- Tesla Is Officially Starting To Open Its Charging Network To Other EVs
Tesla Is Officially Starting To Open Its Charging Network To Other EVs
For the first time ever, Tesla is going to be opening its charging network to other electric vehicles.
The experiment will begin at 10 locations in the Netherlands, Tesla said earlier this week. Drivers of non-Tesla EVs will be able to access Superchargers through the Tesla app, Reuters reported this week.
As non-Tesla drivers use the sites, Tesla will be monitoring them for congestion, the report says.
The Superchargers will be open to other EVs that use the Combined Charging System that is in use by automakers like BMW and Volkswagen. Daimler and Ford also use the same standard.
Tesla uses the same standard in Europe, which would help the automaker extend its program if it is successful.
Charging for non-Tesla customers will include extra costs that will go toward supporting different vehicles and infrastructure/site adjustments, Reuters reported. Tesla will allow prices to be discounted for those who sign up for charging memberships.
Tesla commented: “This move directly supports our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
In total, Tesla operates 25,000 Superchargers worldwide that ostensibly could wind up participating in the project, should the pilot program in the Netherlands go well.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/04/2021 – 02:45 - Coal Keeps Lights On At COP26 As Low Wind Strikes Again
Coal Keeps Lights On At COP26 As Low Wind Strikes Again
By John Constable of NetZeroWatch
The UK’s failing renewable strategy is a national embarrassment. Critically low wind power, for nearly the whole of yesterday, resulted in extremely high prices, with the two remaining coal units at Drax offering to saving the day at £4,000/MWh, nearly 100 times the wholesale price normal before the current crisis started, with many other fossil fuel generators also riding to the rescue at staggering prices.
Indeed, yesterday, 3 November, saw a new record for the total daily cost of balancing the GB electricity grid. The previous record of £38 million, twenty times the current daily average, was smashed by a margin of £6 million, with the new record standing at £44.7m.
The causes are easy to identify from the Balancing Mechanism Reporting Service’s own chart of the Transmission System fuel mix. Wind power, the dark blue bars, was extremely low for most of the day, with a minimum of only 1 GW, under 5% of its capacity.
Figure 1: Generation by Fuel Type on the GB Transmission System for 2 November 2021 to 3 November, by half hour settle period.
Source: BM Reports.Minimum wind generation coincided neatly with peak demand, and as a result system prices reached stunning levels, with a maximum of just over £4,000 a megawatt hour, nearly 100 times the wholesale price normal before the current crisis started, as can be seen in this BMRS chart:
Figure 2: System Prices on the GB Transmission System for 2 November 2021 to 3 November, by half hour settlement period. Source: BM Reports. These prices brought coal and gas back on to the system to save the day, but emergency measures are expensive, and the cost to consumers and the wider economy was little short of horrifying.
When these remaining fossil fuel generators are no longer on the system the costs of securing supply will rise still further. In fact, batteries and hydrogen storage on the scale required are very unlikely to be built in the time required, and have severe environmental downsides that mean they may never be built at all. And even if actually built, the costs of balancing the system with these technologies will make yesterday’s record look like a bargain. Grid balancing expenditures in the UK are already ten times their pre-wind and solar levels; in the future they will rise still further, consuming a significant fraction of national wealth.
The UK climate strategy is all but entirely committed to renewables and it isn’t working. With the best will in the world, and however much they care about climate change, neither individual households nor the wider economy can stand these costs. Needless to say, such problems are in fact well understood in other parts of the world, which is why neither China nor India is following us down the wind and solar route. The costs are economically destabilising.
Fortunately, there is an alternative; unwind the renewables failure, and put the UK firmly back on an engineerable Gas to Nuclear strategy, as described by Dr Capell Aris and the present author in their paper, Realism or Utopianism? A proposal for the reform of the Net Zero Policy.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/04/2021 – 02:00 - Predators With Badges: The Sex Traffickers On America's Police Forces
Predators With Badges: The Sex Traffickers On America’s Police Forces
Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
– Former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper
We are a nation on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
Undeniably, the blowback from COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates continues to reverberate around the country, impacting the nation’s struggling workplaces, choking the economy and justifying all manner of authoritarian tyrannies being inflicted on the populace by state and federal governments.
Yet while it is easy to be distracted by political theater, distressed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and divided over authoritarian lockdowns and mandates, there are still darker forces afoot that cannot—should not—must not be ignored.
Here’s a news flash for you: there are sexual predators on America’s police forces.
Indeed, when it comes to sex trafficking—the buying and selling of young girls, boys and women for sex—police have become both predators and pimps. As the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, “Hundreds of police officers across the country have turned from protectors to predators, using the power of their badge to extort sex.”
Victims of sex trafficking report that police are among those “buying” young girls and women for sex. Incredibly, this COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in even greater numbers of children being preyed upon by sex traffickers.
Unfortunately, rather than being part of the solution, America’s police forces—riddled with corruption, brutality, sexual misconduct and drug abuse—have largely become part of the problem.
In New York, for instance, seven NYPD cops—three sergeants, two detectives and two officers—were accused of running brothels that sold 15-minute sexual encounters, raking in more than $2 million over the course of 13 months.
In California, a police sergeant—a 16-year veteran of the police force—was arrested for raping a 16-year-old girl who was being held captive and sold for sex in a home in an upscale neighborhood.
A week-long sting in Florida ended with 277 arrests of individuals accused of sex trafficking, including doctors, pharmacists and police officers.
Sex trafficking victims in Hawaii described “cops asking for sexual favors to more coercive situations like I’ll let you go if you do X, Y, or Z for me.”
One study found that “over 14 percent of sex workers said that they had been threatened with arrest unless they had sex with a police officer.” In many states, it’s actually legal for police to have sex with prostitutes during the course of sting operations.
While the problem of cops engaged in sex trafficking is part of the American police state’s seedy underbelly that doesn’t get addressed enough, equally alarming is the number of cops who commit sex crimes against those they encounter as part of their job duties, a largely underreported number given the “blue wall of silence” that shields police misconduct.
Former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper describes cases in which cops fondled prisoners, made false traffic stops of attractive women, traded sexual favors for freedom, had sex with teenagers and raped children.
Young girls are particularly vulnerable to these predators in blue.
Former police officer Phil Stinson estimates that half of the victims of police sex crimes are minors under the age of eighteen.
According to The Washington Post, a national study found that 40 percent of reported cases of police sexual misconduct involved teens. One young woman was assaulted during a “ride along” with an officer, who said in a taped confession: “The badge gets you the p—y and the p—y gets your badge, you know?”
For example, a Pennsylvania police chief and his friend were arrested for allegedly raping a young girl hundreds of times—orally, vaginally, and anally several times a week—over the course of seven years, starting when she was 4 years old.
In 2017, two NYPD cops were accused of arresting a teenager, handcuffing her, and driving her in an unmarked van to a nearby parking lot, where they raped her and forced her to perform oral sex on them, then dropped her off on a nearby street corner.
The New York Times reports that “a sheriff’s deputy in San Antonio was charged with sexually assaulting the 4-year-old daughter of an undocumented Guatemalan woman and threatening to have her deported if she reported the abuse.”
One young girl, J.E., was kidnapped by a Border Patrol agent when she was 14 years old, taken to his apartment and raped. “In the apartment, there were two beds on top of the other, children’s bunk beds, and ropes there, too. They were shoelaces. For my wrists and my feet. My mind was blank,” recalls J.E. “I was trying to understand everything. I didn’t know what to do. My feet were tied up. I would look at him and he had a gun. And that frightened me. I asked him why, and he answered me that he was doing this to me because I was the prettiest one of the three.”
Two teenage girls accused a Customs and Border Protection officer of forcing them to strip, fondling them, then trying to get them to stop crying by offering chocolates, potato chips and a blanket. The government settled the case for $125,000. (Mind you, this is the same government that separated immigrant children from their parents and locked them up in detention centers, where they were easy prey for sexual predators. At one point, the government had received more than 4500 complaints about sexual abuse at those child detention facilities.)
The police state’s sexual assaults of children are sickening enough, but when you add sex crimes against grown women into the mix, the picture becomes even more sordid.
According to The Washington Post, “research on ‘police sexual misconduct’—a term used to describe actions from sexual harassment and extortion to forcible rape by officers—overwhelmingly concludes that it is a systemic problem.”
Investigative journalist Andrea Ritchie has tracked national patterns of sexual violence by police officers during traffic stops, in addition to heightened risk from minor offenses, drug arrests and police interactions with teenagers.
Victims of domestic abuse, women of color, transgender women, women who use drugs or alcohol, and women involved in the sex trade are particularly vulnerable to sexual assault by police.
