Today’s News 7th July 2023

• Circle The Wagons: The Government Is On the Warpath
  Circle The Wagons: The Government Is On the Warpath

  Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

  – Harry S. Truman

  How many Americans have actually bothered to read the Constitution, let alone the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights (a quick read at 462 words)?

  

  Take a few minutes and read those words for yourself – rather than having some court or politician translate them for you – and you will be under no illusion about where to draw the line when it comes to speaking your mind, criticizing your government, defending what is yours, doing whatever you want on your own property, and keeping the government’s nose out of your private affairs.

  In an age of overcriminalization, where the average citizen unknowingly commits three crimes a day, and even the most mundane activities such as fishing and gardening are regulated, government officials are constantly telling Americans what not to do.

  Yet it was not always this way.

  It used to be “we the people” giving the orders, telling the government what it could and could not do. Indeed, the three words used most frequently throughout the Bill of Rights in regards to the government are “no,” “not” and “nor.”

  Compare the following list of “don’ts” the government is prohibited from doing with the growing list of abuses to which “we the people” are subjected on a daily basis, and you will find that we have reached a state of crisis wherein the government is routinely breaking the law and violating its contractual obligations. 

  For instance, the government is NOT allowed to restrict free speech, press, assembly or the citizenry’s ability to protest and correct government wrongdoing. Nevertheless, the government continues to prosecute whistleblowers, persecute journalists, criminalize expressive activities, crack down on large gatherings of citizens mobilizing to voice their discontent with government policies, and insulate itself and its agents from any charges of wrongdoing (or what the courts refer to as “qualified immunity”).

  The government may NOT infringe on a citizen’s right to defend himself. Nevertheless, in many states, it’s against the law to carry a concealed weapon (gun, knife or even pepper spray), and the average citizen is permitted little self-defense against militarized police officers who shoot first and ask questions later.

  The government may NOT enter or occupy a citizen’s house without his consent (the quartering of soldiers). Nevertheless, government soldiers (i.e., militarized police) carry out more than 80,000 no-knock raids on private homes every year, while maiming children, killing dogs and shooting citizens.

  The government may NOT carry out unreasonable searches and seizures on the citizenry or their possessions, NOR can government officials issue warrants without some evidence of wrongdoing (probable cause). Unfortunately, what is unreasonable to the average American is completely reasonable to a government agent, for whom the ends justify the means. In such a climate, we have no protection against roadside strip searches, blood draws, DNA collection, SWAT team raids, surveillance or any other privacy-stripping indignity to which the government chooses to subject us.

  The government is NOT to deprive anyone of life, liberty or property without due process. Nevertheless, the government continues to incarcerate tens of thousands of Americans whose greatest crime is being poor and not white. The same goes for those who are put to death, some erroneously, by a system weighted in favor of class and wealth.

  The government may NOT take private property for public use without just compensation. Nevertheless, under the guise of the “greater public interest,” the government often hides behind eminent domain laws in order to allow megacorporations to tear down homes occupied by less prosperous citizens in order to build high-priced resorts and shopping malls.

  Government agents may NOT force a citizen to testify against himself. Yet what is the government’s extensive surveillance network that spies on all of our communications but a thinly veiled attempt at using our own words against us?

  The government is NOT permitted to claim any powers that are not expressly granted to them by the Constitution. This prohibition has become downright laughable as the government continues to claim for itself every authority that serves to swell its coffers, cement its dominion, and expand its reach.

  Despite what some special interest groups have suggested to the contrary, the problems we’re experiencing today did not arise because the Constitution has outlived its usefulness or become irrelevant, nor will they be solved by a convention of states or a ratification of the Constitution.

  No, the problem goes far deeper.

  It can be traced back to the point at which “we the people” were overthrown as the center of the government. As a result, our supremacy has been undone, our authority undermined, and our experiment in democratic self-governance left in ruins.

  No longer are we the rulers of this land. We have long since been deposed and dethroned, replaced by corporate figureheads with no regard for our sovereignty, no thought for our happiness, and no respect for our rights.

  In other words, without our say-so and lacking any mandate, the point of view of the Constitution has been shifted from “we the people” to “we the government.” Our taxpayer-funded employees—our appointed servants—have stopped looking upon us as their superiors and started viewing as their inferiors.

  Unfortunately, we’ve gotten so used to being dictated to by government agents, bureaucrats and militarized police alike that we’ve forgotten that WE are supposed to be the ones calling the shots and determining what is just, reasonable and necessary.

  Then again, we’re not the only ones guilty of forgetting that the government was established to serve us as well as obey us. Every branch of government, from the Executive to the Judicial and Legislative, seems to be suffering this same form of amnesia. Certainly, when government programs are interpreted from the government’s point of view (i.e., the courts and legislatures), there is little the government CANNOT do in its quest for power and control.

  We’ve been so brainwashed and indoctrinated into believing that the government is actually looking out for our best interests, when in fact the only compelling interesting driving government programs is maintain power and control by taking away our money and control. This vital truth, that the government exists for our benefit and operates at our behest, seems to have been lost in translation over two centuries dominated by government expansion, endless wars and centralized federal power.

  Have you ever wondered why the Constitution begins with those three words “we the people”? It was intended to be a powerful reminder that everything flows from the citizenry. We the people are the center of the government and the source of its power. That “we” is crucial because it reminds us that there is power and safety in numbers, provided we stand united. We can accomplish nothing alone.

  This is the underlying lesson of the Constitution, which outlines the duties and responsibilities of government. It was a mutual agreement formed by early Americans in order to ensure that when problems arose, they could address them together.

  It’s like the wagon trains of the Old West, comprised of individual groups of pioneers. They rarely ventured out alone but instead traveled as convoys. And when faced with a threat, these early Americans formed their wagons into a tight circle in order to defend against invaders. In doing so, they presented a unified front and provided protection against an outside attack.

  In much the same way, the Constitution was intended to work as an institutionalized version of the wagon circle, serving as a communal shield against those who would harm us.

  Unfortunately, we have been ousted from that protected circle, left to fend for ourselves in the wilderness that is the American frontier today. Those who did the ousting—the courts, the politicians, and the corporations—have since replaced us with yes-men, shills who dance to the tune of an elite ruling class. In doing so, they have set themselves as the central source of power and the arbiters of what is just and reasonable.

  Once again, we’re forced to navigate hostile terrain, unsure of how to protect ourselves and our loved ones from militarized police, weaponized drones, fusion centers, Stingray devices, SWAT team raids, the ongoing military drills on American soil, the government stockpiling of ammunition, the erection of mass detention centers across the country, and all other manner of abuses.

  Read the smoke signals, and the warning is clear: the government is on the warpath.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, if we are to have any hope of surviving whatever is coming at us, it’s time to circle the wagons, folks.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 23:40

• Carnival Cruise Ship Emits More Toxic Fumes Than All Of Europe's Cars, Study Finds
  Carnival Cruise Ship Emits More Toxic Fumes Than All Of Europe’s Cars, Study Finds

  A new study commissioned by the European Federation for Transport and Environment revealed that toxic emissions of sulfur oxides from 63 cruise ships belonging to Carnival Corporation were 43% higher than all the combustion engine vehicles in Europe. This stunning statistic comes as EU leaders have decided to ban small combustion engines for cars by 2035. But what about ‘green’ cruise ships? Only crickets… 

  “The most polluting cruise ship operator was MSC Cruises, whose vessels emitted nearly as much sulphur as all the 291 million cars in Europe. When looking at parent companies, as in our original 2019 report, the Carnival Corporation comes on top with the 63 ships under its control emitting 43% more sulfur oxides than all of Europe’s cars in 2022,” the study said. 

  

  For cruise ship operators to achieve carbon-neutral status, this might take decades. According to the study, about 40% of cruise ships in the order books of global shipyards are dual-fuel LNG engines. “When running on LNG, these ships will cause less air pollution, but they are more damaging than fuel oils from a climate perspective due to methane slip from their four-stroke engines,” the study noted. 

  The study continued, “Cruise companies should discontinue investing in LNG-powered vessels and prioritize zero-emission technologies, such as hydrogen fuel-cells, batteries, and wind-power.” 

  Cruise ship order books currently have limited to no zero-emission vessels in shipyards. The most immediate fuel switch is from heavy fuel oil to LNG. 

  The study shows Carnival’s vessels pollute more than Europe’s cars and then some, but what’s mindboggling is that EU lawmakers went after cars first in their ‘greenification’ crusade. Why not cruise ships?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 23:20

• The Muddled Mindset Of Progressivism
  The Muddled Mindset Of Progressivism

  Authored by J.Peder Zane via American Greatness,

  It’s time we had a courageous conversation about the left’s incoherent stance on big government and race.

  

  This muddled mindset was on full display last week as two progressive Supreme Court justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, attacked the majority’s decision rejecting affirmative action in higher education by crediting such race-based policies for progress while also claiming that nothing much has changed in our supposedly racist country.

  “Today,” Sotomayor declares in the second paragraph of her dissent, “this court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”

  Despite that grand advancement, she asserts just one sentence later that the majority was cementing “a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.”

  Momentous progress in an endemically segregated nation?

  Both Sotomayor and Jackson try to show how race continues to matter by drawing on the pessimistic historical determinism of critical race theory to argue that African Americans are still shackled by the original sin of slavery.

  “Three hundred and fifty years ago,” Jackson writes, “the Negro was dragged to this country in chains to be sold into slavery. Uprooted from his homeland and thrust into bondage for forced labor, the slave was deprived of all legal rights.”

  She continues, “After emancipation, white Americans imposed a series of racist customs and laws, including Jim Crow and redlining, to limit black advancement.”

  Jackson asserts that this past shapes the present and future condition of African Americans through the disparities regarding wealth, health, and education that exist between the races. She writes:

  Today, as was true 50 years ago, Black home ownership trails White home ownership by approximately 25 percentage points. … Black Americans in their late twenties are about half as likely as their White counterparts to have college degrees. … As for postsecondary professional arenas, despite being about 13% of the population, Black people make up only about 5% of lawyers. Such disparity also appears in the business realm: Of the roughly 1,800 chief executive officers to have appeared on the well-known Fortune 500 list, fewer than 25 have been Black (as of 2022, only six are Black). … Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as White men and have lower 5-year cancer survival rates. Uterine cancer has spiked in recent years among all women â?? but has spiked highest for Black women, who die of uterine cancer at nearly twice the rate of “any other racial or ethnic group.” Black mothers are up to four times more likely than White mothers to die as a result of childbirth. And COVID killed Black Americans at higher rates than White Americans.

  Those numbers are clearly dispiriting. They obviously demand attention. But Jackson’s analysis, which simply asserts a facile causality between past injustice and current disparities, does nothing to explain and address the behaviors that drive them. Her dissent makes no mention of the breakdown of the black family, the rise of obesity and other co-morbidities among African Americans, and the failure of inner-city schools since the civil rights movement. Nor does she address the fact that many of these same problems also plague white people – the vast majority of whom are not CEOs, and most of whom have little wealth.

