Today’s News 5th October 2022

• US-China Space Wars & Moon-Mining
  US-China Space Wars & Moon-Mining

  Authored by Antonio Graceffo via The Epoch Times,

  The space race between the United States and China is not like the movies but is extremely important.

  “You could have a Chinese company on the moon in the 2030s claiming territory with a resource on it in the same way the Chinese have claimed the entire South China Sea,” warned Malcolm Davis, a space policy researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, in a report released on May 17.

  In “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Buck Rogers,” “Flash Gordon,” and other science-fiction movies, space weapons are laser cannons, ion guns, blasters, and phasers that shoot impressive rays of light energy and blow up whatever they hit.

  However, the reality of space wars is “low-moving rendezvous robot satellites, ground-based electronic jammers, and cyber weapons and lasers designed to disable satellites without producing space debris,” according to a January 2022 report by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

  Unlike the movies, much of the threat in space will come from the ground through terrestrial control centers issuing orders to space-based assets. It will probably not entail battles between government spacecraft, but utility hardware, owned and operated by private companies with peaceful missions. A debris-clearing satellite, the property of a company in Palo Alto or Shenzhen, might be commanded from Earth to damage, defuel, or disrupt the trajectory or operation of a satellite from another country. Rather than firing an ion cannon, a Chinese space asset could disable a U.S. or Japanese satellite, making it difficult for allied militaries on Earth to navigate or fire effectively. And the defense against these attacks would be to use “bodyguard” satellites to push the offenders away gently.

  

  The International Space Station in an undated handout. (Nasa/PA)

  On May 30, two NASA astronauts were launched into space under the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, marking the return to a time when the United States transported its people into space without depending on foreign countries like Russia. U.S. private firms can now carry out launches to low-Earth orbits at competitive prices. Consequently, in addition to no longer being dependent on foreign countries for space assistance, NASA can now focus on its longer-term goal of launching Americans into deeper space.

  In 2020, China’s Chang’e-5 moon mission discovered a new variant mineral now called Changesite-(Y). The crystal containing helium-3 could prove incredibly valuable as it may offer a new energy source. Scientists believe that the tiny crystals may be able to power nuclear reactors and are abundant on the moon. To put the power of helium-3 in perspective, about three tablespoons of helium-3 could replace 5,000 tons of coal.

  Consequently, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced plans for three more moon missions over the next 10 years and the construction of a permanent lunar base.

  The Chinese space agency frequently captures headlines heralding China’s achievements in space. Apart from Chang’e-5 landing on the moon, China managed to land a rover called Zhurong on Mars in 2021. However, China is slow in the space race. The United States sent its first uncrewed mission to the moon in 1962, followed by a human-crewed mission in 1969. Chinese unmanned craft reached Mars in 2020, a feat NASA had achieved with Mariner 4 in 1964, while the first U.S. craft to land on Mars was Viking 1 in 1975. Currently, with 2,944 satellites, the United States has nearly six times as many satellites orbiting the Earth as China with 499.

  

  The Yutu-2 moon rover, taken by the Chang’e-4 lunar probe on the far side of the moon, on Jan. 11, 2019. China will seek to establish an international lunar base one day, possibly using 3D printing technology to build facilities, the Chinese space agency said on Jan. 14, 2019, weeks after landing the rover on the moon’s far side. (China National Space Administration/AFP via Getty Images)

  Many of the media stories released by the CCP tout grand plans for Chinese landers, space launchers, a moon base, and manned missions to the moon and Mars. So far, these are just aspirations for the CCP. Aside from the fact that the United States will be returning to the moon with a manned mission in 2024 or 2025 through the Artemis program, the United States intends to have a continual presence on the moon by 2028.

  Additionally, the United States has blocked China’s participation in the International Space Station. A 2011 U.S. law also prohibits NASA from partnering with China. The United States wants to establish a NATO-like organization to regulate the use of space and space assets. At the same time, U.S. officials have outlined the Artemis Accord, an expansion of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. So far, neither Russia nor China have been willing to sign the accord, although Japan, South Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and several other nations have.

  Even though the United States is far ahead on some scorecards, China already possesses the capacity to wage a space war. Satellites in space could be used to surveil military hardware on the ground, at sea, or even detect submarines in the ocean. Space assets could also help Beijing coordinate missile attacks on Earth.

  

  Chinese militarization of space is consistent with the CCP’s 2019 white paper on the expanding space role of the People’s Liberation Army. Apart from the revenue that the CCP could earn from mining the moon, one of the primary uses of Chinese space weapons could be to aid China’s navy in taking control of the South China Sea or invading Taiwan.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/05/2022 – 00:05

• Lawyer For Saudi Crown Prince Claims Sovereign Immunity In Khashoggi Suit
  Lawyer For Saudi Crown Prince Claims Sovereign Immunity In Khashoggi Suit

  Last week, Saudi King Salman designated his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the kingdom’s prime minister. Now, his lawyer is using that move to ask a federal U.S. judge to dismiss a civil suit accusing “MBS” of ordering the murder of Washington post columnist and gadfly Jamal Khashoggi. 

  The naming of MBS as prime minister “leaves no doubt that the Crown Prince is entitled to status-based immunity,” asserted attorney Michael Kellogg in a filing in the District of Columbia. Therefore, the judge “should dismiss Plaintiffs’ claims against the Crown Prince for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.”

  Though MBS is the de facto ruler of the kingdom, his previous claims of sovereign immunity were considered weak at best, given he was “only” the crown prince. “Head of state immunity is an absolute, status-based immunity that typically extends to sitting heads of state, heads of government, and foreign ministers,” University of California, Davis law professor William S. Dodge explained at Just Security.  

  The plaintiffs’ attorneys are expected to argue that the prime minister “promotion” was purely meant to facilitate MBS’s evasion of justice. “In announcing the change – an exception to Saudi law that calls for the king to also serve as prime minister – it is stated that King Salman will still act as prime minister in meetings in which he is present,” reports The Guardian. 

  On Friday, the White House asked the judge for a 45-day postponement of the court’s deadline for President Biden to offer his opinion over whether MBS merits sovereign immunity. The request cited the crown prince’s new title as a reason for needing more time.

  This would be the second delay granted by the court. The original deadline was Aug. 1 — just two weeks after Biden visited Saudi Arabia and infamously fist-bumped MBS, obliterating his campaign promise to treat the kingdom as a “pariah” state. 

  When asked in a 2019 debate if he would “punish” senior Saudi leaders for Khashoggi’s murder, Biden replied: 

  “Yes….Khashoggi was in fact murdered and dismembered, and I believe on the order of the crown prince. And I would make it very clear we were not going to in fact sell more weapons to them. We were going to in fact make them pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are. There’s very little social redeeming value…in the present government in Saudi Arabia.”

  

  Even if the Biden administration is content to see MBS face civil suit scrutiny, the U.S. government may have its own interest in killing the lawsuit: If the case proceeds to discovery, plaintiff attorneys will be pressing the U.S. government to release its own sensitive files on the murder.

  MBS stands accused of ordering Khashoggi’s October 2018 murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. A Washington, DC resident and writer for the Washington Post, Khashoggi was an outspoken critic of the crown prince and was launching an organization called Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). DAWN is a plaintiff in the civil suit, along with Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s fiancée at the time of his killing. 

  MBS has acknowledged the Saudi government’s responsibility for the murder, but denies any personal involvement in it. A CIA assessment concluded with “medium to high confidence” that MBS “personally targeted Khashoggi.”

  Noting the killers were from MBS’ top security units, the CIA said, “We assess it is highly unlikely this team of operators…carried out the operation without Muhammed bin Salman’s authorization.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 23:45

• Shellenberger: Media Is Lying About Climate & Hurricanes
  Shellenberger: Media Is Lying About Climate & Hurricanes

  Authored by Michael Shellenberger via Substack,

  Over the last several weeks, many mainstream news media outlets have claimed that hurricanes are becoming more expensive, more frequent, and more intense because of climate change.

  • The Financial Times reported that “hurricane frequency is on the rise.”

  • The New York Times claimed, “strong storms are becoming more common in the Atlantic Ocean.”

  • The Washington Post said, “climate change is rapidly fueling super hurricanes.”

  • ABC News declared, “Here’s how climate change intensifies hurricanes.”

  • Both the FT and N.Y. Times showed graphs purporting to show rising hurricane frequency using data from the U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

  All of those claims are false.

  

  The increasing cost of hurricane damage can be explained entirely by more people and more property in harm’s way. Consider how much more developed Miami Beach is today compared to a century ago. Once you adjust for rising wealth, there is no trend of increasing damage.

  

  Claims that hurricanes are becoming more frequent are similarly wrong. “After adjusting for a likely under-count of hurricanes in the pre-satellite era,” writes NOAA, “there is essentially no long-term trend in hurricane counts. The evidence for an upward trend is even weaker if we look at U.S. landfalling hurricanes, which even show a slight negative trend beginning from 1900 or from the late 1800s.” What’s more, NOAA expects a 25% decline in hurricane frequency in the future.