One Oklahoma City police officer allegedly sexually assaulted at least seven women while on duty over the course of four months, including a 57-year-old grandmother who says she was forced to give the cop oral sex after he pulled her over.
A Philadelphia state trooper, eventually convicted of assaulting six women and teenagers, once visited the hospital bedside of a pregnant woman who had attempted suicide, and groped her breasts and masturbated.
These aren’t isolated incidents.
According to research from Bowling Green State University, police officers in the U.S. were charged with more than 400 rapes over a 9-year period. During that same time period, 600 police officers were arrested for forcible fondling; 219 were charged with forcible sodomy; 186 were arrested for statutory rape; 58 for sexual assault with an object; and 98 with indecent exposure.
Sexual assault is believed to be the second-most reported form of misconduct against police officers after the use of excessive force, making up more than 9% of all complaints.
Even so, these crimes are believed to be largely underreported so much so that sex crimes may in fact be the number one form of misconduct among police officers.
So why are the numbers underreported?
“The women are terrified. Who are they going to call? It’s the police who are abusing them,” said Penny Harrington, the former police chief of Portland, Ore.
One Philadelphia cop threatened to arrest a teenager for carjacking unless she had sex with him. “He had all the power. I had no choice,” testified the girl. “Who was I? He had his badge.”
This is the danger of a police state that invests its henchmen with so much power that they don’t even need to use handcuffs or a gun to get what they want.
Making matters worse, most police departments do little to identify the offenders, and even less to stop them. “Unlike other types of police misconduct, the abuse of police power to coerce sex is little addressed in training, and rarely tracked by police disciplinary systems,” conclude Nancy Phillips and Craig R. McCoy writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer. “This official neglect makes it easier for predators to escape punishment and find new victims.”
Unfortunately, this is a problem that is hiding in plain sight, covered up by government agencies that are failing in their constitutional duties to serve and protect “we the people.”
That thin blue line of knee-jerk adulation and absolute loyalty to police above and beyond what the law requires is creating a menace to society that cannot be ignored.
As researcher Jonathan Blanks notes, “The system is rigged to protect police officers from outside accountability. The worst cops are going to get the most protection.”
Hyped up on the power of the badge and their weaponry, protected from charges of wrongdoing by police unions and government agencies, and empowered by rapidly advancing tools—technological and otherwise—that make it all too easy to identify, track and take advantage of vulnerable members of society, predators on the nation’s police forces are growing in number.
“It can start with a police officer punching a woman’s license plate into a police computer – not to see whether a car is stolen, but to check out her picture,” warns investigative journalists Nancy Phillips and Craig R. McCoy.
“If they are not caught, or left unpunished, the abusers tend to keep going, and get worse, experts say.”
So where does this leave us?
The courts, by allowing the government’s desire for unregulated, unaccountable, expansive power to trump justice and the rule of law, have turned away from this menace. Politicians, eager for the support of the powerful police unions, have turned away from this menace. Police unions, which have been at the forefront of the effort to shield sexual misconduct by cops, have exacerbated this menace.
Yet for the sake of the most vulnerable among us, we as a nation must stop turning away from this menace in our midst.
For starters, police should not be expected—or allowed—to police themselves.
Misconduct by local police has become a national problem. Therefore, the response to this national problem must start at the local level.
This is no longer a matter of a few bad apples. As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the entire system has become corrupted and must be reformed.
Greater oversight is needed, yes, but also greater accountability and more significant consequences for assaults.
Andrea Ritchie’s piece in The Washington Post provides some practical suggestions for reform ranging from small steps to structural changes (greater surveillance of police movements, heightened scrutiny of police interactions and traffic stops, and more civilian oversight boards), but as she acknowledges, these efforts still don’t strike at the root of the problem: a criminal justice system that protects abusers and encourages abuse.
It’s difficult to say whether modern-day policing with its deep-seated corruption, immunity from accountability, and authoritarian approach to law enforcement attracts this kind of deviant behavior or cultivates it, but empowering police to view themselves as the best, or even the only, solution to the public’s problems, while failing to hold them accountable for misconduct, will only deepen the policing crisis that grows deadlier and more menacing by the day.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 23:40 - NBC Reporter Triggered After Armory Sells "Let's Go Brandon" AR-15s
NBC Reporter Triggered After Armory Sells “Let’s Go Brandon” AR-15s
The conservative meme, “Let’s Go Brandon!” is a euphemism for “f— Joe Biden” that has gone viral across America since an early October NASCAR race. The phrase has even made it on the lower of an AR-15, a lightweight semi-automatic rifle, sold by one gun armory in South Carolina, triggering an NBC reporter to call the Secret Service.
NBC News’ Ken Dilanian was so distraught about Palmetto State Armory’s new “LETSGO-15 Stripped Lower Receiver” that he “called the Secret Service about this” but failed to mention what he actually discussed. He said, “they [Secret Service] had no comment.”
I called the Secret Service about this. They had no comment. https://t.co/CmcATXY5DV pic.twitter.com/vD7dblz9JG
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) November 1, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Details about the lower include “LETSGO-15” is made “from the most advanced aerospace manufacturing technology.” The lower includes a fire selector with three modes: “‘F@CK!'” (Safe), “‘JOE!'” (Fire), “‘BIDEN!'” (Full-Auto).”
“Let’s go Brandon” refers to a slogan that has gone viral across America since early October at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama in which a journalist misreported the chant “f— Joe Biden” as praise toward winning driver Brandon Brown.
More on this is a Maryland-based gun advocacy group, The Machine Gun Nest, which writes:
Considering that the rallying call in 2016 was “F Donald Trump” the idea that a “let’s go Brandon” lower receiver would warrant a call to the secret service is another reason why the left has lost Virginia, and will continue to lose states where they are out of touch with the general population. If this lower receiver read “F*** Donald Trump” not sure if this person would have even batted an eye. The fact that the caller in question is a NBC News reporter is Unsurprising, because we know where the corporate media’s loyalties lie.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 23:20 - US Marines Training Elite Taiwanese Troops At Base In Guam
US Marines Training Elite Taiwanese Troops At Base In Guam
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
Taiwan’s defense minister on Tuesday appeared to confirm a report that said Taiwanese Marines are being trained by their US counterparts in Guam.
The report from Taiwan’s Apple Daily said about 40 members of Taiwan’s Republic of China Marine Corps were selected to partake in drills led by US Marines in Guam for one month.
Guam, image via Pinterest Discussing the report, Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said, “We have a long history of exchanges and cooperation with the United States. There is necessary interaction on some levels, and this forms part of the exchanges.”
According to Apple Daily, the training is happening under a program known as “Marine Roar” that was established in 1958 when the US and Taiwan still shared a mutual defense treaty. The program stopped in 1979 when Washington severed official relations with Taipei, but it was revived in 2017.
The revelation comes after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen confirmed the presence of US troops on the island of Taiwan, making her the first Taiwanese leader to do so since 1979.
The South China Morning Post reported Monday that China had been aware that the US has deployed small numbers of troops to Taiwan for training purposes over the past few decades.
US Navy image A Chinese military source told the Post that the US and China had a tacit understanding over the issue, and Taiwan’s acknowledgment was meant as a provocation. The source said the move was a “politically-motivated attempt to provoke the mainland authorities’ bottom line.”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 23:00 - Biden Admin Blacklists Israeli Spyware Firms In Unprecedented Move Against Ally
Biden Admin Blacklists Israeli Spyware Firms In Unprecedented Move Against Ally
The controversial Israeli company NSO group has been placed on a US blacklist by the Biden administration, in an almost unprecedented move targeting of an Israeli entity, given the Jewish state is America’s closest longtime ally in the region. Another Israeli spyware company that works closely with the government was also blacklisted in the same designation.
The White House moved against NSO for having acted “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US” – after last summer a bombshell investigation by the French non-profit group Forbidden Stories revealed its cutting edge spyware was used by foreign governments to hack Western allies, including accessing the mobile numbers of French President Emmanuel Macron and much of his cabinet.
US Department of Commerce building Specifically its Pegasus phone-hacking tool was found to have been used to “maliciously target” journalists and activists as well as top government officials. Revealed by the initial report was an extensive list that included over 600 government officials and politicians from over 30 countries. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was also a big name on the list.
The US Commerce Dept. announced in a statement: “Today’s action is a part of the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to put human rights at the center of US foreign policy, including by working to stem the proliferation of digital tools used for repression.”