  Mysteriously, she also ignores the reams of economic data showing that the true crisis is among black men. The Brookings Institution, for example, reports:

  Black women and white women raised by ‘low-income’ parents (those in the bottom 20% of the income distribution) have similar rates of upward intergenerational mobility, measured in terms of their individual income as adults…

  The data shows that Black men raised by low-income parents face twice the risk of remaining stuck in intergenerational poverty (38%) as Black women (20%) in terms of their individual income.

  Jackson ignores such inconvenient facts to ascribe all disparities to racism. Rather than identify the mechanisms and barriers at work today that are at the root of the problem, she invokes a gauzy view of history to issue a moral indictment. This is more guilt trip than serious argument.

  More importantly, neither she nor Sotomayor detail how affirmative action and other race-based policies they support have improved the lives of African Americans. Isn’t that the key question? It is hard to believe that they have provided no benefit. But are they worth the cost of racializing and tribalizing our politics, culture, and law?

  Returning to Sotomayor’s claim, one wonders: How “momentous” could our progress be if, six decades after the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 that dismantled Jim Crow, America is still “endemically segregated”? If the government policies enforced since then, backed by trillions of dollars in spending, haven’t achieved the desired result, why do we believe they ever will?

  Liberals they will not, which explains the rising calls for trillions of dollars of reparations for African Americans – affirmative action on steroids. Instead of addressing the complex root causes of the troubling disparities, they are pushing another big government give-away. More is always their answer. What guarantee do we have that an even larger check will keep black boys and men in school and out of prison? What we can be sure of is that a massive windfall to one small group of Americans will only stoke the fires of racial division.

  Progressives continue to double down on failed policies because of ideology. Their key conceit is that they should run the show because of their self-proclaimed expertise: There is no problem they can’t solve through their top-down interventions. “We know what works” is their mantra. As it infantilizes the populace – especially the racial minorities they claim to represent, who are afforded little personal agency to change their lives – this hubristic mindset can never admit defeat because that would strike at the heart of progressive authority.

  If their programs fail, it is only because they were not fully implemented or funded – and because of emotional opposition from the ignorant masses and the conniving of monied interests. Reality is not the facts on the ground, but the vision they embrace. Conveniently, that vision depends on giving them ever greater power: Since the people are incapable of improving their own lot, they must be granted ever more authority.

  One definition of insanity is expecting a different result from the same action. Both Jackson and Sotomayor argue that we must keep the policies and approaches they say have failed. This illogic is the logic of progressivism.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 23:00

• June Payrolls Preview: Only A Huge Miss Will Derail The Fed Plan To Hike In July
  June Payrolls Preview: Only A Huge Miss Will Derail The Fed Plan To Hike In July

  Ahead of tomorrow’s nonfarm payrolls report, labor market proxies have been mixed in June: as Newsquawk notes, initial jobless claims spiked in the comparable survey week, with the four-week moving average higher heading into the June data; within S&P Global’s flash PMI data, the employment sub-indices eased, though remain above the 50-mark, which separates expansion and contraction; the ISM manufacturing data saw employment fall into contraction, but the services gauge saw the employment index rise into expansion; ADP’s gauge of payrolls growth spiked higher in the month, while Challenger Layoff numbers tumbled lower. Currently, markets are expecting the Fed to lift rates in July, and only a very significant miss along with weakness in other metrics will derail that plan; meanwhile some of the strong data released this week has seen expectations of the Fed terminal rate rise, to 5.45% in November 2023.

  NONFARM PAYROLLS GROWTH EXPECTED TO SLOW:

  • The rate of US nonfarm payrolls growth is expected to moderate in June to 225k from 339k in May (and vs 3- month average 283k, 6-month average of 302k, and 12-month average of 339k). The range of forecasts is between 110-288k.
  • Some, however, note that the labor market has continued to remain resilient in the face of an expected slowdown, with the last downside surprise to the headline being observed in March 2022.
  • Note that headline NFP has not come in beneath the consensus analyst estimate since March 2022.

  PROXIES:

  • CLAIMS: Jobless claims data for the period that syncs with the BLS’ survey period for the jobs report showed initial claims spiking to 265k (highest since October 2021), with the four-week average at 256k going vs an average of 231k into the May data. Continuing claims, meanwhile, was averaging 1.76mln in the survey week vs 1.8mln into the May data.
  • ADP: ADP June report saw 497k jobs added, well above the expected 228k and the prior 267k. The gains were led by consumer-facing services, with leisure and hospitality, trade and transportation, and education and health services the biggest contributors, while the higher earning potential jobs such as tech and finance showed declines, as did manufacturing.
  • JOB CUTS: Challenger layoffs fell to 40.7k in June from 80.1k in May, a seven-month low, and now significantly beneath the peak of 103k in January with the pace of job cuts in tech losing momentum.
  • BUSINESS SURVEYS: The ISM Manufacturing report’s Employment Index fell into contraction in June, registering 48.1 from 51.4; the survey noted signs of more employment reduction actions in the near-term. Meanwhile, the ISM Services gauge saw the Employment Index return into expansions at 53.1 from 49.2 prior; comments from respondents included: “Unable to find qualified candidates for some open positions” and “finally able to fill some positions that have been open for some time.”
  • CONSUMER SURVEYS: Within the Conference Board’s June consumer confidence data, the spread between jobs ‘plentiful’ and jobs ‘not so plentiful’ widened, indicating upbeat feelings about a labour market, while consumers’ assessment about the short-term labour market also improved, with a greater number expecting more jobs to be available, and the number of consumers anticipating fewer jobs declined. But on the earnings front, consumers short-term income prospects worsened in the month, with fewer expecting incomes to increase in the short term, while the number of consumers expecting earnings to decrease ticked-up slightly.

  UNEMPLOYMENT EXPECTED TO EASE:

  The unemployment rate is seen falling by 0.1ppts to 3.6% in June. Analysts note that the jobless rate is likely to decline due to the reversal of the fall in household employment seen in May, but a gradual increase is expected in the second half of the year. The Fed’s most recent economic projections released last month showed officials expect the jobless rate to rise to 4.1% by the end of this year, and then to 4.5% next year. If the unemployment rate does slip, traders will look to the participation rate, which has been stable in recent months; the metric has remained at 62.6% for the last three jobs report; a higher reading indicates that more people are entering the labor market. Meanwhile, the U6 measure of underemployment – which measures the percentage of the US labour force that is unemployed, plus those who are underemployed, marginally attached to the workforce, and have given up looking for work – has been between 6.6-6.7% in the last three months.

  EARNINGS:

  • Average earnings are expected to rise 0.3% M/M, matching the pace seen in May, while the annual measure is likely to ease to a rate of 4.2% Y/Y (from 4.3% previously). Analysts say the decline is likely given the easing seen in the JOLTs quit rates in recent months; a higher quits rate is seen as a sign of consumer confidence in their earnings prospects. However, the quits rate picked up in June to 2.6% from 2.4%, which some analysts said could mean upside potential for the wages measures.
  • After falling in May to the lowest since April 2020, average workweek hours are seen unchanged at 34.3hrs in June.

  POLICYMAKER FOCUS:

  • The FOMC’s June meeting minutes, released this week, said that “some” officials had pointed out that payroll gains had remained robust, but some other measures of employment — like those based on the BLS’ household survey, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, and the Board staff’s measure of private employment using data from the payroll processing firm ADP — suggested that job growth may have been weaker than indicated by payroll employment.
  • A couple of participants also drew attention to the subdued growth in hours worked.
  • Analysts at Morgan Stanley said that a sub-100k headline could see the Fed pullback on its plan to hike in July. However, SGH Macro believes that the hike is all but done, stating that while a soft figure could trigger speculation of a pause/skip, “the Fed won’t be convinced by one number that the trend has changed.”

  ARGUING FOR A STRONGER THAN EXPECTED REPORT:

  • Arrival of summer student workforce. When the labor market is tight, payroll growth tends to pick up in June, with average payroll gains 35k above the full-year average (see Exhibit 1). We believe this reflects the interaction between labor availability and the spring hiring season: seasonal labor market slack peaks at the start of the year, troughs in early May, then rebounds in June with the arrival of the student summer workforce.
    
     
  • Big Data. Alternative measures of employment growth indicate strong job gains in June, with a median pace of +275k across four indicators Goldman tracks. ADP was particularly strong (+497k), however GS economists place less weight than usual on this measure because of a possible distortion in the ADP seasonal factors: ADP employment growth had picked up in June in 6 of the last 7 years—and by 193k on average excluding 2020.
    
     
  • Job availability. JOLTS job openings declined by more than expected in May (-496k to 9.8mn) and online measures have continued to decline on net. While labor demand is falling, it remains elevated by 0.5-2.5mn relative to 2019 and represents a positive factor for job growth. The Conference Board labor differential—the difference between the percent of respondents saying jobs are plentiful and those saying jobs are hard to get—increased by 3.7pt to 34.4.

  ARGUING FOR A WEAKER THAN EXPECTED REPORT:

  • Seasonal factor evolution. As shown below, the June seasonal factors have evolved to become more restrictive in recent years, with a month-over-month hurdle for private payrolls of 943k in June 2022 compared to 855k on average in 2017-19— which were similar calendar configurations. These more restrictive seasonal factors could partially offset the strong hiring of student workers that we expect in tomorrow’s report.
    
     
  • Employer surveys. The employment components of business surveys deteriorated on net in June. The services employment survey tracker remained flat at 50.4 and the manufacturing survey employment tracker decreased by 2.1pt 50.7.
  • Tighter credit conditions. The industry composition of bank lending could potentially weigh on hiring for the leisure and hospitality and other services industries, which rely heavily on bank lending and exhibit a small average firm size. Weakness in bank lending could also compound the issues facing the information sector, for which bank-loan-intensity is slightly above average. Goldman is assuming a drag on tomorrow’s report on the order of 20k (mom sa).

  NEUTRAL/MIXED FACTORS:

  • Layoffs. Announced layoffs reported by Challenger, Gray & Christmas declined meaningfully in June (-37.7% to 38.6k, SA by GS), compared to 44k on average in the second half of 2022. While initial jobless claims averaged 251k in the June payroll month, up from 232k in May, recent readings have been distorted by policy changes and potentially fraudulent filings. After adjusting for these distortions, initial claims have remained near the levels last seen in early May. Many laid-off workers were able to find new jobs relatively quickly, and the required reduction in aggregate labor demand will come primarily from fewer job openings rather than lower employment.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 22:40

• 'America's Darkest Secret': Sex Trafficking, Child Abuse, & The Biden Administration
  ‘America’s Darkest Secret’: Sex Trafficking, Child Abuse, & The Biden Administration

  Authored by Uzay Bulut via The Gatestone Institute,

  The criminal practice of trafficking and abusing hundreds of thousands of migrant children who cross the southern border is now, thanks to the open-border policy of the Biden Administration, apparently “normal” inside the US:

  “According to Customs and Border Protection, since January 2021 when Biden took the oath of office, there have been 5,118,661 encounters with illegal immigrants along the southern border.”

