at different times throughout the summer to spotlight the resilience, talent, and contributions of LGBTQ2 communities in many Canadian cities.”

  

  Since gay rights have already been achieved in every major western country on the planet, critics (including gay conservatives) are becoming increasingly skeptical over the true agenda behind ‘Pride Month’.

  It appears to have been completely hijacked by a combination of woke corporations pushing LGBT rhetoric for free advertising and demented fringe activists who are at war with language and biological sexuality.

  Concerns over the increasing degeneracy of gay pride marches and children being exposed to sexualized performances and behavior have intensified in recent years.

  Biological men who identify as ‘transgender’ have also exploited mainstream acceptance of the movement to force their way into female spaces.

  As we highlighted this week, the problems caused by that were again evident when a biological male claiming to be transgender entered the female area of Wi Spa in Los Angeles and flashed his genitals to women and little girls.

  Apparently, the Canadian government is perfectly happy with these developments and wants to expand them over an entire season.

  *  *  *

  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, I urgently need your financial support here.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 15:30

• How Media Consumption Evolved Throughout COVID-19
  How Media Consumption Evolved Throughout COVID-19

  Media consumption spiked in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak as Americans actively sought information and entertainment while at home. Whether this changed over the course of 2020 remains unclear, however.

  To dive deeper into the issue, this infographic from the Knight Foundation explores each generation’s shifts in media consumption habits as the pandemic wore on.

  

  Further below, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu examines which media sources Americans deemed to be the most trustworthy, and why consumption habits may have changed for good.

  Changes in American Media Consumption, by Generation

  The data in this infographic comes from two surveys conducted by Global Web Index (GWI). The first was completed in April 2020 (N=2,337) and asked participants a series of questions regarding media consumption during COVID-19.

  To see how consumption had changed by the end of the year, the Knight Foundation commissioned GWI to complete a follow-up survey in December 2020 (N=2,014). The following tables provide a summary of the results.

  Gen Z

  Unsurprisingly, a significant percentage of Gen Z reported an increase in digital media consumption in April 2020 in comparison to pre-pandemic habits. This bump was driven by higher use of online videos, video games, and online TV/streaming films such as Netflix.

  By December 2020, these media categories became even more popular with this cohort.

  

  The popularity of traditional outlets like broadcast TV and radio declined from their April 2020 highs, though they are still up relative to pre-pandemic levels for Gen Z survey respondents.

  Millennials

  Results from the December 2020 survey show that Millennials trimmed their media consumption from earlier in the year. This was most apparent in news outlets (online and physical press), which saw double digit declines in popularity relative to April.

  

  Books and podcasts were the only two categories to capture more interest from Millennials over the time period. It’s also worth noting that the percentage of respondents who said “none” for media consumption rose to 20.3%, up significantly from 9.1% in April.

  Possible factors for the increase in “none” responses include easing government restrictions and a return to more normal work schedules.

  Gen X

  The media consumption habits of Gen X developed similarly to Millennials over the year.

  

  Broadcast TV and online press saw the largest declines over the time period, while once again, podcasts and books were the only two categories to capture more interest relative to April. The percentage of respondents reporting “none” rose to 28.9%—a slightly higher share than that of Millennials.

  Boomers

  Media consumption trends among Baby Boomers were mixed, with some categories increasing and others decreasing since April. Broadcast TV saw the biggest decline in usage of all media types, but remained the most popular category for this cohort.

  

  Boomers also had the largest share of “none” respondents in both studies (23.0% in April and 31.0% in December).

  Where do Americans Go For Trustworthy News?

  To learn more about American media consumption—particularly when it came to staying updated on the pandemic—survey respondents were asked to confirm which of the following sources they found trustworthy.

  

  The deviations between each generation don’t appear to be too drastic, but there are some key takeaways from this data.

  For starters, Gen Z appears to be more skeptical of mainstream news channels like CNN, with only 28.9% believing them to be trustworthy. This contrasts the most with Gen X, which saw 40.1% of its respondents give news channels the thumbs up.

  This story is flipped when we turn to the World Health Organization (WHO). Gen Z demonstrated the highest levels of trust in information published by WHO, at 50.3% of respondents. Only 39.0% of Gen X could say the same.

  By far the least trustworthy source was foreign governments’ websites. This category had the lowest average approval rating across the four generations, and scored especially poor with Boomers.

