Today’s News 4th July 2024

• Gingrich: The Key 'Lessons In Liberty'
  Gingrich: The Key ‘Lessons In Liberty’

  Authored by Newt Gingrich via RealClearPolicy,

  Historic leaders often share something important in common. They are not born great. Their greatness is a result of a lifetime of difficulty and consequential choices.

  

  As Jeremy S. Adams discussed in his book, “Lessons in Liberty,” this is especially true for remarkable Americans. In the book, Adams details the inspiring lives of extraordinary Americans and what we can learn from them today.

  George Washington, for example, struggled his entire life to keep his temper under control. This lifelong effort made him a model for discipline and restraint. Clara Barton nursed her badly injured brother back to health when she was only 11 years old. This harrowing experience later equipped her with the skills and bravery to serve as a nurse in the Civil War. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye was a 17-year-old Japanese American who lived in Hawaii when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The sneak attack angered him so much he joined the U.S. Army to fight in World War II.  Despite discrimination and hardship from the U.S. government, Inouye became a highly decorated soldier and longtime U.S. Senator.

  I spoke with Adams about his book on a recent episode of Newt’s World. He is a serious scholar and educator. He teaches social studies and political science to highschoolers and students at the University of California at Bakersfield. He was the Daughters of the American Revolution 2014 California Teacher of the Year and a finalist for the Carlston Family Foundation Outstanding Teachers of America Award.

  We talked about the personal wisdom of Washington, Barton, Inouye, and other extraordinary Americans. Adams said in his book that Americans need to “honor what is honorable, praise what is praiseworthy, and most of all, emulate which is highest and best, so we can take advantage of the miracle of human freedom.” While no historic figure is perfect, their fallibility makes them so worthy of our study.

  Unfortunately, many young students in America are not learning about our great historical figures. Forty percent of Gen-Z members characterize the founding fathers as villains. Fifty percent of high schoolers say that their lives have little to no meaning, and only 52 percent of Americans would be willing to fight to defend the country.

  Something disturbing is happening in classrooms across our country. Our nation’s young people are being influenced by viewpoints, values, and behaviors of people who hate America and the principles on which it was founded. As President Ronald Reagan said, “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Each generation has a duty to renew and protect America and its values.

  As we discussed on the podcast, America is also bigger than a singular party. It is bigger than any ideology. We are more than just Republicans or Democrats. We were more than federalists or anti-federalists. We are all Americans. The 10 men and women Adams discussed in his book were from different time periods and backgrounds. Some were liberal and some were conservative. But they all worked to make America great.

  Importantly, none of them were personally born great. Their greatness was a choice. That is the key lesson of liberty.

  For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 23:25

• Inside The Chinese Money-Laundering Network Fueling America's Fentanyl Crisis
  Inside The Chinese Money-Laundering Network Fueling America’s Fentanyl Crisis

  It’s worth noting that 100,000 Americans die in drug-related deaths per year, the vast majority from pills cooked with fentanyl, an opioid analog 50 times more potent than heroin. Every six months, the US drug death catastrophe eclipses the Vietnam War.

  Fueling the fentanyl epidemic across the US are Chinese money launderers helping international drug traffickers, like Mexican cartels. Capital flight from China is not a new phenomenon, but in recent years, the scale of these transfers, washed through the drug trade, has become very alarming.

  

  Paul Murphy from the Financial Times has provided the most straightforward explanation yet of the new Chinese money laundering network fueling America’s fentanyl crisis: 

  First, understand that Chinese nationals are barred from transferring more than $50,000 out of China each year. And yet, as you are surely aware, there are many many Chinese nationals living very comfortable lives in the west, as students perhaps, or tourists, or simply not working.

  Now understand that Mexican drug cartels are harvesting untold billions of dollars, in cash, selling drugs in North America — and that the pill of the moment is fentanyl, which kills about 70,000 people a year in the US.

  The chemicals to make fentanyl come from China. These are shipped to Mexico by otherwise legit Chinese chemical manufacturers.

  In Mexico, the cartels turn the chemicals into pills and smuggle these north across the border, where they are sold for cash — dollar bills that then need to be cleaned.

  Murphy continued:

  Meanwhile, in New York for instance, there will be a Chinese student attending an educational establishment, where the fees will be circa $66,000 a year, books and extras another $10,000, food and lodging costs of maybe $5,000 a month, or a lot more.

  The $50,000 Chinese transfer cap doesn’t cover these things, so she will go on WeChat and broadcast a message to her network of friends saying: “I need dollars in New York to meet my outgoings. Can anyone help?”

  In due course, someone associated with what is a very efficient Chinese underground banking system will get in touch and tell the student to meet a courier at a preordained time and place, typically a park in Brooklyn. There, the student will be handed a bundle of cash.

  Back in China, the parents of the student will then be asked to transfer the same amount of money (plus commission) to an account that will eventually make its way to the chemical company that produced the precursor ingredients for fentanyl, settling the outstanding bill for the Mexican drug cartel.

  Murphy explained, “Drug addicts in the US are facilitating the Western education of Chinese youth, as well as helping to fund the lifestyles of other Chinese nations living outside China.” 

  He provided a flow chart showing how the complex laundering system works. 

  

  In a separate report last week, FT’s Joe Miller and James Kynge published an in-depth analysis of the Chinese-Mexican laundering network in a report titled “The new money laundering network fuelling the fentanyl crisis.”

  The report sheds light on the less understood part of the money laundering operation — the demand for dollars from wealthy Chinese individuals. While capital flight from China is not new, the methods have become increasingly creative, involving chemical companies that, in turn, have fueled America’s opioid epidemic.

  “The levels of capital flight in the past three years have been quite alarming,” one senior Chinese official told FT, adding, “Some wealthy private entrepreneurs are losing confidence in China’s future. They feel unsafe, so they find ways to get their money out.”

  Brad Setser, a former US Treasury official and an expert on global capital flows at the Council on Foreign Relations, estimated that capital flight from China is running at an annualized rate of about $516 billion as of 1Q24. This figure was even higher in the 3Q22, reaching almost $738 billion. 

  “The whole system of drug trafficking is being sustained by a network of clandestine [Chinese] money brokers,” said Giovanni Melillo, the chief prosecutor for Italy’s National Anti-Mafia and Terrorism Directorate. His office has been coordinating laundering probes across Italy this past year.  

  Previous cases of money laundering in the US involving Chinese nationals have raised serious questions about how much Beijing knows about these dark laundering networks. For instance, a recent Wall Street Journal report revealed that Chinese crime groups and drug traffickers used the Toronto-Dominion Bank to launder money from US fentanyl sales. 

  In mid-April, the House Select Committee on China revealed that the Chinese Communist Party used tax rebates to subsidize the manufacturing and exporting of fentanyl chemicals to overseas customers. 

  The biggest mystery here is why the Biden administration hasn’t taken a tougher stance on China while America’s fentanyl epidemic kills as many citizens each year as two Vietnam Wars.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 22:50

• Crime Trends Have Been Tough To Track. Breaking Down The 10 Biggest Cities
  Crime Trends Have Been Tough To Track. Breaking Down The 10 Biggest Cities

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

  Is crime rising or falling across the United States? National crime trends have been difficult to track in recent years because of changes in the way that police departments report their statistics to the FBI.

  

  But by examining crime data from large police departments individually, a clearer pattern emerges.

  The Epoch Times’ analysis of data going back several years shows that while the major crime spike that plagued the United States’ largest cities has ebbed, crime rates are still exceeding numbers from before the 2020 summer of protests and riots.

  Car theft, in particular, has remained high. Robbery, on the other hand, has declined significantly in some large cities.

  The analysis has focused on the top 10 most populous cities and the four offenses of murder, robbery, aggravated assault, and car theft, which tend to be the most reliably reported to the police, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.

  New York City, Pop. 8.2 Million

  The country’s largest city suffered a surge in violence starting in mid-2020 as a wave of protests and riots hit the country following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.

  Shootings doubled that year, with more than 1,850 wounded or killed. Car theft, after dwindling for decades, shot up by 66 percent, NYPD data show.

  Crime continued to rise in 2021, with 488 people murdered—the most in a decade.

  In 2022, murder declined by about 10 percent, but instances of other serious crimes kept increasing. Car theft was up by more than 150 percent from 2019. Major theft (of items worth more than $1,000 in value) and felony assaults reached numbers unseen since the 1990s.

  Violent crime subsided a step further in 2023. Murder dropped by another 11 percent but was still more than 20 percent above the pre-2020 numbers. Meanwhile, car thefts and felony assaults went up again.

  This year, so far, murder appears to be further receding, though still holding stubbornly 20 percent above 2019 numbers for the same period. Robberies and felony assaults, however, are both up from last year and more than 40 percent above 2019 levels. Car theft has eased up, yet the rate is still double that of 2019.

  Los Angeles, Pop. 3.8 Million

  Los Angeles is following a similar trajectory to New York City. Crime surged in 2020 and continued to rise until 2022, aside from murder, which peaked in 2021 with 401 fatalities—the worst since 2006.