  These numbers do not include reports that “at least 1.2 million illegal immigrants,” or “gotaways,” who “were confirmed to have unlawfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.”

  “The actual number of illegal immigrants… [is] unknown. It could be double the number of known gotaways, it could be three times worse, or more. We just don’t know….”

  Currently, at least 85,000 children are believed to be missing.

  

  According to Customs and Border Protection statistics,

  “[T]he number of UACs [Unaccompanied Alien Children] who arrive at the border has swelled from 33,239 in fiscal year 2020 to more than 146,000 in fiscal year 2021 and 152,000 in fiscal year 2022. So far in fiscal year 2023, there have been more than 70,000 encounters of unaccompanied children.”

  Many of those children are raped, used for forced labor, and forced to undertake brutal jobs ostensibly to “work off” their debt by the criminal cartels who reportedly now control the Mexican side of the border and brought the children in.

  According to Tara Lee Rodas, a Health and Human Services whistleblower, in testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement on April 26:

  “Whether intentional or not, it can be argued that the US Government has become the middleman in a large scale, multi-billion-dollar, child trafficking operation run by bad actors seeking to profit off the lives of children.”

  She described the practice as “modern-day slavery”.

  “Today, children will work overnight shifts at slaughterhouses, factories, restaurants to pay their debts to smugglers and traffickers. Today, children will be sold for sex. Today, children will call a hotline to report the are being abused, neglected, and trafficked…..

  “I must confess; I knew nothing about their suffering until 2021 when I volunteered to help the Biden Administration with the crisis at the Southern Border. As part of Operation Artemis, I was deployed to the Pomona Fairplex Emergency Intake Site in California to help the HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] Office of Refugee Resettlement reunite children with sponsors in the US.

  “I thought I was going to help place children in loving homes. Instead, I discovered that children are being trafficked through a sophisticated network that begins with being recruited in home country, smuggled to the US border, and ends when ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] delivers a child to a Sponsors – some sponsors are criminals and traffickers and members of Transnational Criminal Organizations. Some sponsors view children as commodities and assets to be used for earning income – this is why we are witnessing an explosion of labor trafficking.

  “…. I want to see the children protected, so I want to tell you some what I witnessed at the Pomona Fairplex:

  • I saw vulnerable indigenous children from Guatemala who speak Mayan dialects and can’t speak Spanish. That means they can’t ask for help in English and they can’t ask for help in Spanish. These children become captive to their Sponsors.

  • I’ve sat with Case Managers as they cried retelling horrific things that were done to children on the journey.

  • I saw apartment buildings where 20, 30 & 40 unaccompanied children have been released.

  • I saw sponsors trying to simultaneously sponsor children from multiple ORR sites.

  • I saw sponsors using multiple addresses to obtain sponsorships of children.

  • I saw numerous cases of children in debt bondage and the child knew they had to stay with the sponsor until the debt was paid.

  “Realizing that we were not offering children the American dream, but instead putting them into modern-day slavery with wicked overlords was a terrible revelation.”

  Rodas added that after she went public, her bosses retaliated against her.

  “They threatened me with an investigation. They walked me off the emergency intake site in Texas and took my badge. It is a terrible thing when you blow the whistle to try to save children and you’re retaliated against for trying to help. The HHS [The United States Department of Health and Human Services] did everything they could to keep all of this silent.”

  In another testimony, Jessica M. Vaughan, an expert on immigration, said:

  “Numerous investigative journalism reports published over the years in the Washington Times, Reuters, and the New York Times, Project Veritas, and others, that provide graphic details of the experiences of UACs during and after their illegal crossing and placement with sponsors in the United States, including domestic servitude, sexual abuse, forced labor, labor exploitation, and illegal employment in manufacturing, landscaping, and other inappropriate and dangerous jobs.”

  Rachel Campos-Duffy reported on April 26 on the crimes committed against migrant children:

  “Over the last two years, this country has become an international hub for child trafficking. And the US government is behind it. Under Biden, hundreds of thousands of children have come into this country illegally. Once they get here, most are sold for sex, used for cheap labor, or forced to join gangs. Nobody deserves this. Especially not children.”

  Campos-Duffy called the mass trafficking, abuse, and exploitation of migrant children “America’s darkest secret.”

  Sheena Rodriguez, president of the Alliance for a Safe Texas, presented eyewitness testimony regarding what is happening to children at the southern border:

  “In April 2021, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott learned of allegations of abuse of unaccompanied minors in a federal facility in San Antonio, he said, ‘The Biden administration is presiding over the abuse of children.’ He also called on the administration to shut these facilities down. Instead, the administration has only expanded them without communicating with state or local authorities. Local communities are not told how long the minors will be there, or where they will go when released and with no concern of the impact to local citizens. I am requesting that Congress launch a full investigation into the federal agencies responsible for approving the contracts for these facilities.”

  Among the several examples Rodriguez gave:

  “I have also been a witness to several incidents where children were intentionally put in harm’s way by adults who forced the children into the deadly currents of the Rio Grande instead of walking through a legal port of entry feet above from their crossing point in the river…

  “I also met teenage boys between the ages of 14 to 17, who claimed cartel operatives often transported children through Mexico and held them at bodegas or warehouses where armed cartel members stood guard. Many were told they were going to stay with sponsors in America, with several claims that the teens had never met or personally communicated with their supposed sponsors.

  “Since January 2021, there have been over 356,000 UACs…encountered at the southern border, a majority of which have been released into the U.S.: more than 10,000 of which have been released in my respective area of north Texas.

  “The Biden administration has admitted they do not keep track of their whereabouts when they are released into the U.S. With the use of taxpayer dollars, tens of thousands of children are simply missing.”

  Jessica M. Vaughan also offered detailed testimony,

  “The mass migration crisis instigated by the Biden administration’s misguided immigration policies has caused incalculable harm to American communities, to the integrity of our immigration system, and, tragically, to many of the migrants themselves. These migrants were enticed by these policies to put themselves in risky situations to cross the border illegally, led by criminal smuggling and trafficking organizations, and enabled by government agencies and contractors that have looked the other way at the abuse and exploitation that frequently occurs en route and after resettlement. The most vulnerable group that has been endangered by the Biden policies are the more than 300,000 minors who have arrived on his watch (out of 660,000 total since 2012). They have been carelessly funneled through the custody of U.S. government agencies and contractors, and handed off to very lightly vetted sponsors (who are usually also here illegally) in our communities without regard to their safety and well-being…

  “Several major investigative reports conducted by branches of the U.S. government and news media outlets have documented how U.S. policies and practices have facilitated not only this mass migration episode, but also the resulting exploitation and abuse of the participants, which has been present since the onset of this episode. These studies and reports have exposed numerous incidents of abuse, fraud, and trafficking for the purposes of commercial sex and forced labor.

  “The Florida Grand Jury observed:

  “‘Some ‘children’ are not children at all, but full-grown predatory adults; some are already gang members or criminal actors; others are coerced into prostitution or sexual slavery; some are recycled to be used as human visas by criminal organizations’ some are consigned to relatives who funnel them into sweatshops to pay off the debt accumulated by their trek to this country; some flee their sponsors and return to their country of origin; some are abandoned by their so-called families and become wards of the dependency system, the criminal justice system, or disappear altogether.'”

  Vaughan gave examples of how children are exploited by gang members for sex and other criminal purposes, such as:

  “In the Virginia MS-13 sex trafficking case, after running away from a group home in Fairfax, Va, the teen victims were horribly beaten to initiate them into the gang, and then repeatedly forced to engage in prostitution both to members of the gang and outsiders. From one court document:

  ‘MINOR 2 was sex trafficked by numerous MS-13 gang members and associates shortly after she and MINOR 3 ran away from Shelter Care on August 27, 2018. According to MINOR 2, MINOR 3 informed her that she would engage in sex in exchange for money, food, and other things that MINOR 2 needed’.” ….

  “The Biden administration has implemented policies that incentivize the illegal entry of unaccompanied alien children on a massive scale, to the profit of criminal smugglers and traffickers, even with full knowledge of the risks that such policies will endanger the safety and well-being of the migrant children. Some supporters of these policies have defended them on the belief that they are aiding the reunification of families, providing a safe haven from difficult living environments in their home countries, and even benefiting US employers. On the contrary, I submit that there is no possible rationalization for policies that have facilitated the abuse and exploitation of child migrants on such a large scale for so many years. There is no possible humanitarian or economic motive that could justify or make up for the damage that has been done to the victims by the smugglers, traffickers, abusive sponsors, and even family members who participated in these dreadful arrangements.”

  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis describes what is happening as “effectively the largest human smuggling operation in American history.”

  Senator Josh Hawley referred to the Biden policy “the biggest child smuggling ring and the biggest child labor ring in American history.” He told Fox News not only that the FBI needs to be involved in finding the 85,000 migrant children that the federal government has lost track of, but that the FBI should investigate the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) over their handling of migrant children.

  “This is criminal… The FBI needs to be involved. They need to go find every single one of these kids — 85,000 or more — who are lost. The FBI needs to find them. We need to have an investigation by the FBI into the Homeland Security Department, into HHS to figure out who is facilitating these smuggling rings, are they deliberately not doing their job, are they deliberately or negligently turning these kids over to smugglers? We need to find out. The FBI needs to get on it and launch a full-scale investigation right now.”

  “There is no question,” Vaughan said, “that that the system for processing minors who cross illegally is dysfunctional, and has been for some time, and needs to be fixed.

  “To solve the problem, Congress must change the immigration laws and rein in the executive policies that are incentivizing the mass illegal migration of both adults and minors” What is needed is “more opportunity for state and local governments to investigate and penalize human trafficking and the illegal migration, human smuggling, identity fraud, and illegal employment.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 22:20

• Sex Toy Company Uses ChatGPT To Create 'Euphoric' AI Experience
  Sex Toy Company Uses ChatGPT To Create ‘Euphoric’ AI Experience

  The latest innovation in the sex tech industry comes from Singapore-based company “Lovense,” which has integrated a ChatGPT-powered AI chatbot into an app that enhances users’ experiences. 

  Lovense is known for ‘smart’ sex toys connected to a smartphone and powered by the Lovense Remote app. A new feature was recently added to the app called ‘Advance Lovense ChatGPT Pleasure Companion.’ 

  OpenAI’s ChatGPT API powers Companion, which means users could personalize their in-app and sex toy experience to “their physical and emotional preferences,” the company said. 

  Currently, in beta, TechCrunch said Companion “invites you to indulge in juicy and erotic stories that the chatbot creates based on your selected topic. Lovers of spicy fan fiction never had it this good, is all I’m saying. Once you’ve picked your topics, the Companion will even voice the story and control your Lovense toy while reading it to you.” 