  The Lasting Effects of the Pandemic

  Habits that were picked up during 2020 are likely to linger, even as life finally returns to normal. To find out what’s changed, respondents were asked which categories of media they expected to continue consuming in elevated amounts.

  The chart below shows each generation’s top three responses.

  

  Note that the top three for both Gen Z and Millennials are all digital and online categories (video games can be played offline, but the majority of popular titles are online). This contrasts with the preferences of Gen X and Boomers, who appear to be sticking with more traditional outlets in broadcast TV and books.

  With consumption habits of younger and older Americans moving in opposite directions, advertisers and media companies will likely need a clear understanding of their target audiences in order to be successful.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 15:00

• Celebrating Independence Day With Illegal Fireworks
  Celebrating Independence Day With Illegal Fireworks

  Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Libertarian Institute & Mises.org,

  It’s almost Independence Day, and for many Coloradans, that means a trip to Wyoming to buy illegal fireworks. That is, it’s time to buy fireworks that are illegal in Colorado, but legal in Wyoming.

  In fact, this fact so well known to everyone that Wyoming officials don’t even try to hide the fact. This can be seen in the fact that fireworks stores selling these illegal fireworks are a mere two-minute drive from the border and among the first structures one will encounter driving north on I-25 from northern Colorado. There, in the middle of the prairie, between Cheyenne and the Colorado border, there is little to see other than an RV park and some enormous fireworks shops.

  

  And what do Coloradans do with these fireworks after buying them?

  The local Fox affiliate reports:

  Much of what shoppers find at the Wyoming stores are illegal in Colorado, but that does not dissuade Coloradans from making the drive north to spend money.

  Recently, across the Denver metro, there have been nightly illegal fireworks shows.

  This is true every year, but the use of illegal fireworks may be even more widespread this year after last year’s experience…

  On July 4 of 2020, every fireworks show in metro Denver—and probably also statewide—had been cancelled. The result of this was something that officials probably did not anticipate. With no official fireworks shows to attend, Coloradans apparently decided to hold their own private, illegal fireworks shows in droves. When the sun went down that day, the night sky across the city was lit up like never before by countless airborne—and therefore illegal—fireworks set off by locals who were going to have a fireworks show one way or another.

  The police—who were already on the edge of being reviled thanks to their enforcement of stay-at-home orders and business closures earlier that year—appeared to be unenthusiastic about enforcing the fireworks ban.

  Nor are the police in the business of prosecuting Coloradans who import illegal fireworks into Colorado. There aren’t any cops waiting on the Colorado side of the border to seize contraband. Possession of Wyoming-style illegal fireworks is generally legal in most jurisdictions.

  Here’s where fireworks are and are not legal in Colorado https://t.co/RAZxqmp9AU

  — 9NEWS Denver (@9NEWS) July 1, 2021

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

  But this isn’t just a Colorado-Wyoming issue. Apparently, in spite of severe wildfire danger throughout the West, many Americans aren’t on board with fireworks bans.

  Local officials aren’t unaware. As the AP reported this week,

  Several Utah cities are banning people from setting off their own fireworks this year during the record drought, but many Republicans are against a statewide prohibition. GOP Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton supports restrictions but thinks this year is a bad time for a blanket ban.

  “We’re just coming out of this pandemic where people already felt like government was restricting them in so many ways,” she said. “When you issue bans arbitrarily, we could have a situation where people who weren’t going to light fireworks purposely go and buy fireworks to just send a message to government.”

  There’s a similar mood in other states as well.

  “It’s not just Colorado,” said Ben Laws, manager of Pyro City. “We see people from Nebraska, we see people from Montana, we see people from all over coming to buy.”

  Clearly, the presence of Wyoming and its liberal fireworks laws is a bit of a fly in the ointment for neighboring officials looking to stamp out the use of private fireworks.

  Thanks to America’s relatively decentralized legal and regulatory regime—in some cases such as fireworks—enforcing local bans becomes a whole lot more difficult. As is the case with marijuana—or abortions or, in the past, legal divorces—the legality of something in some states often effectively makes that something a bit less illegal in all the other states.

  So why not ban the possession of fireworks and then arrest locals when they try to cross back over with their banned fireworks? After all, other states have taken this approach with marijuana and Colorado. Law enforcement officials in Nebraska, for instance, have long been on alert for “suspicious” vehicles that have recently crossed over from Colorado. It is illegal to even possess marijuana in most states surrounding Colorado.

