Today’s News 4th October 2024

• Sweden Could Soon Have 1 Million Illiterates, Largely Due To Mass Immigration
  Sweden Could Soon Have 1 Million Illiterates, Largely Due To Mass Immigration

  Via Remix News,

  The number of people who are illiterate in Sweden is expected to exceed 800,000 in winter of this year, with researchers expecting the number to soon reach 1 million, in large part due to mass immigration.

  

  The most recent survey by Statistics Sweden shows there are currently around 780,000 people between the ages of 16 and 65 who are illiterate in Sweden, but this number is soaring.

  “Each month, eight to ten illiterate students arrive,” said Rita Sommarkrans, SFI teacher in Västerås, to SVT. She added that if someone can’t read or write, it’s hard for them to find a place, pay their bills, or even book a doctor’s appointment. 

  “If this trend continues, we risk having an entire generation of young people who are effectively functionally illiterate,” wrote Minister of Education Johan Pehrson and Minister of School Affairs Lotta Edholm in an introductory article.

  However, Swedish publication Fria Tider notes that the ministers are failing to explain what the main cause behind the massive illiteracy problem is in the country, which is mass immigration of illiterate adults from the Third World, which the allegedly conservative ruling government is failing to stop.

  Sweden: Majority of Malmö children are immigrants; researcher says Swedish is now a ‘minority language’ and calls for Arabic schools. https://t.co/3HcxLQt0tn

  — Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 9, 2023

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  However, many of these foreigners are bringing children or giving birth to children who are entering the Swedish school system. In some cities, Swedish children are already the minority in the school system, such as Mälmo. In fact, the situation has gotten so extreme in that city that city officials are proposing to teach in Arabic instead of Swedish, as Remix News reported in the past. However, such a move will only accelerate the problem of illiteracy and result in even deeper divisions in society.

  Due to the falling literacy rates, Sweden is transforming its entire school system, making compulsory schooling 10 years instead of nine. In 2024, the number of students who were able to successfully complete the compulsory nine-year primary school continued to decrease.

  Out of the slightly more than 120,000 Swedish students in primary school, 20,000 finished compulsory school in 2024 without graduating to upper secondary school. This segment of students will have little chance of getting a job or career, and as Swedish news portal Samnytt writes, many of them will turn to crime or welfare to get by.

  “It is worrying that the results of 9th graders are decreasing. More students should complete primary school, not fewer. Failure to complete primary school is one of the main risk factors for unemployment and social exclusion,” said Anna Castberg, a department head at the Swedish Education Agency, in an official press release.

  🇸🇪‼️ A 15-year-old boy from Syria who came to Sweden as a refugee has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following a school shooting last week.

  The suspect arrived in Sweden during the peak of the migrant crisis in November 2015 accompanied by his parents and three… pic.twitter.com/LIs3ZMtH6f

  — Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 10, 2024

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  The Swedish National Education Office notes that the education level of the parents greatly influences the grades of the children. The lowest level of education is found among non-Western migrants, and consequently students of this group dominate among the worst performers. In addition, the education gap between Swedes and migrants is increasing instead of decreasing. 

  Most new citizens come from non-EU Muslim countries

  In fact, a new report from the Swedish Migration Agency now shows that Sweden has granted 660,362 migrants Swedish citizenship since 2015, with the vast majority coming from non-EU Muslim countries.

  One of the top recipients of Swedish citizenship is Somalia, which is a country with one of the lowest levels of education in the world and an official illiteracy rate of 62.2 percent. In many cases, the people arriving from this country do not even know how to read and write in their own language, let alone Swedish. Data shows that 53,543 Somalians received citizenship since 2015, the second most of any country.

  In first place was Syria, with 147,579 Syrians receiving citizenship since 2015, or 22 percent of the total.

  Sweden’s performance in the PISA test has also drastically fallen, which will have dramatic results for Sweden’s economy over the coming years, as the country relies on a highly trained and high-tech workforce delivering high-value goods to the world market. In fact, the government was embroiled in a scandal in 2020 when its high PISA scores turned out to be a fraud.

  While many migrants may not like Swedes, most have no interest in ever leaving Sweden. Over half say they would never leave for any amount of money. https://t.co/eM7SrRTKrS

  — Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 20, 2024

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  At the time, Sweden’s Expressen wrote, “The latest PISA results showed an increase for Swedish students. Expressen can now reveal how a large number of foreign-born students were wrongly removed from the PISA selection, and that Sweden thereby violated the OECD’s official regulations. The figures also suggest that Swedish-born students with weak language skills were also removed.”

  The paper further wrote that “If the rules had been followed, the Swedish results would have been significantly worse and Sweden would probably have gone backwards in all three subjects compared to the last exam.”

  Swedish schools are now dangerous for teachers and students

  Swedish schools are also becoming more dangerous. The Swedish Teachers’ Union (Sveriges Lärare) issued a warning about the increased threats and violence facing teachers in Stockholm.

  The number of serious incidents increased 36 percent to 159 cases in 2023 compared to 2022.

  “There are threats ranging from ‘I’ll kill you’ and ‘I’ll shoot you’ to direct acts of violence,” said Simon Sandström, the union’s security officer, in an interview with Swedish Radio.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/04/2024 – 02:00

• UN 'Pact For The Future' Draws Concerns Over CCP Backing
  UN ‘Pact For The Future’ Draws Concerns Over CCP Backing

  Authored by Alex Newman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The United Nations and its member governments, with strong support from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), adopted a landmark agreement last week to bestow the U.N. with more power and influence in global affairs.

  

  The controversial agreement, known as the Pact for the Future, outlines 56 actions for governments and international institutions to take over the coming years.

  Among the key provisions is “transforming global governance” and further empowering international institutions across a range of issues, including “sustainable development and financing for development,” as well as “science, technology and innovation, and digital cooperation.”

  The pact includes a Global Digital Compact to restrict “misinformation” and “disinformation” and a Declaration on Future Generations that encompasses the 2030 Agenda climate goals that include the phase-out of fossil fuels.

  It is also part of transforming the U.N. into what the organization is touting in promotional materials as “U.N. 2.0.”

  U.N. leaders and top officials from the CCP celebrated the pact as a historic effort to create a better future for humanity and increase global cooperation on international problems.

  “We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said.

  Despite opposition from various quarters, the 193-member body adopted the pact by consensus on Sept. 22 at the Summit of the Future during the U.N. General Assembly after about nine months of negotiations.

  In the days before the pact was adopted, a coalition of U.S. lawmakers and grassroots leaders held a press conference on Capitol Hill criticizing the agreement as an effort to undermine national sovereignty and freedom.

  “We can’t give up any more of our sovereignty, any more of our geopolitical integrity, or any more of our economic integrity to foreign actors who have no concerns for the United States of America other than to take our power and money away,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), former leader of the House Freedom Caucus.

  House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times that the pact ignores the “malign influence of the CCP” within the global organization.

  McCaul said that although the pact isn’t legally binding, “this 66-page pact is limitless in scope.”

  “It calls for dramatically increased public spending and vague action on countless left-wing priorities,” he said.

  “The pact also completely ignores the most urgent issues facing the U.N. today, like reforming UNRWA and combating malign CCP influence. It does nothing to advance U.S. interests.”

  

  The CCP, which plays an increasingly powerful role within the U.N., boasted about its significant role in developing the pact.

  Speaking at U.N. headquarters, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the pact as an effort to “galvanize” the U.N.’s “collective efforts for world peace and development and to map out the future of humanity.”

  Wang talked about advancing “global governance.”

  On the other side, the Argentine government officially distanced itself from the pact and the U.N. in general.

  “Argentina wants the freedom to develop itself, without being subjected to the undue weight of decisions that are alien to our goals,” said Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, noting that Argentinian authorities are pursuing a policy of freedom.

  President Javier Milei, in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, called the organization a “multi-tentacled Leviathan that seeks to decide what each nation state should do and how the citizens of the world should live.”

  

  Milei also criticized the global organization’s central role in prescribing what he called “crimes against humanity” in responding to the China-originated coronavirus.

  He called the U.N. 2030 Agenda, which features prominently in the pact, a “supranational program of a socialist nature.”

  The new pact makes repeated commitments to expedite the implementation of the U.N. 2030 Agenda, also known as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

  “We will urgently accelerate progress towards achieving the Goals, including through concrete political steps and mobilizing significant additional financing from all sources for sustainable development,” the pact reads.

  The Sustainable Development Goals, which U.N. leaders described as the “master plan for humanity” when they were adopted in 2015, encompass everything from education and agriculture to health care and the environment.

  After they were adopted, CCP-owned propaganda outlets around the world boasted that Beijing played a “crucial role” in creating the 2030 Agenda.

  The U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission has been sounding the alarm for years.

  “Since the U.S.–China Commission began tracking officials from the People’s Republic of China serving in leadership positions in international organizations, Beijing’s influence has only grown over key U.N. agencies responsible for funding and policymaking on a wide range of important issues,” the Commission told The Epoch Times.

  “Contrary to the International Civil Servant Standards of Conduct, they [Chinese officials] use those positions [in the U.N.] to pursue China’s foreign policy goals,” the Commission said.

  When asked about the concerns of U.S. policymakers and other critics, Guterres’s spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, defended the pact.

  “The Pact for the Future is not about world government,” he said at a press conference. “It is about making an organization of independent, sovereign member states work better.

  “It’s not as if anyone is granting the secretary-general authority over governments—clearly not.”

  Still, according to Dujarric, it is important to increase global cooperation because “not one country can deal with the rising seas, not one country can deal with global pandemics, not one country can deal with international terrorism.”

  “This is about bringing sovereign, independent countries, and working together,” he said, urging people to read original documents to become well informed and “make up their own minds.”

  The strengthening of the U.N. and, in particular, efforts to have the U.N. secretary-general lead the response to emergencies, received special attention from opponents.

  As The Epoch Times reported in April 2023, empowering the U.N. as the central force in dealing with international emergencies and “complex global shocks” was a key goal heading into the Summit of the Future.

  In his original policy brief on the issue, Guterres argued that all nations, businesses, governments, and other stakeholders must recognize the “primary role” of intergovernmental organs such as the U.N. and its agencies in “decision-making,” the document states.

  

  Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Kevin Moley, who oversaw U.S. relations with the U.N. during the previous administration, warned of the dangers.

  “Allowing the U.N. to deal with this is the equivalent of putting the CCP in charge of global emergencies,” Moley told The Epoch Times.

  He warned that the CCP takeover of international organizations represents a potentially mortal threat to the West.

  Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, told The Epoch Times that Americans must resist what he described as a “power grab” of historic proportions.

  “The U.N. secretary-general has arrogated to himself dictatorial powers … upon his mere proclamation of an ‘emergency,’ as defined by himself,” he said.

  Boyle, who wrote the implementing U.S. legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention and serves on the board of Amnesty International, said that because of the involvement of heads of state and government in the process, the new U.N. pact could constitute a “treaty” with “legal obligations” under both domestic and international law.

  “This totalitarian arrangement constitutes a grave and immediate threat to the sovereignty and independence of all United Nations member states,” he said.

  Free Speech, Free Press

  One of the major components of the U.N. deal, adopted as an annex to the pact, focuses on U.N. governance of artificial intelligence (AI). Wang said that the CCP “supports the U.N. in serving as the main channel in AI governance.”

  Another major concern for critics is the targeting of free speech in the Global Digital Compact, approved as an annex to the Pact for the Future.

  Stating that it is protecting “information integrity,” the U.N. deal calls for drastically scaling up efforts to combat “hate speech,” “discrimination,” “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and more.

  Global censorship about the COVID-19 pandemic, with YouTube removing content that went against the World Health Organization’s pronouncements, has been cited by opponents of the plan as an example of the threat.

  The U.N. has also become more aggressive on this front. In 2022, at a World Economic Forum sustainability event, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Communications Melissa Fleming announced a partnership with Google.

  “We started this partnership when we were shocked to see that when we Googled ‘climate change,’ we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top,“ she said. ”We’re becoming much more proactive. We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do.”

  Fleming has also highlighted working with CCP-linked TikTok and recruiting “influencers” to promote U.N. messaging.

  Asked about the U.N. partnership with Google, Fleming declined to comment.