  

  “The tech is clever; give it some parameters, and seconds later, a voice will take you on a journey into the hinterlands. Users can decide what type of story they want — romantic or sensual, juicy or spicy. They can select their main characters and the physical location for where this lurid fantasy will play out,” TechCrunch continued. 

  “Our Advanced Lovense ChatGPT Pleasure Companion now allows you to design a story you want, to embody any of your fantasies or dreams, and to fully immerse you into them.

  “With our Companion’s help, you can now create any stories and explore your sexuality and boundaries completely independently,” Dan Liu, Lovense CEO, wrote in a statement to TechCrunch. 

  After seven months since the launch of ChatGPT, it is truly remarkable to consider that a chatbot now plays a role of a partner in bed. And maybe society is ready for the future, as we noted a few years ago, “40% Of People Would Have Sex With Humanoid Robot.” And even mentioned in 2017, “24% Of American Men Would Have Sex With A Robot.”

  Having sex with robots or having a chatbot control a sex toy while whispering sweet obscenities to the user will not fix the demographic collapse happening across major global economies. 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 22:00

• Are The Inmates Now Running The World?
  Are The Inmates Now Running The World?

  Authored by John Leake via Peter McCullough’s ‘Courageous Discourse” substack,

  For several years I’ve been turning over in my mind an idea that initially struck me as far-fetched, but now strikes me as a distinct possibility.

  Could it be that people suffering from some degree of mental illness are now heavily influencing or even directing cultural, political, and economic affairs?

  

  The Vienna Narrenturm is the oldest insane asylum in Europe.

  To put it more bluntly, are we now being governed by lunatics?

  I’d already been pondering this for some time when I stumbled across an essay that Carl Jung wrote in 1957 titled “The Plight of the Individual in Modern Society.”

  His opening reflections strike me as an apt description of the irrational and destabilizing phenomena we’ve witnessed in recent times.

  “Everywhere in the West there are subversive minorities, who—sheltered by our humanitarianism and our sense of justice—hold the incendiary torches ready, with nothing to stop the spread of their ideas except the critical reason of a single, fairly intelligent, mentally stable stratum of the population. One should not, however, overestimate the thickness of this stratum. It varies from country to country in accordance with national temperament. Also, it is regionally dependent on public education and is subject to the influence of acutely disturbing factors of a political and economic nature.

  “Taking plebiscites as a criterion, one could, at an optimistic estimate, put its upper limit at about 40% of the electorate. A rather more pessimistic view would not be unjustified either, since the gift of reason and critical reflection is not one of man’s outstanding peculiarities. And even where it exists, it proves to be wavering and inconstant, the more so, as a rule, the bigger the political groups are. The mass crushes out the insight and reflection that are still possible with the individual, and this necessarily leads to doctrinaire and authoritarian tyranny if ever the constitutional state should succumb to a fit of weakness.

  “Rational argument can be conducted with some prospect of success only so long as the emotionality of a given situation does not exceed a certain critical degree. If the affective temperature rises above this level, the possibility of reason having any effect ceases, and its place is taken by slogans and chimerical wish fantasies. That is to say, a sort of collective possession results, which rapidly develops into a psychic epidemic.

  “In this state, all those elements whose existence is merely tolerated as asocial under the rule of reason, come to the top. Such individuals are by no means rare curiosities to be met only in prisons and lunatic asylums. For every manifest case of insanity, there are, in my estimation, at least 10 latent cases who seldom get to the point of breaking out openly, but whose views and behavior, for all their appearance of normality, are influenced by unconsciously morbid and perverse factors.

  “There are, of course, no medical statistics on the frequency of latent psychosis, for understandable reasons. But even if their number should amount to less than 10 times that of manifest psychoses and of manifest criminality, the relatively small percentage of the population they represent is more than compensated for by the peculiar dangerousness of these people.

  “Their mental state is that of a collectively excited group ruled by affective judgments and wish fantasies. In a state of collective possession, they are the adapted ones and consequently they feel quite at home in it. They know from their own experience the language of these conditions, and they know how to handle them. Their chimerical ideas, spawned by fanatical resentment, appeal to the collective irrationality and find fruitful soil there, for they express all those motives and resentments which lurk in more normal people under the cloak of reason and insight. They are, therefore, despite their small number in comparison with the population as a whole, dangerous sources of infection, precisely because the so-called normal person possesses only a limited degree of self knowledge.”

  With each passing month, I go back and review these reflections, and it now seems to me that they present an almost perfect description of what we are witnessing today.

  Take just about every major public policy issue—the pandemic response, the vaccine cult, the war in Ukraine, and now the transgender cult—and note the profound irrationality of it.

  Common sense, reason, restraint, prudence, and circumspection – all seem to be constantly subverted by aggressive and disordered people.

  At dinner a few nights ago, an old friend suggested that the world is NOT run by crazy people, but by greedy, philistine opportunists who are not constrained by ethical considerations. They are adept at spotting social trends and ruthlessly exploiting them as a means of amassing wealth and power.

  My friend’s suggestion reminded me of the novel “Catch-22,” which Joseph Heller wrote around the same time that Jung composed his reflections.

  As the novel’s protagonist, Captain John Yossarian, remarks:

  “It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 21:40

• CDC 'Chestfeeding' Guidance Fails To Consider Hormone Risk To Infants
  CDC ‘Chestfeeding’ Guidance Fails To Consider Hormone Risk To Infants

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have come under fire over advice for transgender and non-binary parents seeking guidance on how to “chestfeed” their infants.

  

  Several sections of the CDC’s website advise those who have had gender-reassignment surgeries, or biological men taking hormones to grow breasts, how to commit child abuse to satisfy their fetish which couldn’t possibly nourish a child. Several doctors, however have criticized the agency for failing to address the risk posed to children who drink milk produced by chemicals used in gender-reassignment medical operations.

  In the CDC website’s section on “Health Equity Considerations” – found under its “Infant and Young Child Feeding Toolkit,” the center declared that “Transgender and nonbinary-gendered individuals may give birth and breastfeed or feed at the chest (chestfeed).“

  It also stated that “The gender identity or expression of transgender individuals is different from their sex at birth,” and that, “the gender identity of nonbinary-gendered individuals does not fit neatly into either man or woman.”

  Under the CDC website’s section on “Breast Feeding,” specifically an entry covering breastfeeding for those who have undergone breast surgery, the institute mentioned “chestfeeding.”  –Fox News

  The CDC asks: “Can transgender parents who have had breast surgery breastfeed or chestfeed their infants?” To which it replied “yes,” followed by an explanation.

  “Some transgender parents who have had breast/top surgery may wish to breastfeed, or chestfeed (a term used by some transgender and non-binary parents), their infants,” the website claims without evidence. “Healthcare providers working with these families should be familiar with medical, emotional, and social aspects of gender transitions to provide optimal family-centered care and meet the nutritional needs of the infant.”

  The site suggests that transgender parents “may need help with” maximizing milk production, and recommends supplementing with pasteurized donor human milk, or formula. It also notes that medication exists to induce lactation, and recommends avoiding medications that may inhibit or suppress lactation.

  

  The Daily Mail spoke with several doctors who criticized the CDC – one of whom, Dr. Jane Orient, told the outlet: “The CDC has a responsibility to talk about the health risks, but they have been derelict in doing that.”

  Orient also said “we have no idea what the long-term effects on the child will be” if trans parents are using “all kinds of off-label hormones.”

  New York-based internal medicine physician, Dr. Stuart Fischer, told the Mail that it’s “very hard to believe” that breast milk naturally-occurring in a biological female is the same as breast milk induced in a biological man – and that he’s uncertain how the latter form of breast milk would affect infants.

  “If it’s been tested a handful of times, how would we know the long-range effect? The short-term is one thing, but the long-term in terms of physical and mental illness…”

  “It’s an emerging field, to put it mildly,” he added.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 21:20

• The Opioid Crisis Reflects A Failure Of Public Policy – It's Time To Change Course
  The Opioid Crisis Reflects A Failure Of Public Policy – It’s Time To Change Course

  Authored by Susan Martinuk via The Epoch Times,

  What is the end goal of a policy that deals with drug addiction?

  

  That’s the key question that political leaders and societal stakeholders should be considering as they announce ever more alarming initiatives in an attempt to limit the number of drug-overdose deaths across Canada.

  After all, in the end, there are only two possible outcomes:

  • The first is to continue to maintain a small slice of society that wanders about aimlessly in “pharmaceutical oblivion” and remains wholly dependent on society for drugs, money, medical care, food, and shelter. They are stripped of all human dignity and unable to contribute positively to society.

  • The second option is getting addicts into treatment. Nurturing them through detox, treatment, healing, and renewal. Getting them to a place where their dignity is restored, and they become active members of society.

  Now tell me—which is the most compassionate choice?

  British Columbia, the epicentre of the epidemic, had 272 overdose deaths in 2001 and 474 in 2015. In 2022, there were 2,272. Nationally, there were 2,830 overdose deaths in 2016; that number jumped to 7,328 (an average of 20 per day) in 2022.

  One thing is glaringly obvious—what we are doing is not working.

  In B.C., the Vancouver safe injection site (SIS) has been in place for the past 20 years. Now there are dozens of SISs across the country. There are safe supply initiatives that hand over hydromorphone pills, a highly addictive narcotic, like candy despite indications that users are selling them to make money to buy fentanyl, a drug that packs more of a punch.

  Marijuana (considered harmless by some and a not-so-harmless, entry-level drug by others) has been legalized and possession of small amounts of hard drugs has been decriminalized.

  Yet the drug overdose numbers keep climbing.

  Many political leaders say we have to consider addiction as a medical issue. But there is nothing but rampant failure if we look at the health outcomes that stem from these supposedly progressive drug policies. Carrying on with these same measures should be a non-starter.

  As a result, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) has descended into the kind of hell that has small businesses and locals on edge. Serious assaults and property crime have increased; businesses are closing, and some say their workers are afraid to walk home at night. Tent encampments, public defecation, needles on sidewalks, and general degradation of the living space have made the DTES a no-go zone for most of the city’s citizens. Even Canada Post has refused to deliver mail to parts of the DTES because of concerns for the health and safety of its workers.

  All of this is a consequence of the broad initiative known as “harm reduction.” Yet our political leaders seem determined to stay the course in spite of the grim results.

  In May, the Liberal government (along with the NDP and Bloc Quebecois) defeated a federal Conservative party motion to halt the safe supply of drugs. Carolyn Bennett, federal minister of mental health and addictions, has said that harm reduction is necessary to reduce the “stigma, the fear and shame” that keeps drug users silent and “prioritizes the dignity and safety” of users.

  Apparently, that’s the best justification she has for federal policies, yet, based on the escalating number of deaths alone, it is clear that harm reduction is failing miserably at upholding the dignity and safety of drug users.