  What about intensity? Same story. Explains NOAA, “after adjusting for changes in observing capabilities (limited ship observations) in the pre-satellite era, there is no significant long-term trend (since the 1880s) in the proportion of hurricanes that become major hurricanes.“ Bottom line? “We conclude that the data do not provide compelling evidence for a substantial greenhouse warming-induced century-scale increase in:  frequency of tropical storms, hurricanes, or major hurricanes, or in the proportion of hurricanes that become major.

  

  NOAA indeed predicts a 5% increase in hurricane intensity by 2100, but no increase in intensity is today detectable. And the best-available science forecasts that the slight increase in overall hurricane intensity in the future won’t be because there are more intense hurricanes but rather because hurricanes overall will decline more than intense hurricanes (category 4 and 5). As a result, there will be a greater proportion of category 4 and 5 hurricanes than categories 1, 2, and 3.

  In other words, the relative intensity of hurricanes will rise, even as the total number of hurricanes — and the total number of intense hurricanes — decline.

  Why are the media spreading obviously inaccurate information, and not reporting the basic facts? Are journalists simply ignorant? Or is something else going on?

  Evidence Of Deliberate Deception

  Is it possible journalists are just ignorant of current climate science? Perhaps some are. But mainstream news media outlets have been covering climate change and hurricanes for the last 20 years. And the information on hurricane costs, frequency, or intensity is hardly hidden away. It’s been summarized in the IPCC reports, most recently in 2021. And NOAA even boldfaces its key conclusions.

  

  The New York Times graph (left) inappropriately cherry-picks data from the post-1980 period while the Financial Times graph (right) misrepresents improved hurricane detection as rising hurricane frequency.

  Consider four of the main ways the media mislead the public about climate change and hurricanes. They:

  1. Misrepresent data showing improved observations of hurricanes (thanks in large measure to satellites and other hurricane detection technologies) as evidence of more frequent hurricanes;

  2. Misrepresent hypotheses (e.g., that some hurricanes may become more intense by 2100) as facts in the present without mentioning that median projections suggest a decrease in all categories of storms;

  3. Cherry-pick data to present trends in a relatively recent period since the 1980s and ignore the fact that there is much longer-term data available;

  4. Confuse increasing damage with increasing incidence or intensity, even as there is a strong understanding that what and where we build explains all escalating disaster damage.

  Is it possible that the Financial Times reporter Aime Williams and her editors pulled the data from the NOAA website to make their graph, and mistakenly claimed that it shows more frequent hurricanes, but didn’t happen to read the website and its explicit warning that “After adjusting for a likely under-count of hurricanes in the pre-satellite era, there is essentially no long-term trend in hurricane counts”?

  If that is indeed what occurred, then Williams and FT are guilty of journalistic malpractice of the highest order. But there is little reason to think that’s what happened. NOAA makes its warning relatively early on its web page and repeats it several times. And FT, like everyone else, has been covering this issue for decades not years.

  I asked Williams in an email why she reported that hurricanes were increasing in frequency and intensity, against the best available science, and she did not respond. Whatever the case, FT should issue a retraction or a correction.

  Washington Post reporters Scott Dance and Kasha Patel claim that “storms rated Category 4 or stronger… have increased in number in recent decades” and their headline reads, “climate change is rapidly fueling super hurricanes.”

  Those claims are, respectively, misleading and wrong. According to NOAA, 15 Category 4 or stronger hurricanes made landfall in Florida since 1919, with 10 of them occurring before 1960 (over 42 years) and 5 of them since (over 62 years).

  There is evidence that Dance and Patel knew they were being misleading. Consider the following sentence from their article: “One comparable period of hurricane activity came from 1945 to 1950, when five Category 4 hurricanes hit Florida in six years, making [hurricane researcher Philip] Klotzbach reluctant to call the series of intense storms since 2017 unprecedented.”

  The word “reluctant” softens the meaning. “Refuses” would be a more accurate word. And he refuses to call the storms unprecedented because, as Dance and Patel acknowledge, they aren’t.

  It’s worth pausing on this point for a moment. Klotzbach clearly explained the data to Dance and Patel. They clearly understood it. And yet they softened and buried Kotzbach’s debunking of their headline claim as though it were a quibble.

  I emailed Dance and Patel and asked about their reporting decisions, and a Washington Post spokesperson responded with an email that said, “We stand by our reporting on the unusually high number of major hurricanes to make landfall along the U.S. in recent years and which experience rapid intensification, sometimes shortly before landfall. Studies referenced in the article, including analysis by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as work by NOAA have stated the increase in rapid intensification events over the past three to four decades likely cannot be explained by natural variability alone.”

  But what she said doesn’t make sense, and contradicts the best-available science. Four decades ago, the 1980s, was a period of historic lows. And the scientific consensus is that natural variability does, in fact, explain the post-1980 increase. “After homogenization,” wrote a team of scientists last year, “increases in basin-wide hurricane and major hurricane activity since the 1970s are not part of a century-scale increase, but a recovery from a deep minimum in the 1960s–1980s. We suggest internal (e.g., Atlantic multidecadal) climate variability and aerosol-induced mid-to-late-20th century major hurricane frequency reductions have probably masked century-scale greenhouse-gas warming contributions to North Atlantic major hurricane frequency.” [emphasis added]

  Whether it is a case of poor journalism or deliberate deception, The Washington Post should issue a retraction or correction.

  What about the article in The New York Times, by-lined by David Leonhardt, which claims that “strong storms are becoming more common in the Atlantic Ocean”? What about its graph, which shows a trend of rising category 4 and 5 storms starting in 1980?

  The 1970s and 1980s are well-understood to be the low point in hurricane activity in the 20th Century. In a paper titled “Changes in Atlantic major hurricane frequency since the late-19th century,” which Nature Communications published last year, scientists wrote, “the inactive period in the late 20th century may have been the most inactive period in recent centuries.” So, of course, a time series starting in 1980 will show increased activity.

  It is an obviously deliberate and egregiously unprofessional choice.

  I have known David for over a decade and know that he can be a careful reporter when he chooses to be. He did some of the most honest reporting for The New York Times on Covid. He won Pulitzers in 2010 and 2011. I emailed David to ask what made him decide to cherry-pick those dates; I have not heard back. Whatever the case, The New York Times should retract or correct the article.

  It is notable that journalists twist themselves into pretzels to create the impression that hurricanes are increasing in frequency and intensity without ever acknowledging the data showing that they are not. A simple graph of U.S. landfalls shows that. And yet no major media outlet has ever, to my knowledge, published it.

  Consider my on-line interaction with Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist and managing editor of the climate unit of ABC News. In a tweet I wrote, “I have not seen a single mainstream news media outlet mention any of this,” in reference to the NOAA forecast of declining frequency and increasing intensity of hurricanes.

  Responded Zee, “We have! Global cyclone frequency down, studies show you need the difference in cold and warm as you go up, & all warming, so less cyclone starts(cyclone is general term for hurricane/typhoon), HOWEVER, once they do start, better chance of rapidly intensifying w/ warmer ocean water.”

  I responded, “Ginger, how do you justify the ABC headline given NOAA’s explicit statement that “data at this stage do not provide compelling evidence for a substantial greenhouse warming-induced century-scale increase in… the proportion of hurricanes that become major hurricanes”?”

  She responded, “That article is Referencing this Noaa study: https://gfdl.noaa.gov/global-warming-and-hurricanes/… , @KentonGewecke & @RobMarciano covered this weekend on GMA…We are also all aware of confidence in relationship to CC.”

  I replied, “Thanks, Ginger, but that doesn’t answer my question. Do you think the ABC headline, which implies hurricanes *are* intensifying, is accurate, given NOAA’s insistence that such claims can’t be made?”

  She didn’t respond. However, Zee made clear that she and her colleagues Kenton Gewecke and Rob Marciano were aware of the NOAA web page that warns that there is no evidence of increasing hurricane frequency or intensity.

  How she responded after that seemed indicative of much of the media coverage, which is to pivot away from the cold hard facts and towards presenting speculation and hypothesis as certain. And indeed, when you read through media coverage of climate change, you often find reporters emphasizing that they can’t entirely attribute any given hurricane to climate change, only that “climate change makes such events more likely.”

  But such statements are a dodge. The reason we can’t attribute trends in hurricanes to climate change is that since reliable records started being kept the data indicates that hurricanes aren’t increasing in either frequency or intensity — full stop. To suggest that “climate change makes stronger hurricanes more likely or frequent” inappropriately misleads listeners and readers to believe that hurricanes are growing more likely or frequent.  

  As such, it’s clear that reporters are deliberately seeking to convince their readers and listeners of the false impression that hurricanes are becoming more frequent and intense. Many reporters do so in a subtle way, like ABC’s Zee, while others are more direct about it, like the FT’s Williams

  Moreover, these “mistakes” are occurring within a larger context of excluding relevant information, including what I view as the three biggest findings about the relationship between climate change and disasters:

  1. deaths from natural disasters have declined dramatically over many decades;

  2. costs from natural disasters have also declined as a proportion of our exposure;

  3. the frequency of natural disasters is declining this century.

  The Climate Alarmists’ War on Scientists

  The final piece of evidence that journalists are aware of the fact that hurricanes are becoming neither more frequent nor more intense comes from the vicious war waged against the most important and most outspoken scientist in the field, Roger Pielke, Jr.