  The compact calls for “Internet governance” to be “global and multi-stakeholder in nature.”

  “We will strengthen international cooperation to address the challenge of misinformation and disinformation and hate speech online and mitigate the risks of information manipulation in a manner consistent with international law,” the Global Digital Compact reads.

  

  The repeated emphasis on the alleged “risks” of misinformation is one of the most concerning elements of the agreement, said Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and co-chair of the Sovereignty Coalition.

  “We need only look back to the pandemic to see that these terms will be defined as anything that is counter-narrative to the U.N., the WHO, and their collaborators,” she told The Epoch Times, referring to the World Health Organization.

  “Controlling the narrative by suppressing dissenting voices is an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech. It is, moreover, a hallmark of totalitarianism, which begins with and relies upon censorship.

  “Further, censorship deprives both individuals and nations of their sovereignty.”

  Littlejohn has been working with U.S. lawmakers to protect U.S. independence from international organizations.

  “Sovereign persons and nations make decisions concerning how they will govern themselves,” she said. “They are deprived of this decision-making process if they are denied access to the true facts upon which their decisions will be made.”

  Littlejohn also said the pact should be understood as a treaty under the traditional definition. As such, treaties are required to be ratified by the U.S. Senate—something she said would be unlikely to happen.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 23:25

• The Demise Of US Political Debate?
  The Demise Of US Political Debate?

  The vice presidential debate hosted this week by CBS News and broadcast nationally on TV is the first and only scheduled of its kind between Democratic pick Tim Walz and Republican select JD Vance.

  

  Following a heated debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump last month, Statista’s Anna Fleck notes that this round went remarkably smoothly, with the two nominees focusing largely on policy rather than personal attacks of one another.

  Topics covered included abortion, immigration and shootings.

  The fact this debate went relatively drama-free has become something of an outlier in U.S. politics. According to a Pew Research Center survey in 2023, around eight in ten respondents said that the tone and nature of political debate in the United States has become less respectful and fact-based in recent years.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Only two percent of respondents said that it had become more respectful and eight percent said it had become more fact-based.

  This view was shared by a majority of respondents who self-identified as being Republican-leaning and Democratic-leaning.

  Respondents were also asked about how much confidence they have in the future of the political system. Where 37 percent said either a lot or some, 63 percent said not too much or none at all. It remains to be seen how these figures have changed as of 2024.

  When asked about how respondents feel when talking about politics with those they disagree with, Pew found that 61 percent said they found it generally “stressful and frustrating”, while 36 percent said they were generally “interesting and informative” conversations.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 23:00

• Banks To Join SWIFT Digital Asset Trials In 2025
  Banks To Join SWIFT Digital Asset Trials In 2025

  By Helen Partz of CoinTelegraph

  Banks in North America, Europe and Asia are preparing to participate in trials involving digital assets by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

  

  SWIFT announced on Oct. 3 that it will begin digital asset trials on its network in 2025. The trials will involve experiments with transactions that include multiple digital currencies and assets.

  

  The trials aim to explore how the banking network can provide financial institutions with unified access to “multiple digital asset classes and currencies.”

  “Initial use cases will focus on payments, foreign exchange, securities and trade to enable multi-ledger delivery-versus-payment and payment-versus-payment transactions,” the announcement said.

  SWIFT’s plan to unify the fragmented digital asset landscape

  In the announcement, SWIFT highlighted the rapid growth of unconnected platforms and technologies in the digital asset economy that has led to an “increasingly fragmented landscape.”

  According to SWIFT, such fragmentation poses significant impediments to global adoption because it creates a “complex web of ‘digital islands.’”

  SWIFT stated:

  “SWIFT’s trials will leverage its unique position […] to interlink these disparate networks with each other as well as with existing fiat currencies, enabling its global community to seamlessly transact using digital assets and currencies alongside traditional forms of value.”

  SWIFT wants its network to cover “all kinds of assets”

  SWIFT chief innovation officer Tom Zschach noted that the banking organization is focused on developing real-world mainstream applications to bridge emerging and “established forms of value.”

  

  He also emphasized SWIFT’s intention to seamlessly make and track transactions of “all kinds of assets,” adding:

  “For digital assets and currencies to succeed on a global scale, it’s critical that they can seamlessly coexist with traditional forms of money.”

  SWIFT declined to comment to Cointelegraph on the digital assets likely to be part of its blockchain trials in 2025 and when it expects to launch those trials.

  SWIFT has been actively experimenting with blockchain, tokenization and CBDCs

  The upcoming digital currency trials on SWIFT are yet another blockchain-related development by the global banking network, founded in the 1970s.

  On Sept. 16, SWIFT joined the Bank for International Settlements and a group of central banks in the tokenization Project Agorá. This project aims to identify how tokenized commercial bank deposits can be integrated with tokenized wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on a single platform.

  In March 2024, SWIFT proposed creating a blockchain-based “state machine,” describing it as a “dynamic model that reflects the current state of transactions and balances across institutions.” The tool could be built on the already-used ISO-20022 messaging technology and could potentially work on a blockchain or a centralized platform like SWIFT’s Transaction Manager, the bank messaging network noted.

  Last year, SWIFT issued a report on potential methods of connecting diverse blockchains to solve the issue of cross-chain interoperability.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 22:35

• Call Of Duty Comes to Life: Armed Robo-Dogs, Hypersonic Missiles, & Kamikaze Drones Deployed On Modern Battlefields
  Call Of Duty Comes to Life: Armed Robo-Dogs, Hypersonic Missiles, & Kamikaze Drones Deployed On Modern Battlefields

  The Middle East is on the brink of a regional war as the world awaits Israel’s retaliation strike against Iran. President Biden, on Thursday morning, told reporters he was in talks with Israel about possibly striking Iran’s oil facilities. He said, “We’re discussing that.” 

  It’s really not hard to imagine if conflict broadens into a regional shitstorm—the modern battlefield would be like the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare video game. Just this week, Iran launched waves of ballistic missiles, including hypersonic ones.

  These are our hypersonic systems, catch them if you can! pic.twitter.com/VrIZsNcW25

  — Iran Military (@IRIran_Military) October 1, 2024

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  Iran-backed terror organizations around Israel have recently launched countless loitering munitions, or “kamikaze drones,” attacks on the country and commercial shipping in the maritime chokepoint of the Southern Red Sea.  

  🇾🇪 Yemen shows the Jaffa drone that targeted an “important site” in Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/QV6dtxkUXA

  — Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) July 23, 2024

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  The newest tech entering the battlefield, already present in Eastern Europe but now being trialed in the Middle East, is armed robot dogs equipped with artificial intelligence, high-tech sensors, and rifles.

  

  An image posted on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service shows a Robotics Vision 60 Quadrupedal-Unmanned Ground Vehicle, or Q-UGV, armed with what appears to be a main battlefield utilizing an M4/M16 platform. 

  In mid-September, the Q-UGV was featured in a field training exercise at the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center in Saudi Arabia. 

  

  A US Army Central spokesman told Military.com that the armed Q-UGV was tested with several “non-counter-sUAS” systems alongside 15 counter-drone platforms at Red Sands. These ‘Skynet’- like weapons of war “engaged several static ground targets,” the military news website said. 

  Beyond Red Sands, the US Army has been trialing armed robo dogs elsewhere. 

  ⚡️During exercises, the 🇺🇸US Army tested a “robot dog” with artificial intelligence armed with an AR-15 rifle to destroy drones. https://t.co/XQC7XGOMgs pic.twitter.com/E1EPFPF5k0

  — 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) August 10, 2024

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  These robo-dogs have been observed on the battlefields in Eastern Europe. 

  ⚡️A 🇬🇧British robot dog in use by the 🇺🇦Ukrainian military from the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade pic.twitter.com/iAu8j9krmx

  — 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) August 15, 2024

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  Ukrainian Army reconnaissance robot dog actual combat videopic.twitter.com/lgZn6hM7QN
  乌军侦察机器狗实战视频

  — 番外联邦 FANWAI 🇺🇦 (@dsbxtw9991) August 5, 2024

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  The Communist Party of China has fallen in love with these ‘Skynet’ dogs. 

  China Shows Off Its Robot Dog Army: Chinese military robots equipped with a variety of weapons, including rifles, grenade launchers and flamethrowers. pic.twitter.com/PY91rF2Egr

  — nikola 3 (@ronin19217435) June 2, 2024

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  This excerpt from a video of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) shows a robot dog equipped with a machine gun operating in what is reportedly a series of military drills between China and Cambodia. pic.twitter.com/ECKJ1oqkmE

  — Bharat Now (@BharatNow) May 27, 2024

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  This excerpt from a video of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) shows a soldier walking with a robot dog equipped with a machine gun. The video is reportedly from military drills between China and Cambodia.pic.twitter.com/WOFcAY5RlA

  — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 25, 2024

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  Even delivered by drone. 

  Delivery of the robot dog to the positions by the heavy drone “Vampire”. pic.twitter.com/ZLRH0mx1R8

  — ✙△ Albina Fella △✙🇺🇦🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪🇵🇱🇺🇸🇨🇦🇦🇺 (@albafella1) September 23, 2024

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  The French. 

  The French army is testing Boston Dynamics’ robot dog Spot in combat scenarios https://t.co/JCC661QKYI pic.twitter.com/hWt6kn4L1J

  — The Verge (@verge) April 8, 2021

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  All the bat-shit-crazy military tech we’ve covered in the last fifteen years is being deployed on the modern battlefield as WW3 risks remain elevated. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 22:10

• Can Consciousness Exist Without A Brain?
  Can Consciousness Exist Without A Brain?

  Authored by Yuhong Dong M.D., Ph.D., Makai Allbert via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  “As a neurosurgeon, I was taught that the brain creates consciousness,” said Dr. Eben Alexander, who wrote in detail about his experiences with consciousness while in a deep coma.

  Many doctors and biomedical students may have been taught the same about consciousness. However, scientists are still debating whether that theory holds true.

  

  Imagine a child observing an elephant for the first time. Light reflects off the animal and enters the child’s eyes. Retinal photoreceptors in the back of the eyes convert this light into electrical signals, which travel through the optic nerve to the brain’s cortex. This forms vision or visual consciousness.

  How do these electrical signals miraculously transform into a vivid mental image? How do they turn into the child’s thoughts, followed by an emotional reaction—“Wow, the elephant is so big!”

  The question of how the brain generates subjective perceptions, including images, feelings, and experiences, was coined by Australian cognitive scientist David Chalmers in 1995 as the “hard problem.”

  As it turns out, having a brain may not be a prerequisite for consciousness.

  ‘Brainless’ but Not Mindless

  The Lancet recorded a case of a French man diagnosed with postnatal hydrocephalus—excess cerebrospinal fluid on or around the brain—at the age of 6 months.

  Despite his condition, he grew up healthy, became a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant.

  When he was 44 years old, he went to the doctor due to a mild weakness in his left leg. The doctors scanned his head thoroughly and discovered that his brain tissue was almost entirely gone. Most of the space in his skull was filled with fluid, with only a thin sheet of brain tissue.

  “The brain was virtually absent,” wrote the lead author of the case study, Dr. Lionel Feuillet, of the Department of Neurology, Hôpital de la Timone in Marseille, France.

  The man had been living a normal life and had no problem seeing, feeling, or perceiving things.

  

  The normal brain cortex is responsible for sense and movement, and the hippocampus is responsible for memory. Hydrocephalus patients lose or have significantly less volume of these brain regions, yet they can still perform related functions.

  Even without substantial brains, these people can have above-average cognitive function.

  Professor John Lorber (1915–1996), a neurologist from the University of Sheffield, analyzed more than 600 cases of children with hydrocephalus. Of those, he found that half of around 60 children with the most severe type of hydrocephalus and cerebral atrophy had an IQ higher than 100 and lived normal lives.

  Among them, one university student had excellent grades, a first-class honors degree in mathematics, an IQ of 126, and was socially normal. This math genius’s brain was only 1 millimeter thick, while an average person’s is usually 4.5 centimeters thick—44 times larger.

  

  Lorber’s findings were published in the journal Science in 1980 with the headline “Is Your Brain Really Necessary?”