  A just-released Leger survey shows that most Canadians are also fed up with harm reduction measures. Just 33 percent of Canadians support the decriminalization of street drugs (opioids, cocaine, meth, and ecstasy). A significant majority want a greater focus on prosecuting those who bring drugs into the community (86 percent), more policing (72 percent), and tougher laws prohibiting street drug use (69 percent).

  Seven in 10 Canadians (71 percent) support involuntary treatment programs where addicts are required to attend addictions counselling in exchange for a safe supply of drugs.

  In sum, Canadians are fed up.

  Our political leaders and their harm reduction policies have failed us, our communities, and most of all, our drug-addicted souls who are given every opportunity to use—but very few opportunities to get help.

  It’s time to invest in detox beds and treatment centres. It’s time to talk about involuntary treatment programs. It’s time to establish education and work programs that get addicts back into the real world—that is where they will find dignity, safety, and healing.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 21:00

• Middle-Class 'Persistent Angst' Over Economy May Sink Biden In 2024
  Middle-Class ‘Persistent Angst’ Over Economy May Sink Biden In 2024

  Last week, President Joe Biden told a rowd in Chicago that “Bidenomics is about building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down,” as he laid out his (aides’) vision of an economic boom fueled by a surge in taxpayer-funded investments.

  

  Except, as Bloomberg notes, Biden has a middle-class problem.

  Among the 100 million Americans with annual incomes between $45,000 and $180,000 and wealth between $100,000 and $1 million, polling commissioned by Bloomberg News shows persistent angst about the future.

  The post-pandemic surge in inflation and the Federal Reserve’s reaction — the fastest increase in interest rates since the 1980s — have combined to put the middle class in a financial vice grip. They pay more for everything — food, homes, cars, energy — while the end of the easy-money era means loans, too, are more costly.

  And the bottom line: “More than $2 trillion in wealth held by the middle class has been eliminated since the Fed started hiking,” according to data compiled by UC Berkeley.

  Meanwhile, just 39% of the middle class say they expect their situation to improve over the next year, according to a Harris Poll commissioned by Bloomberg at the end of March and then again at the end of June.

  

  An now, given that the moratorium on student loan repayments ending in October, coupled with the Supreme Court tossing the Biden administration’s unconstitutional bid to relieve as much as $20,000 in student loans per borrower, many economists think we’re in for a recession before the 2024 election.

  Even the Biden administration acknowledges the anxiety among the American middle class.

  “People are the best arbiters of their experience and their sentiment. And no one here is trying to tell them anything other than that,” said Jared Bernstein, chair of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers. “However, what this president has done objectively has turned this economy around, has created opportunities in the job market like we’ve never seen before, and has planted the seeds for a much more inclusive economic future for the middle class.”

  Sure Jared. Reversing the economy-killing government lockdowns had nothing to do with it.

  Bloomberg conducted two dozen interviews with middle class voters, and found that the common theme was a feeling of vulnerability that’s at complete odds with the historic lows in unemployment.

  Meet Ron Davis, who enjoys a comfortable life in the suburbs of Minneapolis with his wife, Monica. 

  

  According to Bloomberg:

  The business executive and his wife both drive a Mercedes and bought a Mini for their 21-year-old daughter last year. In 2021 they refinanced their mortgage and what little they owe on the four-bedroom home they bought almost two decades ago to take advantage of historically low interest rates. At age 56, Davis says some savvy investments mean he could afford to retire early if he needed to.

  But he hasn’t escaped the anxiety. Davis was laid off by tech company GoDaddy Inc. in February, the second time he’d lost his job in the past 18 months. (The first came when hotel chain Radisson in 2021 laid him off from his job running its loyalty program in North and South America as its business collapsed because of the pandemic.)

  Davis remains relentlessly upbeat about his own economic situation despite having watched his investments and retirement savings lose a third of their value since the onset of the pandemic.

  And yet, all around him, Davis sees signs of his peers teetering.

  “That middle class, it feels like that’s where it’s really hurting,” he says.

  And while the long-predicted recession has yet to materialize, the wealth boom experienced from January 2020 until the Fed started raising interest rates in March of 2022, is over. Since then, the inflation-adjusted value of assets held by the middle class has fallen 6% or $2.4 trillion, per Berkeley. This translates to roughly $34,000 per middle-class adult.

  This squeeze, between declining wealth and rising costs of living, has been showing up as apprehension in polls – as just 46% of middle-class Republicans responding that their personal financial situation is better than it was five years ago, vs. 64% of Democrats. Just 35% of Republicans say they expect things to improve over the next year vs. 43% of Democrats.

  

  “I save every bit that I can,” says 56-year-old retired police officer, Tammy Pearson of Granbury, Texas near Fort Worth. Pearson says she’s watched her retirement savings lose 25% of its value in recent years.

  “It was really scary retiring right after he became president,” she said, referring to Biden. “I almost did not retire because I was afraid this was going to happen. My husband said we just need to have faith and hope for the best.“

  Most of the wealth destruction has been on paper, between declining home values or the daily market swings of retirement accounts which won’t be touched for many years. But cashflow problems abound.

  By the middle of 2022, middle-class households were spending $8,000 more each year than in 2019, before the pandemic — much of it on essentials, like housing, transportation and food, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer expenditure data.

  For almost 27 million middle-class households in the US, those expenditures also outstripped their salaries, causing them to lean even more on debt and gig work to pay the bills. -Bloomberg

  During the pandemic, all sorts of household costs skyrocketed. For example, the cost to own and operate a new vehicle breached $10,000 per year for the first time in 2022, per AAA, while household spending on transportation, which includes gas, is up 16.5% in just the past year. The monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home with a 10% down payment is nearly double what it was in early 2021 at $2,342.

  

  To cope with the rising costs of living, homeowners are now tapping into their housing wealth more often – as HELOC balances rose by $3 billion in Q1 2023, marking the fourth straight quarter of increases after nearly 13 years of declines.

  To that end, the middle class has become increasingly leveraged – holding some $7.8 trillion of the $18.3 trillion of debt owed by US households at the end of last year. This is $1 trillion more than it was at the end of 2019.

  So, while Biden continues to brag about the monumental jobs recovery since the pandemic, a recession would take whatever wind remains out of his 2024 sails – as even a relatively modest 1% rise in the unemployment rate would mean 1.6 million Americans losing their jobs. An the layoffs have already begun in finance, tech and most recently, manufacturing – with white-collar, middle-class workers feeling the pain.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 20:40

• Mark Levin Says Target Won't Sell His Book Due To Concerns Liberal Customers May Get "Offended"
  Mark Levin Says Target Won’t Sell His Book Due To Concerns Liberal Customers May Get “Offended”

  Authored by Naveen Anthrapully via The Epoch Times,

  Conservative radio personality Mark Levin’s upcoming book has been banned from sale by Target as the mega retail chain was reportedly worried the book would offend Democrats.

  “Target has informed my publisher, Simon & Schuster, that it will not carry my new book when it is released on Sept. 19,” Mr. Levin said in a July 6 tweet.

  The book is titled, “The Democrat Party Hates America.”

  According to Mr. Levin, Target “claims that certain customers might be offended by the title. Imagine that! So, the corporatist leftwing censorship begins.”

  The Epoch Times reached out to Target to verify the claim.

  

  According to the book’s description, Mr. Levin characterizes the Democrat Party as an entity that “set out to rewrite history and destroy the foundation of freedom in America” since its establishment.

  Some people justified Target’s book banning. “Can’t imagine why they didn’t want this screaming at their shoppers. Really unfair man,” Ryan Grim, the Washington, D.C., bureau chief at news outlet The Intercept, said in a July 6 tweet while responding to Mr. Levin.

  James Surowiecki, author of “The Wisdom of Crowds,” also put up a similar argument.

  “Not surprising Target isn’t interested in selling a book the title of which slurs a huge chunk of its customer base,” he said in a tweet.

  However, many people spoke out in support of Mr. Levin and against the book censorship imposed by Target.

  “Let’s give @marklevinshow a big lift here. I’ve read every book he’s written and listen to his show routinely. This is simply another form of censorship. #WeThePeople are going to stand our ground and say ENOUGH is ENOUGH!” former National Security advisor Mike Flynn said in a tweet.

  “Target reminding conservatives not to shop there, in case tuck-friendly swimsuits and chest-binders for Pride Month weren’t enough,” Brent Bozell, founder of Media Research Center, said in a July 6 tweet.

  Boycotting Target

  Boycott calls against Target were triggered after the retail chain rolled out its Pride collection at the beginning of May. Among the many Pride offerings, some were aimed at children.

  For example, books for kids aged 2–8 had titles like “Pride 1,2,3,” “Bye Bye, Binary,” and “I’m Not a Girl.” Target also suggested “The Pronoun Book” to kids aged 0–3. In home décor, Target offered mugs labeled “Gender Fluid.” It also offered transgender swimsuits for adults with a “tuck-friendly” feature.

  In an interview with Fox News in early June, former Target vice chairman Gerald Storch said that the boycott calls against the retail chain were triggered by a single item—the tuck-friendly swimsuit.

  “I’ve never seen a case where one item, that tuck swimsuit, that’s really what made the difference versus the competitors. That’s where the big mistake [was] made,” he said.

  

  A woman protests outside of a Target store in Miami, Fla., on June 1, 2023. The protesters were objecting to “Pride Month” merchandise at Target. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

  By refusing to sell Mr. Levin’s book, Target can end up adding more fuel to the fire of discontent among conservative shoppers, thus negatively affecting the chain.

  “Another good reason not to shop at Target,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) said in a July 6 tweet.

  Ever since the Pride Month controversy and boycott, Target’s valuations have suffered. Between May 1 and July 3, the company’s market capitalization fell from $72.42 billion to $62.16 billion, a decline of $10.26 billion, or over 14 percent. During this period, Target’s share price fell from $157.12 to $134.86.

  Target has also been hit with a series of downgrades. In early June, Citi analyst Paul Lejuez predicted that Target’s rival Walmart will begin to take over the market share and lowered the company’s share rating from Buy to Neutral. Earlier, JPMorgan Chase had also downgraded Target’s shares.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 20:20

• Exxon Struggles To Attract Trader Talent, Compete With Wall Street Bonuses
  Exxon Struggles To Attract Trader Talent, Compete With Wall Street Bonuses

  Exxon is having trouble attracting traders because it can’t compete with Wall Street’s performance based bonuses.

  The supermajor “is hiring traders and support staff for its new global trading division”, according to a new Bloomberg report, but is having trouble attracting talented traders because it pays them similar to how it pays engineers.

  On Wall Street, the standard is that traders who perform well can often win millions in performance based bonuses. Exxon is paying its traders with “regular salaries topped up with small stock awards for top performers and benefits such as a traditional pension”, the report says. 

  Exxon has been toying with the idea of changing how it compensates traders since 2018 but has yet to implement such changes. Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods has said publicly that its traders won’t make “speculative bets”, indicating that the company’s risk tolerance will likely be far less than Wall Street firms and prop shops. 