  Well, making the possession of fireworks illegal is apparently easier said than done. As Councilwoman Newton in Utah noted, her constituents don’t appear to be in the mood for more bans on activities that many Americans would have considered to be perfectly legal, normal, and moral a year or two ago. In some ways, covid has encouraged lawlessness, because many Americans figured out that the connection between law and morality is a tenuous connection indeed. The proliferation of illegal fireworks may be just another side effect of the covid panic.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 14:35

• "A Horrifying Experience": Lawyer For Driver Of Model S Plaid That Spontaneously Combusted Speaks Out
  “A Horrifying Experience”: Lawyer For Driver Of Model S Plaid That Spontaneously Combusted Speaks Out

  Days ago we wrote about how a Tesla Model S Plaid in the suburbs of Philadelphia was witnessed to be rolling down a street, engulfed in flames, before exploding. At the time, the cause of the accident and the well-being of the driver were both unknown. 

  Today, the owner of the vehicle’s lawyer is speaking out, claiming the vehicle “burst into flames while the owner was driving” it, according to a new report by Reuters. 

  The driver of the vehicle has been identified as an “executive entrepreneur” who is being represented by Mark Geragos, of Geragos & Geragos.

  Geragos said that the driver wasn’t initially able to get out of the vehicle because its “electronic door system failed”, requiring the driver to push and use force to open the door.

  He said the car moved for 35 to 40 feet before “turning into a fireball”. He called it a “harrowing and horrifying experience”.

  

  “This is a brand new model… We are doing an investigation. We are calling for the S Plaid to be grounded, not to be on the road until we get to the bottom of this,” Geragos said. 

  A separate source reported that the Tesla belonged to a top executive at one of Tesla’s biggest investors. The driver was identified in that report as Bart Smith, also called the “Crypto King” by CNBC, who works as the head of the digital asset group at trading firm Susquehanna International.

  Susquehanna owned about $1.1 billion worth of Tesla shares as of March 31, the report noted. 

  Recall, last week we pointed out pro-Tesla blog electrek’s coverage of the incident, where they noted that the vehicle had caught fire under what it called “strange circumstances”. 

  The incident took place in Haverford, Pennsylvania and the the Gladwyne fire department responded to the scene. They released the following statement during the middle of the week last week: 

  “Gladwyne Firefighters responding to the 100 block of Rose Lane last night just before 9pm to assist Station 25 (Merion Fire Company of Ardmore) with a vehicle fire. While enroute to the call Chief 25 was advised that the reports were that a Tesla was on fire and it was well involved in fire. Engine 24 with a crew of 7 arrived on scene simultaneously with Engine 25. Due to prior training classes on Tesla Vehicle Fire emergencies, Engine 24 laid a 5 inch supply line into the scene so that we could keep a continual water stream on the fire to extinguish the fire and cool the batteries down to ensure complete extinguishment. Engine 24 and Engine 25 both deployed hand lines to extinguish the fire, each maintained a dedicated water source and continued to cool the vehicle down for almost 90 minutes.”

  Photographs released by the fire department showed firefighters attempting to put out the blaze, and – as we have seen in many cases of Tesla fires – the charred remains of the vehicle that once was. 

  

  Attempting to offer up some form of analysis, electrek noted at the time that the “exact circumstances of how the vehicle caught on fire are still unknown”.

  But the post also claimed that a witness from Narberth Ambulance, who was working as an EMT in the area and who was on the scene, said that “the call came in from one of the residents of the neighborhood who saw it rolling down the road on fire before exploding in front of their house.”

  The blog post then turned on the spin, theorizing a number of potential causes for the fire except for negligence on the behalf of Tesla.

  “In this case, the most interesting thing is that the vehicle affected appears to be a brand new Model S Plaid, which is equipped with a new battery pack from Tesla,” electrek editor Fred Lambert wrote, possible unaware of the argument he’s tacitly making. 

  

  He concluded by stating the blog would wait for more information before drawing conclusions, and then suggests that “even arson” may have played a role in the fire.

  We’re sure Mr. Geragos will help you find the narrative going forward, Fred. Tesla has yet to comment further, according to Reuters. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 07/03/2021 – 14:14

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