  The Invisible Brain

  “The important thing about Lorber is that he’s done a long series of systematic scanning rather than just dealing with anecdotes.” Patrick Wall (1925–2001), professor of anatomy at University College London, was quoted as saying in an article by Roger Lewin published in Science in 1981 discussing Lorber’s article.

  The cases of people without brains challenge the conventional teachings that brain structure is the basis for generating consciousness. Is our brain—weighing about three pounds, with roughly two billion neurons connected by around 500 trillion synapses—the real source of consciousness?

  Some scientists have proposed that deep and invisible structures in the brain explain normal cognitive function—even with severe hydrocephalus. These structures may not be easily visible on conventional brain scans or to the naked eye. However, the fact that they are not readily apparent doesn’t mean they don’t exist or aren’t important for brain function.

  “For hundreds of years neurologists have assumed that all that is dear to them is performed by the cortex, but it may well be that the deep structures in the brain carry out many of the functions assumed to be the sole province of the cortex,” Wall commented in the 1981 article.

  These unknown deep structures “are undoubtedly important for many functions,” said neurologist Norman Geschwind (1926–1984) from Beth Israel Hospital, affiliated with Harvard University, in the 1981 article.

  Furthermore, the deep structures “are almost certainly more important than is currently thought,” said David Bowsher, a professor of neurophysiology at the University of Liverpool in the UK, in the same article.

  The source of consciousness may exist in realms we’ve yet to explore. When medical theories can’t solve a mystery, physics might step in with a plot twist—in particular—quantum physics.

  Beyond Neurons

  “To understand consciousness, we can’t just look at the neurons,” Dr. Stuart Hameroff, director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, told The Epoch Times.

  Even single-celled organisms like paramecium demonstrate purposeful behaviors such as swimming, avoiding obstacles, mating, and, significantly—learning—without having a single synapse or being part of a neural network.

  

  According to Hameroff, these intelligent, possibly conscious behaviors are mediated by microtubules inside the paramecium. The same microtubules are found in brain neurons and all animal and plant cells.

  Microtubules, as the name suggests, are tiny tubes inside cells. They play essential roles in cell division, movement, and intracellular transport and appear to be the information carriers in neurons.

  The proteins that make up microtubules (tubulin) are “the most prevalent or abundant protein in the whole brain,” Hameroff told The Epoch Times. He hypothesizes that microtubules are key players in human consciousness.

  “Because [when] you look inside neurons, you see all these microtubules, and they’re in a periodic lattice, which is perfect for information processing and vibrations,” Hameroff stated.

  Due to their properties, microtubules function like antennas. Hameroff says they serve as “quantum devices” to transduce consciousness from a quantum dimension.

  Quantum Devices

  British physicist, mathematician, and Nobel Laureate Sir Roger Penrose and Hameroff hypothesized a theory that quantum processes generate consciousness.

  Quantum refers to tiny units of energy or matter at a microscopic level. Its unique features can help us understand many things that current science cannot explain.

  In simple terms, microtubules act as a bridge between the quantum world and our consciousness. They take quantum signals, amplify them, organize them, and somehow, through processes we don’t fully understand, turn them into the feelings, perceptions, and thoughts that make up our conscious awareness.

  Microtubules can explain bewildering facts about the brain. Hameroff posits that the brains of individuals born with hydrocephalus can adapt as their microtubules control neuroplasticity and reorganize their brain tissue.

  “So over time, the microtubules in that brain adapt and rearrange themselves to sustain consciousness and cognition,” he said.

  Therefore, according to Hameroff, our brains serve like information processors, receiving signals from the universe and forming them into consciousness.

  The brain processes information across multiple scales, each vibrating at different frequencies. Brain waves oscillate slowly at 0.5–100 hertz (Hz). Individual neurons fire faster at 500–1000 Hz. Inside neurons, microtubules vibrate much quicker, in the megahertz range. At the tiniest quantum scale, frequencies reach incredibly high levels, theoretically up to 10^43 Hz.

  

  Other scientists are also using alternative quantum theories to explain mental activities. A study published in Physical Review E shows that vibrations in lipid molecules within the myelin sheath can create pairs of quantum-entangled photons. It suggests that this quantum entanglement may help synchronize brain activity, providing insights into consciousness.

  A Quantum Orchestra

  “Rather than a computer of simple neurons, the brain is a quantum orchestra,” Hameroff described, “Because you have resonances and harmony and solutions over different frequencies, much like you do in music. And [so] I think consciousness is more like music than it is a computation.”

  Science is always evolving. The study of consciousness is still an area of active research and debate in neuroscience and philosophy.

  However, each new discovery opens up new possibilities. As we continue to explore these mysteries, let’s remain curious and open-minded.

  Next, we will discuss reports published by physicians in highly-ranked journals, offering more insights into the nature and origin of consciousness.

  Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 21:45

• Kucinich: Mistaking Militarism For Statecraft, Empire For Democracy, & Debt For Prosperity
  Kucinich: Mistaking Militarism For Statecraft, Empire For Democracy, & Debt For Prosperity

  Authored by Dennis Kucinich via Scheerpost.com,

  “Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. All things fall apart. The center cannot hold.”

  – W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming

  As of May 2024, the United States has committed over $175 (borrowed) billion to escalating the proxy war against Russia, and, as in the case of the Iraq and Afghan wars, with little regard for accountability pertaining to tracking military hardware,  equipment, funding, or  fraud prevention.

  One of the most grotesque moments in this bloody global Punch and Judy show preliminary to nuclear war, was the recent arrival of Vladimir Zelenskyy, former president of Ukraine, making a campaign stop at an ammunition factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where some of the three million 155mm artillery shells the US has given Ukraine are produced.   

  Alongside Zelenskyy, in an incitement-op photo promising further escalation of war, the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania autographed one of the high-velocity artillery shells which will be aimed at Russia. Pennsylvania, which is home to the City of Brotherly Love, was unwitting re-Christened by its top official, with a cursive flair, as the state of brotherly hate.  

  The fervor of warmongering, fueled by machismo and high bravado illustrates the failure of leadership and a fatal ignorance of the diplomatic process. We should be exercising the science of human relations, not propelling a hubristic  and ego-driven brinkmanship which accelerates the dialectic of war. 

  For decades I have led opposition to war and advocated for the transformation of America’s prevailing policy of “Peace through Strength” to a forward-looking  policy of “Strength through Peace.” 

  I challenged the Bush II Administration’s foreign policies, and introduced Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush  and Vice President Dick Cheney over Iraq and the lies which led us into war. Illegal and unnecessary, the Iraq war (debt-funded and authorized by both Democrats and Republicans) has cost our nation over $3 trillion, and the loss of 5,000 of our brave men and women who serve and injuries to countless more troops.

  The war caused the deaths of over one million Iraqis.  Let that sink in. One million Iraqis perished in a war based on lies. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. The war further damaged America’s global reputation and set us upon a path where, since 9/11, America has borrowed $8 trillion to keep the war machine in tune as our own nation’s pressing domestic needs for housing, health care, education, child care, and retirement security have been set aside.

  When I heard Vice President Harris brag about former Vice President Dick Cheney endorsing her candidacy, that put the exclamation point on the fact that the leaders of the Democratic party are for war.  I am not.    

  Why else would Vice President Harris become the front person for such virulent bravado, invoking lethality abroad?

  A paradox of this campaign is that the much-villainized former President Trump, (representing a party that has also taken us into unnecessary wars) is the one who speaks to the need to negotiate and to talk directly with potential foes in order to avoid war, or to end it.   

  I ran for President twice, in 2004 and 2008, to bring a halt to endless wars,  to stop the hemorrhaging of our nation’s wealth and to redirect our attention to our needs at home. During the Obama Administration, I fought against his expansion of war, against attacks on Libya, and Syria. That Administration’s surveillance and state-sponsored black-ops reached new heights, drawing America  further into the depths of a murky military abyss. 

  All believers in the Judeo-Christian ethic are taught the equivalency of thought, word and deed. . A sin is a sin is a sin. Words create worlds and actions, and, well, they also create reactions. 

  Whether a missile arrives in Russia is separate from the fact that the news of the Pennsylvania governor signing a warhead reached the Kremlin instantaneously.  Congratulations Governor, you just made your state a target. 

  It is a faulty military strategy which is based upon baiting one’s targets to have an excuse to attack preemptively. This type of thinking isn’t about taking care of and protecting our allies. I would call it lunacy but it happens far more frequently than once every full moon!  We need level-headed leadership, not political actors mindlessly playing in the flash of WWIII, pandering for votes or for cash from the military industrial complex.

  The U.S. government’s endless quest to instigate, fulminate or otherwise set our nation on a path of either participating in or of funding endless war has become an inconscient force which is now sweeping up nations in its maw and, if left unchecked, with soon draw in American troops and inevitably a world war will come home in ways that no one in the continental United States has ever experienced, far exceeding the horrors of 9/11.

  W.B. Yeats’ poem, written over one hundred years ago, also pertains to the present moment, the breakdown of international law, the slaughter of innocents, open genocide, mocking humanity for its primal human instincts and instead preferring a descent into the maelstrom of kill or be killed, of “do unto others before they do unto you.”  Our nation’s leaders have lost their capacity for diplomacy.  And we have lost many chances for peace.

  Ronan Farrow, in his brilliant book “War on Peace, the End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence,”  traced the catastrophe of substituting militarism for statecraft.

  So we arrive at a point where we fully fund war in the Middle East, and, astonishingly stand helpless, vainly begging the recipients of our billions of dollars, our weapons, “intelligence,” and of our strategic advice – not to expand the war we are paying for, not to visit death upon innocents.  

  We call for cease fire, to come to terms, to end the conflict, while the bodies pile up, and tensions escalate with all nations. Our collective voice is muted.  We confess futility to effect events which we have set in motion, as a Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and when tidal forces break loose, no thought is given to an end game which could lead not only to the destruction of our closest allies but to the undoing of our own nation.

  Like pre-programmed robots from a 1950s B-movie, blind to our own extinction drive, immune to the signs of failing empire, and with notions of exceptionalism justifying colonization, Democratic bosses proudly  escalate war against Russia, the country with 5,580 nuclear warheads, about 1/3 of which are “launch ready.”  

  Two years ago, the US, with the back door machinations of Britain’s Boris Johnson, rejected a peace agreement which would have kept Ukraine neutral, restored the peace and spared the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. 

  Instead, we now trot out muddle-headed EU politicians and our NATO sock puppets to support advancing the war deeper and deeper into Russia, sending missiles with more and more destructive power, hyping the fantasy of capsizing the government of a country which remembers losing nearly 30,000,000 people in World War II, during which Russia was on our side.  

  To create an enemy is to provoke fear everywhere.  To misjudge an “enemy” is to court disaster and destruction.  As we give freedom and fortune to the egocentric war mongers, the military industrial complex and those naive enough to think that war equals peace for Ukraine – – life and liberty are ebbing at home.

  We help our “friends” aggress, and cynically celebrate their victimhood, actively preventing diplomatic resolution, putting our avowed friends at great risk of destruction. 

  Do you remember how back in October 2022, thirty Members of the U.S. Congress’ Democratic Progressive Caucus signed a letter calling for President Biden to consider diplomacy, and then in a matter of hours were pressured to retract the letter? The Members were reprimanded by the Administration and the Democratic leadership for their advocacy of peace.

  In that withdrawn, forbidden letter, the Progressive Members stated,

   “The risk of nuclear weapons being used has been estimated to be higher now than at any time since the height of the Cold War. Given the catastrophic possibilities of nuclear escalation and miscalculation, which only increase the longer this war continues, we agree with your goal of avoiding direct military conflict as an overriding national-security priority. Given the destruction created by this war for Ukraine and the world, as well as the risk of catastrophic escalation, we also believe it is in the interests of Ukraine, the United States, and the world to avoid a prolonged conflict. For this reason, we urge you to pair the military and economic support the United States has provided to Ukraine with a proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a ceasefire.”

  Later in April 2023, nineteen Conservative Republicans, including now VP candidate Senator J.D. Vance, similarly communicated to the Administration the perils of escalating the war without diplomatic strategy, stating in their letter: 

  “Our military assistance goes beyond tangible assets to include military training and intelligence support. The extent of our aid makes it increasingly difficult to deny Russian accusations of U.S. complicity in a proxy war. Vladimir Putin’s advisors are already framing the conflict as “a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above all the United States and Britain.” Russian tolerance for fighting a proxy war with NATO could run out at any point. The decision to invade Ukraine should be evidence enough of Putin’s willingness to use military force and should give us pause in continuing to push the limits at the risk of catastrophe.”