  He said he hopes to grow at a “very thoughtful, controlled pace,” Bloomberg reported. Also differentiating itself from Wall Street, Exxon has said its traders won’t just be evaluated on their trading acumen, but also on skills “like leadership and teamwork”. 

  “We’ve been in business for more than 140 years and fully understand the necessity of having competitive and innovative compensation to retain and attract the right talent. We apply that principle to all parts of our business, including the newly formed trading group,” the company told Bloomberg. 

  

  Nonetheless, the pay environment on Wall Street is going to make it difficult for traders see the appeal of working at Exxon. One trader left this year due to uncertainty about pay plans and a second trader told Bloomberg that “pay helped drive the departures of multiple US crude traders and some analysts”.

  “We’ll always look to make sure we can both attract and retain talent. We’ll adjust the compensation schemes wherever we see fit,” Senior Vice President Neil Chapman said in the first quarter of this year. 

  On Wall Street, the opposite trend is taking place. Recall, over the last 18 months we have made note of how competitive Wall Street firms have gotten with attracting and retaining talent.

  Just days ago we wrote about how some interns at Citadel were making upwards of $120 an hour. We wrote then, citing Bloomberg, that U.S. median intern pay was up 19% at 16 firms where compensation data was analyzed. Prop firms and hedge funds saw even larger increases, with hourly pay up 29% year over year to $111/hour, or $4,400 gross for a 40 hour work week.

  Nowhere is the change more evident than at Citadel and Citadel Securities, where intern pay rose 25% to $120 per hour this year, amounting to about $19,200 per month before taxes. As a result, Ken Griffin’s juggernaut received more than 69,000 applications for their 2023 internship program. 

  This marked a 65% increase, year over year, in intern applications. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 20:00

• Xi Jinping's Blueprint For A China-Centric World Order
  Xi Jinping’s Blueprint For A China-Centric World Order

  Authored by The Jamestown Foundation via OilPrice.com,

  • The PRC Law on Foreign Relations, enacted by President Xi Jinping, aims to strengthen China’s global position and challenge the Western-led world order.

  • This law also enshrines Xi’s control over diplomatic and national security policies and introduces legal measures for retaliation against perceived threats to China’s interests.

  • Critics argue that the law could harm China’s international image, particularly with global businesses, and raises questions about Beijing’s commitment to international laws and norms.

  Chinese President Xi Jinping has promulgated a new law on foreign affairs to legitimize tough measures that Beijing is taking against the “bullying” of the “hegemonic West.” The statute, “The Law on Foreign Relations of the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” which took effect on July 1, will also anchor the supreme leader’s long-standing aspiration to build a China-centric global order that will challenge the framework established by the US-led Western Alliance since the end of World War II. The law also codifies the total control that Xi, who is Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and Chairman of its Central Military Commission (CMC), exercises on all policies regarding diplomacy and national security (People’s Daily, June 30; Xinhua, June 28). The law states that the PRC “stays true to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable global security, and endeavors to strengthen international security cooperation and its participation in mechanisms of global security governance.” It stresses Beijing’s right to “take corresponding countermeasures and restrictive measures” against acts that violate international law and norms and that “endanger China’s sovereignty, security and development interests.” The official Global Times said the statute was a response to “new challenges in foreign relations, especially when China has been facing frequent external interference in its internal affairs under the western hegemony with unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction” (The Global Times, June 28). The legislation legalizes measures such as counter-sanctions and blacklisting of foreign nationals and institutions in retaliation against similar measures that the US and other Western countries have taken against PRC firms (New York Times Chinese Edition, December 16, 2022).

  

  Observers have noted, however, that the latest demonstration of Beijing’s alleged “wolf warrior diplomacy” could hurt China’s international image, particularly among multinationals still interested in the PRC market (China Briefing, June 29). Earlier this year, the promulgation of a counter-espionage law already places businesspeople from different countries in a potentially compromising situation (South China Morning Post, June 17). This is due to the fact that Beijing has its own and unique interpretations of what constitutes “spying” or “leaking of state secrets.” Public security authorities have since the spring cracked down on a number of multinational due diligence companies as well as firms that handle accounting and other sensitive financial data of Chinese concerns. The CCP administration has also restricted the activities of American IT firm Micron in an apparent tit-for-tat response to Washington’s efforts to punish Chinese IT firms with links to national security and military units (Indopremier.com, July 1; fdiintelligence.com, May 10).

  Yet another problem raised by foreign governments and China-based chambers of commerce is that while the new law claims that Beijing abides by the charters of the United Nations as well as all international law, well-known global practices such as freedom of information, disclosure of the holdings of shareholders and open bidding for contracts are not often observed by PRC cadres. Moreover, the Xi leadership’s emphasis on respecting the territorial integrity of nations big and small seems to be at variance with its refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) no-holds-barred flexing of its muscle in the Taiwan Strait, the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea also detracts from Beijing’s commitment to upholding international laws and global norms. The PRC’s claims to owning 90 percent of the South China Sea has been repeatedly challenged by UN and authoritative international law bodies such as Court of Final Appeal in the Hague (SCMP, June 17; Center for Strategic and International Studies, May 11).

  It is understood that the Xi administration wants to demonstrate China’s diplomatic clout at a time when it is meeting setbacks on various foreign-policy fronts. The so-called “coup attempt” by the Wagner mercenary group against the Kremlin in late June has undermined the strength of Russia in general and President Vladimir Putin in particular (abc.net.au, June 27). While Beijing has continued to offer rhetorical support to Moscow, the declining power of the Russian Federation – seen as a key ally in Xi’s apparent bid to set up an “axis of autocratic states” that includes countries grouped under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS mechanism – has hurt Beijing’s ability to counter the challenge of the US and its allies in Europe and Asia (Radio Free Asia, June 29; Radio French International, June 27). The enhanced defense cooperation between the US and India which was reached during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last month (June) has also hurt Beijing’s apparent efforts to prevent India from becoming part of what it sees as a “Asia NATO” (Zaobao.com.sg, June 26; Radio French International, June 26; VOAChinese, January 23). India is a long-standing member of the Quad Group of nations (US, India, Japan and Australia) whose aim includes curbing Chinese expansionism in the Indo-Pacific Region. Instances of defense cooperation between India on the one hand, and Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines on the other, have also increased exponentially.

  The Xi administration’s tough response to the “anti-China containment policy” supposedly spearheaded by Washington seems to contradict efforts by Beijing to reassure multinationals that the PRC will continue to push forward the open-door policy begun by Great Architect of Reform Deng Xiaoping in 1978. At the opening of the “Summer Davos” global forum in Tianjin in late June, Premier Li Qiang, deemed a protégé of Xi’s, appealed to particularly Western investors to come to the PRC. “The world economy is in a critical phase of upheaval,” Li said. “We should not return to isolation” (Deutsche Welle Chinese, June 28; Xinhua, June 27). However, Li, whose portfolio is the Chinese economy, did not spell out new measures to attract foreign capital. Promises made earlier by Beijing regarding the liberalization of control of foreign-exchange movements and other measures deemed to restrict the business opportunities of multinationals have yet to be honored.

  International observers have raised the question of whether the Foreign Relations Law is mainly geared toward consolidating Xi’s Mao-like status as “core of the party for life.” According to Sinologist Minxin Pei, while the statute “provides Beijing a legal instrument to impose sanctions on its adversaries in the future…  Beijing does not need this legal instrument to punish its adversaries” (Note 1). Recent clampdowns exercised by the Xi leadership against American companies and other multinationals show the CCP administration already possesses a formidable toolbox to retaliate against sanctions that Western countries have imposed on the PRC. Coming hot upon the heels of the “insurrection” by the Wagner Group in Moscow, the added authority that the new law has given Xi seems an indication that the supreme leader wants additional guarantees against real and potential threats to his “core for life” status (Foreign Affairs Chinese, September 6, 2022). Indeed, since the days of late chairman Mao Zedong and master reformer Deng Xiaoping, the tradition has been well-established that the No. 1 leader in the party has sole responsibilities in formulating foreign and national-security policies, particularly regarding major countries and regions such as the US, Russia, Japan and the EU.

  In light of Xi’s controversial decisions to back up his good friend Vladimir Putin and to engage in breakneck competition with the US-led “anti-China” coalition, it is possible that the top Chinese leader feels the need to take cover under a new legislation. In the past few months, Chinese social media has circulated many voices in opposition to Xi’s support of the Putin war effort against Ukraine. According to the Japanese pollster Genron-npo, “over half of Chinese people are either opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or feel it is wrong.” Additionally, Chinese social media has circulated a note said to be written by former vice-foreign minister Fu Ying opposing the CCP administration’s vehement anti-US stance. Ambassador Fu reportedly raised the question of “which countries will stand with China once it is mired in ferocious confrontation with the Americans.” (Aljazeera, March 31; VOAChinese, March 29; Genron-npo-net, November 30, 2022). While the most urgent problems facing young and old Chinese concern unemployment and the diminution of social-security benefits, Xi might want to divert attention from domestic economic woes to his alleged overseas achievements.

  From more perspectives than one, then, the Law on Foreign Relations serves to legitimize – and reinforce – foreign policy goals set by Xi since he came to power in 2012. These have included the “Great renaissance of the Chinese nation” (which includes a much bigger say for China in setting rules of the road in areas stretching from finance to global geopolitics); the Belt and Road Initiative; and the construction of an alliance of non-Western states which find themselves constrained by the US-led world order. To the extent that Chinese ambitions to be at the front ranks of technology, including semiconductors and AI, have been frustrated by boycotts imposed by the US and its allies, Xi’s ambitious power projection has met with formidable pushback. The BRI has for the past three years performed poorly due to the failure of Chinese banks and conglomerates to adequately finance cross-continental projects whose economic viability is doubtful. The displays of assertiveness by both Moscow and Beijing has consolidated defense cooperation among NATO states – as well as efforts by NATO leaders to boost defense cooperation with American allies in Asia such as Japan and South Korea. Irrespective of the success of the Law on Foreign Relations, it has indirectly shown up the vulnerability of President Xi’s fire-spitting, highly ambitious foreign-policy goals.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 19:40

• A Large Iranian Drone Plant Is Already Up & Running Inside Russia
  A Large Iranian Drone Plant Is Already Up & Running Inside Russia

  Russia already has an Iranian drone manufacturing facility up and running on its soil, in close cooperation with Tehran, which appears consistent with the US intelligence warnings of prior months.

  “Russia’s covert drone partnership with Iran has included close co-operation on a new factory in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, where Moscow has converted an agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle maker to supply its war effort in Ukraine,” Financial Times writes in a new investigative report.

  

  The facility location is very close to Kazan, Russia’s fifth largest city and among the country’s high-tech manufacturing hubs. Albatross, the Russian company overseeing the facility, advertises itself as an agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle maker primarily focused on farm tech, but is believed to have recently been more deeply involved in military applications for its drones.