  Based on incomplete data, crime seems to have declined a bit in 2023, although murder is still 30 percent above the 2019 level, felony assault is up by about 17 percent, and car theft is up by more than 70 percent.

  

  This year, it appears that the LAPD hasn’t been releasing its weekly crime reports. A spokesman reached by phone said the department is switching to a new system so the reports aren’t available.

  The department provided some figures for this year up to June 22: Violent crime had been up by 3.5 percent from the same period in 2023, and so was murder. Robberies were up by 18.5 percent, and burglaries up by 4.2 percent. Property crime dropped by 3.1 percent.

  Chicago, Pop. 2.7 Million

  Chicago experienced a giant spike in murder in 2016. But by 2019, it had just about managed to get it under control. Then 2020 hit and, just as with other cities, violence exploded anew and continued upward in 2021, which resulted in 811 murders—the most since 1995.

  Since 2022, murders have decreased, but other crime has continued to rise. So far this year, murder is up by 20 percent compared with the same period in 2019, robbery is up by 40 percent, aggravated battery is up by 4 percent, and car theft is up by 150 percent. Last year, nearly 30,000 cars were stolen in Chicago—the most since at least the year 2000.

  Houston, Pop. 2.3 Million

  Houston was still trying to contain a wave of violence that started in 2015 when another wave hit in 2020. The following year, in 2021, the city recorded 471 murders, making for its highest homicide rate since 1994.

  The violence has eased since then, but last year’s murders still outpaced 2019 by more than 20 percent.

  In the first four months of this year, murders seem to have further abated, although aggravated assaults are still nearly 20 percent above the same period in 2019 and car theft is almost 50 percent higher.

  Robberies, on the other hand, have been on a steady decline since 2019—down by 25 percent in 2023.

  

  Phoenix, Pop. 1.6 Million

  Phoenix followed much the same trajectory, with a spike in violence in 2016, another increase in 2020, and a peak in 2022 when 217 people were killed, making for the city’s highest murder rate since 2007.

  In 2023, violence somewhat declined, but car theft jumped by 22 percent.

  In the first quarter of this year, the city managed another reduction in murders because of a particularly calm March, with five murders. Car thefts and aggravated assaults barely budged, though, and robberies are up by 17 percent compared with the first quarter of 2023.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 22:15

• Bidenomics: Man Sparks Internet Outrage After Paying $9.35 For A Diet Coke At Six Flags
  Bidenomics: Man Sparks Internet Outrage After Paying $9.35 For A Diet Coke At Six Flags

  Just when you’ve thought you’ve seen the worst, most egregious examples of inflation rearing its head, we give you: Six Flags.

  The theme park was in the news this week after a customer went viral for spending $9 for a single Diet Coke at the park’s concessions, as was reported by DailyDot. 

  Guyset (@theguyset) posted a viral video on TikTok expressing shock over paying $9.35 for a Diet Coke at Six Flags, showing his receipt as proof. Despite the high price, he bought it. He noted in the caption that both he and the cashier were stunned by the cost.

  Other TikTokers shared similar experiences of high prices at amusement parks, concerts, and airports. One user recalled paying $12 for M&Ms at a concert, while another mentioned spending $15 on a small bag of jerky at an airport.

  

  Many users shared their outrage over Six Flags’ prices. One mentioned paying $10 for a bottle of water, while another noted that at Kings Dominion, a slice of pizza and a breadstick cost $17.

  A TikToker highlighted similar issues at other parks, citing an $85 bill for 2 hotdogs, 2 slices of pizza, and 3 drinks at Sesame Place for a family of four.

  To emphasize the price difference, one user pointed out spending just $4.48 for three 2-liter bottles at a grocery store. Another suggested a hack for staying hydrated at theme parks: buy refillable cups or get a membership that includes refills.

  In the comments section, people also lamented the price of items at places like airports. Recall last week we just wrote that Philadelphia’s airport had caused an “outrage” after slapping a hidden 3% surcharge on all concession items. 

  According to the report the surcharge is  “to offset the employee wages and benefits” that must be paid to airport workers, but none of the money actually goes to employees. 

  View From The Wing then asks the astute question: “You might ask, why allow vendors to charge people more than the marked prices, instead of just raising prices?”

  And you already know the answer, right? It’s because the airport doesn’t let them raise prices, stating that “operators are only permitted to charge up to 15% more than a comparable street-side unit”.

  What’s Six Flags’ excuse?

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 21:40

• From Milk-Runs To MAD To Madness
  From Milk-Runs To MAD To Madness

  Authored by George Ford Smith via The Mises Institute,

  There are no secrets about the world of nature. There are secrets about the thoughts and intentions of men.

  – J. Robert Oppenheimer

  No big deal, it was just “a milk run.”

  

  So remarked Paul Tibbets Jr., pilot of the Enola Gay, a United States B-29 Superfortress, describing his trip to Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. His cargo that early morning was an atomic bomb called “Little Boy,” which bombardier Major Thomas Ferebee released when the plane was directly over the city. Forty-three seconds later and with pilot and crew watching, “Little Boy” exploded above ground. Their job finished, the Enola Gay returned to base on Tinian Island.

  Yes, just a milk run.

  Others saw it differently. War correspondent John Hersey published a long article in the New Yorker on August 23, 1946, detailing the experience of those far enough from the center of the explosion to have recollections. No milk runs here:

  As Mrs. Nakamura stood watching her neighbor, everything flashed whiter than any white she had ever seen. She did not notice what happened to the man next door; the reflex of a mother set her in motion toward her children. She had taken a single step (the house was 1,350 yards, or three-quarters of a mile, from the center of the explosion) when something picked her up and she seemed to fly into the next room over the raised sleeping platform, pursued by parts of her house.

  In case you’re a visitor from another galaxy and find this disturbing, most earth dwellers believe the “Little Boy” mission was an act of mercy. According to the accepted math, the instantaneous mass murder saved lives. So strong was this belief that the plutonium “Fat Man” bomb followed up on August 9 in Nagasaki, marking the last time a nuclear weapon was used in war. Meanwhile, on August 8, the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, storming Japanese-held Manchuria with 1.6 million troops.

  The Japanese fight-to-the-death attitude weakened. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on August 15, followed by the formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri on September 2.

  As the first to inaugurate nuclear war, the Enola Gay crew had done their job—as ordered. Most of them agreed they were saving lives, but incinerating a city full of people as a life-saving exercise desperately needed context. Galactic visitors would be confused, but here on earth it was plainly necessary to put a quick end to a bloody engagement humans call war. Radar operator Joe Stiborik recalled the stunned silence on the flight back to Tinian, pierced by one outburst: “My God, what have we done!”

  If you have a superweapon, it does you no good if you lack the nerve to use it. And the US was driven to develop one out of fear Germany might already be working on one of its own.

  How it should be used varied among those at the top of the food chain. As Ralph Raico has written, “The bombings were condemned as barbaric and unnecessary by high American military officers, including Eisenhower and MacArthur.”

  Dwight D. Eisenhower, in fact, believed “Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary. . . . Japan was, at that very moment [prior to Hiroshima], seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of ‘face.’” But Truman ruled. It was his call. A half million or more American lives would be spared if a planned US invasion could be avoided. Yet, as Raico points out, that estimate was “nearly twice the total of US dead in all theaters in the Second World War.” Who was checking the math?

  Attempts to Avoid a Nuclear Strike

  At the Potsdam Conference in Germany (July 17 to August 2, 1945), Truman issued a Declaration, supported by Great Britain and China, demanding the Japanese surrender unconditionally or else he would order the “prompt and utter devastation” of their homeland. But he didn’t mention the horrific twenty-one kiloton Trinity Test on July 16 or the Soviet Union’s plans to invade Manchuria. Nor did he tell the Japanese their emperor would be safe from prosecution as a war criminal. Full disclosure might well have prompted Japan to surrender without an American invasion and without dropping the bombs.

  The scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project varied sharply in their views about attacking Japan. The Franck Committee, headed by Nobel Prize–winning physicist James Franck, opposed a surprise attack on Japan and recommended instead a demonstration in an uninhabited area. They also raised the issue of trust. How does the benevolent ethics of the West align with nuclear mass murder? Was it possible the US would get the “reputation of outdoing Hitler in atrocities,” as Secretary of War Henry Stimson asked Truman.

  Director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team agreed that regarding the bomb, “We see no acceptable alternative to direct military use.”

  But Oppenheimer’s feelings of elation following Trinity and the bombing of Hiroshima three weeks later changed after the bombing of Nagasaki, which he found unnecessary from a military perspective. On the contrary, he was a “nervous wreck” after the second attack on August 9, 1945, and distressed by the growing reports of casualties.

  On the morning of October 25, 1945, the “father of the atomic bomb” met with President Harry Truman in the Oval Office. “Mr. President, I have blood on my hands,” Oppenheimer blurted, to which Truman in one version of the story (and in the 2023 movie) mockingly offered him a handkerchief.