  Ukraine is a pawn, politicized for Democratic presidential electoral gain, blood for ballots. Ukraine should have been free to choose its own destiny, its own government, protect its own agriculture and precious resources, free to live without fear of an invasion and control from Russia or any other country. Instead, denied the promise of true sovereignty, it has been forced to sacrificed the flower of its youth to war.

  While the people of the US are being played by politicians who are giddy with the notion of stuffing the November ballot box with bombs rockets, missiles, artillery shells and national debt, our government is also being played by the equally unstable and craven leaders of foreign countries.

  And so, the U.S. forks over endless rivers of U.S. taxpayers’ cash for endless wars, without any thought of how this all ends, or how or who ultimately pays. Red or blue, there are no winners in a war devouring our lives, our blood and our national wealth.

  There is madness to all of this.  Our so-called leaders are whistling merry tunes through the graveyard of history, mocking the dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because it happened to THEM, not us. Because something like that could never happen to us. Because we are smarter and stronger and have God on our side.

  

  It is time to wake up, America. It is time to stop this madness which presents as legitimate governance, and to think, to speak and to stand for peace, diplomacy and the continuation of life on our small planet.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 20:55

• "Wolves In MAGA Hats": Assange Details CIA's War Against Him In First Remarks Since Gaining Freedom
  “Wolves In MAGA Hats”: Assange Details CIA’s War Against Him In First Remarks Since Gaining Freedom

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this week traveled to Strasbourg, France for his first ever public remarks since gaining his freedom in June, after his many years-long ordeal in the Ecuadorian Embassy and then Belmarsh Prison in London. His speech was given Tuesday before the legal affairs and human rights committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The assembly subsequently issued a formal resolution recognizing Assange as a ‘political prisoner’ and highlighted the chilling effect on journalism worldwide that his case caused. The US government spent years pursuing his extradition, and at one point there were even alleged assassination plans hatched by US operatives.

  Among the more interesting and illuminating parts of his speech included a detailed retelling of how the CIA waged war against him personally, especially under the Trump administration, given that “Trump appointed two wolves in MAGA hats. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Congressman and former arms executive as CIA director and William Barr, a former CIA officer as US attorney general.” Assange further talked about how the CIA has infiltrated European governments and institutions via sophisticated software later exposed by WikiLeaks, and how this unleashed further government retribution against him and whistleblowers. His full speech is below.

  Julian Assange’s address to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), with transcript following:

  Ladies and gentlemen, the transition from years of confinement in a maximum security prison to being here before the representatives of 46 nations and 700 million people is a profound and a surreal shift. The experience of isolation for years in a small cell is difficult to convey. It strips away one sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of existence.

  I’m yet not fully equipped to speak about what I have endured. The relentless struggle to stay alive, both physically and mentally. Nor can I speak yet about the death by hanging, murder and medical neglect of my fellow prisoners.

  I apologize in advance if my words falter, or if my presentation lacks the polish you might expect from such a distinguished forum. Isolation has taken its toll. Which I am trying to unwind. And expressing myself in this setting is a challenge. However, the gravity of this occasion and the weight of the issues at hand compel me to set aside my reservations and speak to you directly.

  I have traveled a long way, literally and figuratively, to be before you today. Before our discussion or answering any questions you might have. I wish to thank PACE for its 2020 resolution, which stated that my imprisonment set a dangerous precedent for journalists. I noted that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture called for my release. I’m also grateful for Pace’s 2021 statement, expressing concern over credible reports that U.S. officials discussed my assassination again, calling for my prompt release, and I commend the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee for commissioning a renowned rapporteur.

  Sooner I will start to investigate the circumstance surrounding my detention and conviction, and the consequent implications for human rights. However, like so many of the efforts made in my case, whether they were from parliamentarians, presidents, prime ministers, the pope, U.N. officials and diplomats, unions, legal and medical professionals, academics, activists or citizens, none of them should have been necessary.

  None of the statements, resolutions, reports, films, articles, events, fundraisers, protests and letters over the last 14 years should have been necessary. But all of them were necessary because without them, I never would have seen the light of day. This unprecedented global effort was needed because the legal protections of the legal protections that did exist, many existed only on paper when not effective in any remotely reasonable time.

  On the Plea Deal

  I eventually chose freedom over and realizable justice. After being detained for years and facing 175 year sentence with no effective remedy. Justice for me is now precluded, as the U.S. government insisted in writing into its plea agreement that I cannot filed a case at the European Court of Human Rights or even the Freedom of Information Act request over what it did to me as a result of its extradition request.

  I want to be totally clear. I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism. I pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was. I did not plead guilty to anything else.

  I hope my testimony today can serve to highlight the weakness, the weaknesses of the existing safeguards and to help those whose cases are less visible but who are equally vulnerable. As I emerge from the dungeon of Belmarsh, the truth now seems less discernible, and I regret how much ground has been lost during that time period. How expressing the truth has been undermined, attacked, weakened and diminished.

  I see more impunity, more secrecy, more retaliation for telling the truth and more self-censorship. It is hard not to draw a line from the U.S. government’s prosecution of me. It’s crossing. Crossing the Rubicon by internationally criminalizing journalism to the true climate for freedom of expression that exists now.

  On WikiLeaks’ Work

  

  When I founded WikiLeaks, it was driven by a simple dream to educate people about how the world works, so that through understanding, we might bring about something better. Having a map of where we are lets us understand where we might go. Knowledge empowers us to hold power to account and to demand justice where there is none. We obtained and published truth about tens of thousands of hidden casualties of war and other unseen horrors about programs of assassination, rendition, torture and mass surveillance.

  We revealed not just when and where these things happened, but frequently the policies, the agreements and the structures behind them. When we published Collateral Murder, the infamous gotten camera footage of a U.S. Apache helicopter crew eagerly blowing to pieces Iraqi journalists and their rescuers. The visual reality of modern warfare shocked the world, so we also used interest in this video to direct people to the classified policies for when the U.S. military could deploy lethal force in Iraq.

  How many civilians could be and how many civilians could be killed before gaining higher approval? In fact, 40 years of my potential 175 year sentence was for obtaining and releasing those policies.

  The practical political vision I was left with after being immersed in the world’s dirty wars and secret operations, is simple. Let us stop gagging, torturing, and killing each other for a change. Get these fundamentals right and other political, economic and scientific processes that have space to educate. We’ll have space to take care of the rest.

  WikiLeaks work was deeply rooted in the principles that this Assembly stands for. Our journalism elevated freedom of information and the public’s right to know. It found its natural operational home in Europe. I lived in Paris and we had formal corporate registrations in France and in Iceland. A journalistic and technical staff was spread throughout Europe. We publish to the world from servers based in France, in Germany and in Norway.

  Manning’s Arrests

  But 14 years ago, the United States military arrested one of our lead whistleblowers, Private First Class Manning, a U.S. intelligence analyst based in Iraq. The U.S. government concurrently launched an investigation against me and my colleagues. The U.S. government illicitly sent planes of agents to Iceland, paid bribes to an informant to steal our legal and journalistic work product and without formal process, pressured banks and financial services to block our subscriptions and to freeze our accounts.

  The U.K. government took part in some of this retribution. It admitted at the European Court of Human Rights that it had unlawfully spied on my U.K. lawyers during this time.

  Ultimately, this harassment was legally groundless. President Obama’s Justice Department chose not to indict me. Recognizing that no crime had been committed, the United States had never before prosecuted a publisher for publishing or obtaining government information. To do so would require a radical and ominous reinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution. In January 2017, Obama also commuted the sentence of Manning, who had been convicted of being one of my sources.

  CIA’s Retribution

  However, in February 2017, the landscape changed dramatically. President Trump had been elected. He appointed two wolves in MAGA hats. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas congressman and former arms industry executive, as C.I.A. director, and William Barr, a former C.I.A. officer, as U.S. attorney general.

  By March 2017, WikiLeaks had exposed the C.I.A.’s infiltration of fringe political parties. Its spying on French and German leaders, its spying on the European Central Bank, European economic ministries, and its standing orders to spy on French on the street as a whole. We revealed the C.I.A.’s vast production of malware and viruses, its subversion of supply chains. Its subversion of antivirus software, cars, smart TVs and iPhones.

  C.I.A. Director Pompeo launched a campaign of retribution. It is now a matter of public record that under Pompeo’s explicit direction, the C.I.A. drew up plans to kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and authorize going after my European colleagues, subjecting us to theft, hacking attacks and the planting of false information. My wife and my infant son were also targeted.

  Julian Assange makes his first statement since his release from prison:

  “Trump appointed two wolves in MAGA hats. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Congressman and former arms executive as CIA director and William Barr, a former CIA officer as US attorney general.”pic.twitter.com/QZQbXw3XDi

  — The American Conservative (@amconmag) October 3, 2024

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

  A C.I.A. asset was permanently assigned to track my wife. And instructions were given to obtain DNA from my six month old son’s nappy. This is the testimony of more than 30 current and former U.S. intelligence officials speaking to the U.S. press, which has been additionally corroborated by records seized and the prosecution brought against some of the C.I.A. agents involved.

  The C.I.A. is targeting of myself, my family and my associates through aggressive, extrajudicial and extraterritorial means. Provides a rare insight into how powerful intelligence organizations engage in transnational repression. Such repressions are not unique. What is unique is that we know so much about this one. Due to numerous whistleblowers and to judicial investigations in Spain.

  This assembly is no stranger to extraterritorial abuses by the C.I.A.. Pace’s groundbreaking report on C.I.A. renditions in Europe exposed how the C.I.A. operated secret detention centers and conducted unlawful renditions on European soil, violating human rights and international law. In February this year, the alleged source of some of our C.I.A. revelations, former C.I.A. officer Joshua Schulte, was sentenced to 40 years in prison under conditions of extreme isolation.

  His windows are blacked out and a white noise machine plays 24 hours a day over his door so that he cannot even shout through it. These conditions are more severe than those found in Guantanamo Bay.

  But transnational repression is also conducted by abusing legal processes. The lack of effective safeguards against this means that Europe is vulnerable to having its mutual legal assistance and expedition treaties hijacked by foreign powers to go after dissenting voices in Europe. In Michael Pompeo’s memoirs, which I read in my prison cell, the former C.I.A. director bragged about how he pressured the U.S. attorney general to bring an extradition case against me in response to our publications about the C.I.A..

  Indeed, acceding to Pompeo’s requests, the U.S. attorney general reopened the investigation against me that Obama had closed and re-arrested Manning, this time as a witness, and he was held in a prison for over a year, fined $1,000 a day. In a formal attempt to coerce her into providing secret testimony against me, she ended up attempting to take her own life.

  We usually think of attempts to force journalists to testify against their sources. But Manning was now a source being forced to testify against the journalist.

  By December 2017, C.I.A. Director Pompeo had got his way and the U.S. government issued a warrant to the U.K. for my extradition. The U.K. government kept the warrant secret from the public for two more years, while it, the U.S. government and the new president of Ecuador moved to shape the political, legal and the diplomatic grounds for my arrest.

  When powerful nations feel entitled to target individuals beyond their borders, those individuals do not stand a chance unless there are strong safeguards in place and a state willing to enforce them without this. No individual has a hope of defending themselves against the vast resources that a state aggressor can deploy.

  Breaking: The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly has voted to confirm that Julian Assange was held as a political prisoner. pic.twitter.com/UkHdmD1aI5

  — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 2, 2024

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

  If the situation were not already bad enough, in my case, the U.S. government asserted a dangerous, dangerous new global legal position. Only U.S. citizens have free speech rights. Europeans and other nationalities do not have free speech rights, but the U.S. claims its Espionage Act still applies to them, regardless of where they are. So Europeans in Europe must obey the U.S. secrecy law with no defenses at all.

  As far as the U.S. government is concerned, an American in Paris can talk about what the U.S. government is up to. Perhaps, but for a Frenchman in Paris, to do so is a crime with no defense. And he may be extradited, just like me.