  

  In 2018, John Podesta (left) and his Center for American Progress launched a campaign of character assassination against leading climate and hurricane researcher Roger Pielke, Jr. (right)

  University of Colorado scientist Pielke, Jr. in the late 1990s literally invented the method of “normalizing” the cost of hurricanes to account for a rising population, buildings, and wealth as the factors capable of explaining all of the rising cost of hurricanes, which meant that he and his colleagues discovered that there was no evidence that climate change was so far detectable in the escalating costs of hurricane disasters.

  Pielke, Jr. has for a quarter-century a strong advocate for strong action on climate change. But because his scientific work on hurricanes undermines climate alarmism, progressive activists and Democrats in Congress and the White House have vilified him. In 2008, the Center for American Progress, led by John Podesta, the former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, joined in on a shockingly vicious and personal series of attacks on Pielke, including falsely claiming he was funded by fossil fuel interests.

  All of these efforts were plainly aimed at discrediting Pielke, Jr., to journalists. They triggered an enormous quantity of media coverage which culminated in a 2014 effort by CAP to get Pielke, Jr. fired as a columnist for Nate Silver’s website, fivethirtyeight.com, after it published an article by Pielke, Jr. summarizing the science showing no increase in hurricane frequency or intensity.

  Pielke, Jr. then wrote about the experience of being canceled by fivethirtyeight.com in The Wall Street Journal in 2016. I wrote about the attacks in Apocalypse Never, in a viral article I wrote introducing the book, and again last week. Every senior editor, producer, or reporter working in a mainstream news media outlet knows about the debate over Pielke, Jr.’s work, and the fact base behind it.

  Roger has responded to these attacks, which have undermined his professional career, and intimidated his colleagues, many of whom behaved with the cowardice typical of academics today, with grace and dignity. He is a model of courage in public life. You can support him by taking a moment now to subscribe to his excellent, must-read Substack.

  I asked Roger whether he thought most reporters knew that hurricanes are not increasing in frequency and intensity, and were choosing to present information aimed at giving readers the opposite impression. He pointed to the graphs showing no change, and even a slight decline, in landfalling hurricanes and in major hurricanes.

  “We should ask why the data in these graphs have never appeared in the mainstream media,” he said. “Journalists should understand that by playing things straight with their readers and the public, more trust is gained in their work and in climate science more generally. People are not fools and won’t be tricked for long. Good science always wins in the end, even if it takes a little while.”

  It’s one thing for a journalist to accuse his fellow journalists of getting something wrong; it’s quite another to accuse them of deliberately misleading the public. The former is understandable and forgivable. We all make mistakes. But to deliberately mislead the public is a violation of the duty of the journalist to report basic facts accurately. To accuse a journalist of deliberately misleading the public is to accuse him or her of lying. I recognize that it’s a very serious charge.

  But it is time to state the obvious. The media are consciously and deliberately misleading the public about the relationship between climate change and hurricanes. That means they are lying. Mainstream news reporters, and their editors, at The Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News, and other outlets know perfectly well that hurricanes are not increasing in either frequency or intensity and have decided to mislead readers and viewers into believing the opposite.

  It’s time for that to change.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 23:25

• US Army Recruitment Falters – Misses Goal By 25% As Woke Ideology Takes Over
  US Army Recruitment Falters – Misses Goal By 25% As Woke Ideology Takes Over

  The US Army along with all other branches of the armed forced (except the Air Force) have continued to fall short of recruitment goals this year.  The Army reports a loss of over 15,000 new troops so far in 2022, while the US Marine Corp, Navy and Air Force are entering the next fiscal year with far less locked in recruits than normal. 

  Questions are rising about the reasons behind the steep decline in recruitment, with many suggesting that the “end” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have reduced interest in service. 

  The real reasons are rather plain to see, however, as the Pentagon and the US government shifts their political rhetoric to the extreme left.

  For decades, the military has been comprised of 70% conservative/independent troops with views ranging from middle-of-the-road and libertarian to religious Republican.  The vast majority of soldiers are not progressive and do not vote Democrat.  That said, from 2021 onward there has been a change in the way recruits relate politically to the armed forces, perhaps because there has been a change in the way the military advertises.

  The US Army in particular is famous now for one of the worst recruitment campaigns in military history; going full woke last year with a series of cartoon ads that promoted woke politics and targeted the tiny LGBT segment of the population. 

  This led to widespread distrust among conservatives of the military overall and of the Army in particular.  Another issue which caused conservatives to walk away was open admissions by US generals about their goal of implementing Critical Race Theory and woke ideology in the armed forces.  The Navy is training its leadership to use identity “pronouns.”  West Point Military Academy is also now implementing woke concepts into its training curriculum.

  It’s interesting to note that the very first openly trans active duty Army officer was just caught betraying the US and sharing medical secrets of personnel with Russia. 

  Perhaps allowing mentally unstable people into the armed forces is not such a good idea?

  Add to that the fact that Joe Biden made a man (Rachel Levine) that identifies as a woman and that supports gender affirmation surgery for minors into a four star admiral, and you begin to see why the military can’t reach recruitment goals – They just lost the only segment of the population that has patriotic motivations for service; the most valuable segment of the population when it comes to war. And, there are nowhere near enough woke people to fill the void, thus, shortages rise.

  Beyond the attempts at woke indoctrination, there has also been the issue of forced covid vaccines.  This did not necessarily cause a large number of current serving to leave the military; many soldiers caved and accepted the vaccines in order to keep their jobs.  But, the military is now starting to abandon vaccine requirements anyway.  Why?  Because they can’t meet recruitment goals as millions of conservatives refuse to comply and refuse to enter into service under mandate conditions.

  Some may argue that this is a deliberate attempt by Biden and his handlers to purge conservatives from the armed forces, as leftists continue their witch hunt for “extremists” in the military.  Even if this is the case, it only helps the cause of liberty, with trained military personnel and all the capable fighters turning away from the woke movement rather than being used by it.  

  As the trend continues, the Pentagon will either implode, or it will be forced to capitulate and end woke indoctrination in order to keep a functioning military in place.  Leftists are natural weaklings and their ideology demands using victim status as a currency.  This means a woke military would be impossible to maintain – It would be an army of flailing, crying narcissists that only care about themselves.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 23:05

• "When Will They Learn?"
  “When Will They Learn?”

  Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

  Dependency upon government is a disease. Once it has been caught, it becomes chronic and does not reverse itself in a population until the system collapses under its own weight.

  

  For many years, frustrated colleagues of mine who are either conservative or libertarian have posed the rhetorical question, “When will those liberals learn?” Surely, at some point (they reason), liberals will recognise that bailouts, entitlements, and a “planned” society simply do not work. It’s not even a question of whether liberalism is a laudable concept. The problem is that it just… doesn’t… work.

  Of course, my colleagues are correct in their appraisal of the liberal concept. Unfortunately, they are gravely mistaken in their belief that there comes a point at which the liberal “bubble” pops and suddenly all liberals wake up and smell the coffee.

  Truth be told, as long as governments can benefit from maintaining a strong liberal consciousness in their citizenry, and as long as they can count on the media to maintain that consciousness, it will always be possible to convince liberal thinkers that, whatever negative events have taken place in a given country, they are the fault of the “enemy”—the non-liberal contingent.

  But, surely, when there is clear-cut evidence that liberal policies have failed, liberals must accept that liberalism is an economic and social dead end. No, I’m afraid not. Let’s look at how just three examples are likely to play out—not as we’d like to see them play out, but how they will play out in reality.

  When the bailouts end, the economy will collapse. Liberals will then grasp that bailouts do not work. Not so, I’m afraid. Although endless QE is as implausible as perpetual motion, when it is finally halted, the economy will inevitably crash, and crash badly—made worse by QE. Will liberals then realise the failure of QE? No, they will only argue that the only problem was that it was halted—that, had it continued, it would eventually have saved the day.

  No liberal will hazard a guess as to what amount of QE or length of time would have created salvation; however, the blame for the crash will be placed squarely at the feet of the greedy One Percent, whom the liberals will say “engineered the end of QE in order to impoverish and enslave the middle class.” Liberals will be more committed than ever to government spending as a solution.

  When cities such as Bradford in the UK or Detroit in the US reach fiscal collapse, liberals will realise that ever-increasing entitlements are simply not sustainable, that such tax-based benefit programmes drive out thriving industries, leaving the poor behind, in a dying metropolis. Again, this will not happen. Instead of learning the obvious lesson, liberals will redouble their belief in collectivism. They will reason that the government had successfully protected inner city workers through benefit programmes. However, big business, wanting to create slaves of workers, sent jobs overseas, to countries where enslavement by the rich is still possible.

  By doing so, they removed tax dollars from the system, causing the impoverishment of inner-city dwellers, destroying their lives. Rather than abandon social programmes as ineffective, liberals will set about creating massive relocation programmes, such as moving the disenfranchised inner-city people to areas where there is sufficient local business for taxation to continue supporting those on public assistance. In so doing, those areas that were previously economically viable will also be bled to the point of fiscal failure, spreading the disease. However, the liberal conclusion will remain the same: “The problem is the greedy rich.”