“This effort is aimed at improving citizens’ digital security, combatting cyber threats, and mitigating unlawful surveillance and follows a recent interim final rule released by the commerce department establishing controls on the export, reexport, or in-country transfer of certain items that can be used for malicious cyber activities,” it said.
Additionally the Israel-based company Candiru was also placed on the “entity list” with two other companies from Russia and Singapore, according to the Commerce statement:
NSO Group and Candiru (Israel) were added to the Entity List based on evidence that these entities developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers.
NSO Group is well-known to work closely with the Israeli government as a key defense contractor, and government authorities oversee and regulate the export of Pegasus as a unique defense technology which must be prevented from being used by Israel’s enemies. The spyware is actually controlled for export in the same way that weapons would be. It’s believed the Saudis, for example, used such technology to hack and track journalists and dissidents, such as the murdered Jamal Khashoggi, killed at the Istanbul consulate in 2018 at the hands of Saudi operatives on orders from the kingdom.
Given this, the question of the US actually extending punitive measures on Israeli officials themselves would be the next big step (obviously extremely unlikely given that it’s America’s closest Mideast ally and defense partner).
According to Axios’ Barak Ravid, this was clarified later on Wednesday following the Commerce statement: “The State Department clarifies the Biden administration will not take steps against Israel or the Israeli government after the decision to blacklist Israeli Cyber spying companies NSO and Candiru,” he wrote.
Being on the entities list means the two Israeli companies are now barred from buying parts and components from US companies without specific approval from US authorities, which would require being issued a special license. Moreover, typically the reputational damage on a global scale is a huge black eye for such companies seeking to extend into foreign markets.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 22:40 - Airport Disruptions Possible As Biden Vaccine Mandate For TSA Workers Looms: Lawmakers
Airport Disruptions Possible As Biden Vaccine Mandate For TSA Workers Looms: Lawmakers
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
Top Republican Congress members voiced concerns of possible domestic air travel concerns due to President Joe Biden’s pending COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees, including Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers.
Up to 40 percent of TSA workers, who oversee airport security checkpoints, have not gotten vaccinated yet, the GOP lawmakers wrote in a letter to TSA Administrator David Pekoske. They requested that Pekoske provide an update on whether a staffing shortage of TSA workers looms and if the agency has a contingency plan in place.
“Unfortunately, it appears TSA is headed toward a scenario in which up to 40 percent of its workforce may not be compliant with the President’s Executive Order by the November 8 deadline. Such a scenario could have severe impacts on transportation security and the aviation, travel, and tourism industries,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the ranking senator on the Transportation Committee, and Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
In mid-October, Pekoske told CNN that as many as 4 out of 10 TSA workers, including security screeners, haven’t received the vaccine yet.
Pekoske added that his agency is “building contingency plans” over possible staffing shortages. Although Nov. 8 is the deadline for all federal workers to get vaccinated under an executive order signed by Biden in September, Pekoske hasn’t provided an update since his CNN interview aired.
At the time, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said that the vaccination statuses among workers are self-reported to the agency, and Pekoske’s remark doesn’t necessarily mean that 40 percent of TSA workers haven’t received the shot. The Epoch Times has contacted DHS for comment.
And while the GOP lawmakers said they believe vaccines are the best way for TSA workers to protect their coworkers and others, they warned that Biden’s mandate may cause “significant disruptions” to air travel and the agency’s operations—namely, as the holiday travel season approaches.
“Such a scenario could have severe impacts on transportation security and the aviation, travel, and tourism industries,” they wrote.
“A steep decline in the number of available [security officers] to screen passengers during the upcoming holiday season could have severe impacts on our economy, including small and rural communities such as the ones we represent.”
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management in October issued a memo saying federal agencies should begin enforcing the administration’s vaccine mandate starting Nov. 9 for federal workers who still aren’t vaccinated.
“Employees who refuse to be vaccinated or provide proof of vaccination are subject to disciplinary measures, up to and including removal or termination from Federal service,” OPM Director Kiran Ahuja wrote.
“The only exception is for individuals who receive a legally required exception pursuant to established agency processes.”
Other than mandates for federal workers, Biden during his Sept. 9 speech that federal contractors—who have a Dec. 8 deadline—and most healthcare workers would also be required to get the vaccine. His administration also directed the Department of Labor to craft an emergency rule to require private businesses with 100 or more workers to either mandate their employees to get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing.
Also in recent weeks, both American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, which are both federal contractors, were forced to cancel or delay thousands of flights due to inclement weather and unspecified staffing issues. Both airlines stressed that the delays were not related to the pending vaccine mandate.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 22:20 - Pentagon Sounds Alarm Over Accelerating Pace Of China's Nuke Stockpile: "1,000 Warheads By 2030"
Pentagon Sounds Alarm Over Accelerating Pace Of China’s Nuke Stockpile: “1,000 Warheads By 2030”
The US Department of Defense on Wednesday released its annual report which gives a detailed assessment of China’s military capabilities. The key and most alarming element to the report suggests China is planning to quadruple its nuclear weapons stockpile over the next decade.
The new analysis finds that for the 2020 review, the Pentagon woefully underestimated China’s expanding ambitions regarding its nuclear arsenal. Whereas last year’s estimate forecast the country would have more than 400 nuclear warheads by 2030, the new 2021 report posits over 700 by 2027, and with a likely intent by China to produce over 1,000 warheads by 2030.
PLA nuclear missile, via Breaking Defense The annual report to Congress on Chinese Military Power concludes that currently China’s projected aims are “exceeding the pace and size the [Department of Defense] projected in 2020.” By comparison, the US still has by far more nuclear warheads, at 3750.
However, the report underscores that in tandem with rapidly increasing warhead production, delivery systems are being updated with an aim to heighten nuclear triad readiness, as Bloomberg quotes from the Pentagon review:
“The PRC is investing in, and expanding, the number of its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this major expansion of its nuclear forces,” the Defense Department said. That means China “has possibly already established a nascent nuclear triad” of delivery systems, it said, and is supporting its nuclear expansion “by increasing its capacity to produce and separate plutonium by constructing fast breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities.”
Perhaps more interesting is that the report strongly suggests China has sped up its nuclear preparedness as a direct reaction to the US military’s heightened presence in the South China Sea by the end of the Trump administration.
“In the second half of 2020, the PRC perceived a significant threat that the United States would seek to provoke a military crisis or conflict in the near-term. These erroneous concerns were accompanied or fueled by widespread speculation in PRC media that the United States would deliberately instigate a conflict with the PRC in the South China Sea. This speculation accompanied intensified warning messaging in PRC state media, large-scale military drills, heightened readiness, and additional deployments,” the report lays out.
While the DoD report calls the assumption of intentioned US provocations “erroneous” – it remains that rhetoric on China spanning both the Trump and Biden administrations have grown more bellicose.
Speaking of heightened, provocative language hyping the China threat…
NEW – General Mark Milley assesses it unlikely that China will attempt to retake Taiwan within the next 6, 12, or 24 months. pic.twitter.com/WR78SD8Z2T
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 3, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Currently the Chinese government is urging Washington and its nuclear-armed allies to adopt a ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons policy – which has long been its own official stated position. Recent reports have indicated President Biden is ready to take a fresh look at US nuclear policy.
The US is expected to release its Nuclear Posture Review by year’s end. America’s current doctrine of strategic ambiguity – which assumes the US has a right to deploy nuclear weapons whether offensive or defensive – is the longtime default position that allies like UK, France, Germany and Australia want Biden to stick by, as they perceive as key to their own national defense.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 22:00 - Miami Mayor To Take Full Paycheck In Bitcoin
Miami Mayor To Take Full Paycheck In Bitcoin
Submitted by Bitcoin Magazine,
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has committed to taking his next paycheck fully in bitcoin, becoming the first known U.S. politician to make such a move.
The mayor, who is a BTC bull and has been taking large strides to integrate the network into his city’s operations, announced today his intention to convert 100% of his next paycheck into bitcoin on Twitter.
“I’m going to take my next paycheck 100% in bitcoin…problem solved,” tweeted Suarez in response to Anthony Pompliano’s tweet asking who would be the first U.S. politician to accept their salary in BTC. The mayor asked for the help of Miami’s CIO Mike Sarasti.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Sarasti said he had already sent the Mayor a Strike link for him to register and be able to receive his paycheck in bitcoin. “My experience receiving a portion of my pay last week went flawlessly,” Sarasti tweeted, hinting that he has been converting some of his own salary into BTC already. “Boss move,” he said, referring to the mayor’s decision to receive all, rather than part, of his pay in bitcoin.