  Oppenheimer, who admitted to being a fellow traveler with the Communist Party and was often accused of being a member, saw a future dominated by superweapons a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb. Above all, he wanted to control nuclear weapons’ development and avoid an arms race with the Soviets.

  But the race was already well underway. “After scientists in Germany experimentally split the uranium atom in 1938, [Hungarian-German physicist Leo] Szilard became deeply concerned about idea of Hitler obtaining an atomic bomb first and began raising alarm bells among his personal connections.”

  Szilard and Albert Einstein both became so disturbed that they composed a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, urging him to start a program in the US among physicists working on chain reactions. Szilard, according to his biographer, had “worked frantically to start the very arms race he had feared.”

  But with states, an arms race is one of their most conspicuous features.

  Truman had never heard of the Manhattan Project until he was sworn into office and thought the Soviets would never catch up. Stalin, though, with his Manhattan Project spies, was far ahead of him.

  At Potsdam, after hearing of the success of Trinity, Truman sauntered over to Stalin after a meeting and said, the “United States had a new weapon of unusual destructive force.” Stalin kept a poker face and replied, in effect, good for you. According to Truman’s Russian interpreter Charles E. Bohlen, “Years later, [Soviet] Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, in his memoirs, disclosed that that night Stalin ordered a telegram sent to those working on the atomic bomb in Russia to hurry with the job.”

  The Reign of Absolute Madness

  How much destructive force the superpowers need to maintain deterrence has varied over the decades, though according to a 2012 study by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “Just 100 nuclear detonations of the size that struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki would usher in a planetary nuclear winter, which would drop temperatures lower than they were in the Little Ice Age (1300–1850).” The Little Ice Age was characterized by widespread famine.

  According to the Nuclear Notebook of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Department of Defense in 2023 had 3,708 nuclear warheads, whereas Russia, as of early 2022, had 4,477 nuclear warheads.

  Today’s doomsday weapons far out-annihilate “Little Boy” that killed an estimated seventy thousand people, most of them civilians. The world has lived with increasingly powerful nuclear weapons for so long they no longer arouse the attention they deserve. A handful of state overlords of questionable conscience will decide whether you will be alive in the next second or drift away like chimney soot.

  During an informal gathering in 1950, Enrico Fermi, a leading physicist and member of the Manhattan Project in Chicago, posed a question that puzzled his fellow scientists: Where is everybody?

  He was referring to the “contradiction between the seemingly high likelihood for the emergence of extraterrestrial intelligence and the lack of evidence for its existence.” Specifically, “Given that our solar system is quite young compared to the rest of the universe—roughly 4.5 billion years old, compared to 13.8 billion—and that interstellar travel might be fairly easy to achieve given enough time, Earth should have been visited by aliens already.”

  Since then, almost everyone has kicked in a reply. One I find chilling is this: Given enough time, intelligent life self-destructs.

  It’s a hypothesis that by its nature precludes validation.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 21:05

• Watch: Dramatic Video Shows Russia Repelling Drone Boat Attack On Key Port
  Watch: Dramatic Video Shows Russia Repelling Drone Boat Attack On Key Port

  Russia’s defense ministry (MoD) on Wednesday published some rare and intense footage of a Ukrainian naval suicide drones which got close to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

  The speedboat-type drones were approaching the coast in the darkness of the early morning hours when Russian Navy assets opened up heavy machine gun and rocket fire on the vessels. Watch the footage released by the MoD:

  #War Footage of a night attack by🇺🇦USV on 🇷🇺warships in the port of Novorossiysk. pic.twitter.com/SiaaQTn1H5

  — Capt(N) (@Capt_Navy) July 3, 2024

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

  “Two unmanned boats travelling in the direction of Novorossiysk were destroyed in the waters of the Black Sea,” the defense ministry stated on Telegram.

  The inbound drones didn’t cause any damage to the port or naval assets docked there, the statement confirmed, and at least one suffered direct hit from the hail of Russian fire, having caught fire and exploded, according to the released footage.

  The return automatic weapons fire from the military port was so intense that it may have damaged buildings in the area, as Russian media notes that—

  “City officials closed the area close to the embankment in response to the incident. Mayor Andrey Kravchenko reported in the morning that minor damage was caused to an apartment and two commercial properties, but nobody was hurt in the incident.”

  This isn’t the first time Novorossiysk has been targeted, as it came under major drone attack also in May.

  It is likely a focal point for Ukraine’s military given its role as a major export route for Russian oil, as well as coal, fertilizer, grain, and timber.

  

  Ukraine has been ramping up cross-border drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure as conflict spillover risks soar. Kiev and its Western backers aim to paralyze one of Russia’s most important industries: oil refining.

  Last month, Ukrainian drone attacks damaged several oil storage facilities. Shortly before that in May, two other refineries in southern Russia, including Rosneft’s large Tuapse facility on the Black Sea, were targeted.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 20:30

• Anti-Slavery California Ballot Measure Would Ban Forced Prison Labor
  Anti-Slavery California Ballot Measure Would Ban Forced Prison Labor

  Authored by Summer Lane via The Epoch Times,

  A measure seeking to ban forced prison labor and formally prohibit slavery in California will be on the November ballot.

  

  Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 8 would change the California Constitution to prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from disciplining any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment. It would also prohibit “slavery in any form.”

  “Forced labor has no redeeming qualities and is inconsistent with California’s respect for human dignity,” the amendment reads.

  The measure was introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Lori Wilson in February 2023. It passed June 27 in the Senate with only three opposition votes from Republican Sens. Brian Dahle, Roger Niello, and Kelly Seyarto.

  Their offices were not available for comment.

  The measure passed the same day 68–0 in the Assembly.

  “This historic measure will now be presented to the voters of California, giving them the power to decide on ending slavery and involuntary servitude in our state Constitution,” Ms. Wilson said in a statement Thursday after the two votes.

  ACLU California Action argued in a position statement, in favor of the amendment, that the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution failed in abolishing slavery.

  “Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in involuntary servitude due to an ‘exception clause’ that allows free labor for punishment of a crime,” they wrote.

  The possible amendment of the California Constitution is part of the “Reparations Priority Bill Package” introduced by the California Legislative Black Caucus in January.

  The package includes 14 bills centered on civil rights, criminal justice reform, and health and business matters for black Californians written in response to a 2023 report from the state’s Reparations Task Force, tasked by the Legislature to survey “ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans as a result of slavery.”

  The report offered statewide reparations recommendations.

  Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, an advocacy group working to end what it calls structural racism in the justice system, has also supported ACA 8.

  “For the first time in California’s tarnished history around slavery, Black Americans and Indigenous people will be able to vote against slavery,” the organization wrote in a statement.

  Although the bill had broad support among lawmakers, there are some criticisms.

  Brian James, a former California state prison inmate who spent 29 years behind bars after being convicted of second-degree murder, said he disagrees with the measure.

  “I believe work should be enforced,” he told The Epoch Times July 2.

  Released in 2022, Mr. James, who also recently appeared on EpochTV’s “California Insider” on the topic of prison life, said working was an integral part of being incarcerated and said inmates are needed to do tasks like yard maintenance, plumbing work, electrical work, and cooking.

  “Inmates run the entire facility,” he said.

  Most convicted persons enter prison and are assigned jobs based on their education and experience, he said.

  “If you don’t have a high school diploma, they will put you in school,” he said.

  He described prison labor as “a point of dignity” rather than slavery. He also highlighted the “value of work” and said prisoners were “supposed to [be] gaining the skills to go back into society.”

  The ballot measure needs more than a 50 percent yes vote to pass.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 19:55

• Egypt Teeters On Brink Of Economic Ruin As Public Debt Mounts, Poverty Rate Soars
  Egypt Teeters On Brink Of Economic Ruin As Public Debt Mounts, Poverty Rate Soars

  Via Middle East Eye

  Last autumn, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi gave a speech in the New Administrative Capital in Cairo, the $300bn project that will ultimately define his presidency. 

  He said hunger was a small price to pay for progress: “If progress, prosperity and development come at the price of hunger and deprivation, Egyptians, do not shy away from progress! Don’t dare say: ‘It is better to eat.'” This horrifying vision of hunger and deprivation is what awaits millions of Egyptians in the coming years. 

  

  A decade after ascending to the presidency, Sisi has pushed the economy to the brink of collapse. The symptoms are everywhere. A severe debt crisis is strangling the state budget, the economy is heavily militarized, billions have been invested in white elephants with dubious economic benefits, and the crown jewels of the Egyptian public sector are up for sale to meet mounting debt obligations. 

  This all stems from the military’s desire to consolidate power and wealth in its own hands at any cost. This will have dire consequences that will be felt for generations – and recovery will take a mammoth effort.

  Millions more people have been pushed into poverty in recent years, a trend that is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. In 2022, the poverty rate reached 33 percent, up from 26 percent in 2012/13, as the regime continues its policy of shifting the costs of the debt crisis onto the poor and middle classes. 