  When the government has fully morphed into a dictatorial police state, liberals will realise that governmental overreach has destroyed their liberty. Again, this will not be the liberal view when the time comes. Instead, they will conclude, as they do now, that freedom is a small price to pay for safety. They will, therefore, not only accept, but encourage the government to redouble its Gestapo approach every time a lone gunman fires into a classroom. And any single such incident will be cause for a nationwide ramping-up of policing. (If no lone gunman appears on the scene just prior to a planned ramping-up, a suitable incident can always be created by the government.)

  In each of the above cases, nothing is learned by liberals, except that they were right all along: “Don’t trust the conservatives. They are evil and will destroy all good in society.”

  These three examples should be sufficient to demonstrate that there will be no magic day when liberals figure out the failings of collectivism. In fact, quite the opposite will be true. Just as any government benefits from its own expansion of power, so governments and the media propaganda systems will ensure good that the EU and US will only become more liberal over time.

  Throughout history, a basic truism has been evident: Dependency upon government is a disease. Once it has been caught, it becomes chronic and does not reverse itself in a population until the system collapses under its own weight.

  A good example of this is East Germany in the early 1990’s. In 1987, US President Reagan famously delivered the words in Berlin, “Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” His words were heard so loudly that Mister Gorbachev did, indeed, tear down the wall. Almost immediately, West Berliners, thrilled to be reunited with their brothers to the East, created thousands of job opportunities for East Germans. East Germans were equally thrilled, anticipating that they might now have larger apartments, higher pay, and possibly own televisions and cars. However, East Germans did not respond well to the standards of the West, feeling that employers were too harsh in their requirements and the benefits were not what they had been used to.

  East and west re-unified, but the transition was not a smooth one.

  But, before we place all the criticism on liberals, it is well to note that, in both the EU and US, conservatives often tend to be just as dogmatic in their assessments. Whilst conservatives arguably may have a better grasp than liberals as to fiscal realities, they, too, are continuously programmed to adhere to a fixed group of perceptions.

  Conservatives and liberals are both programmed to maintain ongoing opposition to each other. Conservatives are perceived as greedy and evil by liberals; liberals are perceived as naïve and stupid by conservatives. The more they can be polarised from each other, the more governments may make use of the polarity as a distraction from their own actions. The more conservatives and liberals place the blame on each other, the more governments may present themselves as the referee, whist, in fact, they do all they can to expand the mutual animosity.

  When people are angry, they do not think straight. The angrier they become, the more reason goes out the window. Consequently, the more a government can stir up its minions to attack each other, the more power the government has to impose ever-greater controls on the population. In a conservative administration, a government will institute greater social controls. In the following liberal administration, the government will institute greater economic controls. And the police state will be increased under both administrations.

  The net effect is overall increased dominance by government. Under the two-party system, this dominance is not only tolerated by the populace, but encouraged.

  The day never comes when a people convince their government to “lighten up.” Relief only comes when an overly-powerful governmental system collapses under its own weight.

  *  *  *

  Unfortunately, there’s little any individual can practically do to change the course of these trends in motion. The best you can and should do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible, and even profit from the situation. That’s precisely why bestselling author Doug Casey and his colleagues just released an urgent new PDF report that explains what could come next and what you can do about it. Click here to download it now.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 22:45

• China Has Set Up Dozens Of Unofficial Police Stations Around The World: Report
  China Has Set Up Dozens Of Unofficial Police Stations Around The World: Report

  The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has opened dozens of unofficial police stations around the world, including at least three in Toronto, Canada, according to a September report from human rights NGO, Safeguard Defenders.

  

  The report claims that China has been engaging in “long-arm policing” around the world in what has been dubbed the “110 overseas police stations,” named after the police emergency number in China; 110.

  The report has identified 54 Chinese overseas police stations spanning 30 countries – which are under the jurisdiction of two local-level police services in China; the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, and the Qingtian County police in Zhejiang Province.

  Local media is now step-by-step investigating many of these stations, with SD’s help, and we have collected lots of data on many of them, to push understanding about these stations further.

  Much more to come on this topic. https://t.co/NEguhacBOf pic.twitter.com/fIKg06IGo0

  — Safeguard Defenders (保护卫士) (@SafeguardDefend) September 23, 2022

  More via the Epoch Times;

  Peter Dahlin, founder and director of Safeguard Defender and co-author of the report, says that following the release of his organization’s findings, security police or related government agencies from North America and Europe have approached his organization asking “to sit down and have a briefing discussion” on the Chinese operations overseas.

  “So they are certainly aware of it, at least in some countries,” Dahlin told The Epoch Times.

  More Locations

  While the Chinese authorities say these police stations are created to better serve its overseas nationals, the report noted that those stations have been used to “persuade” up to 230,000 Chinese nationals to “voluntarily” return to China to face criminal proceedings between April 2021 and July 2022.

  “Persuasion to return” is a key method of the Chinese regime’s “involuntary returns” operations, which include its “Operation Fox Hunt” and the broader “Sky Net” campaign, according to Safeguard Defenders. Many of the targets for persuasion to return were overseas Chinese allegedly involved in telecommunication fraud, though the report said a number of non-suspects and their family members in China have also been targeted for police harassment and intimation.

  Dahlin said that in addition to the three stations in Toronto—two in Markham and one in Scarborough, whose locations were published in a Chinese state media outlet—there are likely other unofficial Chinese police stations either existing or being established in Canada, though they have yet to be discovered.

  “We’ve also seen a [Chinese] government notice that said that 10 different provinces should launch these types of operations on a pilot basis,” he told The Epoch Times, pointing to the report’s citation of a July 5, 2018, news release issued by the Chinese regime.

  “So, we have two of these operations uncovered [in Fujian Province and Zhejiang Province]. There might be eight more provinces doing this that could have their own stations, and we have not been able to track down that information yet. That’s why we keep saying that … we believe and we have good reason to think that there are more [overseas Chinese police stations].”

  The news release is in relation to the Chinese State Council’s 2018 “Work Plan for the Supervision of the National Special Struggle Against Gang Crimes.” A Chinese state media reported in January 2019 that Beijing had conducted a first-round one-month supervision training from July to September 2018 in the 10 provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Fujian, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, Chongqing, and Sichuan.

  Another report that year, in April 2019, said the regime had completed a second-round training for another 11 provinces, including Zhejiang Province where the Qingtian police service is located.

  Given the large Chinese diaspora population in Vancouver, Dahlin noted that he would find it “very strange” if the city didn’t have at least one 110 police station.

  ‘Transnational Repression’

  Safeguard Defenders says its September report is part of its ongoing monitoring of China’s growing global transnational repression. Dahlin said the report came on the heels of another report by his organization, titled “Involuntary Returns—report exposes long-arm policing overseas.”

  That earlier report, published in January 2022, looked at the Chinese regime’s claim in December 2021 that its Sky Net operations, along with partner Operation Fox Hunt, have successfully brought some 10,000 “fugitives” back to China from around the globe since 2014, when Fox Hunt was launched as part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.

  Those operations target what Dahlin described as “high-value targets.” Officially, Sky Net says it only targets economic criminals and officials accused of crimes like corruption or bribery, according to the Safeguard Defenders report, but Dahlin said Sky Net has been found to also target human rights defenders. Operations against high-value targets are run by the Chinese central police, whereas those involved in lower-level crimes like fraud—who are considered low-value targets—are tracked by the local Chinese police, Dahlin said.

  “The most common method to do this is to persuade them to return ‘voluntarily.’ We’ve also had a number of cases where [Beijing] sent agents—Chinese police officers, undercover—to the target countries; we have a number of people in the U.S. being indicted for this,” he said.

  A third way, Dahlin said, is to use kidnappings. He noted that his organization has identified 22 cases of kidnapping.

  Although his organization hasn’t found any cases of direct kidnapping in Canada, Dahlin said that in Canada and the United States, the Chinese regime does “a lot more [of] sending secret agents to intimidate people and that type of operations.”

  When asked about the severity of the Chinese overseas operations, Dahlin said the impacts on Canada is “certainly worse than Europe.”

  “Canada has such a significant Chinese diaspora community—much bigger than pretty much all of Europe together—so certainly, there’s a lot more people at risk in Canada,” he said, adding that Canada, the United States, and Australia are “the big three” destinations when it comes to Chinese asylum-seekers and relocation.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 22:25

• Hunter Biden Laptop Whistleblower Speaks Out 2 Years Later
  Hunter Biden Laptop Whistleblower Speaks Out 2 Years Later

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Tony Bobulinski, the former Hunter Biden associate who came forward in 2020 about messages on the younger Biden’s laptop, said the FBI never followed up with him despite promising to.

  

  During an interview with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on Monday, Bobulinski asserted that former FBI agent Timothy Thibault—who was accused by GOP senators of having an animus against Trump and slow-walking the Hunter Biden investigation—never got back to him when Bobulinski came forward with the information ahead of the 2020 election.

  “Tim Thibault, in his last discussion with my legal counsel, said, ‘Listen, we know Tony’s cooperating. We appreciate all the information he’s provided. We will follow up with you. We are definitely going to have him come in for a follow-up interview, or spend some more time on this,’” Bobulinski told Carlson. “And I haven’t heard from him since. Nor have my lawyers.”