Mayor Suarez is vocal about turning Miami into a Bitcoin hub, which would integrate bitcoin into city operations and allow employees to receive their paychecks in bitcoin. The latter might not be necessary for actual implementation by the city, since people can do that with solutions such as Strike already. But enabling citizens to pay for city fees and taxes is also in the mayor’s plans.
In February, Suarez’s proposal to integrate Bitcoin into Miami’s operations received approval, but the development has since stalled. The mayor received support at a county level shortly after, in April, but there has been little progress so far. More recently, however, Suarez claimed that paying government employees in bitcoin was still a “major priority” for the city of Miami.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 21:40 - US Navy's Zumwalt Stealth Destroyers To Get Hypersonic Missiles
US Navy’s Zumwalt Stealth Destroyers To Get Hypersonic Missiles
The U.S. Navy is planning to replace the deck gun of the Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers in the next few years with missile tubes to house hypersonic weapons.
In a conversation with Navy News, the service said “engineering planning efforts” have already started to replace the 155mm Advanced Gun Turrets (AGS) in the forward hull. This will free up space for Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells that will store hypersonic missiles. There was no word on how many VLS cells would be fitted into the front of the vessels. At the moment, there are two stealth destroyers operational and one more under construction.
“In FY2021, the U.S. Navy decided on replacing all of these 155mm AGS turrets with Hypersonic missile VLS tubes for the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) Hypersonic missile,” Navy News said.
The USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), the first of three 16,000-ton stealth destroyers, the service took delivery in 2020, just seven years late and plagued with problems, will be drydocked in 2024 to begin the retrofit construction. There was no mention of when the other destroyers would be drydocked for the retrofit.
Both the Army and Navy have been working on hypersonic weapon development. The services will use the same Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) for their surface-launched hypersonic missiles. The range of the weapon is expected to be around 1,700 miles.
News of the stealth destroyers expected to receive hypersonic missiles in two years comes as the Financial Times published two reports (see: here & here) on China’s hypersonic glide weapon that allegedly cruised around the world before nearly striking a target.
Our view is that the Zumwalt destroyer is outdated and spending hundreds of millions if not more on retrofitting VLS cells into the hull is a waste of taxpayers’ money. At the same time, China can launch hypersonic weapons from space.
America’s top military officer is beginning to realize the U.S. is falling behind in the hypersonic race with China.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 21:20 - Top Warehouse Operator Says Supply Chain Crisis Has "Reached The Peak"
Top Warehouse Operator Says Supply Chain Crisis Has “Reached The Peak”
By now, everyone is aware that global supply-chain congestion is off the charts and truly historic and has worsened in recent months, with 30 million tons of cargo waiting outside US ports ahead of the holiday season. But light could be emerging from the end of the tunnel, or at least peak disruption may have arrived.
“We’re through the worst of it. I think we’ve reached the peak,” said Malcolm Wilson, the CEO of GXO Logistics Inc., the world’s largest contract logistics provider that has more than 860 warehouses across the globe. “Hopefully, things will look a bit smoother as we move forward.”
GXO is a downstream player from the ports that has seen delays because of the massive backlog of container ships on the US West and East Coast ports. Wilson said, “a lot of that cargo, a lot of those products now are channeling into our warehouses.”
This is excellent news, considering the executive director of the Port of Long Beach, the largest container port in the US, recently told Americans to buy their holiday gifts now as congestion continues to build.
“Shop early because these delays and bottlenecks are going to continue to the end of the year,” Mario Cordero, the port’s executive director, said during an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Hopefully, we’ll have some strong mitigating factors.”
About 40% of all containerized goods flow through the Port of Long Beach and the neighboring Port of Los Angeles. Port congestion has hit an all-time high of around 100 vessels at terminals or waiting offshore. In pre-pandemic times, the average backlog of ships at the twin ports is between 10 and 20.
To mitigate the congestion at ports which has dragged on economic growth, President Biden issued a directive last month to operate ports on a 24/7 basis.
We recently discussed a research report from Goldman Sachs in which the bank’s economists listed what they viewed as the three critical drivers of supply chain normalization and their most likely timing:
- improved chip supply driven by post-Delta factory restarts (4Q21) and eventually by expanded production capacity (2H22 and 2023);
- improved US labor supply (4Q21 and 1H22); and
- the wind-down of US port congestion (2H22).
While some viewed Goldman’s forecast for a Q4 improvement in chip supply chains – a critical factor for renormalizing auto production – an overly optimistic US Steel CEO David Burritt said last week that “multiple auto customers, who are foreshadowing that the trough of the chip shortage could be behind us. They’re beginning to add to the fourth quarter and first quarter build schedules, and indicating to us, increasing usage rates, starting as early as next week.”
Another sign congestion at ports is waning could be global container rates on major routes have peaked. Something we discussed as early as Oct. 4 in a piece titled “Cost Of Shipping Between China And U.S. Plunges… But For The Worst Possible Reason.”
Even though the worst supply chain crisis could’ve peaked, industry experts don’t believe congestion at ports will alleviate until 2023.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 20:40 - Seven Reasons Democrats Lost Virginia
Seven Reasons Democrats Lost Virginia
Authored by Carl. M. Cannon via RealClear Politics (emphasis ours),
When Terry McAuliffe kicked off his third gubernatorial candidacy last December, some leading Virginia Democrats had mixed emotions. On one hand, party activists believed that in Jennifer Carroll Foy and Jennifer McClellan — two female African American lawmakers in the state legislature — they had credible candidates waiting in the wings to make history. The worry, which turned out to be accurate, was that the presence of a former governor with a famous fundraising prowess would squeeze them out.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber) At the same time, party elders figured that McAuliffe’s candidacy would prevent the worst-case scenario: namely, that Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who was accused of forcing himself sexually on two women, would somehow win the Democratic primary. So Democrats consoled themselves. “Terry” had been a popular governor the first time around, they told themselves, and was always an energetic campaigner.
“Certainly, he comes into the race in a very formidable position,” veteran Virginia political scholar Bob Holsworth said at the time. “He’s a popular former governor. He has tons of resources. And he loves to campaign. At the same time, the open question in this campaign is whether he is the person for the moment.”
The answer turned out to be no. On Tuesday, after a rolling election that lasted two full months, none of those assets was enough. McAuliffe lost a close election to Republican neophyte Glenn Youngkin. The tally, with 94% of the vote counted, is 50.7% to 48.6%. Meanwhile, in a potentially shocking upset in New Jersey, Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli holds a 1,200-vote edge over incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy with 97% of the total counted. If Ciattarelli holds on for victory, the result will defy the pre-election polling — and leave Democrats stunned and Republicans counting the days until the 2022 midterms.
In Virginia, a large and diverse state, a close election hinges on many factors. Here are seven.
Reason 1: McAuliffe’s previous tenure in office wasn’t an advantage. Because Old Dominion governors cannot succeed themselves, McAuliffe was hampered from running on his record in the traditional way, i.e., boasting how well the state’s economy is doing, for instance, because someone else currently occupies the governor’s mansion. At the same time, McAuliffe was an old familiar warhorse who ran in 2009 (when he lost the primary) and 2013 (when he won the general election), and who was a top Clinton fundraiser and foot soldier and Democratic Party leader for decades. By contrast, Glenn Youngkin was a fresh face in a year in which the electorate in Virginia, as elsewhere, is in a sour and restive mood and incumbency itself — as Gov. Murphy may have learned in New Jersey — is its own liability.
Also, McAuliffe’s tenure in Richmond seems like a long time ago in U.S. politics, even though it really wasn’t. Since he left office, Americans have endured a lethal and disruptive pandemic, the turbulence of the Donald Trump years, and a spike in the culture wars. And the Virginia campaign was sucked into the vortex of all of it.
Reason 2: Terry McAuliffe rarely said why he wanted to be governor again. Did he want to be in a position to run for president in 2024, a goal he hinted at in 2018? Was he bored? Is he simply addicted to competitive politics? On the rare occasions when McAuliffe engaged this subject, his utterances were anodyne. “This pandemic is a turning point in our lives, and our goal can’t be just to go back to where we were before,” he said as he began his campaign. “We need to think big and act bold to take Virginia to the next level. And the one thing that has the opportunity to lift up all Virginians is education.”
In one sense, this boilerplate rhetoric proved prescient: Education — specifically, how and who should run the commonwealth’s public schools — was the issue that probably decided the outcome, albeit not in a way Democrats foresaw.
Reason 3: It’s the parents, stupid. On Sept. 29, a day when the RealClearPolitics polling average showed McAuliffe leading with 46.9% support (to Youngkin’s 43.4%), the candidates squared off in a debate. That night, Youngkin made two points that resonated with many voters with school-age children. The first was a broad, pandemic-era complaint: “What we’ve seen over the course of the past 20 months is school systems refusing to engage with parents.”