  The most obvious manifestation of this is the regime’s austerity measures – most crucially, the 300 percent increase in the price of subsided bread, the staple food for the most vulnerable people, which was announced in May. 

  Transferring wealth

  This comes on the heels of price hikes for basic commodities, announced by the government in January. These measures are part of a comprehensive policy designed to transfer wealth from the poor and middle classes to the regime elites and their creditors. 

  The logic is simple: increased spending on mega-projects, financed by high-interest debt, has allowed the military to rapidly expand its economic footprint, while the repayment of debt is financed through the appropriation of public resources, which is in turn financed by a regressive taxation system. 

  This creates a diabolical cycle of structural poverty that is very difficult to escape. A cursory look at the current budget highlights this trend, with the main source of tax revenue deriving from a regressive consumption tax, yielding 828 billion Egyptian pounds ($17bn); in second position comes the tax collected from corporate profits, standing at a mere 239 billion pounds ($5bn). It is worth noting that 62 percent of budgetary expenditures will be consumed by debt obligations.

  The increase in poverty will be accompanied by another structural transformation, namely the increased peripheralization of the Egyptian economy, which will become even more vulnerable to external shocks and to the goodwill of the regime’s allies. 

  The figures from the past decade are a testament to this. Despite a spending spree that has consumed hundreds of billions of dollars, the competitiveness of the Egyptian economy has not improved, nor has its industrial base. The contribution of the industrial sector to the GDP fell from around 40 percent in 2013 to 33 percent in 2022, a dramatic drop. 

  In terms of export performance, Egypt’s current account balance remains firmly in negative territory, deteriorating from minus two percent in 2013, to an expected minus six percent in 2024, based on data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This negative trend is expected to continue until at least 2029, based on the IMF’s available forecast. 

  Financing gap

  This means that in the medium term, pressure will continue on the country’s foreign reserves, which in turn will apply pressure on the deteriorating value of the pound. The situation is compounded by the debt crisis, which is consuming much of the state budget, making public investments to increase economic competitiveness very unlikely. 

  Indeed, the debt burden is so large that even after receiving more than $50bn in recent loans and investment, the financing gap is still estimated to stand at $28.5bn. This means that in the foreseeable future, the Egyptian economy will require continued external support, in the form of loans and investments, in order to maintain a semblance of stability. 

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  The most notable example is the $35bn investment by the UAE, announced in February, which was critical for avoiding a possible default or debt restructuring – that is, assuming the regime will be able to rein in public spending and put the brakes on its cronyism. Unfortunately, there are signs that this is not the case. 

  In May, the Egyptian army’s Engineering Authority announced its intention to continue with the third phase of the South Valley development project, which aims to reclaim around 40,000 to 60,000 acres by 2025. It is worth noting that in spite of several large reclamation projects of this kind, the contribution of agriculture to the country’s GDP dropped from around 11.3 percent in 2013 to 11 percent in 2022.  

  Thus, in all likelihood, the Egyptian economy’s dependence on external capital flows is set to deepen, leaving it susceptible to external shocks, the fickleness of regional politics, and the whims of international financial markets.

  Grave consequences

  The increased influence of Gulf capital in the Egyptian economy comes with grave economic consequences. Last September, an Emirati firm acquired a 30 percent stake in the government-owned Eastern Company, which controls 70 percent of the country’s tobacco market. The deal was valued $625m. The UAE has also financed the sale of a number of historic hotels for $800m. 

  This trend will only deepen the structural dependence of the Egyptian economy by depriving the government of important sources of pubic revenue, further straining public finances. This will continue to erode living standards, weaken the pound and send inflation soaring, while also strengthening the political alliance between the regime and its Gulf backers, creating further obstacles for the prospects of democratisation or improvements to workers’ rights.

  The future of the Egyptian economy seems grim. Even if the prospect of debt default has subsided for now, the consequences of a decade of foolish economic policy have not. 

  The ongoing process of peripheralization will enrich a number of local elites, who will align themselves with these new realities. This is not limited to military elites, who will continue to benefit from the inflow of loans and capital, but it will also include civilian elites – the most notable example being Hisham Talaat Moustafa, an Egyptian real-estate tycoon and convicted murderer with close connections to the UAE. A partner in the historic hotels deals, his company’s profits reportedly jumped in the first quarter of 2024 by 220 percent.  

  Egypt is now undergoing a mass structural transformation, with millions of people plunged into poverty and wealth accumulating in the hands of a few, namely the military elites and their cronies. This transformation will have long-term consequences that are extremely difficult to predict. What is clear, however, is that the economic damage done by the regime goes beyond the debt crisis – and it will take years to reverse.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 19:20

• Explosion Rocks General Dynamics' Hellfire & Javelin Missile Factory In Arkansas
  Explosion Rocks General Dynamics’ Hellfire & Javelin Missile Factory In Arkansas

  An early Wednesday morning explosion rocked the General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems facility in Camden, Arkansas, injuring at least two people and leaving one person missing.

  Local media outlet Camden News quoted General Dynamics in a statement as saying: 

  “Today at 8:15 am CDT, an incident involving pyrotechnics occurred at the General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems facility in Camden, Arkansas. At this time, we are working with first responders and can confirm the incident resulted in at least two injuries and one missing individual.”

  The 880,000-square-foot weapons factory, located about 86 miles south of Little Rock, is a “leader in the high-rate production” of weapons, including “Hydra-70 2.75-inch rocket, Hellfire and Javelin missiles, the Modular Artillery Charge System and various mortar munitions,” according to the defense firm’s website. 

  

  Berkley Whaley, General Dynamics’ spokesperson, told local media outlet Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the incident was related to “pyrotechnics” and clarified that it indicated explosives.

  Alleged video of the incident surfaced on X this afternoon. 

  BREAKING: An explosion took place at a General Dynamics plant in Arkansas, a manufacturer of military and aerospace equipment. pic.twitter.com/8eTx2TC8Ud

  — The General (@GeneralMCNews) July 3, 2024

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  Whaley declined to answer questions about whether the facility had been damaged, citing an ongoing investigation. 

  Meanwhile, US defense companies have been ramping up weapons production (read: here) to arm Ukraine and Israel and replenish depleted Pentagon stocks. There is no word yet on how the disruption in Camden will affect overall US supplies of Hellfire and Javelin missiles. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 18:45

• Putin & Xi Meet Again, Plot Countering US, While White House Consumed With Crisis Of Biden's Decline
  Putin & Xi Meet Again, Plot Countering US, While White House Consumed With Crisis Of Biden’s Decline

  In their second face-to-face meeting in as many months, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that “Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation are in the best period of their history.” Russian state media subsequently likened it to a golden age in relations.

  The two are meeting once again at the annual session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which runs Wednesday through Thursday in the Kazakh capital of Astana. “Russia-China relations are on the highest level in history, and they are not aimed against anyone, we do not create blocs or unions, we just act in the interests of our nations,” Putin stressed.

  

  And Xi told Putin in brief opening remarks, “In the face of the turbulent international situation and external environment, the two sides should continue to uphold the original aspiration of friendship for generations to come.”

  Still, the reality is that the two are coming closer based ultimately on countering the US, while also vying for influence among other Central Asian SCO bloc countries, which includes the ex-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Those are among the founding members alongside Russian and China, while India and Pakistan joined in 2017, and Iran was welcomed as the newest member last year.

  Collectively the SCO countries account for some 20% of global GDP, and importantly many of them have remained uncooperative with US-led sanctions related to punishing Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

  “I would like to recall that our countries were behind the creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” Putin continued in his remarks to Xi. He said the SCO has “strengthened its role as one of the key pillars of a fair multipolar world order.”

  The bloc is looking to expand in the coming years and decades, as currently over a dozen countries hold SCO dialogue-partner status, allowing them also to be observers at the summit. Belarus is a notable close ally of Russia’s which is soon set to join. It too is under US and EU sanctions related to the war in Ukraine, given its close defense cooperation with Moscow.

  Some social media commenters have underscored that the world is laughing at the US amid the chaos and controversy over Biden’s physical and mental capabilities…

  Our Commander in Chief is a vegetable, being advised by a crackhead, and about to be replaced by a diversity hire.

  MEANWHILE, Putin and Xi are at the SCO Summit in Kazakhstan, planning how to “bolster security and counter the US”.

  They are licking their chops, while we implode. pic.twitter.com/MzJex6naFZ

  — Clandestine (@WarClandestine) July 3, 2024

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

  Meanwhile there are reports that Xi told the conference that China is on the “right side of history” in Ukraine. This is not the first time he’s said this phrase (for example, he also said it back in March of 2023), but it comes at a moment Ukraine’s President Zelensky has been urging that China take a lead role in achieving ceasefire and peace.

  Zelensky’s office has reiterated this week, however, that the “value of any plan lies in the nuances and in taking into account the real state of affairs on the ground.” China has long had its own Ukraine peace formula published, yet it has maintained that any legitimate international peace summit must include Russian representation to be impactful (the recent Swiss-hosted summit did not).