  Bobulinski in the interview again asserted that President Joe Biden was highly involved in his son’s overseas business operations. The president has denied that he had knowledge of Hunter Biden’s finances or deals.

  How is the Biden crime family structured? Our Exclusive interview with Tony Bobulinski. 8 PM ET. Only on @FoxNews. pic.twitter.com/sPR0KT5Fd0

  — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 4, 2022

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

  “There are hundreds of data points that Joe Biden was acting in—in a capitalistic term, I would say the chairman,” Bobulinski told Carlson.

  In October 2020, Bobulinski came forward to the media and revealed Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business, including with a Chinese energy company CEFC.

  In one email sourced from the infamous laptop, the elder Biden was named as the “big guy” by Hunter Biden because of the 10 percent cut he allegedly received from CEFC. Bobulinski corroborated the authenticity of those emails and messages.

  Bobulinski accused the Biden family of being “compromised” by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials due to their business deals with individuals and companies connected to the CCP, adding that it’s impossible Joe Biden “can’t be influenced in some manner based on the history that they have with CEFC.”

  

  ‘Chairman’

  “The chairman of JPMorgan doesn’t take eight meetings down with the people, you know, analyzing companies. The chairman serves a purpose, right? He’s a figurehead,” Bobulinski told Carlson. “He shows up in meetings, shakes hands, advises, you know, has faith in his team. Effectively, that was Joe Biden’s role in the Biden family business ventures and around the world. And not just my venture.”

  Bobulinski noted that President Biden “was adamant to the American people that he had no knowledge of his family’s business deals” but asked: “How, if he had zero knowledge of that, could he be telling his son that he’s in the clear” regarding an article from the New York Times on Hunter Biden’s work with a Chinese company.

  He was referring to a voicemail that Biden left his son regarding the NY Times report in 2018, telling him: “I think you’re clear.” That story delved into Hunter Biden’s deals with a Chinese oil tycoon, Ye Jianming.

  Retirement

  In August, Thibault left the FBI following several letters sent to FBI leaders by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). The lawmakers have publicly accused Thibault of meddling in the Hunter Biden investigation and said that whistleblowers came forward with those claims.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 22:05

• 'Burn Down The System': Another Leftist Teacher Caught By Project Veritas Indoctrinating Students
  ‘Burn Down The System’: Another Leftist Teacher Caught By Project Veritas Indoctrinating Students

  Leftists and the mainstream media continue to gaslight the public and claim that ideological grooming of children by teachers is not happening in schools; that this is a “conspiracy theory.” 

  And yet, multiple times a month new leftist teachers are exposed bragging about their brainwashing of other people’s children into the woke fold. 

  This is why US educational scores and testing scores are sinking, and this is why “trans trenders” are becoming prominent in the past 5 years among zennials. 

  There is a widespread active effort in public schools by teachers and sometimes district officials to push extreme social justice propaganda. 

  It’s not conspiracy theory, it’s a concrete reality.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 21:45

• Supreme Court Declines To Hear Case On DOJ 'Filter Teams' Used After FBI Trump Raid
  Supreme Court Declines To Hear Case On DOJ ‘Filter Teams’ Used After FBI Trump Raid

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) can use its so-called “filter teams,” including the one that is being used to review documents seized at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

  

  In the Korf v. United States case, the nine justices declined to hear a writ of certiorari (pdf) that questioned the legality of the filter team protocols. The rules allow agents and prosecutors who aren’t assigned to a case to examine seized materials that are claimed to be privileged before a judge issues a ruling.

  Like the vast majority of cases the Supreme Court declines to hear, the justices on Monday did not provide an explanation why it rejected the Korf petition.

  The case pertained to a DOJ money laundering probe that claimed that the use of a filter team was a violation of the Constitution’s 6th Amendment right to counsel.

  “Only after the filter team has reviewed the documents would a court rule on whether privilege applies. That procedure needlessly and harmfully exposes assertedly privileged communications to the government’s eyes,” lawyers for Mordechai Korf, who the DOJ targeted with a civil forfeiture complaint in January, said in their filing.

  “It undermines essential protections for the adversary system,” the lawyers continued. “And it jeopardizes the confidentiality needed for the applicable privileges to serve their vital purposes.”

  Trump Case

  If the Supreme Court ruled on the case, it may have provided clarity for the DOJ and Trump’s legal team following the raid.

  In September, a district judge sided with Trump’s team in appointing a special master to review documents that were taken during the raid on Aug. 8 that the former president said was unprecedented and politically motivated.

  Lawyers for the DOJ confirmed the agency used a filter team to start its review of the documents that were collected during the FBI search, according to court filings. DOJ attorneys further argued that because a preliminary review of the documents was completed, it would not be necessary to appoint a special master.

  A Sept. 1 court filing from Trump, meanwhile, asserted that the DOJ filter team never communicated with his team following the FBI raid.

  “Never has an argument against ‘interference’ better underscored the need for judicial involvement,” the filing read. “All of this in the context of a unilateral filter team operation that to-date has never made any contact with counsel for the Movant, another historic first for DOJ.”

  His lawyers suggested that the DOJ team would possibly “impugn, leak, and publicize selective aspects” of their probe to damage Trump.

  The former president, who said the FBI-seized materials were declassified by him, has long argued the FBI and DOJ have unfairly targeted him since when he was a candidate during the 2016 election.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 21:25

• Biden Announces $625M More Ukraine Defense Aid In Zelensky Phone Call
  Biden Announces $625M More Ukraine Defense Aid In Zelensky Phone Call

  The White House has continued its strong stance and denunciations against Russia’s “sham referendums” in Ukraine’s east – now being formalized in Russian parliament – while unveiling a new $625 million security assistance package for Ukraine.

  The new aid package, which brings the total defense assistance pledged by the United States since the start of the war to a whopping $16.8 billion, was announced in relation with Tuesday’s phone call between President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vince President Kamala Harris was also in on the call. 

  Biden and Harris vowed the US “will never recognize Russia’s purported annexation of Ukrainian territory,” according to a readout. “President Biden pledged to continue supporting Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian aggression for as long as it takes, including the provision today of a new $625 million security assistance package that includes additional weapons and equipment, including [High Mobility Rocket Artillery Systems], artillery systems and ammunition, and armored vehicles,” the readout said.

  

  A separate statement by Secretary Blinken indicated the new weapons package will be the “second under presidential drawdown authority, and includes four High Mobility Rocket Artillery Systems, 16 155 mm howitzers, 16 105 mm howitzers, 75,000 155mm artillery rounds, 500 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds and 1,000 155mm rounds of Remote Anti-Armor Mine Systems, among other equipment.”

  Artillery munitions resupplies are said be among the most urgent requirements as Ukraine continues its so far successful counteroffensives in the east and south. Russia’s Putin has called up some 300,000 reservists in response.

  Echoing the contents of the Biden-Zelensky call, Blinken stressed that the Russian annexation move will only strengthen Washington’s resolve in supporting Ukraine: 

  “Recent developments from Russia’s sham referenda and attempted annexation to new revelations of brutality against civilians in Ukrainian territory formerly controlled by Russia only strengthens our resolve. United with our Allies and partners from 50 nations, we are delivering the arms and equipment that Ukraine’s forces are utilizing so effectively today in a successful counter-offensive to take back their lands seized illegally by Russia.”

  As for the ongoing counteroffensive, there are now signs that Russian frontlines in the south are being rapidly penetrated by the Ukrainian advance to recapture occupied territory.

  According to a Tuesday report in The Moscow Times, “Russia’s forces occupying Ukraine’s southern Black Sea region of Kherson have suffered serious territorial losses to Kyiv’s troops over recent days, maps published by Moscow’s Defense Ministry showed Tuesday.”

  #Ukraine 🇺🇦: Ukrainian forces have entered the village of Dudchany in northern #Kherson as they continue their advance south. pic.twitter.com/GV8gNkrz29

  — Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) October 4, 2022

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

  “The maps included in Tuesday’s daily military briefing showed that Russian forces are no longer in control of the village of Dudchany on the west bank of the river Dnipro, where Ukraine’s forces have been pushing to reclaim territory captured at the start of Moscow’s offensive,” the report said.

  The HIMARS in particular have been touted as a gamechanger on the battlefield, as it gives Ukraine’s army the ability to reach deep into Russian supply lines and key forward operating bases as well.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 21:05

• Judge Grants Permanent Injunction Against Philadelphia Mayor's Ban On Guns In City Recreation Facilities
  Judge Grants Permanent Injunction Against Philadelphia Mayor’s Ban On Guns In City Recreation Facilities

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

  A Philadelphia judge on Monday blocked the city from banning guns at parks and recreation facilities after a gun rights lobbying group argued that the city does not have authority to do so.

  Judge Joshua H. Roberts of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas issued a permanent injunction (pdf) against the ban and permanently enjoined the city against enforcing the directive.

  Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat, signed an executive order (pdf) in September banning firearms in all city-owned recreational facilities, stating that it was “crucial to take steps” to ensure that the city’s recreational facilities are “a safe place for children and all of the Philadelphia community to gather.”

  

  The executive order stated that since 2019, nearly 300 reported shooting incidents have occurred at city recreation facilities, in addition to dozens of other incidents of violence with a deadly weapon.