To illustrate this claim, Youngkin invoked an issue usually associated with cultural conservatives: a bill Gov. McAuliffe vetoed that would have given parents more agency over sexually explicit books in school libraries. “I believe parents should be in charge of their kids’ education,” Youngkin added.
McAuliffe took the bait — and then some. He began his rebuttal by scoffing at Youngkin for being “clueless” because he’d never held elective office. “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions,” McAuliffe added. That would have been sustainable, possibly even deft. But for some reason, he punctuated that thought with these 12 fateful words: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
The Youngkin campaign promptly ran ads consisting simply of a video clip of the exchange. By Election Day, Youngkin pressed his advantage repeatedly. “This is no longer a campaign,” he said. “It is a movement where we are … standing up and saying we have a fundamental right to be engaged in our kids’ education.”
Youngkin may have been a political novice, as McAuliffe pointed out snidely, but his instincts were better than those of an opponent who’d been in politics all his adult life. McAuliffe, with controversial teachers’ union president Randi Weingarten at his side, managed to galvanize thousands of tiger moms in opposition. Dads, too. Exit polling showed that 53% of voters said that parents should have “a lot of say” in their children’s education.
“That was a disaster for him,” veteran political strategist David Axelrod said Tuesday night as the votes rolled in. “I think the context was a little skewed … but it clearly galvanized voters.”
Reason 4: As the race tightened, McAuliffe doubled down on his approach to education. In the homestretch, he sounded less like the moderate middle-aged swing state Democrat who won the governorship eight years ago and more like a Gen-Z social justice warrior angling for a sinecure in a teachers’ union local. Critical race theory? Not taught anywhere in Virginia, McAuliffe maintained repeatedly — and inaccurately. Merely mentioning CRT, he sneered, is “a racist dog whistle.” McAuliffe also accused Glenn Youngkin of plotting to make abortion illegal in Virginia — which is not a power the governor possesses — and did so without feeling constrained by the facts.
By the last days of the campaign, McAuliffe was in full-on identity politics mode, asserting that minority students are made uneasy by the mere presence of white teachers. “In Virginia schools, K-12, 50% are students of color and yet 80% of teachers are white,” he said. “We all know what we have to do in a school to make everybody feel comfortable in school, so let’s diversify.”
What was the strategy here? To pump up the African American and Hispanic vote, one assumes, by making race a central component of the campaign. It may have backfired. At the least, it didn’t galvanize enough minority voters. Nor did the presence on the stump of Barack Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris change the equation. President Biden campaigned in Virginia, too, echoing all of McAuliffe’s negative talking points, most especially the one that ultimately became the Democrats’ whole ballgame: trying to morph Glenn Youngkin into Donald Trump’s clone.
[ZH]:
Turns out telling parents that they have no say in their kids education and their kid is also a racist was a bad campaign strategy
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 3, 2021
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Reason 5: For his part, Youngkin threaded the needle nicely on Trump. When this race began last summer, Glenn Youngkin was unknown in Virginia politics. Those who did know his name remembered him as a high school basketball star in the Tidewater area whose father played hoops at Duke. Youngkin himself played collegiately at Rice before going into business. With wealth accrued as a partner in a private equity firm, Youngkin was able to self-fund a Republican primary campaign in which he dispatched with not one, but two, Trump disciples. But he managed to do so without alienating the former president.
Trump might have preferred one of the others, especially when Youngkin quietly rebuffed his offer to come campaign. But Trump clearly appreciated that Youngkin never bad-mouthed him, and the 45th president responded accordingly: He told his supporters to flood to the polls.
Successfully negotiating the mine field of Trump’s prickly ego not only helped Youngkin win on Tuesday. It also illuminated the path for future GOP candidates competing in states and districts that aren’t deep Republican red.
Reason 6: Virginia gubernatorial elections are traditionally tough for the party in the White House. Of the last 12 Virginia governors going back to 1977, when Republican John Dalton won office during Jimmy Carter’s first year in the Oval Office, 11 of them belonged to a different party than the president. This phenomenon can’t be blamed on Joe Biden any more than it can be blamed on Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, the Bushes, Barack Obama — or Donald Trump. In some years, the Virginia results portend a sea change, as was the case in 1993 when George Allen’s victory was an early sign of the “Republican Revolution” that gave the GOP control of both houses on Capitol Hill just one year later. Other times, such as in 1997, it foreshadowed nothing.
One historical footnote: The only time in the past 44 years that a Virginia gubernatorial candidate belonging to the same party as the president won was in 2013 when Barack Obama was president (and Joe Biden was vice president). That candidate? None other than Terry McAuliffe. It was asking a lot of him to repeat that feat. As it happened, it was asking too much.
Reason 7: Something was afoot Tuesday night, not just in the Virginia governor’s race — and not just in Virginia. In the Old Dominion, Republicans also picked up the lieutenant governorship — electing the first black woman to win statewide in Virginia history — while ousting a Democratic attorney general. In Minneapolis, voters overwhelmingly rejected a change in the city charter that would have restructured the much-maligned local police department. In Buffalo, a socialist who had won the Democratic primary for mayor was defeated by a write-in vote that went overwhelmingly to the incumbent. New York City’s new mayor is an ex-police officer who favors gun rights. Across the river in New Jersey — in the shock of the night —Ciattarelli has the incumbent Murphy on the ropes. This, in a state Joe Biden carried by 16 percentage points just one year ago.
Is President Biden a disappointment to voters, a drag on down-ticket Democrats? Perhaps, but that seems too tidy an explanation. It’s true that after a healthy honeymoon with voters, Biden’s job approval rating has plummeted amid continued spikes in violent crime, the debacle in Afghanistan, chaos at the border, the continuing coronavirus pandemic, inflation in food and energy prices, and economic uncertainty propelled by a novel problem — employers can’t find enough workers to fill the jobs they have.
And though it’s also true that Republicans are giddy this morning about finishing what they started come next year’s midterms, one plausible conclusion from Tuesday’s vote is that a majority of voters want Biden to be the president he promised to be. He was the moderate who defeated a slew of presidential contenders to his left — the one who vowed to work for all Americans, not just those who supported him. Yet he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi somehow find themselves under the thumb of the left wing of their own party. This nation’s electorate rejected the excesses of Trumpism. Tuesday was another corrective, a reminder to the Democratic Party that although few moderates remain in Washington, tens of millions of them live outside the Beltway. They are paying attention and they vote.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 20:20 - Israel Launches Huge Missile & Drone-Detecting Balloon As Iran Expands Reach
Israel Launches Huge Missile & Drone-Detecting Balloon As Iran Expands Reach
Israel’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday unveiled the latest upgrade to its anti-air defenses, citing a heightened continued threat from Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and increasingly sophisticated drones, also possessed by Lebanon’s Iran-backed ally Hezbollah.
A large new high altitude blimp called “Sky Dew” is set to be launched, which is equipped with a radar-based system in order to provide early detection for any inbound long-range missiles or drones. The balloon’s sensors will complement existing anti-air defenses and radar, which includes the Iron Dome missile system, according to Israeli media reports.
The blimp will be deployed over northern Israel. Image: Defense Ministry/TOI One of the key developers, Israeli Aerospace Industries, described in a statement that “The elevated sensor system provides a significant technological and operational advantage for early and precise threat detection.”
“This technology increases the reliability of the aerial surveillance picture, and increases efficiency against a range of targets,” company CEO Boaz Levy added.
Crucially the high-tech balloon was developed with US military help. Israel’s Missile Defense Organization and the United States’ Missile Defense Agency worked together in developing the project in order to ensure Israel’s “qualitative military edge” against regional threats, according to director of the American Missile Defense Agency, Vice Admiral Jon Hill. Maintaining the Jewish state’s military dominance is currently a defined US foreign policy and strategic goal.
After years of testing the balloon’s capabilities in detecting long-range threats, which officials say have proved successful, it’s likely that more of the radar equipped balloons will be deployed in the coming years. Currently Israel’s sees the greatest external threats as against it’s northern region, given also the proximity to southern Lebanon and Syria. According to The Times of Israel:
The Israeli military fears that in the coming years that superiority may be tested as Iranian-made and -designed drones and cruise missiles flood the Middle East, representing a greater threat to Israel than the simple rockets that terror groups in the region have possessed until now.
In light of this threat, the IDF intends to have full, permanent defensive coverage in place over the airspace of northern Israel within the next two years, with plans to eventually expand it to the entire country.