  While Iran’s kamikaze ‘Shahed’ loitering drones have already been deployed in the hundreds on the Ukrainian battlefield and over cities, FT’s reporting did not suggest Shahed’s were being produced at the new Tatarstan plant. Instead, at least 50 new Albatros M5 long-range reconnaissance drones have been supplied thus far to Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine. 

  These Russian-Iranian drone initiatives are expected to expand, given that as the report underscores there’s been a noticeable recruitment effort underway for Albatros company to gain more UAV engineers, scientists, and even technicians that can speak Farsi.

  FT writes, in reference to the name of the specific business park where the manufacturing facility has been established:

  In addition, they found the business park has also posted advertisements for Farsi interpreters who will be required to travel, perform simultaneous translation and translate technical documents.

  In June, the White House issued satellite photographs that identified two buildings in the Alabuga zone area as a key part of Iran’s attempts to help Moscow increase its drone capacity. “We are also concerned that Russia is working with Iran to produce Iranian UAVs from inside Russia,” said John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesperson.

  Kirby had further warned at the time, “This is a full-scale defense partnership that is harmful to Ukraine, to Iran’s neighbors, and to the international community.” He explained, “We are continuing to use all the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities including by sharing this with the public — and we are prepared to do more.”

  

  The United States and its Western allies have further been concerned that Iran’s growing and increasingly sophisticated military drone arsenal is proliferating elsewhere. For example, as FT cites, “Iranian UAVs — including earlier versions of the Shahed drones — have been used by the Houthi rebels in Yemen and by the Ethiopian government against Tigrayan rebels in 2021.”

  And now, Iranian drones manufactured in Russia, and with the significant resources that Moscow can bring, signals and even greater proliferation of Iranian UAVs and capabilities. 

  

  Throughout the invasion of Ukraine which started February 24, 2022, Russia has proven itself able to circumvent Washington sanctions and attempts to isolate Moscow globally with ease by deepening partnerships with other ‘official enemies’ and rivals of the US like China and Iran.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 19:20

• CNN Host: We Should Yield To Government Censorship Demands
  CNN Host: We Should Yield To Government Censorship Demands

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  As a long-standing free speech advocate, the last few years have been alarming and, frankly, depressing. The censorship efforts of the government are, unfortunately, not new.  However, what is new is the support of the media and the Democratic Party in such censorship. That was on display on various channels after the recent opinion finding that the Biden Administration had violated the First Amendment in “the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.” However, the New York Times immediately warned that the outbreak of free speech could “curtail efforts to combat disinformation.”

  Yet, no one expressed more simply and chillingly than CNN Chief White House Correspondent Phil Mattingly who stated that it “makes sense” for tech companies to go along with government censorship demands.

  

  Mattingly admitted that social media platforms “more often than not” gave in to the censorship demands by the Biden administration. However, he insisted that it “makes sense,” and is “probably what we should do on public health grounds.”

  “[T]he Biden administration would regularly reach out to Twitter and Facebook and other companies in kind of the early stages of their COVID response and say, this person is spreading lies about vaccines, this account is spreading misinformation that is inhibiting — not just our efforts, the administration’s efforts to address COVID — but also public health, do something about it. And often, I think more often than not, the companies would respond and say, okay. And there are emails that came out during the course of this case that that was something that I think — when it was explained to me at the time, I thought, alright, that makes sense, that’s probably what we should do on public health grounds.”

  What is striking is not just the blind acceptance that the government should be protecting us from harmful thoughts. It is also the failure to recognize that the government was wrong on many of these points while experts were being banned and blacklisted.

  Many people were routinely censored on Twitter and other platforms for daring to challenge the official position on masks.

  The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) initially rejected the use of a mask mandate. However, the issue became a political weapon as politicians and the press claimed that questioning masks was anti-science and even unhinged. In April 2020, the CDC reversed its position and called for the masking of the entire population, including children as young as 2 years old.  The mask mandate and other pandemic measures like the closing of schools are now cited as fueling emotional and developmental problems in children.

  The closing of schools and businesses was also challenged by some critics as unnecessary. Many of those critics were also censored. It now appears that they may have been right. Many countries did not close schools and did not experience increases in Covid. However, we are now facing alarming drops in testing scores and alarming rises in medical illness among the young.

  Masks became a major social and political dividing line in politics and the media.

  Maskless people were chased from stores and denounced in Congress. Then-CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said during a Senate hearing that “face masks are the most important powerful health tool we have.”

  However, there are now ample studies stating that “a new scientific review suggests that widespread masking may have done little to nothing to curb the transmission of COVID.” It added that “wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness (nine studies; 276,917 people); and probably makes little or no difference in how many people have flu/COVID confirmed by a laboratory test (six studies; 13,919 people).”

  It also found little evidence of a difference from wearing better masks and that “wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu (five studies; 8407 people); and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness (five studies; 8407 people), or respiratory illness (three studies; 7799 people).”

  Again, I expect that these studies will be debated for years. That is a good thing. There are questions raised over the types of studies used and whether randomized studies are sufficient. The point is only that there were countervailing indicators on mask efficacy and a basis to question the mandates. Yet, there was no real debate because of the censorship supported by many Democratic leaders in social media. To question such mandates was declared a public health threat.

  The head of the World Health Organization even supported censorship to combat what he called an “infodemic.”

  Scientists previously objected to the suspension of Dr. Clare Craig after she raised concerns about Pfizer trial documents. Those doctors were the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for a more focused Covid response that targeted the most vulnerable population rather than widespread lockdowns and mandates. Many are now questioning the efficacy and cost of the massive lockdown as well as the real value of masks or the rejection of natural immunities as an alternative to vaccination.  Yet, these experts and others were attacked for such views just a year ago. Some found themselves censored on social media for challenging claims of Dr. Fauci and others.

  The media has quietly acknowledged the science questioning mask efficacy and school closures without addressing its own role in attacking those who raised these objections. Even raising the lab theory on the origin of Covid 19 (a theory now treated as plausible) was denounced as a conspiracy theory. The science and health reporter for the New York Times, Apoorva Mandavilli,  even denounced the theory as “racist.”

  Yet, Mattingly and others are defending censorship by repeating a tautology: the government must seek the censorship of ideas because some ideas must be censored.  Governments have always claimed that censorship of critics and dissenters is for the public’s best interest. They have always defined certain views as harmful or false.

  Now, however, major media figures are shrugging off free speech concerns and supporting censorship as what former CNN media host CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter called a “harm reduction model.” While once fiercely opposed to censorship and government-supported blacklists, many in the media are echoing Mattingly’s view that the natural default should be to obey the government and its directions on permitted speech. After all, this is all for our own protection. Censorship just “makes sense.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 19:00

• NYC Mayor Fabricated 'Coffee-Stained' Photo Of Fallen Officer To Peddle Political Lie
  NYC Mayor Fabricated ‘Coffee-Stained’ Photo Of Fallen Officer To Peddle Political Lie

  New York City Mayor Eric Adams had his office staff fabricate a photo of a black police officer, complete with coffee stains, for a political stunt, the NY Times reports.

  

  During his first month in office, Adams – a former police campaign who campaigned on fighting crime, found himself confronted with the death of two NYPD officers who were responding to a domestic disturbance in Harlem.

  “I still think about Robert,” said Adams during a City Hall press conference, referring to the 1987 death of Officer Robert Venable. “I keep a picture of Robert in my wallet.“

  One week after making that statement, Adams posed for a portrait in his office holding the wallet-size photo of Venable after the Times requested to see it. He has since repeated the anecdote in various interviews and at a Police Academy ceremony last June.

  

  Except the photo was doctored – fake coffee stains and all, according to Adams’ staff which ratted him out.

  [T]he weathered photo of Officer Venable had not actually spent decades in the mayor’s wallet. It had been created by employees in the mayor’s office in the days after Mr. Adams claimed to have been carrying it in his wallet.

  The employees were instructed to create a photo of Officer Venable, according to a person familiar with the request. A picture of the officer was found on Google; it was printed in black-and-white and made to look worn as if the mayor had been carrying it for some time, including by splashing some coffee on it, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. -NYT

  Adams told the Times that he carried the photo in his wallet until it ‘became too bulky,’ after which he started carrying it in a money clip. In other news. Adams uses an office supply clip to hold money.

  

  Adams’ spokesman, Fabien Levy, insisted that Adams had indeed carried the photo of Venable for decades, and said the Times was on a “campaign to paint the mayor as a liar.”

  “The Times’s efforts to attack the mayor here would be laughable if it were not so utterly offensive,” he said in a Wednesday statement.

  After releasing the statement, Mr. Levy ignored repeated requests to elaborate about the authenticity of the photo. He also did not respond to questions about whether the photo was made to look old in part by staining it with coffee.

  As mayor, Mr. Adams frequently shares personal recollections, helping him connect to his working-class base. Many of his stories are difficult to verify, and at times, he has been caught stretching the truth. The mayor, for example, said he was vegan before being forced to admit that he eats fish; he said that a story he told in a 2019 commencement address about intimidating a neighbor was true, but acknowledged it did not happen to him. -NYT

  It’s all part of the show folks, don’t look behind that curtain!

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 18:40

• Former Senior US Officials Held Secret Talks With The Russians
  Former Senior US Officials Held Secret Talks With The Russians

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  A group of former senior US officials has held talks with influential Russians, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an effort to lay the groundwork for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, NBC News reported on Thursday.

  The meeting with Lavrov took place when he was in New York for a UN Security Council meeting back in April. The issues discussed included potential diplomatic off-ramps and the fate of Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory. Throughout the war, there has been no known engagement between the Biden administration and the Russian government on these issues.

  

  The former US officials who met with Lavrov were Richard Haas, a former US diplomat and outgoing president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Charles Kupchan and Charles Graham, who are both fellows for the Council on Foreign Relations.

  Sources told NBC that the discussions have taken place with the knowledge of the Biden administration but not at its direction. The former US officials who met with Lavrov briefed the White House National Security Council about the discussion.

  Other discussions have involved former US officials and people who work at prominent think tanks and research institutions in Russia who are said to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s not clear how often the talks are taking place. In at least one instance, a former US official traveled to Russia as part of the effort.

  Around the time Haas and Kupchan met with Lavrov, they co-authored an article in Foreign Affairs titled “The West Needs a New Strategy in Ukraine”. They suggested that Ukraine retaking all of the Donbas and Crimea does not need to be a goal of the US.

  “Maintaining Ukraine’s existence as a sovereign and secure democracy is a priority, but achieving that goal does not require the country to recover full control of Crimea and the Donbas in the near term,” they said.

  Haas and Kupchan predicted the war in Ukraine would likely turn into a stalemate after Ukraine’s counteroffensive and called for neutral organizations to oversee a ceasefire.

  “Under this approach, Ukraine’s Western supporters would propose a ceasefire as Ukraine’s coming offensive reaches its limits,” they said. “A neutral organization—either the UN or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe—would send in observers to monitor and enforce the ceasefire and pullback.”