  It also cited the Sept. 9 death of Tiffany Fletcher, an employee of the Mill Creek Recreation Center in West Philadelphia. Fletcher was shot and killed while working, the order said.

  The order went into effect immediately and prohibited anyone carrying a firearm from entering any indoor or outdoor facility operated by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

  Such places include recreational centers, ballfields, courts, pools, and playgrounds but excluded park trails and “passive park space,” according to the order.

  

  An AR-15 upper receiver nicknamed “The Balloter” is seen for sale at Firearms Unknown, a gun store in Oceanside, Calif., on April 12, 2021. (Bing Guan/Reuters)

  Ban ‘Directly Violates Pennsylvania Law’

  It allowed for individuals carrying guns in such places to be treated as trespassers if they refused to leave.

  Less than 24 hours after signing the order, Gun Owners of America (GOA), a nonprofit organization aimed at protecting the right to keep and bear arms, filed suit against the order in state court.

  GOA argued in a complaint (pdf) that the mayor’s order “directly violates Pennsylvania law, and may not be enforced” because the Preemption Statute expressly prohibits any county, municipality, or township from passing gun-control measures.

  “Pennsylvania law expressly preempts the Mayor from banning firearms in public recreational facilities. Nonetheless, Mayor Jim Kenney has attempted to do so. He may not. Pennsylvania law is ‘crystal clear’: regulation of firearms is a matter of statewide concern, and must be undertaken by the General Assembly,” they wrote.

  Pennsylvania Law states that “no county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunition or ammunition components when carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this Commonwealth.”

  “The law in Pennsylvania couldn’t be clearer,” Andrew Austin, GOA’s attorney in the case, said in a statement following Monday’s ruling.

  …

  A spokesperson for Mayor Kenney said the city is “disappointed” by the latest ruling while citing recent shooting incidents at recreation facilities across the city.

  “We are reviewing today’s decision and are disappointed by the outcome, which as it stands prevents City employees from making the reasonable request that anyone with a firearm or deadly weapon leave a recreation facility,” Sarah Peterson, Deputy Communications Director for Mayor Kenney, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

  “The Mayor’s Executive Order was intended to prevent the senseless violence that is interfering with the safety of children, families, and staff in what must be safe places,” Peterson added.

  The City of Philadelphia is expected to appeal the Judge’s order, which GOA said would result in the city continuing to “frivolously waste taxpayer money on their unlawful anti-gun agenda.”

  …

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 20:45

• Nearly Half Of Americans Making Six-Figures Living Paycheck To Paycheck
  Nearly Half Of Americans Making Six-Figures Living Paycheck To Paycheck

  Roughly 60% of Americans say they’re living paycheck to paycheck – a figure which hasn’t budged much overall from last year’s 55% despite inflation hitting 40-year highs, according to a recent LendingClub report.

  

  Even people earning six figures are feeling the strain, with 45% reporting living paycheck to paycheck vs. 38% last year, CNBC reports.

  “More consumers living paycheck to paycheck indicates that many are continuing to lose their financial stability,” said LendingClub financial health officer, Anuj Nayar.

  The consumer price index, which measures the average change in prices for consumer goods and services, rose a higher-than-expected 8.3% in August, driven by increases in food, shelter and medical care costs.

  Although real average hourly earnings also rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, they remained down 2.8% from a year ago, which means those paychecks don’t stretch as far as they used to. -CNBC

  Meanwhile, Bank of America found that 71% of workers say their income isn’t keeping pace with inflation – resulting in a five-year low in terms of financial security.

  

  “It is no secret that prices have been increasing for everyday Americans — not only in the goods and services they purchase but also in the interest rates they’re paying to fund their lives,” said Nayar, who noted that people are relying more on credit cards and carry a higher monthly balance, making them financially vulnerable. “This can have detrimental consequences for someone who pays the minimum amount on their credit cards every month.”

  According to an Aug. 30 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, credit card balances increased by $46 billion from last year, becoming the second-biggest source of overall debt last quarter.

  

  And as Bloomberg noted last month, more US consumers are saddled with credit card debt for longer periods of time. According to a recent survey by CreditCards.com, 60% of credit card debtors have been holding this type of debt for at least a year, up 50% from a year ago, while those holding debt for over two years is up 40%, from 32%, according to the online credit card marketplace.

  

  And while total credit-card balances remain slightly lower than pre-pandemic levels, inflation and rising interest rates are taking a toll on the already-stretched finances of US households.

  About a quarter of respondents said day-to-day expenses are the primary reason why they carry a balance. Almost half cite an emergency or unexpected expense, including medical bills and home or car repair.

  The Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates for the fifth time this year next week. Credit-card rates are typically directly tied to the Fed Funds rate, and their increase along with a softening economy may lead to higher delinquencies. 

  Total consumer debt rose $23.8 billion in July to a record $4.64 trillion, according to data from the Federal Reserve. -Bloomberg

  The Fed’s figures include credit card and auto debt, as well as student loans, but does not factor in mortgage debt.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 20:25

• Former Clinton Advisor Says Hillary May Run In 2024
  Former Clinton Advisor Says Hillary May Run In 2024

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  Following comments criticising the handling of mass immigration on the southern border, a long time Clinton advisor says that it appears Hillary may be positioning herself for another presidential run in 2024.

  

  The New York Post reports that strategist Dick Morris believes Hillary is moving toward presenting herself as a “moderate” centrist candidate in 2024.

  “I see more and more signs that Hillary’s going to run,” Morris, a former aide to Bill Clinton, said during a radio interview.

  Morris said the fact that Hillary is acknowledging that most Americans “do not believe in open borders,” is a tell tale sign.

  “These are all signals that she is going to be the moderate candidate for president. She’s going to say after the election, ‘See, the left cost us the House and the Senate. If we stay with a left-wing candidate in 2024, we’re going to lose the White House. I’m the only one who will tack to the center and give us a chance at victory​,​’​” Morris said.

  The political consultant added that “it’s the strategy I designed for Bill Clinton in 1992” and that “​Hillary is just dusting off Bill‘s playbook that I wrote for him and applying it herself this year.”

  Listen (relevant part starts at 46 mins):

  Morris previously recently predicted that Democrats are going to reject Biden for a second run in favour of Clinton in order to avoid the potential of “some crazy radical like Gavin Newson, Bernie Sanders. Maybe even AOC herself” becoming a front runner.

  “That’s going to drive the Democratic Party leaders to go to Hillary and say, ‘Hey look. Please run again. We need you to save us from the crazy left,’” ​Morris said, adding “Otherwise we’ll have Sanders as our candidate. We’ll lose Congress by a ton. And we’ll get wiped out in the presidential race.’”

  During an MSNBC interview a fortnight ago, Hillary noted “nobody wants open borders who has any idea of how government and countries work.”​

  Hillary recently declared that she would never run for President again, but that hasn’t stopped the rumours from circulating.

  Meanwhile, despite continued questions over his mental degradation, Joe Biden has reportedly told Al Sharpton that he plans to run again for president in 2024.

  In related news, an underreported piece by Breitbart last week detailed how Hillary aides reportedly seriously believed that Donald Trump, acting as a Russian agent, planned to poison Hillary with some sort of deadly handshake during the presidential debates in 2016.

  The revelation is made in a forthcoming book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who details how “During preparations for the third debate, Clinton’s team was disrupted by a warning from the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein, who said he had been told that Russians might try to poison Clinton through a handshake with Trump, to inflict a dramatic health episode during the debate.”

  While the book claims Hillary personally didn’t take the threat seriously, “Her communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, took the prospect seriously enough to check it out,” Haberman writes.

  Interestingly, there was no handshake at the beginning of the third debate:

  *  *  *

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

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

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 20:05

• Amazon Reportedly Halts Corporate Hiring For Retail Business
  Amazon Reportedly Halts Corporate Hiring For Retail Business

  America’s second-largest employer announced a hiring freeze following an earlier announcement that US job openings plunged in August. This could be even more evidence the labor market is cooling. 

  According to an internal memo obtained by The New York Times, Amazon recruiters have been instructed to halt all hiring for “corporate roles, including technology positions, globally in its Amazon stores business, which covers the company’s retail and operations, and accounts for the bulk of Amazon’s sales” by mid-month. As of Monday, 20,000 openings were posted in that division. The memo stated that the company’s cloud computing division wouldn’t be impacted.

  The memo stated recruiters are instructed to tell all job candidates that the Seattle tech giant wasn’t in a hiring freeze. It went on to say all job requisitions should close immediately. It said new job openings would be available until 1Q23. 

  And why would Amazon recruiters lie to job candidates that the company isn’t in a hiring freeze, but according to an internal memo obtained by NYT, they are? It could cause worried people to stop applying to unfrozen departments like AWS.  

  Professional community website Blind had one anonymous account post four days ago: “Amazon hiring freeze is real.” Here’s a snapshot of what the alleged Amazon employee said about the freeze:

  

  “The corporate hiring freeze is the latest sign that cost-controlling measures are hitting Amazon’s core retail and technology teams as well,” NYT said. Perhaps this reflects a faltering consumer, battered by negative real wage growth, the highest inflation in decades, maxed out credit cards, and personal savings on empty. 