The Israeli Defense Ministry and Air Force are preparing to launch a massive new missile detection balloon into the skies over northern Israel.
“It represents a significant element in the strengthening of the defense of the country’s borders,” the ministry says. https://t.co/8M7LIXgkNc
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) November 3, 2021
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Despite Israeli leaders consistently framing the military’s posture as primarily “defensive” – in recent years the air force has conducted literally hundreds of raids and strikes deep inside Syria, which Tel Aviv says is toward disrupting pro-Iranian networks in the country, particularly Hezbollah.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 20:00 - Get Ready For Food Rationing
Get Ready For Food Rationing
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via DailyReckoning.com,
It was a very strange moment when this week the spokesperson for the president defended inflation as a high-class problem. She explained that higher prices are merely a sign that economic activity is picking up. People are buying things and that’s good. Of course that pushes up prices, she said. Just deal with it.
At this point, the White House will say anything. Truth, facts, morality – these things matter less and less in current-day America. Your misery is an illusion. Losing your job because you don’t want the jab? Hey, that is the price you pay for noncompliance. Expect no sympathy from anyone in charge.
The Great Rationing
It must have been this flippant dismissal that caused me to go over the top. I wrote that hyperinflation could lead not only to implicit price controls, but also to rationing. Eventually, we could see the government issuing food tickets into bank accounts that allow us only a certain amount of food for the week. One chicken. One pound of hamburger heat. Five rolls of toilet paper.
I wrote that with a worry that I might be going too far here with speculation. This is America, after all, and we don’t do things this way. And yet in the old America we didn’t close churches for Easter, or skip Christmas for fear of a virus. And so on. Yet we know now that in fact we do these things, and easily.
Fear makes anything possible.
And so right on cue — things are moving very fast these days — The Washington Post has published an article by one of its regular contributors (Micheline Maynard) with one message:
GET USED TO IT!
She says that we have come to expect too much for the economy. Ever since 1911, she says, we’ve been obsessed with getting stuff and getting it fast. That’s dumb, she says. Deprivation is not only the new normal; it’s the way things should be.
“Across the country, Americans’ expectations of speedy service and easy access to consumer products have been crushed like a Styrofoam container in a trash compactor,” she writes.
“Time for some new, more realistic expectations.”
For example, she writes of the candy shortage. The milk shortage. The everything shortage. Then she concludes: “Rather than living constantly on the verge of throwing a fit, and risking taking it out on overwhelmed servers, struggling shop owners or late-arriving delivery people, we’d do ourselves a favor by consciously lowering expectations.”
How bad can it get? She saves the best for the very end:
“American consumers might have been spoiled, but generations of them have also dealt with shortages of some kind — gasoline in the 1970s, food rationing in the 1940s, housing in the 1920s, when cities such as Detroit were booming. Now it’s our turn to make adjustments.”
You might read that again. She is defending gas lines. More astonishingly, she is going on about the glorious suffering of wartime, when food was rationed with rationing tickets! You cannot make this stuff up.
What’s worse, that The Washington Post published it reveals something about what they imagine could be our future. And by future I don’t mean distant future. I mean next year.
No One Is Safe
You will notice the growing tribalization of everything and everyone in the last 20 months. People are retreating to what is safe and known, their own kind. Their neighborhood. Their closest friends. Their families. Even those are strained, but that is all we have. The old world of integration and heterogeneity is shattered, commercial culture is dead in large parts of the country and fear and depression are taking over as the dominant emotions.
I write that and my friends in Texas, Florida and South Dakota say: “I have no idea what you are talking about. Life around here is normal. Concerts are packed. Restaurants are busy. No one is wearing masks. We are so over this!”
I’m happy for them. Truly. But there’s a problem. Many problems. We all share the same monetary unit. Supply chains are connected all over the country, and the world. Every state relies on goods from every other state. We are long past autarky. We can feel like we are safe, but we are not.
Hyperinflation will affect everyone without exception. If North Carolina can’t get milk and chicken, neither can Florida and New Mexico. The deprivation will be shared. A good example is the car shortage. Texas was not spared simply because the state has a relatively halfway decent governor who finally got wise, too late, but he finally got there. Still the car lots are empty.
It’s the same with many things. We all use the same dollar. Its destruction will hit South Dakota the same as it hits California. There will be no safe space.
Many people moved to get away from despotism during this last year. They thought they were safe. They are not. Yes, life for now is better in Miami than Chicago but when the crisis hits, it will not spare red states with reasonable governors just because the people there have not been part of the insanity for a long time. They will still pay the price.
The Great Deprivation
In the past when things went wrong, at least our leaders admitted that things were not going so well. They tried to fix the problem. It’s not clear that our current leadership in Washington even believes it is a problem. The response toward existing inflation is telling. They think it’s all fine.
Gas lines? Fine: Just switch to electric. No heating oil or it is unaffordable? That’s all the better for solving climate change.
No bags in the stores? Just bring your own. No meat? Eat veggie burgers. And so on.
These people are part of a cult. They do not oppose poverty. They think it’s about time we experienced it. Poverty is good for us. Deprivation is plenty. Inflation is prosperity. Empty shelves are a reset to the way things should be.
These are people for whom socialism was not a failure but a triumph in which people learned to become a new form of community through suffering. In fact, they are pro-suffering. It’s a new form of leftist ideology that has gained steam for decades. Now they are in charge. They get perverse pleasure out of the whole scene.
It doesn’t matter how bad it gets. Our leaders will never admit failure. They will look at the disaster they are creating and call it success. This is what is truly chilling about the unfolding crisis: They do not believe it is a crisis. They think this is a reset to the way things should work.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 19:40 - Mysterious "Jet Pack Man" Could Actually Be A Balloon
Mysterious “Jet Pack Man” Could Actually Be A Balloon
The mystery of the “Jet Pack Man” sightings over Los Angeles may finally have been identified as an object that doesn’t require engines, fuel, or high-tech alien technology but rather a simple ballon.
“One working theory is that pilots might have seen balloons,” the FBI and FAA said in statements after NBC Los Angeles published images and a video taken by a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter that appear to show a human-shaped inflatable toy, or what resembled Jack Skellington – the main character in Tim Burton’s 1993 movie “A Nightmare Before Christmas” – ballon, flying thousands of feet above Beverly Hills.
Government officials told NBC Los Angeles that the single balloon sighting could’ve been from a Halloween display. However, it’s becoming more plausible that sightings of a jet pack are likely to be balloons that had drifted near LAX.
Here are the three sightings of jet pack man last year:
- “We Just Passed A Guy In A Jet Pack”: FBI Investigating After Pilots Report Sighting At 3,000 Feet
- Airline Crew Spots ‘Guy In Jetpack’ Flying 6,000 Feet Over LAX In 2nd ‘Dangerous’ Incident
- Stunning Video Appears To Capture Mysterious LA ‘Jetpack Man’
Retired airline pilot and aviation consultant Ross Aimer told NBC Los Angeles that balloons seem to be more in line with what pilots have reported over the last year.
“There’s a very good possibility the previous ones were also balloons and pilots mistook them as jetpacks,” Aimer said. “This is a better explanation to the aviation community and to me.”
Still, there’s no confirmation on previous sightings, but the working theory now appears to show balloons instead of jet packs. Now it’s time for authorities to request information on Amazon customers in the LA area who purchased human-sized balloons to find possible leads.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 19:20 - COP26: Trudeau's Heightened Climate Demands On Oil & Gas Sparks Criticism Back Home
COP26: Trudeau’s Heightened Climate Demands On Oil & Gas Sparks Criticism Back Home
Authored by Rahul Vaidyanath via The Epoch Times,
In the lead-up to COP26, the G20 was not as downbeat on oil and gas as it could have been, but Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood apart by ramping up talk on fighting emissions. Back home, however, his words caused some consternation for the industry that is already working toward net-zero 2050. The leader’s pledges also appear to have had no effect on some of the world’s biggest polluters.
The G20, which met in Rome on Oct. 30–31, did not commit to achieving net zero by 2050. The time frame proposed was “by or around mid-century.” Carbon-intensive countries like China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have indicated they would aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. China and Russia were not in attendance at COP26.
The G20 did not take further action to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.
Amid an energy crisis and surge in inflation, the current demand for oil and natural gas is unmistakable. U.S. President Joe Biden had previously urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase production. In the push toward net-zero 2050, the International Energy Agency forecasted OPEC’s share of a much smaller global supply of oil to expand.
But Trudeau increased the pressure on Canada’s energy sector with talk of a hard cap.