  Criminalizing News-Gathering

  Now that one foreign government has formally asserted that Europeans have no free speech rights, a dangerous precedent has been set. Other powerful states will inevitably follow suit. The war in Ukraine has already seen the criminalization of journalists in Russia. But based on the precedent set in my expedition, there is nothing to stop Russia or indeed any other state from targeting European journalists, publishers or even social media users by claiming that their domestic secrecy laws have been violated.

  The rights of journalists and publishers within the European space are seriously threatened.

  Transnational repression cannot become the norm here. As one of the world’s two great norms, setting institutions, PACE must act.

  The criminalization of news-gathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere. I was formally convicted by a foreign power for asking, for receiving and publishing truthful information about that power. While I was in Europe.

  The fundamental issue is simple journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs. Journalism is not a crime. It is a pillar of a free and informed society.

  Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates. If Europe is to have a future where the freedom to speak and the freedom to publish the truth are not privileges enjoyed by a few, but rights guaranteed to all. Then it must act. So what has happened in my case never happens to anyone else.

  I wish to express my deepest gratitude to this assembly, to the conservatives, Social Democrats, liberals, leftists, Greens and independents who have supported me throughout this ordeal and to the countless individuals who have advocated tirelessly, tirelessly for my release. Is heartening to know that in a world often divided by ideology and interests, there remains a shared commitment to the protection of essential human liberties.

  Freedom of expression and all that flows from it is at a dark crossroad. I fear that unless institutions like PACE wake up to the gravity of the situation, it will be too late. Let us all commit to doing our part to ensure that the light of freedom never demands that the pursuit of truth will live on, and that the voices of the many are not silenced by the interests of the few.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 20:30

• America Is Falling Apart: Our National Priorities Are In Dire Need Of Restructuring
  America Is Falling Apart: Our National Priorities Are In Dire Need Of Restructuring

  Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

  – Bob Dylan

  A water main breaks every two minutes somewhere in the U.S., resulting in contaminated drinking supplies and boil water notices.

  One out of three bridges in the U.S. needs repair, endangering hundreds of millions of commuters. More than 42,000 bridges across the country, carrying about 167 million vehicles each day, are in disrepair.

  It is estimated that 300 million people could face power outages across the United States between 2024 and 2028, due in large part to widespread power grid failures.

  No wonder U.S. infrastructure received a C- on the Infrastructure Report Card.

  America is falling apart.

  

  Collapsing bridges, buckling roads, overheated railways, deteriorating power lines, contaminated water lines, outdated public transportation, overtaxed power grids, aging ports and waterways, unsafe tunnels and highways, and spotty or insufficient telecommunications assets are all becoming frequent hallmarks of the American way of life.

  If the nation is woefully unprepared to deal with climate disasters such as floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and droughts, despite the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that have been pledged to shore up the nation’s infrastructure problems, it is because politicians across the political spectrum have failed us.

  The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene makes this failure by the government to put the needs of the American people first painfully evident. Entire towns are under water. Roadways have collapsed or are otherwise impassable. Potable water is scarce. More than 1.5 million households are still without power.

  Clearly, our national priorities need to be re-examined.

  While the politicians play partisan games with our tax dollars, the nation’s critical infrastructure—both the physical foundations of the nation and the figurative foundations of our freedoms—continues to be neglected and deprioritized in favor of grandstanding, bloated military budgets on endless wars abroad, foreign aid to shore up the infrastructure and military defenses of international allies, and all manner of graft and pork barrel spending.

  When all is said and done, the bread-and-circus distractions and sleight-of-hand political theater being trotted out in order to keep Americans distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from the government’s steady encroachments on our freedoms adds nothing of real value to the lives of the average American.

  It’s time to fix what’s broken in this country.

  For starters, we need an overhaul of the nation’s infrastructure.

  According to Time magazine, “Throughout the country, millions of Americans don’t have access to or can’t afford broadband internet service. In excess of 2 million people live without running water or basic plumbing. For too long, the American public has had to carry on while these deficiencies have gone unattended. The political will has been weak or inattentive, the rewards too far removed from electoral advantage.”

  In other words, the politicians who dance to the tune of the oligarchic elite aren’t motivated to do anything about our failing infrastructure because they get nothing out of it: no votes, no money, no power.

  This isn’t about whether the Republicans or Democrats have better policies.

  Indeed, both parties’ priorities are disconcertingly alike: both parties support endless war, engage in out-of-control spending, ignore the citizenry’s basic rights, have no respect for the rule of law, are bought and paid for by Big Business, care most about their own power, and have a long record of expanding government and shrinking liberty.

  This is about the plight of the American people who continue to be treated like a permanent underclass.

  Anyone who believes that this presidential election will bring about any real change in how the American government does business is either incredibly naive, woefully out-of-touch, or oblivious to the fact that as an in-depth Princeton University study shows, we now live in an oligarchy that is “of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.”

  When a country spends close to $10 billion to select what is, for all intents and purposes, a glorified homecoming king or queen to occupy the White House, while 38 million of its people live in poverty, and nearly 7 million Americans are out of work, and more than 600,000 Americans are homeless, that’s a country whose priorities are out of step with the needs of its people.

  Overhauling the nation’s infrastructure will take a significant amount of money, which won’t happen as long as the U.S. government continues to fund the military industry complex and its voracious appetite for endless wars.

  James Madison was right: “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” As Madison explained, “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.”

  We are seeing this play out before our eyes.

  The government is destabilizing the economy, destroying the national infrastructure through neglect and a lack of resources, and turning taxpayer dollars into blood money with its endless wars, drone strikes and mounting death tolls.

  The American Empire is approaching a breaking point.

  This is exactly the scenario President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against when he cautioned the citizenry not to let the profit-driven war machine endanger our liberties or democratic processes. Eisenhower, who served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, was alarmed by the rise of the profit-driven war machine that, in order to perpetuate itself, would have to keep waging war.

  Yet as Eisenhower recognized, the consequences of allowing the military-industrial complex to wage war, exhaust our resources and dictate our national priorities are beyond grave:

  “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

  We failed to heed Eisenhower’s warning.

  The illicit merger of the armaments industry and the government that Eisenhower warned against has come to represent perhaps the greatest threat to the nation today.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is how tyranny rises and freedom falls.

  If we are to have any hope of restoring both the structural and freedom foundations of this nation, we’ll need to start by getting our priorities in order, and that means focusing on what really matters: shoring up our battered Bill of Rights and investing in the American homeland.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 20:05

• These Are The Companies Most Exposed To The US Port Strike
  These Are The Companies Most Exposed To The US Port Strike

  Nearly 50,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) have walked off the job, putting billions of dollars’ worth of goods at risk of severe delays.

  It was estimated that on the first day of the strike (October 1st, 2024), 147 vessels carrying $34.3 billion in goods arrived at 14 idle ports along the East and Gulf coasts of America. The strike comes during peak shipping season, impacting as much as 49% of all U.S. imports.

  This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the companies most exposed to the strike – the ones with the most twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) imported at East and Gulf coast ports over the past year – based on data from ImportGenius and Arbor Data Science shared by Liz Ann Sonders.

  

  Retail Giants and Tech Firms at Highest Risk from Strike

  Below, we show the companies most exposed to the dockworker strike, based on twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) imported over the last year:

  

  As the most exposed company overall, Walmart announced that it prepared for the strike by having extra inventory in key product categories to mitigate supply chain disruptions.

  For context, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, imported an average of 4,000 TEUs per month through these ports over the past year. The average value of one container can fall around $50,000.

  Other major retailers, including IKEA and Home Depot face significant exposure, while tech firms Samsung and LG ranked in the top five highest importers last year.

  The auto industry is also highly vulnerable. Hyundai, General Motors, and major tire manufacturers import thousands of containers through these ports annually. A prolonged strike could drive up production costs due to input shortages, however, recent recovery in automaker inventories provides some buffer against immediate supply chain disruptions.

  How the U.S. Port Strike is Unfolding

  For the first time in five decades, the ILA went on strike after failed negotiations to raise wages by 61.5% over the next six years amid increased automation and record profits for container line companies.

  The strike will halt the flow of goods for many companies until an agreement is reached. It also has the potential to impact U.S. exports.

  The stoppage could result in an estimated $3.8 to $4.5 billion in losses a day according to analysts, affecting major ports such as New York/New Jersey, Houston, and Baltimore. In particular, the impact on perishable goods will be immediate, with bananas being highly vulnerable. Today, three-quarters of U.S. banana imports pass through the ports affected by the strike.

  To learn more about this topic from a global perspective, check out this graphic on the busiest ports in the world.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 19:40

• Israel Targets Likely Hezbollah Successor In New Beirut Attacks
  Israel Targets Likely Hezbollah Successor In New Beirut Attacks

  Update(1939ET): Israel is conducting more major airstrikes in Beirut Thursday evening. Israeli officials are now claiming that strikes last night targeted head of Hezbollah’s executive committee Hashim Safi al-Din. He’s been widely reported as the likely successor to take over the Shia paramilitary group after Nasrallah’s killing last week.

  “Safi al-Din is the leading figure to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as Hezbollah’s leader. An Israeli official said Safi al-Din was in a bunker deep underground and it isn’t yet clear whether he was killed in the strike,” Axios is reporting.

  

  The strikes that targeted the Safi al-Din have been described as even larger than the ones the killed Nasrallah. Casualty numbers are as yet unconfirmed. On Thursday night, Al Jazeera reports the following: 

  Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that the Israeli military has blown up residential buildings northwest of Nuseirat camp.

  Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported earlier that the military has been striking the western part of Nuseirat refugee camp on almost an hourly basis.

  * * *

  At least nine people have been killed in overnight Israeli attacks on Beirut, which involved a series of rare airstrikes directly on the city center, not far from parliament building and the prime minister’s office, as well as a United Nations headquarters. More strikes also rocked the southern suburb of Dayhiheh, which has been frequently hit.

  The central Beirut attack targeted a building in the district of Bashoura. The Associated Press and others noticed that residents and emergency aid workers panicked also due to a strange smell filled the air in the central city area in the immediate aftermath of the bombing.

  Al Jazeera reports that “Residents reported a sulfur-like smell following the attack, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using phosphorus bombs, without providing evidence.” Israel’s military did not comment on the claims.

  

  Among the dead were seven members of Hezbollah’s civil defense unit, the group confirmed. A prior Wednesday strike had also targeted a residence of Hezbollah member of parliament, Amin Shari. Local reports say he was not there at the time, and survived.

  In ongoing fierce fighting in the south, Hezbollah claims to have mounted more attacks against invading Israeli ground forces. This comes following a bad day for the IDF on Wednesday, given it confirmed eight Israeli troop deaths, most of these during a fierce multi-pronged ambush.

  Below are the latest claims of battlefield successes by Hezbollah on Thursday:

  • Hezbollah claimed to have detonated two explosive devices at dawn “when an enemy Israeli infantry force attempted to infiltrate towards the village of Maroun al-Ras” in southern Lebanon.
  • Fighters attacked Israeli soldiers with an Iranian-made Falaq missile east of the Sasa settlement in northern Israel, and a different group of soldiers with a rocket salvo west of the same settlement, it said.
  • Another attack came in the Shomera settlement of northern Israel against Israeli troops with a Falaq missile. Hezbollah also claimed two separate rocket salvos against Israeli forces – one in the Betzet settlement and another in the Avivim village in Upper Galilee.

  In what regional sources are reporting as a major on-ground development, Hezbollah said detonated a large bomb as IDF troops entered the village of Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon, resulting in deaths and casualties.

  Military rescue helicopters were later observed arriving in the area to recover and tend to the wounded, unverified reports say.

  Hezbollah rocket attacks on Galilee in northern Israel on Thursday:

  ⚡️The moment Hezb-Allah missiles fell on terrorists positions in a settlement in the Galilee this morning pic.twitter.com/deypFR4qs2

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 3, 2024

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

  In total Hezbollah has said it has launched six different attacks on Israeli ground forces in the south by mid-afternoon. The Israeli military has meanwhile said its forces have killed some 60 Hezbollah operatives over the past day, with aerial forces also having struck over 200 targets.

  At least two Lebanese national army soldiers have been reported killed at this point. News wires are also reporting that “For the first time since the war began, the Lebanese army responded to Israeli fire after a soldier was killed in an Israeli strike on an army center in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon.”