  At this point, there’s no indication the Biden administration will push for a ceasefire anytime soon. In early June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has only spoken with Lavrov twice since Russia’s invasion, explicitly came out against a pause in fighting and disparaged other countries that are calling for peace.

  For their part, the Ukrainians insist a ceasefire and peace talks can’t happen until Russia is expelled from all the territory it controls, including Crimea.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 18:20

• Number Of Manhattan Homebuyers Paying All-Cash Hits Record
  Number Of Manhattan Homebuyers Paying All-Cash Hits Record

  All-cash purchases make up a larger portion of transactions in the Manhattan residential housing market for one primary reason: The 30-year fixed rate hovers at 6.75%, or levels not seen since the mid-2000s, deterring homebuyers who take out mortgages because of high borrowing costs. 

  Bloomberg reports, citing data from Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate, that the share of all-cash deals for the second quarter spiked to a new record of 65%, up from 57% in the first quarter. Data goes back to 2014. 

  

  Mortgage rates spiked to two-decade highs in late 2022. The 30-year fixed rate has been range bound since November after rising to 7.16%. The current rate is around 6.85%. 

  

  Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, said the rise of cash buyers “reflects continued relative strength at the upper end of the market that favors cash.”

  While cash sales have soared by 22% compared with the prior quarter, financed transactions fell 18% over the same period. 

  The median transaction for luxury deals in the borough was $6.7 million, up 3.9% from a year earlier. Inventory is still tight, and cash buyers have less to worry about bidding wars because high mortgage rates have sidelined many buyers. 

  What’s notable is that cash buyers can avoid the hit from rising borrowing costs and still make moves in the real estate market, while most homebuyers who rely on financing are paralyzed in the worst housing affordability crisis in a generation. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 18:00

• Doug Casey On Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And Why The Deep State Hates Him
  Doug Casey On Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And Why The Deep State Hates Him

  Via InternationalMan.com,

  International Man: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is challenging Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee for the 2024 election.

  Unlike most Democrats, RFK Jr. is against escalating the war in Ukraine and seems to be generally anti-war. Likewise, he’s not on board with a lot of the woke insanity.

  His support among Democrats is around 20% as of writing and rising, worrying many establishment figures.

  What’s your take?

  

  Doug Casey: It’s too bad for him that he’s part of the Democratic Party. They’ll treat him the way they treated Bernie Sanders. During the last two elections, if vox populi had anything to do with it, Bernie Sanders would’ve been the Dem candidate. The average Democrat loved him because he’s a fire-breathing socialist and welfare statist. But Bernie was a party outsider and a loose cannon. The powers that be in the Democratic Party only nominate insiders. They like frontmen who will reliably “play ball.” Kennedy has his own agenda, as did Sanders. That tells me that he doesn’t have a chance of being nominated.

  I’ve listened to a number of recent Kennedy speeches. He spends a lot of time promoting peace and defending his views on COVID. Speaking as an anarcho-capitalist, everything he said on those subjects resonated with me.

  He’s completely opposed to not just the insane war in the Ukraine but wars in general. Of course, he is famous for his views on vaccines. These are two of the major issues today, and he seems 100% sound on both.

  However, he doesn’t talk much about his economic policy; I believe he’s basically an FDR/LBJ mixed economy guy. I haven’t heard him address wokeism directly, but he comes across as a conventional heterosexual. I don’t think he’d actively promote LGBT etc., etc., like the current administration. He’s a lifelong eco-warrior, so he’s on board with the global warming hoax. He’s certainly anti-gun, though he is playing that down. He says he’s open to nuclear power—but not very open. His game is to appear knowledgeable and reasonable and to avoid alienating Republicans.

  He’s clearly very well-read. But feels an almost genetic obligation to follow in the footsteps of his father and his uncle.

  All things considered, he’s probably the best candidate on the Dem side—for what that’s worth. Probably not much since the Democrat Party is a putrid cesspool, the evil party, and he’s still a member.

  International Man: Whenever the mainstream media mentions RFK Jr., they always preface him with a pejorative, usually “conspiracy theorist” or “anti-vaxxer.”

  There have been numerous occasions where the media has outright censored him.

  They equate any point of view that deviates from the mainstream consensus as so-called “disinformation,” which they don’t refute with better ideas, facts, or logic but use as an excuse to justify their censorship—a despicable practice.

  What is really going on with the media censoring RFK Jr.?

  Doug Casey: One thing he always emphasizes is his dislike of the military-industrial complex. Especially the CIA, but he seems to sincerely dislike powerful government agencies in general. That means that the members of the Deep State see him as an enemy, somebody who could break their rice bowls. They come out against him not because he has a different philosophy, like Ron Paul, but because he’s an outsider threatening their bottom line.

  The fact is that the powers-that-be, the military-industrial-corporate-academic-media complex, the Deep State if you will, are so committed to war in the Ukraine, vaccines, and wokeism that they almost can’t do an about-face at this point.

  Whether any of these people like him personally or not or like the Kennedy family’s generally statist policies, they’re committed to promoting their agenda and therefore trying to debunk Bobby.

  International Man: What exactly is the Deep State?

  Why do they generally hate the Kennedy family and RFK Jr. in particular?

  Doug Casey: All countries have a Deep State. The Deep State are people who control and profit from the State. In the US, its top-level might include several thousand individuals. Heads of agencies, top congressmen and senators, generals, top corporate people, bankers, top university presidents and professors, top state and big city officials, and the like. They equate to what were called the Nomenklatura in the Soviet Union. They pull all the strings, have immense power, and have huge amounts of money flowing into their personal pockets. We can call them “top dogs.”

  Underneath them, in the Deep State, we have several million people that are equivalent to the apparatchiks of the old Soviet Union. They’re middle managers under the top dogs. They have good positions and get to give a lot of orders. They’re low-level big shots. I like to call them “running dogs.”

  The many millions who accept these people, the masses who slavishly support the Deep State out of fear or habit, I call “whipped dogs.” They’re strictly pawns in the game. They’re thoughtless and delusional enough, thanks to schooling and propaganda, to believe they’re in control of a so-called “democracy.” Even though they’re 98% of the population, they don’t count unless they go wild due to a serious war, depression, or other catastrophe.

  The people in the Deep State deny their own existence. And nobody has a membership card or an official decoder ring. But the Nomenklatura, and a lot of the apparatchiks, went to the same schools, belong to the same clubs, and have the same philosophy and worldview. They all live off the State, which in turn lives off the 98%, the whipped dogs.

  So, why do they generally hate the Kennedy family, and RFK Jr. in particular?

  In his recent speech at St. Anselm College, he mentioned that his uncle, JFK, wanted to break the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind. RFK Jr. wants to follow what he thinks are the footsteps of his father and his uncle, not follow instructions from the Deep State.

  He’s fervently, and it seems sincerely, anti-war. In today’s world, the US government, through the CIA, the Defense Department, and other agencies, goes out of its way to antagonize other countries, including nuclear-armed countries like Russia and China. I think he understands we’re a hair trigger away from World War III, and he wants to de-escalate. Bravo. It’s idiotic for a declining and sclerotic empire to act tough and pick fights.

  And he points out that when his uncle was in office, the advisors around him, the Nomenklatura, all pumped for more foreign intervention, more military spending, and more military adventures around the world. This is true with Deep States everywhere in the world.

  The worst guy in a government is not always the guy right on top. His strings are usually pulled by the advisors around him. They actually steal most of the money as well.

  International Man: How do you see the 2024 primaries and presidential election unfolding in the months ahead?

  Doug Casey: It’s out of the question that the demented, incoherent old Joe Biden will run. Something will happen before the election to preclude that.

  The fact that Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete are frontrunners shows how degraded the Dem Party really is. It appears that Gavin Newsom, the disastrous governor of California, is a possibility. He’s slick, looks good, and speaks coherently—even though absolutely everything he advocates is horrible.

  On the Republican side, who knows whether Donald Trump will get the nomination or not? There are about a dozen other Republicans who want to be President. Some of them, like Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, Liz Cheney, and Nikki Haley, are loathsome. For all Trump’s faults, they’d likely be worse than Trump. Ron DeSantis has made some appealing moves in the past few years but appears to be a creature of the Bushes; I’m not a fan. He’s just another venal politician.

  It’s entirely possible that Kennedy, realizing that he’s going to be shut out, will start a third party or perhaps run as part of the Constitution Party, though that’s unlikely since it’s on the ballot in only 13 states. It’s possible that Trump will also run as a third-party candidate if the Republicans shut him out.

  Could either Trump or Kennedy run as a Libertarian? Neither is even remotely a libertarian. Neither even has a philosophical core. But the Libertarian Party doesn’t have a philosophical core anymore either, evidenced by the fact that they ran statists like Bob Barr and William Weld as candidates. The Libertarians would probably welcome any big name just to show that they’re actually players. Pity, really.

  Since the military is about the only element of the US government that still has a modicum of trust and respect from Americans, it’s possible that both Dems and Reps will pick a general to run. Things may be chaotic enough in 2024 that the country will be ripe for a” strong man.”

  There’s even an outside possibility—dare I say it?—that there will be no election if the economy, the society, or some war gets too out of control. After all, in our 51st state, the Ukraine, Zelensky has canceled their elections.

  In any event, I’ll bet that the Democrats will win for many of the same six reasons why I picked the Democrats to win in 2020.

  International Man: What do you suggest people do to prepare for the possibility of increasing political turmoil in the US?

  Doug Casey: It’s important to remember that although most members of the police and the military are decent and generally conservative people, they will follow orders, even if they don’t like them. That’s because they’re trained to do so. But also because they don’t want to get into trouble; they all have house payments, car payments, credit card payments, and other debts. They can’t afford to lose their jobs—a pretty different dynamic than was the case in the Revolution or the 19th century.

  They’ll do what they’re told. That’s a real danger when you have Jacobins in control of the apparatus of the State, as we now do.

  As far as the average American is concerned, including those reading this now, fighting against the State is dangerous and impossible as a practical matter. Doing so will just result in your being rounded up and imprisoned.

  It would be like what happened on January 6th, multiplied by a hundred. Fuhgedabowdit.

  I’ve said for years that the US is on the verge of an actual civil war because the factions in the country really hate each other, and they just can’t communicate. If things get really dire, it might be wise to be abroad, just as it was wise to be out of the country during the war Between the States from 1861 to 1865.

  It’s too bad the US no longer has the equivalent of California in 1860, a place you could go, seek opportunity, and remain uninvolved with all the foolishness.

  Make some contingency plans. But remember, time is short.

  *  *  *

  Disturbing economic, political, and social trends are already in motion and now accelerating at breathtaking speed. The risks that lie ahead are too big and dangerous to ignore. That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released a free report with all the details on how to survive an economic collapse. It will help you understand what is unfolding right before our eyes and what you should do so you don’t get caught in the crosshairs. Click here to download the PDF now.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 07/06/2023 – 17:40

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