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 18:10

• From Big Cities To Small Town Main Streets, America To Celebrate July 4 In Record Style
  From Big Cities To Small Town Main Streets, America To Celebrate July 4 In Record Style

  Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times,

  Americans are projected to travel in record numbers, spend more than ever, and endure searing temperatures and violent thunderstorms in many areas when they commemorate the nation’s 248th Independence Day on Thursday.

  

  Heat and storms aside, they will, nevertheless, celebrate.

  From Boston’s Harborfest to San Diego’s Big Bay Boom, from Seattle’s Seafair to Miami’s Celebration in Peacock Park, on small town Main Streets and in neighborhood backyards between, there will be patriots on parade, grills blazing, music in the air, and fire in the sky on July 4.

  The red, white, and blue festivities will range from the traditional, such as Philadelphia’s Fourth of July Jam—“the largest free concert in America”—to the quirky, including “Best Tail Wag” in Bryson Creek, North Carolina.

  There will be rodeos—the Cody (Wyoming) Stampede—muskets and cannon in historic reenactments in places like Put-In-Bay, Ohio, a full slate of Major League Baseball games on tap, and, of course barbecues where, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, more than 150 million hot dogs nationwide will be consumed.

  But Joey Chestnut won’t be eating any, at least not competitively. For the first time in 19 years, the 16-time champion won’t be woofing down dogs—he ate 62 in 10 minutes in 2023—in the annual July 4 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.

  Mr. Chestnut was banned from defending his title after signing a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs.

  There should be no such controversy to digest, however, at the July 4 World Famous Key Lime Pie Eating World Championship in Key West, Florida.

  WalletHub’s annual ranking of “best and worst places for 4th of July celebrations” cites Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the top five places to enjoy July 4 festivities.

  But for a less urban, more Main Street USA perspective, American Flags, Inc., based in West Bay Shore, New York, offers the 20 Best Small Town Fourth of July Celebrations where “quaint and quirky” festivities in Flagstaff, Arizona; Lambertville, New Jersey; Homer, Alaska; Virginia City, Nevada; Bristol, Rhode Island; and Washington, Georgia, are among those highlighted.

  More than 11,000 people will officially become Americans on July 4 in 195 naturalization ceremonies between June 28 and July 5 with many symbolically scheduled for July 4, according to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Service.

  Citizens will take the oath on July 4 from Misawa Air Base, Japan, to Mesa, Arizona, to Des Moines, Iowa, to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, to Apopka, Florida.

  

  Fireworks shoot from the Hatch Shell during rehearsal for the annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on the Esplanade in Boston on July 3, 2016. (Michael Dwyer/AP Photo)

  Record Hitting The Road

  According to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Independence Day Data Center, 87 percent of American consumers plan to celebrate the Fourth of July in 2024 and will spend an average of $90.42 each on food items.

  NRF estimates Americans will spend a record $9.4 billion just on food to be eaten on July 4, with 66 percent eating in barbecues and cookouts, 44 percent saying they plan to attend fireworks/community celebrations, 13 percent going to parades, and 12 percent looking forward to getting away from it all for a four-day weekend vacation.

  Another 31 percent of NRF respondents said they would buy “patriotic items” to decorate homes or wear on July 4.

  The American Pyrotechnics Association projected in late June that Americans would spend $2.4 billion during “fireworks season,” which peaks in the days before July 4, nearly $100 million more than last year.

  The average cost of fireworks is down between 5 and 10 percent this year compared to last year, the association said, attributing the decline to lower ocean shipping rates.

  According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only Massachusetts bans all fireworks use by private citizens, meaning the only legal public fireworks displays must be sanctioned and supervised by state or local officials.

  The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimates “more people than ever will be taking to the highways” this July 4th weekend, with 60.6 million traveling by car and 5.74 million flying to destinations.

  That’s up from 57.8 million who traveled by car in 2023 and above the pre-pandemic 55.3 million who traveled via car over the July 4th holiday period in 2019, AAA estimates.

  “With summer vacations in full swing and the flexibility of remote work, more Americans are taking extended trips around Independence Day,” AAA Senior Vice President Paula Twidale said in a statement. “We anticipate this July 4th week will be the busiest ever.”

  The AAA notes that gas prices are slightly lower nationwide this year than last, when the national average was $3.56 a gallon. That average this year was $3,50 a gallon as of June 27, it said.

  AccuWeather forecasts“storms for some, hot as a firecracker for others” across much of the Lower 48 states on July 4.

  California’s Central Valley will see highs between 100 and 110 degrees. Sacramento, California, projects it could top its July 4 record of 107 degrees.

  Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona desert high temperatures could top 115 degrees. Las Vegas could come within a couple degrees of its hottest-ever Independence Day, with temps topping 112 degrees.

  AccuWeather also forecasts the South will “bake,” with parts of Texas and Oklahoma set to reach into the low 100s and temperatures in Atlanta expected to reach the mid-90s.

  Thunderstorms bulling up the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys could bring late-afternoon and evening relief—but potentially spawn tornadoes—in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, it warns, while storms could disrupt fireworks displays in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York City that evening.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 17:35

• Houthi Attacks On Ships Soar Most This Year In June As Critical Maritime Chokepoint Ablaze In Conflict
  Houthi Attacks On Ships Soar Most This Year In June As Critical Maritime Chokepoint Ablaze In Conflict

  About eight months after Iran-backed Houthi rebels began seriously disrupting maritime traffic in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, June recorded the highest number of missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels this year and the second-largest since December. As instability in the Middle East intensifies, Houthi rebels have sunk one commercial vessel in recent weeks and have introduced kamikaze drone boats to their arsenal. 

  Despite efforts of the US, British, and European navies sailing in the critical maritime chokepoint, attempting to ensure freedom of navigation, the Houthis managed to conduct 16 confirmed attacks on commercial vessels in June, according to Bloomberg, citing new data from naval forces operating in the Middle East.

  

  The surge in attacks is alarming, considering President Biden’s Operation Prosperity Guardian, launched at the start of this year to ensure freedom of navigation, has been without success in neutralizing threats and restoring security for commercial shipping. Instead, the consequence of failure has been emerging supply chain snarls and supply shocks, resulting in soaring containerized shipping rates. 

  

  “The Houthis have proven to be quite the formidable force. This is a nonstate actor that fields a larger arsenal and is really able to give a headache to the Western coalition,” said Sebastian Bruns, a naval expert at the Center for Maritime Strategy and Security and the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University in Germany, who was quoted by Foreign Policy. 

  Bruns said, “This is as high-end as it gets for now, and when navies are having a problem with sustainment at this level, it is really worrisome.”

  

  So, eight months on, the disruption to the critical shipping lane is getting a lot worse as rebels have expanded their use of uncrewed service vessels to attack commercial vessels. These are much harder to track than anti-ship missiles. 

  

  And the Houthis aren’t the only problem.

  A European naval commander told Bloomberg that criminal groups have reinvigorated piracy networks off the Somalia coast.

  

  Pirates “think there is a window of opportunity due to the Houthis’ presence,” with increased maritime traffic along Somalia’s coast due to commercial vessels re-reouting from the Red Sea to Cape of Good Hope, said Vice Admiral Ignacio Villanueva, who commands a European Union operation tasked with curbing piracy, adding, “They are really trying to stretch the Western, international operations’ limits and capabilities.”

  The world is dangerously ablaze as Biden’s foreign policy decisions backfire. Even before Biden, the world was fracturing into a multipolar state, one full of conflict. Now, Biden faces calls from within his own party to step down amidst speculation over his cognitive decline. This is not a great look for America. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 17:00

• The Green New Scam Is Dying
  The Green New Scam Is Dying

  Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

  It’s no secret that the vast majority of the so-called elites are advocates of climate alarmism and are taken in by the Green New Scam.

  

  Whether this preference is based on ignorance of the science, ideological zeal, a willful desire to hurt American growth or simple greed because of their investments in Green New Scam infrastructure varies case by case.

  The typical upper-income supporter of the climate cult including academics, media figures and celebrities is probably ignorant of the fact that there is no evidence that CO2 emissions cause climate change and that the real causes are solar cycles, volcanoes, ocean currents and atmospheric moisture not caused by humans.

  Climate Alarmists Have It Backward

  The historical record actually demonstrates that warming periods produce higher CO2 levels — not the other way around. CO2 doesn’t cause warming. It’s caused by natural warming.

  In other words, climate alarmists have causation completely backward.

  Climate alarmism is based almost entirely on computer models, which depend on the inputs the modelers themselves build into them. A model is only as good as the inputs and assumptions programmed into it.

  Virtually every one of these models has overestimated warming, sometimes by orders of magnitude, because it’s based on faulty assumptions that overestimate the impact of CO2 on climate.

  In other words, it’s junk science. But they keep relying on these models because their political agenda requires it.