  Amazon’s hiring freeze comes amid the threats of a recession because of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening to combat inflation. Meta and Google have been other big tech companies to pause hiring as the economic outlook remains cloudy. And today’s drop in job openings in August confirms labor market cooling is likely underway. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 19:45

• Is Canada On The Verge Of A Political Revolution?
  Is Canada On The Verge Of A Political Revolution?

  Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,

  Canada like many other countries may be on the cusp of a political revolution. To the chagrin of the mainstream media in Canada, Pierre Poilievre has been elected the leader of Canada’s Conservative opposition party. As a result of his win, attacks on Poilievre have dramatically increased. He has been declared as “dangerous” and even reckless. In short, Canadian media is busy painting him as a mini Donald Trump. 

  In what is seen as a move to appease many of his critics Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently declared an end to Canada’s vaccine mandate. This includes the policy of requiring travelers entering Canada to provide their vaccine passports and a slew of other restrictions and requirements. This took effect on September 30th and was considered partly in response to the growing threat of the populist sentiment popping up in Canada. Many Canadians had come to view Trudeau’s vaccine dictate as overtly authoritarian, it reeked of government overreach and Gestapo-style tactics.

  

  The Poilievre surge has resulted in Canada’s mainstream media ramping up the fear factor by declaring Poilievre’s recent win as dangerous. Some of the recent headlines, such as the one to the left put out by the Toronto Star, leave little question as to the color of paint they wish to use. The headline in the Tyee was also unkind, it read, “Pierre Poilievre Is a Symptom of the Conservative’s Sickness”

  The surge in Canada is occurring at the same time the populist movement is strengthening in several other countries. For instance, in Italy, Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing bloc is celebrating a historic victory and its clear majority. Meloni’s victory came despite European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen threatening to bring the EU mechanism to bear against Italy if Italian voters placed Giorgia Meloni in power.

  Even after the threat, the latest election in Italy resulted in a landslide win for the conservative coalition and Italy’s first woman prime minister. Following her win, Georgia Meloni, gave a rousing victory speech that directly exposed the far-left invasion of western nations, globalism, and the poisonous collusion with woke corporations to silence dissent. Meloni called for a return to freedom, and the response from the media was to call her a “fascist.” 

  Meloni Called For A Return To Freedom

  A two-minute video of a Meloni speech went viral as the votes in Italy were being counted. In it, the new Italian Prime Minister eloquently describes that Italians and human beings, in general, are not mere identity-less consumers and economic playthings of the ivory tower technocrat class. Apparently, her attitude resonated with voters that have simply had enough.

  

  Meloni’s win is just a small part of an ongoing trend. It should also be noted that in this year’s municipal elections in the Czech Republic the populist ANO party, led by former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, came in first in eight of 13 regional capitals. Babiš, considered a close ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, narrowly lost the Czech national elections in 2021. These latest numbers indicate that his party is clawing back voters due to a souring economy and growing cost-of-living crisis.

  Opinion polls, controlled by the mainstream media, often understate the strength of right-wing candidates. Another place where the same populist dynamic has flared up is Brazil. On Sunday, President Jair Bolsonaro’s numbers far exceeded pollsters’ consensus. Heading into the election a major poll pointed to former left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva winning by a 14% margin. In the end, Lula only received 48.4% of the votes forcing the two men into a run-off election on Oct 30. At this point, it seems that momentum is on Bolsanaro’s side. 

  While political leaders like Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden strut around on the media stage accusing ideological opponents of being “enemies of democracy and dangerous,” their mostly conservative rivals talk about restoring power to the people. What could be more democratic than that? We can only hope enough of those people that feel their country is headed down the wrong path wake up and question what they are being told.

  The one thing Poilievre, Meloni, and most of the politicians spouting populist or conservative messages have in common is that they are hated and branded as dangerous by the mainstream media. It could be argued that much of this is rooted in the fact these politicians denounce all notions the globalist elites should be allowed to expand their power and rule. In short, they are willing to swim against the tide.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 19:25

• Now That Twitter Belongs To Elon, Here Is What He Will Do To The Platform In His Own Words
  Now That Twitter Belongs To Elon, Here Is What He Will Do To The Platform In His Own Words

  Now that the dramatic, if pointless and expensive, interlude of Musk trying to sabotage his own (extremely overpriced) purchase of Twitter is finally over with Musk conceding to buy the social network at the original proposed price of $54.20.

  So what’s next? Will Musk keep Twitter as is, or will he burn it down, fire all its employees,and rebuild it from the ground up? Conveniently, Musk’s Twitter-linked text messages, publicly released as part of the Twitter lawsuit legal disclosure, provide enough information for what Musk really wants in terms of a final product.

  Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2022

  First, as stated in the following exchange with Valor CEO Antonio Gracias, Musk believes in free speech. So much so that he finds Russia Today “quite entertaining” with “lots of bullshit but some good points too.”

  

  Musk expressed similar sentiment in the following exchange with ex-wife Talulah Jane (TJ) Riley, who was dismayed at the Babylon Bee’s suspension and who proposed to “buy Twitter and make it radically free speech”… or “delete it.”

  

  Musk then speaks to VC entrepreneur Jon Lonsdale, where they discuss Musk’s desire to make Twitter an open source algo because it’s important to “reign in big tech” and “our public square needs to not have arbitrary sketch censorship.” Musk’s response: “what we have right now is hidden corruption!“

  

  As an aside, a few weeks later, after it emerged that Musk had purchased a sizable stake in Twitter, Jon Lonsdale made an interesting observation: “I bet you the board doesn’t even get full reporting or see any report of the censorship decisions and little cabals going on there but they should – the lefties on the board likely want plausible deniability!”

  

  Things get more interesting in this exchange with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, in which Jack echoed not only that Twitter must be an “open source protocol” but that it “can’t have an advertising model. Otherwise you have surface area that governments and advertisers will try to influence and control. If it has a centralized entity behind it, it will be attacked.” Jack’s conclusion: “this isn’t complicated work, it just has to be done right so it’s resilient to what has happened to twitter.” After a lengthy back and forth, Musk tells Jack that “it’s worth both trying to move Twitter in a better direction and doing something new that’s decentralized.”

  

  A quick tangent, in which we learn that it wasn’t just Elon seeking to buy Twitter, so was the J.P. Morgan of crypto, Sam-Bankman Fried: look for SBF to have a prominent role in the company going forward.

  

  And a second tangent: what is SBF’s net worth and how much money could he put into twitter: short answer to both: a lot.

  

  Another interesting exchange, this time with Mathias Dopfner, CEO of German media conglomerate Axel Springer, which owns a bunch of tabloids such as Bild, in which he says that if Musk buys it, Alex Springer would be willing to run twitter.

  

  An especially interesting exchange took place minutes after Musk revealed his Twitter stake with a person who, unlike everyone else in the disclosure, demanded to be unnamed. Due to the “sensitive” nature of his proposal “navigating how to let right-wingers back on Twitter… especially the boss himself”)we can only assume it is due to fear of being canceled by the radical left mob.

  

  Another exchange after Musk announced he was seeking a board seat is with the abovementioned Matthias Dopfner, head of Germany’s Axel Springer, who does everything in his power to make his personal media outlets painstakingly, boringly, crushingly woke and politically correct, who we learn is really just another hypocrite and closet “anti-woke”, suggesting to Musk that he create a marketplace for algos, “e.g., if you’re a snowflake and don’t want content that offends you pick another algorithm.” If only Dofpner would do the same with his empire of snowflake-catering tabloids. Amusingly, Dopfner has some other “actionable” recos, such as “solve free speech.” Oh ok. Here is the rest of what the CEO of one of the world’s biggest tabloid empires (and recent acquiror of Politico) wants to do:

  Status Quo: it is the de facto public town square, but It is a problem that it does not adhere to free speech principles. => so the core product is pretty good, but (i) it does not serve democracy, and (ii) the current business model is a dead end as reflected by flat share price.

  Goal: Make Twitter the global backbone of free speech, an open market place of ideas that truly complies with the spirit of the first amendment and shift the business model to a combination of ad-supported and paid to support quality

  Game Plan:

  1.) “Solve Free Speech”

  • 1-a) Step 1″ Make it censorship-FREE by radically reducing Terms of Services (now hundreds of pages) to the following: Twitter users agree to:
    • (1) Use our service to send spam or scam users,
    • (2) Promote violence,
    • (3) Post illegal pornography.
  • 1-b) Step 2: Make Twitter censorship-RESISTANT
    • Ensure censorship resistance by implementing measures that warrant that Twitter can’t be censored long term, regardless of which government and management
    • How? Keep pushing projects at Twitter that have been working on developing a decentralized social network protocol (e.g., BlueSky). It’s not easy, but the back-end must run on decentralized infrastructure, APIs should become open (back to the roots! Twitter started and became big with open APIs).
    • Twitter would be one of many clients to post and consume content.
    • Then create a marketplace for algorithms, e.g., if you’re a snowflake and don’t want content that offends you pick another algorithm.