  As of Thursday afternoon, the IDF has ordered an additional 25 villages and towns in southern Lebanon to be evacuated, as the fighting expands. Israel is looking to push Hezbollah forces dozens of miles north into Lebanon, in order to create a permanent buffer zone.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 19:39

• US Port Workers Agree To End Strike After Accepting 62% Wage Increase
  US Port Workers Agree To End Strike After Accepting 62% Wage Increase

  If you just bought 10 years worth of toilet paper, you may want to check if you still have the receipt.

  Late on Thursday, 45,000 striking dockworkers at US East and Gulf coast ports agreed to return to work after port operators sweetened their contract offer, ending a three-day strike that threatened to disrupt the American economy.

  The International Longshoremen’s Association and port operators, in a joint statement, said they had reached a tentative agreement on wages and union members would return to work. They said the agreement would extend the prior contract, which expired at the start of this week, through Jan. 15, 2025 while the two sides negotiate on other issues, including automation on the docks.

  The breakthrough came after port employers offered a 62% increase in wages over six years, the WSJ reported citing people familiar with the matter. The new offer, up from an earlier proposed raise of 50%, came after the White House privately and publicly pressed the large shipping lines and cargo terminal operators who employ the longshore workers to make a new offer to the union.

  The agreement ends a strike that had closed container ports from Maine to Texas and threatened to disrupt everything from the supply of bananas in supermarkets to the flow of cars through America’s factories, and cost the US economy billions each day in lost commerce.

  The latest offer would raise the base hourly rate for ILA port workers to $63 from $39 over six years. One of the people said the offer is being made on the condition that dockworkers go back to work and agree to efficiency gains.

  The offer is less than the union demand for an increase of 77% over the term of the contract but a far larger increase than most major labor contracts, including a contract reached last year covering the separate union representing West Coast longshore workers. Many U.S. dockworkers currently earn more than a $100,000 a year, with baseline hourly wages boosted by work rules and overtime requirements.

  The strike came about five weeks from a presidential election where both main candidates are wooing working-class union voters. Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have voiced support for the workers, stressing that the carriers are mostly foreign-owned.

  Top White House aides have been in frequent contact with the employers, reiterating that Biden doesn’t plan to use his federal power to break the strike. “This is the first strike in 50 years—these people know how to get to yes,” Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Thursday, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One. “They just need to get to yes.”

  The walkout had shut down some of the country’s main gateways for imports of food, vehicles, heavy machinery, construction materials, chemicals, furniture, clothes and toys. Many manufacturers and big retailers, with their busy fall shopping season just starting to kick in, said they could withstand a short strike because they brought in products earlier than usual this year and diverted other cargoes to West Coast ports. But executives said a walkout lasting a week or longer would push up shipping costs and might trigger product shortages.

  The International Longshoremen’s Association said it had agreed to extend the contract until Jan. 15 and work will resume.
  Container ports from Houston to Miami and up to Boston have been closed since the labor contract between the ILA and the US Maritime Alliance, which represents terminal operators and shipping lines, expired on Tuesday.

  Dozens of ships carrying containers and autos have anchored off the coast of major trade hubs including New York, South Carolina and Virgina over the past few days.

  It remains to be seen if other US labor union will also go on strike hoping to repeat the staggering wage gains that were just handed to the Longshoremen. If so, watch as the color drains out of Powell’s face as wage inflation hits double digits in the coming months.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 19:22

• Massachusetts Governor Uses Emergency Powers To Fast-Track Sweeping Gun-Control Law
  Massachusetts Governor Uses Emergency Powers To Fast-Track Sweeping Gun-Control Law

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

  Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has signed an emergency preamble to the state’s sweeping gun control bill, fast-tracking its implementation and halting an ongoing effort by gun rights activists to delay its effects.

  

  The law, H.4885, was originally scheduled to take effect on Oct. 23, or 90 days after Healey signed the bill in July, but her decision to proceed with signing the emergency preamble means it goes into effect immediately.

  Under Massachusetts law, governors have the authority to issue an emergency preamble to expedite legislation when “the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or convenience” is deemed necessary.

  The law’s expedited enactment was praised by gun control groups but sharply criticized by gun rights advocates, who had hoped to gather enough signatures to delay its implementation until a potential 2026 referendum.

  H.4885 expands Massachusetts’ already strict gun regulations, in part as a response to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which affirmed an individual’s right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

  The expedited law includes provisions banning untraceable “ghost guns,” expanding restrictions on “assault-style” firearms and large-capacity magazines, and tightening the state’s “red flag” rules. It also mandates that firearm license applicants pass a standardized safety exam and complete live-fire training, while also providing mental health information to local licensing authorities.

  “This gun safety law bans ghost guns, strengthens the Extreme Risk Protection Order statute to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others, and invests in violence prevention programs. It is important that these measures go into effect without delay,” Healey said in an Oct. 2 statement to media outlets.

  The governor’s decision to fast-track the law has drawn swift condemnation from gun rights organizations. Tody Leary, owner of Cape Cod Gun Works and a leader of the grassroots Civil Rights Coalition, sharply criticized the move, accusing Healey of bypassing the democratic process.

  “With a single stroke of the pen, Healey risks putting as many as 400 stores out of business and turning tens of thousands of law-abiding citizens into felons, simply for owning guns they have lawfully possessed for years,” Leary said in a statement. “She’s acting more like a dictator than a governor.”

  Leary said that the Civil Rights Coalition was on track to collect the 49,716 signatures required to suspend the law and place it on the 2026 ballot, adding that Healey’s emergency order circumvented that effort.

  Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League (GOAL), expressed similar frustrations, with the group issuing a statement denouncing the law as a “historic attack on our civil rights.” Wallace noted that Healey’s past actions had already strained relations with the state’s Second Amendment advocates.

  “At every turn, the Legislature and now the governor have avoided honest public input, especially from the [Second Amendment] community,“ Wallace said in a statement. ”We are the only stakeholders involved and there is a consistent effort to silence our voices and mislead the general public.”

  GOAL, along with the National Rifle Association, pledged to take swift legal action.

  “With the swipe of a pen, Governor Healey has shamelessly circumvented Massachusetts’ political process and expedited the effective date of her radical gun control law in the Commonwealth,”  Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement.

  “This extreme law will not go unchecked, and the NRA will be launching a challenge to restore the rights guaranteed to Bay Staters by the U.S. Constitution.”

  By contrast, Healey’s decision was praised by the Massachusetts chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, part of the Everytown for Gun Safety network.

  “Gov. Healey is once again putting our safety first by taking meaningful steps to protect our communities from gun violence,” Olivia Benevento, a leader of Northeastern University’s Students Demand Action chapter, said in a statement.

  “We’re thankful to the lawmakers and the governor for supporting this bill and helping us take a stand against the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda.”

  The law’s passage marks the culmination of nearly a year of efforts by gun control advocates to respond to Bruen and tighten the state’s already strict regulations. In addition to banning ghost guns and “assault”-style firearms, the law prohibits firearms at schools, polling places, and government buildings and increases penalties for shootings near residential areas.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 19:15

• Lebanon Claims Nasrallah Agreed To Temporary Ceasefire Just Before Assassination
  Lebanon Claims Nasrallah Agreed To Temporary Ceasefire Just Before Assassination

  In hugely surprising remarks given on American television this week, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has stated that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah issued his agreement to a US and French-proposed 21-day ceasefire with Israel just before Israel killed him by targeting a secretive meeting in south Beirut last Friday.

  Habib revealed the agreement in a PBS interview. He told PBS/CNN host Christiane Amanpour that “They told us that Mr. Netanyahu agreed on this, and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that. And, you know what happened since then.” 

  Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib says Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed to a ceasefire right before Israel killed him pic.twitter.com/gclEwi9TEK

  — Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) October 2, 2024

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  An incredulous-looking Amanpour asked: “are you saying that Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a ceasefire just moments before he was assassinated?” 

  “He agreed, he agreed–yes, yes. We agreed completely.” 

  The top Lebanese diplomat then followed with:

  “The Lebanese House Speaker, Mr Nabih Berri, consulted with Hezbollah and we informed the Americans and the French about the agreement. They told us that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu also agreed to the statement issued by both presidents.”

  This is all in reference to a Sept.25th joint statement by the US, France, the European Union, Saudi Arabia and other nations urging an immediate 21-day ceasefire during which a more permanent diplomatic solution would be worked out. CNN writes of the interview:

  White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein was then set to go to Lebanon to negotiate the ceasefire, Habib continued.

  “They told us that Mr. Netanyahu agreed on this and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that and you know what happened since then,” the foreign minister added.

  If the Lebanese government account is true, this would have huge implications. However, no specific further evidence that Nasrallah agreed to ceasefire has yet emerged. Reuters’ top foreign correspondent, Idrees Ali, has called the revelation “Pretty stunning.”

  Further reporting from CNN could point to the accuracy of FM Habib’s statements:

  A Western source familiar with the negotiations also said Hezbollah had agreed to the temporary truce shortly before the US released the proposal last week. The source didn’t say whether the decision had come directly from Nasrallah, but said that for the movement to agree, they would have needed his approval. A second source familiar with the talks agreed that the US was aware that Hezbollah was agreeing to the ceasefire.

  But on an official level, the White House is denying all of this. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller didn’t rule it out entirely, but said that the Hezbollah chief agreeing to a deal is “not something we have heard before. If true, [it] was never communicated to us.”

  

  “I can’t speak to whether he ever agreed to it and told somebody inside Lebanon. Obviously, that could be something that happened that we wouldn’t be aware of. I can tell you that, if that’s true, it was never communicated to us in any way shape or form,” Miller said in a Thursday press briefing.

  Critics of Israel have accused PM Netanyahu of deliberately sabotaging efforts at peace in his drive to decimate Hamas, Hezbollah, and ultimately to weaken archnemesis Iran – all while prolonging his power and rule at home.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 18:50

• CBDCs And Financial Privacy
  CBDCs And Financial Privacy

  Authored by William Luther via The American Institute for Economic Research,

  When it comes to designing digital currencies that protect the identity and transactions data of their users, developers have made a lot of progress in a relatively short period of time. It is technically feasible to design a retail central bank digital currency — or, CBDC — that promotes financial privacy. But one must also consider what is politically feasible. Unfortunately, there is little prospect that the United States government would actually adopt a privacy-protecting CBDC.

  If adopted, a CBDC will eventually – if not initially – be used to surveil the transactions of Americans.

  

  The government is already using existing technologies to surveil its citizens. There’s no reason to think the government would give up its ability to monitor transactions with the introduction of a CBDC. Indeed, it seems much more likely that the government would seize the opportunity to expand its capabilities. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial to maintain a private banking system firewall between the government and our transactions data.

  Let’s start with the status quo.

  The government has essentially deputized the private banking system to monitor customer transactions. Banks keep records on customer transactions, which the government can access by subpoena. The government also requires banks to report suspicious activity and currency transactions in excess of $10,000.

  As Nick Anthony at Cato has shown, the real (inflation-adjusted) reporting thresholds have gradually declined over time. When the Bank Secrecy Act rules were rolled out in 1972, banks were required to report currency transactions worth $10,000 or more. If that reporting threshold had been indexed to inflation, it would be around $74,000 today. Since it wasn’t indexed to inflation, banks must file many more reports today on transactions worth much less than those that would have triggered a reporting requirement in the past.

  Other thresholds are even lower. For example, money-service businesses must obtain and record information for transactions worth just $3,000.

  The government vigorously defends its ability to monitor transactions. It prosecutes those making transactions just below reporting thresholds —a separate crime called structuring. It seizes cash and collectibles, which make it more difficult to monitor transactions, even in cases where there is no evidence of criminal activity. And it undermines new financial privacy-protecting technologies.

  Consider the government’s response to cryptocurrencies, some of which offer a high degree of financial privacy. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network requires cryptocurrency exchanges to register as money-service businesses and comply with Know Your Customer requirements. If transactions can ultimately be traced through the blockchain to these on- and off-ramps, then the financial privacy that cryptocurrencies offer is largely eroded.

  Consider the government’s response to cryptocurrency mixing services, which make it more difficult to trace one’s transactions back to an exchange where his or her identity may be discovered. The Office of Foreign Asset Control has added the wallet addresses of mixing services to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list, effectively making it illegal for Americans to employ those mixing services.