  Climate: The New Communism

  There’s no doubt that a fair number of neo-Marxists embrace the climate scam because they know it damages U.S. industry, raises costs to U.S. consumers and helps to undermine the U.S. economy.

  Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism, anti-capitalistic collectivists admitted that they needed to promote the climate agenda because the only way to combat global warming is through collective action. It requires a coordinated global effort that limits national sovereignty.

  The neo-Marxists are impervious to evidence; they just want to hurt America and wasting money on windmills instead of building new refineries is a good way to do it. That leaves the greed crowd.

  The Real “Green” in the Green Agenda

  They’re early investors in windmills, solar modules, lithium car batteries, EVs, charging stations, carbon credits and other infrastructure of the climate scam. They stand to make billions of dollars off the narrative with help from extravagant government subsidies.

  They don’t really care if it all collapses in the end (which it will) as long as they get rich at taxpayer expense in the meantime. All of this behavior is clear as far as it goes. What is not clear is the extent to which the Green New Scammers are doing this with your money.

  The best example is multibillionaire Larry Fink, who runs the giant BlackRock investment fund. Fink has been aggressive in promoting the climate scam along with racial quotas, DEI and defunding police.

  He’s entitled to his opinions. But is he entitled to pursue his radical agenda with pension fund money from conservative states and institutions? Fortunately, a backlash has begun against Fink and his fellow wokesters.

  More state pension fund managers are beginning to pull their funds from BlackRock and other investment managers that pursue far-left policies not in the best interests of their beneficiaries. This backlash may not change Larry Fink’s lifestyle. But over time, it might change the world for the better.

  The EV Sham

  A major part of the climate agenda includes electric vehicles (EVs). I’ve been warning for years that EVs aren’t feasible as a transportation solution for more than relatively few Americans and that they are little more than glorified golf carts despite the $70,000-and-up price tags.

  In the first place, EVs don’t cut carbon emissions. The car itself does not have emissions, but it’s charged with electricity from power plants that do.

  The batteries are made with poisonous chemicals and metals including lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel that come from mining operations that use enormous amounts of water and electricity to extract the needed materials.

  It takes thousands of tons of ore to extract enough critical minerals to make one battery. EVs don’t take a charge in extreme cold, and the batteries can’t hold a charge. Travel range is grossly overstated for many reasons, including the fact that EV car heaters drain the batteries (with internal-combustion engines, ICEs, the engine makes heat which can easily be directed into the car to keep passengers comfortable with no additional energy required).

  Resale values of EVs are close to zero because buyers of used EVs have to shell out $25,000 or more for new batteries after the vehicle is about seven years old. The list of drawbacks goes on.

  Most Americans have resisted EVs because they understand the disadvantages. But many Americans were drawn to the false promise of emission-free transportation and other ridiculous claims by the Green New Scammers. Now even the most committed EV buyers are waking up.

  I Want My ICE Car Back

  A new survey by consulting firm McKinsey and Co. shows that 29% of EV owners in nine major economies want to return to ICE vehicles. When the sample is narrowed to just the U.S., 46% of those surveyed want to return to ICEs.

  The McKinsey officials who conducted the survey claim to be “surprised” by those results. That probably says something about the fact that McKinsey experts are just as deluded about EVs as the buyers surveyed.

  When breaking down the results, 45% say EVs are too expensive, 33% say they have charging concerns and 29% are concerned about the limited driving range.

  The truth is that the EV was invented in 1837 and reached the peak of its popularity in 1910 just before the mass production of internal-combustion cars by Henry Ford. The American public got it right when they flocked to the Model T.

  It sounds like they’re getting it right again after a brief infatuation with the false promise of the EV. The bottom line is that the Green New Scam is falling apart.

  It can’t happen soon enough.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 16:30

• Cat 4 Hurricane Beryl Heads Towards Texas, Threatening Major Oil Refineries 
  Cat 4 Hurricane Beryl Heads Towards Texas, Threatening Major Oil Refineries 

  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded Hurricane Beryl to a Category 4 storm from a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale on Wednesday morning. Beryl is the earliest hurricane on record to strengthen into a Category 5 as it churns across the southeastern Caribbean Sea. It is forecasted to hit the Yucatán Peninsula on Friday and afterward poses a threat to US oil and energy critical infrastructure on the Gulf Coast.

  NHC said Beryl’s winds peaked at about 157 mph before weakening to 145 mph on Wednesday morning. Government weather forecasters expect “some weakening” of the storm over the “next day or two,” however, it will still be a “major hurricane” as it impacts “Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands.”

  

  On Wednesday, Mexico’s Meteorological Service posted a hurricane warning for the coast of the Yucatán peninsula from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancún, with forecasted landfall on Friday. 

  After the Yucatán Peninsula, Beryl’s forecasted path heads directly to the Texas coast and is expected to move up towards Louisiana. This area is home to major US oil and gas refineries.

  

  Ahead of the storm, Shell announced Wednesday that it paused some drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Here’s more from Bloomberg:

  • Company also began evacuating non-essential personnel as precautionary measure

  • Shell is also evacuating non-essential staff from the Whale asset, which is not scheduled to begin operations until later this year

  • Production from the Shell-operated Perdido platform feeds into the HOOPS Blend, a medium sour oil with 29.2 API and 1.55% sulfur

  • Oil from Perdido is delivered by the Hoover Offshore Oil Pipeline System (HOOPS) to the Quintana terminal, south of Freeport, Texas; from Quintana oil flows into the Houston refining hub but mainly to the Texas City area

  “There remains uncertainty in the track and intensity forecast of Beryl over the western Gulf of Mexico this weekend. Interests in the western Gulf of Mexico, including southern Texas, should monitor the progress of Beryl,” NHC wrote in the most recent update. 

  Computer models show the storm’s future path along the Texas coast, which is home to 32 oil refineries. Refineries are critical for processing crude into products such as gasoline and diesel.  

  “We have to wait and see where it lands,” Mark Schieldrop, a spokesperson for the travel club AAA Northeast, told newspaper The Record. 

  Schieldrop said, “But if the storm makes a direct hit to oil and gas infrastructure, it could cause prices to go up here if refineries down there are knocked offline for more than a few days.” 

  At the start of hurricane season, we penned a note titled “La Nina Will Complicate Things For Biden Ahead Of Elections As Hurricanes Threaten Oil Refineries,” and that’s exactly what could happen next week. 

  All it takes is one major hurricane to disrupt major US Gulf Coast refineries, which could drive average gasoline prices at the pump to the politically sensitive level of $4 a gallon. 

  Currently, AAA average prices of gas at the pump stand at… 

  

  If Beryl causes refinery closures on the US Gulf Coast, the Biden team will have a whole lot more issues to deal with (currently, it’s just chaos in Washington: “”No One Is Pushing Me Out” Biden Tells Staff As New NYT Poll Shows Trump Lead Widening”).

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 16:00

• How Much Are State And Local Government Workers Overpaid?
  How Much Are State And Local Government Workers Overpaid?

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  Let’s discuss the latest BLS report on employer costs with a special focus on teachers.

  

  Employer costs from the BLS, chart by Mish

  Employer Cost Synopsis

  • Government Wages Plus Benefits: $61.27

  • Private Wages and Benefits: $43.78

  • Government Wages: $37.90

  • Private Wages: $30.76

  Government hourly wages are 23.2 percent more than private workers on average.

  Benefits are the real killer.

  Government total compensation is 39.9 percent more than private workers.

  What About Teachers?

  

  Employer costs from the BLS, chart by Mish

  Teachers make $37.90 per hour in direct wages. But they make a whopping $79.38 per hour in total benefits.

  Benefits for teachers are a mere 109 percent of wages.

  Economic Fairness

  Education Week reports Biden Calls for Teacher Pay Raises, Expanded Pre-K in State of the Union

  Biden called on lawmakers Thursday to “give every child a good start by providing access to pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds,” but he did not detail a specific plan to pay for universal pre-kindergarten, which he has called for in the past and included in his Build Back Better proposal that never passed the Senate.

  Biden’s call for giving public school teachers a raise also included no specifics. It was included in a portion of the address focused on economic fairness, which included a push to raise taxes on the highest income earners to help cover the costs of domestic policy priorities.

  There’s no better place to start when it comes to deserving teachers than the city of Chicago.

  NEW: Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates says the union’s contract demands from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will cost the city more than $50 billion. ⬇️

  “$50 billion dollars and three cents…”

  “And so what?”

  “That’s audacity.”

  For context, total base tax… pic.twitter.com/EZesxJV2Xw

  — Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) March 5, 2024

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

  And Who Will Pay?

  Reminder that Davis Gates has refused to give her own members an audit of union finances for more than four years despite union bylaws requiring those audits, and hiking dues by 13%.https://t.co/ZzpNztalhY

  — Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) March 5, 2024

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

  Chicago Teachers’ Union Seeks $50 Billion Despite $700 Million City Deficit

  On March 13, I commented Chicago Teachers’ Union Seeks $50 Billion Despite $700 Million City Deficit

  “Stop asking that question,” she said. “Ask another question.”