  2.) “Solve Share Price” – Current state of the business:

  • Twitter’s ad revenues grow steadily and for the time being, are sufficient to fund operations.
  • MAUs are flat, no structural growth
  • Share price is flat, no confidence in the existing business model

  

  But while a lot of these ideas were inbounds to Musk, where things get really “insightful” is when Elon chats with his brother Kimbal, about his vision. We will publish these without commentary because, well, it’s well beyond our pay grade to comment on Musk’s “vision” – some peculiar cross between a social media, blockchain, a direct messaging app which stores messages forever, and all of it using some token (why not dogecoin).

  

  Here Jason Calacanis also chimes in with some ideas. His comments on De Sasntis are amusing.

  

  It continues a few days later, where Calacanis reveals he may be the next Twitter CEO, and Musk is receptive:

  

  And some more ideas from Calacanis:

  

  Finally, some good news for the liberals out there:

  

  While those were some of the key exchanges, there is much more in the full Musk text message discovery below:

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 19:05

• Former NSA Staffer Charged With Espionage After Trying To Sell Information To Undercover FBI Agent
  Former NSA Staffer Charged With Espionage After Trying To Sell Information To Undercover FBI Agent

  Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A former employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) was charged with espionage for allegedly trying to sell classified national defense information to an undercover agent he believed to be working for a foreign government, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

  

  Jareh Sebastian Dalke, a 30-year-old Army veteran of Colorado Springs, Colorado, worked at the NSA as an information systems security designer from June 6 to July 1, 2022. According to the DOJ, Dalke used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents he had obtained during his employment to an undercover FBI agent disguised as a representative of a foreign government.

  Dalke was arrested on Sept. 28, after he arrived at a public location in Denver, expecting to meet the undercover agent and transfer one additional classified document. He allegedly told the agent that he has a debt of $237,000, and asked for a “specific type of cryptocurrency” in exchange for the “highly sensitive information” he possessed. The FBI ended up sending him about $4,600 worth of cryptocurrency as a “good faith payment” to help with his financial problems.

  The information, according to an affidavit (pdf) supporting the criminal complaint, involves topics such as the threat assessment of the foreign country’s military offensive capabilities, a cryptographic program used by the U.S. government, and the threat assessment of U.S. defense capabilities, a portion of which relates to that foreign country.

  While the foreign government is not identified, the affidavit states that Dalke claimed to have reached out to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, to make that he was actually communicating with a foreign government entity “rather than Americans trying to stifle a patriot.”

  According to the affidavit, Dalke had expressed dissatisfaction with what the United States has become. “This country is not as great as it thinks it once was,” he allegedly said. “It is all about the businesses and their money, not anything about the people or those that serve it to include the military.”

  Dalke is charged with three violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to transmit or attempt to transmit national defense information to a foreign nation knowing the information could be used against the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation. If convicted, he could face the death penalty or any number of years up to life in prison.

  The announcement comes as Edward Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor who famously exposed the NSA’s massive domestic surveillance program in 2013 and has remained in exile in Russia ever since, was granted Russian citizenship.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 18:45

• South Korea & US Fire 4 Surface-To-Surface Missiles In Rare Response To North's Launch
  South Korea & US Fire 4 Surface-To-Surface Missiles In Rare Response To North’s Launch

  Update(1838ET): The United States and South Korea have “answered” Tuesday’s ultra-provocative North Korean launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile which flew directly over Japan, triggering nationwide emergency alerts warning Japanese citizens to take shelter. 

  Yonhap news is reporting that allied militaries of S.Korea and the US have now launched 4 surface-to-surface missiles into the East Sea, in a clear and rare “response to the provocation” from Pyongyang, during the overnight hours (local time). There are simultaneous though unconfirmed reports that one of the South Korean missiles may have failed or crashed soon after launch:

  BREAKING: South Korea military says one of its surface-to-surface missiles crashed soon after launch – News1

  — Faytuks News Δ (@Faytuks) October 4, 2022

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

  Rumors had already been circulating for hours prior to Seoul revealing the new missile launches in response, amid ongoing joint military drills with the US, of a large explosion or fire at the south’s Gangneug Airbase.

  Could the two be directly related, or coincidence? There’s still very little confirmed at this point.

  Reports of explosion(s) at Gangneug Airbase in South Korea. Seems to be a accident according to a military official https://t.co/9cwnqWzmlcpic.twitter.com/OtAlOT5mJQ

  — Faytuks News Δ (@Faytuks) October 4, 2022

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

  An explosions has occurred within Gangneung Airbase, South Korea. The scope and scale of the damage here is unknown, but numerous fixed wing aircraft are stationed here. pic.twitter.com/4fbCteOrE2

  — The Intel Crab (@IntelCrab) October 4, 2022

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

  * * *

  Hours after North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile that soared over Japan for the first time since 2017, Japanese and US military warplanes carried out a joint exercise in response to Pyongyang’s recklessness, according to South China Morning Post, citing Japanese officials. 

  “As the security environment surrounding Japan grows increasingly severe, including North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile that flew over Japan, the Self-Defence Forces and the US military conducted a joint exercise,” the Joint Staff said in a statement.

  Eight Japanese and four US fighter jets conducted war drills in airspace west of Kyushu, the southwesternmost of Japan’s main islands. There were no further details in the statement about what defensive maneuvers the fighter jets were exercising. 

  Joint Staff continued: Forces “confirmed their readiness and demonstrated domestically and abroad the strong determination of Japan and the United States to deal with any situation.” 

  Earlier in the day, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held immediate discussions with the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino, about the missile launch. 

  Ahead of the joint exercise, Kishida told reporters Tokyo and Washington would “conduct a joint drill” to show they’re “taking swift action.”

  South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North’s missile flew 2,800 miles, hitting an altitude of approximately 603 miles. The missile was launched around 0723 local time on Tuesday from the North’s Chagang province, which borders China. 

  As the missile flew over Japan, reaching speeds of March 17, the government issued warnings for citizens, urging everyone in the country to seek shelter as a ballistic missile was headed their way. The missile flew for 22 minutes and past northern Japan before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. 

  

  “This is an outrageous act following the recent repeated launches of ballistic missiles and we strongly denounce it,” Kishida said. 

  North Korea has conducted more than 20 missile tests this year, more than any other year. The Kim Jong Un regime seems angry as they recently rejected denuclearization talks with the US and South Korea. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 18:38

• Putin Spox Weighs In On Elon Musk's Attempt At Ukraine Peace Deal
  Putin Spox Weighs In On Elon Musk’s Attempt At Ukraine Peace Deal

  The Russian Presidency’s office has responded to billionaire Elon Musk’s “Russia-Ukraine Peace” Twitter poll which he put out Monday, and resulted in swift backlash among pundits who accused the Tesla and SpaceX founder of mimicking “pro-Russian” talking points. Musk pushed back against the avalanche of detractors, explaining that he’s interested in exploring ways to arrive at a peaceful settlement, and not continued escalation toward nuclear war.

  Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday told reporters, “We consider it very positive that a man like Musk is looking for a peaceful way out of the situation around Ukraine,” according to Interfax.

  

  Musk had floated the idea of “redoing” last week’s referendums on the four Ukrainian territories in the east joining the Russian Federation under UN supervision. He also controversially said that as basis of a peace deal Ukraine would have to permanently cede Crimea. 

  It was particularly the Crimea aspect which sparked an immediate backlash and pile-on of pundits, journalists, and even diplomats – on up to Ukrainian President Zelensky himself – who suggested this means Musk “supports Russia”.

  According to more of Peskov’s words via Interfax (machine translation): 

  At the same time, he recalled that from the very beginning, Russia advocated that the conditions put forward by Moscow be fulfilled through negotiations. Unlike many professional diplomats, Peskov noted, Musk is still trying to find ways to achieve peace.

  “Achieving peace without fulfilling Russia’s conditions is absolutely impossible. Many ideas there deserve attention,” he said

  But Peskov underscored there can be no “redo” of the referendums, given Moscow has already moved to bestow legal recognition of the four regions’ integration into Russia.

  Vast majority of the woke mob attacking him haven’t contributed anything to the Ukrainian war effort except a blue & yellow emoji.

  — David Sacks (@DavidSacks) October 3, 2022

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

  “And there can be nothing else here. Today the president will sign decrees, and this will become the territory of the Russian Federation. But I repeat once again, the fact itself is very positive, when such people think, try to think logically, what could be done, to switch to a peaceful course,” Peskov said.

  To review, Musk’s poll had laid out four proposals: 

  • Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people.
  • Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).
  • Water supply to Crimea assured. 
  • Ukraine remains neutral.

  After more than 2.7 million votes, of which Musk said many were bots attempting to skew the results, it’s clear that public opinion remains fiercely divided on the war, given sizeable groups on either side.

  Meanwhile Chinese state media pundit Hu Xijin pointed out the following…

  Elon Musk has released his personality too much, and he believes too much in the US and West’s “freedom of speech.” He will be taught a lesson. pic.twitter.com/nv4VU7rFIv

  — Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) October 4, 2022

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

  The final results were 40.9% “yes” on the Ukraine-Russia peace poll, and 59.1% rejecting it. And yet, tragically in terms of the current battlefield, a potential future peace deal or even ceasefire seems nowhere on the horizon at this moment.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/04/2022 – 18:25

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