  Why would a government work so hard to ensure it can monitor transactions just to turn around and issue a financial privacy-protecting CBDC? Again: it seems much more likely that the government would issue a CBDC that bolsters its ability to monitor transactions.

  The ostensibly private messaging service ANOM serves as a useful comparison. ANOM was not private. Unbeknownst to its users, ANOM was actually the centerpiece of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Operation Trojan Shield. Messages sent using the ANOM app were not only delivered to recipients, but also to the FBI’s database.

  The FBI maintains that it did not technically violate the fourth amendment by using a backdoor in the messaging app to snoop on US citizens, because it transferred the data to Lithuania, where foreigners would snoop on US citizens and then tip off the FBI when illegal activity was suspected. Think about that. The FBI developed the ability to spy on US citizens, promoted the use of the enabling technology, and then handed the data collected by this technology over to foreign nationals in order to circumvent the Constitutional constraints designed to safeguard US citizens from such activities. These efforts not only undermined the due process afforded to criminals — though that would be bad enough. It also facilitated the snooping on perfectly lawful messages. Some of these messages involved intimate details shared between romantic partners. Others involved protected conversations between attorneys and their clients.

  If the government will build a backdoor into a messaging app — and has been caught trying to bribe engineers to install others — then one should expect it will build a backdoor into a payments app, as well.

  Americans do not have much financial privacy today. We would have even less financial privacy if not for the private banking system firewall between the government and our transactions data. This firewall isn’t perfect. But it is better than nothing. 

  To see how such a firewall promotes financial privacy, consider the Internal Revenue System’s efforts to access the customer data of Coinbase in 2016. At the time, Coinbase was boasting that it had 5.9 million customers — many more than had reported crypto holdings to the IRS. Citing this discrepancy, the IRS secured a John Doe summons.

  In 2017, I described the summons as follows:

  Basically, the IRS wants any and all information that Coinbase has so that it can sift through that information for the slightest hint of misreporting. It has requested account registration information for all Coinbase account holders, including confirmed devices and payment methods; any agreements or instructions that grant third party access or control for any account; records of all payments processed by Coinbase for merchants; and all correspondence between Coinbase and its users regarding accounts.

  Needless to say, the scope of the summons was very broad.

  Recognizing the duty — and, perhaps more importantly, the profit motive — it had to protect its customers, Coinbase appealed. Eventually, the courts decided that Coinbase would have to hand over some customer data on around 13,000 high-transacting users.

  Kraken has also resisted an overly broad summons to hand over customer data to the IRS, to similar effect.

  I hold the old-fashioned view that, in a liberal democracy, the government should have to demonstrate probable cause before acquiring the authority and ability to sift through one’s financial records. The degree of financial privacy afforded by the current system certainly falls short of that standard. Nonetheless, it affords much more financial privacy than one could reasonably hope for if the government held the data, as would likely be the case with a CBDC.

  Financial privacy is very important for a free society. What we do reveals much more about who we are than what we say. And what we do often requires making payments. In order to exercise our freedoms, we must be able to selectively share the details of our lives with others — and withhold such details from those who would otherwise use them to harm us.

  We should take steps to bolster financial privacy in the United States. The introduction of a retail CBDC would be a step in the wrong direction.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 18:25

• Ukrainian Lines Collapsing In East With World's Attention On Middle East War
  Ukrainian Lines Collapsing In East With World’s Attention On Middle East War

  Moscow’s wide-reaching offensive in eastern Ukraine has continued making steady gains, as looming major war between Israel and Iran has largely taken over the news cycle and daily headlines.

  Currently Russian forces have advanced to merely within a few a few kilometers of Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian logistical hub in the region. As we’ve highlighted before, the collapse of Pokrovsk will likely portend a Russian takeover of the whole of Donetsk. 

  On Wednesday the Ukrainian army announced that it has fully withdrawn from the eastern town of Vuhledar, describing that it abandoned the area after being almost fully encircled, and coming under heavy Russian artillery bombardment.

  

  “The High Command gave permission for a maneuver to withdraw units from Vuhledar in order to save personnel and military equipment and take up a position for further operations,” a Ukrainian unit deployed there said in a Telegram post.

  It cited specifically the “threat of encirclement” and heavy troop losses, and there are reports that Russian forces had already taken control of Vuhleda by the time the Ukrainian announcement was made.

  Vuhleda is a significant achievement, and suggests Russia forces will continue to plow through Ukrainian defenses, given it was dubbed a “fortress” city given its long having heavily-fortified surroundings and being in an upland position.

  Even The Daily Beast recently underscored that while President Zelensky was pitching his ‘victory plan’ in Washington, his forces were suffering loss after loss:

  On a visit to the U.S. last week, Volodymyr Zelensky gave the hard sell to his “Victory Plan” for Ukraine. In meetings with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and an awkward encounter with former President Donald Trump, the Ukrainian leader insisted his country could still–with Western help–emerge victorious in its long-running war with Russia.

  …After two and a half years of war, soldiers are tired. The same soldiers who gave Vladimir Putin’s forces a bloody nose after the February 2022 invasion, and pushed the invaders from Kyiv and Kharkiv, say they are under-equipped and complain that they are being ordered to carry out impossible missions as Kyiv struggles to supply the military with new recruits and acquire more Western weapons to ward off Russian advances.

  The same report has said that in some instances entire battalions are refusing orders from command centers as they see them as “suicide missions”.

  There is a significant amount of “radio silence” around the normal OSINT and mapper channels like ISW etc. Vuhledar fell, but Ukraine bled RU for it. Pokrovsk still stands, but RU tries to force Novohroddivka. Kursk is static. Maybe something is afoot? Attribution ISW pic.twitter.com/9effN2Q9T3

  — Cognitive Dissonance 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 (@MasonFlakeAlpha) October 3, 2024

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  “With little training and battleground conditions far removed from what they signed up for at the beginning of the war, the men are sent on what they describe as suicide missions: They are told to get behind enemy lines to launch attacks, yet are not given the weaponry to do so successfully,” Daily Beast wrote.

  As for Vuhledar, Russia’s defense ministry (MoD) and state media are in a celebratory mood. “As a result of conclusive operations by the units of the ‘East’ group of forces, the town of Ugledar in the DPR has been liberated,” the miliary announced Thursday.

  US state-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has confirmed the below video:

  The Ukrainian military has confirmed that it is pulling out of the strategic city of Vuhledar in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Russian social media channels posted videos purportedly showing troops installing Russian flags over shattered buildings in the city. pic.twitter.com/zdxJu4IrZg

  — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) October 2, 2024

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  Widely circulating images and footage show Russian troops raising a flag over Vuhledar’s central administrative building. Over the past two-and-half years, Russian forces had tried to take the town on a number of occasions, but were pushed back, until this week.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 18:22

• These Are The Most Popular Investing Strategies By Generation
  These Are The Most Popular Investing Strategies By Generation

  When it comes to investing, each generation has their own mix of strategies, and younger generations like to try a bit of everything.

  This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, visualizes the breakdown of how each generation uses each of the following types of investing strategies:

  • Buy and hold: Investors purchase stocks or assets and keep them long-term, regardless of short-term market fluctuations

  • Growth investing: Investing in companies expected to grow at an above-average rate, even if their stock prices are higher

  • Fractional shares investing: Purchasing a portion of a full share, allowing investors to invest in expensive stocks with smaller amounts of money

  • Short-term trading: Buying and selling assets quickly, typically within days or weeks, to capitalize on short-term market movements

  • Direct indexing: A method where investors buy and own individual stocks of an index directly rather than through a mutual fund or ETF, allowing for greater customization and tax efficiency

  • Socially responsible investing: Investing in companies that meet specific ethical, environmental, or social criteria

  • Robo-advisor investing: An automated investment service that uses algorithms to manage and optimize an investor’s portfolio, typically with low fees

  • Thematic investing: A strategy centered on investing in companies tied to specific trends or themes, such as clean energy or technological innovation

  

  The data is based on a Charles Schwab Modern Wealth survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, and is updated as of March 2024.

  Buy and Hold Investing Most Popular Across Generations

  Americans of all generations mostly rely on the buy and hold strategy, with boomers relying on this strategy the most (60%) and Gen X relying on it the least (48%).

  

  Across the board, younger generations tend to adopt a wider range of investing strategies than older generations. Specifically, Gen Z and Millennials tend to use newer investing strategies more often, including fractional shares investing (48% for both) and short-term trading (52% for both).

  Both younger generations also use technology-driven strategies like robo-advisor investing much more than the older two generations.

  Robo-advisors are online investing platforms that use algorithms to create and manage investment portfolios, like Betterment and Wealthsimple.

  Younger generations are also increasingly turning to social media to inform their financial choices.

  According to the Charles Schwab survey, 72% of Gen Z respondents considered financial advice from social media, compared to 57% of Millennials, 38% of Gen X, and only 19% of Boomers.

  Gen Zs are also starting to invest earlier. On average, Gen Zs started investing at 19 years old, compared to 25 for Millennials, 32 for Gen X, and 35 for Boomers, according to Charles Schwab.

  Investing earlier allows investors more time to grow their wealth, as compounding interest can significantly increase returns over the long term.

  To learn more about Americans’ investing patterns, check out this graphic that visualizes shows the percentage of financial assets allocated to corporate equities among U.S. households and non-profits.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 18:00

• Canada Banned Certain Guns, Can't Figure Out How To Collect Them
  Canada Banned Certain Guns, Can’t Figure Out How To Collect Them

  Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  CALGARY, Canada—On May 1, 2020, the Canadian government outlawed 1,500 types of semiautomatic rifles and announced a firearms buyback program to take possession of the newly banned guns.

  

  The action was the federal government’s response to a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in which 22 people were killed over April 18–19, 2020.

  The killer, dressed as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and driving a car rigged to look like a patrol car, used an AR-style rifle smuggled into Canada from the United States.

  Four years later, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party struggles to keep control in Parliament, both sides of the debate anticipate the possible end of the program even before the first gun has been surrendered.

  One gun control activist has criticized the buyback program as too weak.

  Nathalie Provost is the spokesperson for PolyRemembers, a group formed after the Dec. 6, 1989, mass shooting at the Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal that killed 14.

  Provost, a survivor of that crime, did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

  In a Sept. 11 statement, she called on the government to eliminate exemptions to the ban, accelerate completion of the buyback, and close loopholes in the law.

  “Even the mandatory buyback program … will lose all of its meaning if current [gun] owners … can simply take the money from the buyback to purchase [guns] that remain legal or new models introduced … by manufacturers seeking to increase their sales and profits,” Provost wrote.

  Under the program, certain automatic and semiautomatic rifles, so-called assault weapons, were banned.

  Rifles such as the AR-15, AK-47, and similar types can no longer be bought, sold, imported, or even transported in Canada. The plan calls for owners of the now-illegal guns to sell them to the federal government.

  The government established a two-year amnesty period during which owners must securely store their prohibited firearms until the logistics of the buyback program are worked out.

  In 2022, the amnesty period was extended to October 2025.

  James Bachynsky, president of the Calgary Shooting Center since 2011, said the Nova Scotia shooting was simply used as an excuse for the Liberal Party to institute a ban it wanted all along.

  Bachynsky said the ban would not have prevented the killings in Nova Scotia.

  He pointed out that the killer had violated several laws before he fired his first shot. From smuggling guns into the country to impersonating a police officer, the shooter could have been charged with a crime without ever putting his finger on a trigger, he said.

  “The government wanted to be seen to be doing something. They introduced this [Order in Council], banned all these guns, and then the investigation determined that all [the killer’s] guns had been smuggled in over the U.S. [border] anyway,” Bachynsky told The Epoch Times.

  

  Brian Kent agrees. He owns Proline Shooters II in Calgary and has been in the firearms business for 42 years. He said restricting legal gun ownership is the easiest way for the government to give the impression that it is doing something.

  Kent says he believes the “government wants to do away with all firearms,” and people who own guns legally are “low hanging fruit and … easy to pick on.”

  During a Sept. 19 meeting, Dominic LeBlanc, Minister for Public Safety, Democratic Institutions, and Intergovernmental Affairs, denied these claims when questioned by Conservative Sen. Yonah Martin.