  This is in a city, mind you, that already spends an astonishing $29,000 per student, including all sources and money for the capital budget. And Chicago Public Schools already faces a $391 million deficit for next and nearly $700 million for the following year when “Covid relief” money will have run out.

  The only way to stop this behavior is to eliminate the public unions, totally.

  Unfortunately, a corrupt Chicago mayor is in bed with the corrupt CTU. And the state is the most gerrymandered state in the nation. Springfield is in on the act.

  What Are the Odds Police Show Up?

  On July 2, I noted In Chicago There’s Under a 50 Percent Chance Police Show Up If You are Shot

  Good luck in Chicago getting the police to show up if you are shot, stabbed, a victim of domestic violence, or any number of other serious crimes.

  Don’t worry. Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson will fix the problem by hiking property taxes to give money to the Teachers’ Union.

  And instead of going anything about crime, Johnson Seeks Slave Reparations.

  Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That

  To understand why public unions should never exist, please see Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That

  Chicago has an amazing propensity to keep electing mayors worse than the last one. Brandon Johnson is the worst Chicago mayor ever.

  In Illinois, as in California, there is really only one thing sensible you can do about this setup. Leave.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 15:30

• Israel Takes Out 2nd Senior Hezbollah Commander In Less Than Two Weeks
  Israel Takes Out 2nd Senior Hezbollah Commander In Less Than Two Weeks

  Another senior Hezbollah commander has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. He was killed in a daytime strike on the coastal city of Tyre, in what appears a neighborhood or city area (according to widely circulating video).

  Hezbollah in a statement confirmed the death Muhammad Nimah Nasser, also known as Abu Nimah. Regional reports say that he commanded Hezbollah’s Aziz regional division in southern Lebanon (one of three divisions operating there).

  

  His high rank within the organization is confirmed in the fact that the Hezbollah statement referred to him as a “commander” – which it reserves for only the most senior level operatives.

  With the situation already on edge, given both sides are warning that ‘all-out war’ could be imminent, the marks the second high commander that Israeli has killed in less than two weeks.

  Last month a commander named Taleb Abdulla, who headed the Nasr regional division, was taken out in an Israeli strike. Before that, in January the deputy head of the elite Radwan unit Wissam al-Tawil was killed.

  The Associated Press reports that “In a video circulated by local media, residents rushed toward a charred vehicle with a large plume of smoke. Civil Defense said its first responders transported an unnamed wounded person to a hospital.”

  Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has told troops during a visit Gaza border that tanks currently completing their tasks in Rafah and now being pulled from the theater can be deployed in the north where they “can reach as far as the Litani” river. The Lebanon river lies 10 miles north of Israel’s border. 

  Major Israeli airstrike in Tyre #Lebanon kills senior Hezbollah commander Abu Ali Nasr, head of Aziz unit…Situation already on edge: pic.twitter.com/SyZnWLENmS

  — Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) July 3, 2024

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  “We are striking Hezbollah very hard every day and we will also reach a state of full readiness to take any action required in Lebanon, or to reach an arrangement from a position of strength,” Gallant said.

  “We prefer an arrangement, but if reality forces us we will know how to fight,” the IDF chief continued. Israeli leaders have been under immense pressure to act more decisively against Hezbollah, given its daily rocket and drone attacks have meant some 80,000 to 100,000 Israeli residents of the north have been forced out of their homes for months, since near the beginning of the war last October.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 15:05

• Fact-Checking The 'Fact-Checking' New York Times
  Fact-Checking The ‘Fact-Checking’ New York Times

  Authored by Daniel Oliver via American Greatness,

  “They” just can’t let Donald Trump go. For them, Donald Trump is Evil personified.

  But not for the rest of the world.

  

  Here are some of the New York Times’s fact-check charges against Trump; here is why people no longer trust the New York Times.

  Social Security

  Trump said: “But Social Security, he’s [Biden’s] destroying it because millions of people are pouring into our country and they are putting them onto Social Security.”

  The Times: “Mr. Trump has this backward. Undocumented workers often pay taxes that help fund Social Security. But, as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office once noted, ‘Most unauthorized immigrants are prohibited from receiving many of the benefits that the federal government provides through Social Security and such need-based programs as food stamps, Medicaid (other than emergency services) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.’

  The facts: Biden has repeatedly pushed for giving illegal immigrants pathways to citizenship, including a plan and proposed legislation to provide up to 11 million illegal immigrants with U.S. citizenship and an executive order providing a pathway to citizenship for more than half a million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens. Biden has specifically claimed that illegal immigrants have “increased the life span of Social Security because they have a job, they’re paying a Social Security tax.”

  According to the Center for Immigration Studies, “Illegal immigration unambiguously benefits the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. However, amnesty (legalization) would reverse those gains and add extra costs.”

  They note that “illegal immigrants tend to earn less and work fewer years in the U.S. than the average participant” and “if 10 million illegal immigrants receive amnesty, the total cost to Social Security and Medicare would be roughly $1.3 trillion, equivalent to a one-time transfer of 6 percent of GDP.”

  In addition, a November 2023 report from the House Committee on Homeland Security found that “the annual cost just to care for and house the known gotaways and illegal aliens who have been released into the country under Mayorkas’ leadership could cost as much as an astounding $451 billion.”

  How should Trump be graded on his assertion? Surely a B-, perhaps even a B. He raised the obvious issue, which is that the Biden administration, or any successor Democrat administration, will surely grant citizenship to all the illegals if it has the votes. The cost will be huge.

  Nancy Pelosi’s responsibility for January 6

  Trump: “Nancy Pelosi, if you just watched the news from two days ago on tape to her daughter, who’s a documentary filmmaker, or they say—what she’s saying, ‘Oh, no, it’s my responsibility. I was responsible for this.’ Because I offered her 10,000 soldiers who are National Guard. And she turned them down.”

  The Times: “Mr. Trump is distorting what Representative Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker, said. Ms. Pelosi did not admit to turning down National Guard troops. She does not have such authority.”

  The facts: In a video filmed by Pelosi’s daughter, Pelosi, responding to someone who said “they (the Capitol Police) thought they had sufficient resources,” says, “They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them prepare for me, because it’s stupid because we’re in a situation like this.”

  The former Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, has claimed that Pelosi was influential in rejecting a proposal to send National Guardsmen to the Capitol. And what evidence there is suggests that Pelosi seems to hold herself responsible for the National Guard’s not being present to deal with the rioters sooner.

  What grade should Trump receive? At least a B. Perhaps even an A.

  The Paris Climate Accord

  Trump: “The Paris Accord was going to cost us $1 trillion, and China nothing, and Russia nothing, and India nothing.”

  The Times: “This is misleading. . . . Under President Biden, the United States has pledged $11.4 billion annually by 2024 to assist vulnerable countries in developing clean energy and preparing for the consequences of climate change.”

  The facts: The Heritage Foundation has estimated that staying in the Paris agreement would cost the U.S. over $2.5 trillion in aggregate GDP loss by 2035.

  An analysis by McKinsey looking into the cost of reaching “net zero” emissions found that global spending by governments, businesses, and individuals would need to rise by $3.5 trillion a year, every year, in order to get to net zero by 2050.

  China is no longer accepting international pressure through the Paris Climate Accord with respect to its own carbon emissions. And Putin has joked that 2 to 3 degrees of global warming would be “not so bad in such a cold country as ours.”

  Trump’s grade? Obviously, a B. His basic point is correct: the costs are staggering, whether that cost is a trillion dollars or only half a trillion (and of course it depends on the length of time under discussion). He was also obviously correct about China and Russia—the point being that in the end, it would be the U.S. sacrificing economic progress to benefit the rest of the world, which has no plans whatsoever to sacrifice a penny of progress to appease the climate lobby’s dire predictions.

  Iran

  Trump: “Iran was broke with me. I wouldn’t let anybody do business with them. They ran out of money. They were broke, they had no money for Hamas. They had no money for anything, no money for terror.”

  The Times: “Even under sanctions that were imposed by the Trump administration, Iran’s economy plugged along. It wasn’t strong, but it wasn’t broke, and it kept trading with many nations. Mr. Trump made no mention of the fact that his withdrawal from an Obama-era nuclear deal freed Iran to resume nuclear production.”

  The facts: Trump is obviously exaggerating slightly here, but it is entirely factual that his actions to leave the Iranian nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions crippled the Iranian economy. Iran’s GDP contracted sharply in 2018 and 2019 (after Trump reimposed sanctions). Iranian oil exports dropped from 3.8 million barrels per day (early 2018) to 2.1 million barrels per day (October 2019). The Iranian currency, the rial, lost 50 percent of its value between early 2018 and December 2019. And inflation rose to an estimated 30.5 percent in Iran in 2018.

  Trump’s grade. Probably a B. Definitely better than the grade of Iran’s economy.

  Inflation

  Trump: “He [Biden] caused this inflation.” (Fact: For 42 consecutive months of Biden’s presidency, inflation has remained above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2 percent.)