“Today, Canada moves to cap oil and gas sector emissions and ensure they decline at a pace and scale needed to achieve net-zero by 2050,” Trudeau tweeted on Nov. 1 at COP26, which runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland. The United Nations COP (Conference of the Parties) is the world’s highest-profile climate conference, since the Paris Agreement—a legally binding international treaty on climate change—was reached at COP21 in 2015.
Alberta’s environment and parks minister Jason Nixon told BNN Bloomberg that the feds haven’t invested nearly enough to achieve their emission reduction goals.
“The prime minister seems to go on a regular basis and set targets but doesn’t really invest to make sure those targets will come forward,” he said.
“Their investment does not meet their ambition.”
China is the world’s top carbon emitter, producing 28 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with 60 percent of its electricity coming from coal. But it is not making additional efforts to cut back on emissions. Meanwhile, Canada is responsible for less than 2 percent of GHG globally.
G20 leaders “took only baby steps” on environmental issues, said John Kirton, director of the G20 Research Group at the University of Toronto, in his Oct. 31 analysis of the Rome summit.
He noted that the G20 did “very little else” other than giving serious attention to natural carbon sinks and detailing emission sources.
Big Questions Remain
The feds issued a statement on Nov. 1 saying that “Canada is the first major oil-producing country moving to capping and reducing pollution from the oil and gas sector to net zero by 2050.”
The Canadian government will set five-year national emission reduction targets—as mandated by Bill C-12, passed in June—and also “ensure that the sector makes a meaningful contribution to meeting Canada’s 2030 climate goals.” The feds will seek the advice of the Net-Zero Advisory Body on how to best move forward on this approach.
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, shadow minister for jobs and industry, tweeted, “Will Trudeau’s cap on oil & gas apply to the dirty dictatorships from which we import or just to Made-in-Canada energy? Asking for several hundred thousand workers.”
To transition to a lower-carbon economy, many questions remain unanswered in Canada and globally relating to investment, carbon pricing, and employment. The expectation—and for some, hope—is that COP26 will tackle the fine print as environmental groups argue not enough is being done quickly while society’s energy demands grow and the livelihoods of thousands hang in the balance.
“It will be incredibly important for the federal government and the natural gas and oil industry to work collaboratively to ensure we meet our environmental and social outcomes. To achieve the ambitions of the Paris Agreement the world will need increased access to lower emission natural gas and oil,” said Tim McMillan, president & CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), in a statement.
“Canada, under the right policy environment, can position ourselves as a preferred global supplier, creating jobs and prosperity for Canadians and helping to lower global greenhouse gas emissions,” McMillan said.
Alberta on Nov. 1 announced an investment of $176 million to reduce GHG emissions through 16 clean-energy projects. The initiatives are expected to cut about 7 million tonnes of emissions annually by 2030.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 19:00 - NJ Governor's Race Called For Incumbent Murphy After Upset Nail-Biter
NJ Governor’s Race Called For Incumbent Murphy After Upset Nail-Biter
Update (1835ET): The GOP upset in New Jersey has finally been called: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has reportedly clinched his second term as governor of the Garden State after defeating former GOP state state Assembleyman Jack Ciattarelli in a gubernatorial race that was unexpectedly close.
The race was finally called Wednesday evening, with Murphy beating back Ciattarelli in a race that was supposed to be an easy re-election victory for the Democrat, but turned into an unexpected nail-biter.
According to the Hill, polls had slightly narrowed in the final few weeks of the campaign (although RCP’s average poll still had Murphy up by a significant margin heading into election day). Ciattarelli performed far better than expectations, holding a slight lead over Murphy for much of Tuesday night before the count ultimately slipped into the Democrats’ favor early Wednesday.
Murphy is the first Democratic governor of NJ to win reelection in 4 decades. And the closeness of the race now has Democrats questioning the public mood and popularity of President Biden and his agenda, while Republicans see Murphy’s relatively poor performance as a sign that they might be able to make serious gains in Congress during next year’s mid-term election.
* * *
Update (1115ET): According to the latest figures from Bloomberg and the AP, NJ Gov. Phil Murphy has a narrow lead in NJ’s still-too-close-to-call gubernatorial race.
Murphy is leading by around 7K votes despite a surge in support for Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli overnight. Votes are still being counted, particularly mail-in ballots in what BBG described as “strongly Democratic counties.”
I’ve seen enough: Gov. Phil Murphy (D) defeats Jack Ciattarelli (R) in the New Jersey governor’s race. #NJGOV
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 3, 2021
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At least one major forecaster – David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report – has made a projection that Murphy will eventually win, but it could be days, or even weeks before the outcome is decided, and there’s a chance that whoever ends up on the losing end might request a recount, given that the race has come down to thousands of votes out of more than 2MM cast.
BBG explained that the Garden State has typically leaned Democratic, but voters frustrated by the state’s high taxes have kept Democratic governors to single terms for more than four decades. The state’s most recent GOP governor, Chris Christie, managed to win two terms before he was term-limited out.
* * *
If the off-year election of 2021 truly was a proxy for the public’s feelings toward President Biden and the Democrats, then the Dems have officially been warned: their shallow electoral mandate is already collapsing – and the midterms are still a year off. Because the Dems had a worse Tuesday night than the Houston Astros, a sign that voters are pushing back against the party’s increasingly leftward drift.
Not only did Republican political newcomer Glenn Youngkin wax former Democratic Gov. (and Clinton pal) Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, but in New Jersey, what was supposed to be an easy re-election victory for Gov. (and former Goldman Sachs employee) Phil Murphy has turned into a political dogfight, with neither Murphy nor his GOP rival Jack Ciattarelli able to claim victory after a long night of ballot-counting. Both spoke to supporters in post-midnight speeches, but the mood of deflation felt by the Democrats was difficult to ignore.
And while the pundits are still clinging to the notion that Murphy will clinch re-election – after all, he had a massive advantage including 1 million more registered voters and far more cash in his campaign coffers than his GOP rival – the race is still neck and neck.
Based on the counties that are outstanding, I would think Murphy squeaks by with a narrow victory: https://t.co/mRzVRJOWK5 pic.twitter.com/0f98Z3eXXS
— Steve Chernoski (@nsjersey) November 3, 2021
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According to NJ.com, as of 5:45ET Wednesday, it’s possible the gubernatorial race in the Garden State may not be decided Wednesday. With 98% of the precincts in, Ciattarelli – a former member of the state Assembly – was leading Murphy by about 1,200 votes, according to totals from the Associated Press. That amounted to 49.7% for Ciattarelli and 49.6% for Murphy. To be sure, thousands of votes, many from Dem-leaning counties, remain uncounted.
Meanwhile, the difference in tone between Ciattarelli and Murphy was palpable in their election-night speeches. First, Ciattarelli.
Now Murphy, who clearly feels entitled to re-election after serving as governor through the COVID pandemic, after imposing some of the most unnecessary policies that clearly scared thousands of Democrats into vote absentee, or, perhaps, staying home entirely.
Back in Va. voters celebrated Youngkin’s win with “Let’s Go Brandon” chants in a generally excitable crowd.
Offering some insight into how Youngkin managed to pull off a victory: unlike Clinton crony McAuliffe, Youngkin actually inspired voters to show up to the polls.
Here is a wild stat. In the 17 counties west of Roanoke (basically, the bottom left tail of the state on a map), Youngkin netted an extra 40k votes compared to Gillespie in 2017. He did it *entirely* through turnout. Dem votes were almost exactly flat, GOP votes up 40%.
— George Pearkes (@pearkes) November 3, 2021
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Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd was killed by officer Derek Chauvin, setting off last summer’s wave of riots and “demonstrations”, voters in the city rejected a proposal to abolish the city’s police department and replace it with a “public safety” department focused on a “comprehensive public health approach”. In NYC, the election went largely as expected, with former police officer and moderate Democrat Eric Adams emerging victorious (although many believed the race was decided months ago when Adams clinched victory in the Democratic primary). At any rate, Adams’ GOP rival Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, showed up to vote with one of his 17 cats.
Democrat Eric Adams romps home to victory in the race for New York City Mayor, beating out Republican rival Curtin Sliwa who turned up to vote for himself with one of his 17 cats https://t.co/0b1u5KzFhs pic.twitter.com/FpuvHJN4r2
— Showbiz (@showbiznotices) November 3, 2021
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Circling back to Virginia for a moment, not only did voters reject McAuliffe and back GOP Youngkin, they also backed Republican Winsome Sears, a black woman and immigrant from Jamaica and former Marine, to be the state’s next Lieutenant Governor.