  “This program in no way targets sports persons, or indigenous persons or persons who hunt for sustenance or who practice a sport; this is designed to get military weapons off the streets,” LeBlanc said.

  But Kent is not convinced.

  He said officials use terms such as “assault weapons,” “military weapons,” and “weapons of war” to alarm and confuse their constituents. The difference between the banned guns and legal guns is a matter of form rather than function, he said.

  “There’s no difference between a [prohibited] AR-15 system and a [legal] Remington 742 semiautomatic rifle. There’s no difference in the function,” Kent told The Epoch Times. “The AR-15 looks dangerous and military and ‘oh my goodness, we’re going to all die.’ There’s no actual functioning difference between the two firearms.”

  Bachynsky said that as a firearms dealer, he keeps track of changes in the gun laws. He said the buyback program is confusing. According to Bachynsky, the changes could catch some gun owners unaware.

  The list of prohibited rifles has grown from 1,500 to almost 2,000 over the past four years. This means that rifles that were legal when the list was written in 2020 may no longer be allowed.

  “But if you own any kind of semiautomatic rifle now, or even a hunting rifle, you need to check [the restricted firearms list] regularly to see whether it’s become prohibited,” Bachynsky told The Epoch Times.

  

  The program is divided into two phases. In the first phase, gun stores will sell to the government any stock they haven’t been able to export or sell before the amnesty period ends. In the second phase, individual owners will sell their prohibited guns to the government.

  In each case the price will be determined by a government estimate, not the amount the store or owner paid.

  As of Sept. 25, the Public Safety Canada website had no details on how or when either phase would begin.

  “More information on the methods affected firearms businesses can use to turn in their inventory and how they can participate in the program will be provided at a later date,” the Public Safety Canada website reads.

  In December 2023, the government enacted Bill C-21, which codified the plan’s prohibition on the sale or transfer of handguns.

  Current handgun owners can transport their handguns to shoot on approved firing ranges. But they cannot sell or give them to anyone. When current handgun owners die, their guns must be handed over to the government.

  The Liberal Party has been able to advance its agenda through an agreement with the New Democratic Party (NDP). However, on Sept. 4, the NDP backed out of the agreement.

  Read the rest here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 17:40

• Doug Casey Exposes The Global Elites' Plan For Feudalism 2.0… And How You Can Resist
  Doug Casey Exposes The Global Elites’ Plan For Feudalism 2.0… And How You Can Resist

  Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

  International Man: There’s little doubt the self-anointed elite are hostile to the middle class, which is on its way to extinction thanks to soaring inflation and taxation.

  It seems they would like to implement a kinder and gentler version of feudalism.

  What is really going on here, and what is the end game?

  

  Doug Casey: The middle class, the bourgeoisie, emerged with the death of feudalism, the inception of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and finally, the Industrial Revolution.

  “Middle class” has been given a bad connotation in recent times. Leftists want everybody to believe that the bourgeoisie is full of consumerist faults. They’re mocked for being concerned with material well-being and improving their status. The elites feel threatened by them. Unlike the lower class plebs, grunt workers who don’t expect more from life.

  Bourgeoisie simply means city dweller. Starting in the late Middle Ages, city dwellers were independent, with their own trades and businesses. Living in towns got them out from under the control of the feudal warrior elites.

  Cities became intellectual centers, where the growing wealth of the bourgeoisie—the middle class—gave them the leisure needed to develop science, technology, engineering, literature, and medicine. Universities expanded the idea of education beyond the realm of theology. Commerce and personal freedom attracted the best of the peasants, who rose to the middle class. Cities ended feudalism, a system whereby everyone was born into a class and occupation, and was expected to stay there for life, obligated to pay taxes—protection money—to his “betters”. The rise of the bourgeoisie didn’t suit the ruling classes, who liked dominating society.

  Capitalism developed as the bourgeoisie became wealthy. The rest is well-known history, but the point must be made that the creation of the middle class, capitalism, and bourgeois values elevated peasants from poverty and created today’s world.

  But, then and now, a certain percentage of the population wants to control everyone else. The types who go to Bilderberg, the World Economic Forum, CFR, and the like see themselves as elite new aristocrats who should dominate the others. Even though most of them came from the middle class, now that they’ve “made it,” they like to pull the ladder up. And if not eliminate, at least neuter or defang the remaining bourgeoisie.

  So what’s the end game?

  I think it might look something like the movie Rollerball. Keep the plebs entertained while the elite, in the form of a corporate aristocracy, controls society.

  International Man: Yuval Harari is a prominent World Economic Forum (WEF) member.

  He suggested that the elite should use a universal basic income, drugs, and video games to keep the “useless class” docile and occupied.

  What is your take on these comments in the context of Feudalism 2.0?

  Doug Casey: A nasty little fellow, Harari is what might be termed a court intellectual for the World Economic Forum. He’s there to provide an intellectual patina for the power members, who are basically the businessmen, politicos, and media personalities. They’re not thinkers or interested in ideas but philistines concerned with money and power. Harari gives them an intellectual framework to justify their actions and plans.

  As far as his books are concerned, they amount to a lot of generic truisms, obvious observations, justifications of current trends, and a projection of how the world will evolve. As an author and thinker, he’s knowledgeable and intelligent but grossly overrated. He owes his success to promotion from the new wannabe aristocracy and their hangers on. He illustrates the advantages of being hooked up with power people.

  Harari has gone from being just another college professor, living with his husband in Israel, to being an internationally famous multi-millionaire pundit.

  He expects the “useless eaters” will be maintained on a subsistence basis until they die out. I’m not sure how much the Covid hysteria, followed by the vaccine, has to do with that. It’s becoming quite clear that Covid itself was an artificially constructed flu variant, mainly affecting the very old, very sick, and very overweight. The vaccine is useless in preventing Covid but has caused significant increases in morbidity and mortality among healthy recipients. Was it a trial run to cleanse the world of useless eaters?

  I don’t know. But, based on what people like Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Pol Pot—among many others—have done in recent years, I don’t think it’s out of the question. No doubt, the new aristocracy wants to cement themselves in place. They certainly don’t like rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi when they visit Venice, Machu Pichu, and the like.

  International Man: How does the WEF’s vision of “you will own nothing and be happy” compare to the previous feudal system of medieval Europe?

  Doug Casey: Serfs, unlike slaves, had some rights; they owned tools and huts. But their position in society was fixed, they couldn’t easily move—rather like a medieval version of today’s 15-minute city. They had to recognize their betters, and not say anything challenging—like today’s increasingly draconian limits on free speech.

  I expect that the gigantic amount of debt in society today will be the means of turning middle-class Americans into serfs. The lower classes are already welfare recipients who produce very little; they’ll soon be replaced by robots.

  The better educated ones are buried under their college debts. But everybody is buried under growing credit card debt, auto debt, mortgage debt, and sometimes even tax debt.

  If someone makes a lucky capital gain in the stock market or by selling his house, he might spend that money only to find that the government wants 20%, 30%, or 40% of the gain. So the gain, instead of a blessing, becomes a disaster in disguise.

  Many people today are burdened by debt, living paycheck to paycheck. They’re barely getting by, under immense pressure to cover food and rent. They’d probably be quite willing to take a deal offering essentially “three hots and a cot,” a tiny apartment, internet, and some extra money to hang around Starbucks.

  International Man: How do you see Feudalism 2.0 developing over the coming months and years?

  What can be done to resist this agenda?

  Doug Casey: Trends in motion tend to stay in motion until they reach some type of a crisis—when anything can happen. Let’s look at some economic systems, as spelled out by Karl Marx.

  In Communism, the Marxist ideal, the State owns both the means of production (factories, farms, and such) as well as consumer goods (houses, cars, and theoretically, even your clothes). Mao’s China is as close as anyone’s come.

  Socialism is a way station to Communism. The State owns the means of production, but individuals can still own consumer goods. There are lots of countries with socialist ideals, but no real socialist countries. Cuba probably comes closest.

  Fascism is an economic system where both the means of production and consumer goods are privately owned, but they’re both 100% State-controlled. Most of the world’s countries are fascist. The word was coined by Mussolini; he meant it to describe the melding of the State, corporations, and unions.

  Few people know that Marx coined the word “capitalism”. It’s a system where everything is both privately owned and privately controlled. There are no purely capitalist countries.

  In feudalism, a lord owns everything but grants fiefs to subordinates. An aristocracy is supported by the plebs through taxation. Feudalism is based on the plebs providing service and taxes to the lord in exchange for “protection” from other lords.

  Now for some pure speculation on my part.

  Most of the world’s governments, including that of the US, are terminally bankrupt. They’ll prove unable to meet their obligations. Meanwhile, the prospect of wars, secessions, and crime is growing. I suspect wealthy corporations and individuals will wind up supplanting most traditional governments.

  The result could be called neo-feudalism.

  The average person is looking for someone or something to save him, to kiss everything and make it better, when times get tough. With governments bankrupt and dysfunctional, solvent and powerful individuals and corporations could take their place.

  Harari and his pals want to see the plebs given a guaranteed annual income, a place to live, and entertainment until the useless eaters fade away. But it won’t be as neat as Harari’s wet dreams imagine. The world will be chaotic. We may be on our way to an idiocracy as well, where the populace is dumbed down so they don’t get dangerous ideas.

  No matter how things sort out, I think we’re looking at a chaotic and dangerous situation in the near term.

  I don’t see voting as a solution. Notwithstanding the differences between Harris and Trump, it just amounts to choosing the lesser of two evils, which in this case would certainly be Trump. But even if you elected Mises, Hayek, Ron Paul, or Harry Browne, I’m afraid the tide of history would wash them away.

  In any event, your vote doesn’t really count. Or perhaps I should say it counts about as much as a grain of sand on a beach with hundreds of millions of grains of sand. And even then, as Stalin said, it’s not who votes that counts. It’s who counts the votes.

  What can you do to resist the shape of things to come?

  It’s an uphill fight because if you’re liberty-oriented, you’re part of a tiny minority at odds with the views of most of your fellow citizens, who’ve been indoctrinated by years of schooling, media, and entertainment. Collectivist memes are cemented in their minds. And when they talk to their contemporaries, they tend to mutually reinforce their beliefs.

  When you’re in a group, it can be dangerous to have different beliefs, in much the same way that it’s dangerous for a chicken in a flock to have a feather out of place. The other chickens will peck it to death. Reigning ideas tend to be brutally enforced.

  What can you do about this?

  Other than trying to maintain your personal integrity, there’s not much you can do to roll back the tsunami. There wasn’t much that a freedom-loving Russian could do in 1917, a freedom-loving German could do in 1933, or a freedom-loving Cuban could do in 1959. Or a freedom-loving Venezuelan today.

  The best you can do is to try to save yourself, your family, and your like-minded friends. Changing society for the better is a long shot. Although I hope Milei in Argentina proves me wrong.

  International Man: What do you suggest individuals do to ensure they don’t become modern serfs if Feudalism 2.0 emerges?

  Doug Casey: There are two types of freedom: physical and financial.

  From a physical point of view, it’s important not to be tied down the way a serf might be. You don’t want all your possessions to be in one place where they’re easily controlled by the powers that be. Don’t act like a plant. Staying rooted in one place is not an optimum survival strategy for a human in tough times.

  The powers that be are interested in controlling other people. It’s best to be a moving target, which makes you much harder to hit.

  This is a problem for those of us who think that the US is still the land of the free. It’s not. It’s been devolving for decades. My guess is that over the next few years, perhaps starting with this election, the US will evermore closely resemble the other 200 nation-states that cover the face of the globe like a skin disease.

  The single most important thing you can do is internationalize and make sure that all your assets aren’t in one bailiwick, under the control of one government.

  From a financial point of view, it gives you the freedom to travel and move, especially with the coming FX controls and CBDCs. Use gold and Bitcoin. You should already have a good stash of both. If you don’t, it’s not too late to start accumulating and transferring assets into them.

  *  *  *

  The months and years ahead will be politically, economically, and socially volatile. What you do to prepare could mean the difference between suffering crippling losses and coming out ahead. That’s precisely why, legendary investor and NY Times best-selling author Doug Casey just released this urgent report on how to survive and thrive. Click here to download the PDF now.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 17:00

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