  The Times: “This is misleading. Independent economic research has found that government stimulus spending approved by both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden contributed to the soaring inflation the nation experienced in the first two years of Mr. Biden’s presidency. But no evidence blames government spending, by Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump, for the majority of the inflation the country experienced.”

  The Facts: Even Democrat-friendly economists blasted Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” before he signed it. Jason Furman (chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors) said: “It’s definitely too big for the moment. I don’t know any economist that was recommending something the size of what was done.”

  Larry Summers, Obama’s National Economic Council director, said: “We’re taking very substantial risks on the inflation side. . . . We are printing money, we are creating government bonds, we are borrowing on unprecedented scales. Those are things that surely create more of a risk of a sharp dollar decline than we had before. And sharp dollar declines are much more likely to translate themselves into inflation than they were historically.”

  Reading Trump’s blue book as a whole, we’d have to give him a grade of B. That’s about as good as it gets for a campaigning politician. Scored on a curve for politicking, he probably gets an A.

  Be embarrassed New York Times. You flunked. If you were working for Trump, you’d be fired!

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 14:30

• FOMC Minutes Show "Vast Majority" Expect Economy To Cool, See Deflationary Effects Of AI
  FOMC Minutes Show “Vast Majority” Expect Economy To Cool, See Deflationary Effects Of AI

  Since the last FOMC statement on June 12, oil, gold, stocks, the dollar, and even some of the bond market are higher (in price)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The shorter-end of the curve is now lower in yield since the last FOMC, but the long-end still higher (even with today’s yield tumble)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The US macro picture has deteriorated even more significantly relative to expectations, now at its weakest since Dec 2015…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  And thanks to today’s macro weakness, rate-cut expectations have risen back to the same levels they were immediately after Powell’s press conference…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  So, given the hawkish shift in the DOTS, what does The Fed want us to know from today’s Minutes.

  Here are the key takeaways from minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June 11-12 meeting, released Wednesday (via Bloomberg):

  Willing to wait…

  Officials did not expect it would appropriate to lower borrowing costs until “additional information had emerged to give them greater confidence” that inflation was moving toward their 2% goal

  Economic expectations…

  The “vast majority” of Fed officials assessed that economic growth “appeared to be gradually cooling…

  …and most participants remarked that they viewed the current policy stance as restrictive”

  Officials said inflation progress was evident in smaller monthly gains in the core personal consumption expenditures price index and supported by May consumer price data that were released hours before the rate decision

  They appear set of the narrative that AI will save the world too (through deflation)…

  Participants highlighted a variety of factors that were likely to help contribute to continued disinflation in the period ahead. The factors included continued easing of demand–supply pressures in product and labor markets, lagged effects on wages and prices of past monetary policy tightening, the delayed response of measured shelter prices to rental market developments, or the prospect of additional supply-side improvements.

  The latter prospect included the possibility of a boost to productivity associated with businesses’ deployment of artificial intelligence–related technology. Participants observed that longer-term inflation expectations had remained well anchored and viewed this anchoring as underpinning the disinflation process. Participants affirmed that additional favorable data were required to give them greater confidence that inflation was moving sustainably toward 2 percent

  But The Fed seems divided on how to ‘react’ to data (markets or macro)…

  Some officials emphasized the need for patience in allowing high rates to continue to restrain demand…

  …while others noted that if inflation were to remain elevated or increase further, rates “might need to be raised”

  A “number” of officials said the Fed needs to stand ready to respond to unexpected weakness, and several flagged that a further drop in demand may push up unemployment rather than just reduce job openings

  WSJ Fed-Watcher Nick Timiraos chimes in to confirm the more dovish bias of the Minutes…

  While there isn’t an obvious signal about the policy path in the FOMC minutes, the discussion about inflation and labor market developments offers little to suggest fear of overheating or policy being too loose.

  • For example, discussion of businesses’ reduced pricing power: pic.twitter.com/vvorZHy8jv

  — Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) July 3, 2024

  Read the full Minutes below:

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 14:09

• "I Almost Fell Asleep Onstage" – Biden Blames Debate-Debacle On Jet-Lag, But…
  “I Almost Fell Asleep Onstage” – Biden Blames Debate-Debacle On Jet-Lag, But…

  Desperately trying to outrace a growing wave of pleas to abandon his reelection campaign, President Biden on Tuesday dubiously blamed his terrible debate performance on exhaustion from a busy June travel schedule. However, as he was speaking, the New York Times was firing yet another torpedo at his presidency, publishing an article in which various US and foreign officials said his mental lapses have grown more frequent and pronounced in recent months.    

  Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, Biden struck an apologetic tone as he acknowledged widespread Democratic disappointment in his Thursday debate with Donald Trump. He also tried to blame his performance — characterized by long pauses, garbled answers, a weak, raspy voice and slack-jawed staring when it wasn’t his turn to speak — on his June travel schedule. 

  “I decided to travel around the world a couple of times…shortly before the debate. I didn’t listen to my staff … and then I almost fell asleep onstage. It’s not an excuse but an explanation.”

  VIDEO: President Biden and other G7 leaders at summit in Italy. pic.twitter.com/opetlZtFiB

  — The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) June 13, 2024

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  However, the timing of Biden’s international travel undermines his claim. He traveled to France for D-Day commemoration festivities from June 5 to 9. After returning to the United States, he went to Italy for a G-7 Summit on June 13 and 14. From there, he headed directly to a Los Angeles fundraiser on June 15. That was the end of it — the debate was 12 days after the travel whirlwind ended.  

  Keep in mind, too, it’s not like Biden was schlepping a roller-bag through airports. It’s hard to imagine a more luxurious and rest-accommodating mode of international travel than what a US president experiences on Air Force One, to say nothing of the traffic-clearing motorcades that whisk him from point to point upon his arrival.

  On top of that, Biden capped his travel with a restful stay at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home before spending the next week at Camp David preparing for the debate. There, his daily schedule reportedly started at 11 am with time allocated for daily afternoon naps. The travel excuse is all so implausible, even the fellow travelers at CNN can’t bring themselves to endorse it: 

  Biden says he ‘almost fell asleep standing up’ during the debate.

  Even CNN Pravda is laughing at this excuse.pic.twitter.com/TOWqIrWOD7

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) July 3, 2024

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  Around the same time Biden was trying to convince donors that his obvious dementia is really jet lag, the Times delivered another broadside to the 81-year-old’s campaign, relating damning accounts from several US and foreign officials and others who say they’ve observed Biden in private and have seen a notable decline in recent months.

  Here’s just a sampling from the lengthy Times report:  

  • “People in the room with him more recently said that the lapses seemed to be growing more frequent, more pronounced and more worrisome.”
  • “The recent moments of disorientation generated concern among advisers and allies alike. He seemed confused at points during a D-Day anniversary ceremony in France on June 6. The next day, he misstated the purpose of a new tranche of military aid to Ukraine when meeting with its president.”
  • “On June 10, he appeared to freeze up at an early celebration of the Juneteenth holiday.”
  • “On June 18, his soft-spoken tone and brief struggle to summon the name of his homeland security secretary at an immigration event unnerved some of his allies at the event, who traded alarmed looks and later described themselves as ‘shaken up‘.”
  • “By many accounts, as evidenced by video footage, observation and interviews, Mr. Biden is not the same today as he was even when he took office 3½ years ago. The White House regularly releases corrected transcripts of his remarks, in which he frequently mixes up places, people or dates.“
  • “He often confuses names and details and makes statements that are incoherent.”
  • “During a meeting…with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Mr. Biden spoke so softly it was almost impossible to hear.”
  • “[Italian Prime Minister] Meloni and the other leaders were acutely sensitive to Mr. Biden’s physical condition, discussing it privately among themselves.”
  • “Asked if one could imagine putting Mr. Biden into the same room with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia today, a former U.S. official who had helped prepare for the trip went silent for a while, then said, ‘I just don’t know.‘ A former senior European official answered the same question by saying flatly, ‘No’.”

  As we’ve seen in recent days, others in Biden’s circle stepped forward to avow that he’s sharp and energetic behind closed doors. However, having seen Biden’s debate performance for themselves — and as more and more officials provide disturbing accounts of his decline — only the most self-deluding Democrats are willing to credit these reassuring accounts, or Biden’s jet lag excuse:   

  

  Look for the Times report to accelerate the pace of demands for Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race. We’ve already seen the editorial board of the Times urge him to call it quits, along with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a variety of columnists and pundits. In a major milestone, the first federal elected official joined the growing chorus on Tuesday: Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett issued a statement saying “I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw.” 

  Other Democratic officeholders, while stopping just short of urging Biden to quit, are striking him with daggers of their own. In an op-ed, Maine Rep. Jared Golden wrote, “While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win.” Similarly, Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez told KATU, “We all saw what we saw. You can’t undo that, and the truth, I think, is that Biden is going to lose to Trump…the damage has been done.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 07/03/2024 – 13:50

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