Sears defeated Democrat Hala Ayala, winning just over 51.2% of the vote to Ayala’s 48.8%, according to a local NBC affiliate. While a woman of color was slated to take the lieutenant governor position regardless of who won (a first in Va. history) Sears won the thing, becoming the first black woman to be elected to any statewide office in Virginia, cementing a historic vote.
HUGE UPSET: Republican @WinsomeSears has been elected Virginia’s next lieutenant governor!
She was outspent 2:1 but overcame all odds and will be the first woman to hold the office in VA!
Congrats, Winsome! pic.twitter.com/Mfb1EYtmgk
— Republican State Leadership Committee (@RSLC) November 3, 2021
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Does she look like a ‘white supremacist’ to you?
So, what’s the takeaway from all of this? Well, clearly, voters are uncomfortable with the Democrats’ courting of the progressive left, especially when it comes to issues like whether CRT should be taught in schools. Also, as Axios notes, Democrats are about to engage in a serious game of finger-pointing, since even with former President Trump largely silenced thanks to a social media blackout, they still couldn’t manage to win a solid victory in an off-year vote. The vote may be a “wake-up call” for the Dems’ Congressional leadership to push for swift passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, a bipartisan deal passed by the Senate over the summer, but which has been held up by progressives who are demanding that Biden’s social agenda (a package that currently stands at about $1.75 trillion) see a vote first, for fear that it might collapse, or see massive cutbacks, without the ‘carrot’ of the infrastructure bill.
“Clearly, the president’s drop in favorability made it very difficult for the Democratic nominee to stay above water,” Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly told Axios D.C.’s Cuneyt Dil at McAuliffe’s election night event in Tysons Corner, Va.
As a reminder, here’s what President Biden’s favorability looks like.
Speaing On Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show last night, political analyst Larry Sabato said somebody from “McAuliffe’s camp” described the race in Va. a “blood bath” for the Dems.
DELICIOUSO!!!😭🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/bGz9x3ldza
— il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) November 3, 2021
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While they might try to brush it off as an off-year fluke, the Democrats know the implications of Tuesday night’s vote. After all, Kamala Harris herself said the following about last night’s vote in Virginia: “It is a bellwether for what happens in the rest of the country…what happens in VA will in large part determine what happens in 2022, 2024 & on.”
But a Congressional aide put it far more bluntly in an anonymous quote to Axios: “It’s time for Democrats to stop f****** around” and “show the voters we actually can govern.”
Another senior aide said it’s “insanely clear” the party must change its focus “not on center-left or progressive goals,” but on “what gets real things done for families.”
At this point, President Biden has signed a lot of executive orders, but what has his administration actually accomplished?
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 18:43 - China Facing "Downward Pressure", Premier Warns
China Facing “Downward Pressure”, Premier Warns
With the Fed supposedly telegraphing that the US economy is strong enough to withstand a modest decline in the monthly QE, China is headed in the other direction, and overnight Premier Li Keqiang said the economy faces new downward pressures and “has to cut taxes and fees to address the problems faced by small and medium-sized companies.”
While Li did not specify the extent of the new “downward pressure” or its cause, but as Bloomberg notes, the phrase is used by Chinese officials to refer to a slowing economy, which it clearly is in China as the following chart shows; he has used the phrase before, including several times in 2019.
The economy needs “cross-cyclical adjustments” to continue in a proper range, Li said during a visit to China’s top market regulator, state broadcaster CCTV reported. That phrase is associated with a more conservative fiscal and monetary approach that focuses more on the long-term outlook instead of immediate economic performance.
While Li didn’t say anything we didn’t already know (just last week Goldman cut China’s 2022 GDP forecast to just 5.2%) the premier’s admission was surprisingly candid as Beijing has traditionally been coy about revealing economic weakness. China’s economy has been slowing in recent months due to Beijing’s push to slow growth in the real-estate sector.
Li called for the creation of a better business environment through equal treatment of all types of companies and better market oversight, mentioning efforts to combat monopolies, unfair competition and hoarding. A statement from China’s government urging local authorities to ensure there was adequate food supply during the winter and encouraging people to stock up on some essentials prompted a “panic buying” scramble on Tuesday as locals rushed to hoard whatever they could, with the Ministry of Commerce later trying to calm concerns.
Li’s remarks came after further signs of weakness in October due to power shortages which weighed on manufacturing, and strict coronavirus controls which put a brake on holiday spending; meanwhile the unprecedented collapse in China’s housing sector is getting worse by the day (as discussed just last night in “China Junk Bond Yields Hit All Time High As Property Default Contagion Spreads, Home Sales Plunge 32%”) and the only question is how much of a hit to China’s GDP will it be. As a reminder, a little over a month ago, Goldman laid out three scenarios that saw the adverse impact on China’s GDP anywhere between 1.4% and 4.1%.
“There are no obvious growth drivers now, so the government is looking for one,” said Bruce Pang, head of macro and strategy research at China Renaissance Securities Hong Kong Ltd. “Small businesses’ investment can provide a source of healthier, longer-term growth, compared with government or property investment.”
According to Peng, in the absence of a broad-based bazooka rate cut, authorities will encourage banks to lend more to small businesses, further reduce taxes and fees for them, and look to simplify administrative procedures to encourage more entrepreneurs.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 49.2, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday, the second month it was below the key 50-mark that signals a contraction in production.Several investment banks have lowered their forecasts for China’s 2021 growth to below 8% in recent weeks. However, former Chinese central bank adviser Huang Yiping told Bloomberg News Tuesday that while China’s economy will slow further over the next few months, annual growth of around 8% is achievable.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 18:40 - Florida Homeowner Fined For Hanging Trump And "Let's Go Brandon" Banners On His Own Home
Florida Homeowner Fined For Hanging Trump And “Let’s Go Brandon” Banners On His Own Home
There is an interesting constitutional fight brewing in Florida.
I have a column out today on the “Let’s Go, Brandon” movement.
Marvin Peavy is part of that movement and displayed a banner with the chant (with a pro Trump banner) from his home in Seagrove Beach, Florida.
Hanging from Peavy’s home is a banner proclaiming “Trump Won” and another proclaiming “Let’s Go Brandon.” The latter chant is a euphemism for “F— Joe Biden.”
“I’m here on the beach, and I got a lot of traffic, and people needed to see what I believe in,” Peavy said.
“That’s free speech, and I wanted everyone to know that I’m a republican and I’m supporting Donald Trump.”
He is now facing a $50 a day fine for violating an ordinance against such banners.
He has pledged to continue to fight the enforcement.
The question is whether the ordinance is constitutional.
The code states that following signs are “the prohibited in the Route 30-A Scenic Corridor”:
B. Prohibited signs. In addition to the signs prohibited in Section 6.03.00, the following signs shall be prohibited in the Route 30-A Scenic Corridor:
1. Permanent off-premise outdoor advertising signs (an off-premise sign is any sign located on property other than that to which the sign relates);
2. Pole signs;
3. Water towers as commercial advertising;
4. Wall murals as commercial advertising;
5. Off-premise signs;
6. Temporary mobile or portable signs;
7. Interior lit single panel plastic or Lexan face;
8. Streamers, feather flags, pennants, ribbons, spinners and other similar devices;
9. Flashing signs;
10. Signs containing reflective elements that sparkle or twinkle in the sunlight;
11. Roof signs;
12. Signs containing moving parts.
The law is notably neutral on content. That is a key distinction given prior Supreme Court rulings like Reed v Town of Gilbert. In that case, the court ruled unanimously that an Arizona ordinance was unconstitutional. Under the ordinance, “ideological signs” and “political signs” were subject to different limitations.
Writing for the Court in Reed, Justice Clarence Thomas stressed that “[g]overnment regulation of speech is content based if a law applies to particular speech because of the topic discussed or the idea or message expressed.”
The content-based regulation triggered “strict scrutiny” analysis requiring that the government must demonstrate that the law has been “narrowly tailored” to serve a “compelling interest.”
Here all signs are limited or banned in this area regardless of their message. What remains, however, is the denial of homeowners to be able to speak politically through signage on their own homes. The city would argue that they can still speak in other ways. Moreover, there is a general exemption in the ordinance for
“Temporary signs for political candidacy, nonprofit organizations, religious institutions and other signs conveying a non-commercial message for a one-time event provided that such signs are removed within 15 days following the campaign, drive, or event.”
Again, there is no content regulation here and political signs are allowed during campaign seasons.
But how about those who want to express political views between elections? Such sentiments are supporting ongoing movements, including “Let’s Go Brandon” which is a criticism of media bias. This is an aesthetic regulation that negates forms of political expression. While the odds may be against Peavy, he may force a reconsideration of such speech rights.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/03/2021 – 18:20
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