- UK New Car Registrations Are Set To Tumble
In the case of a no deal Brexit, in which the country must resort to WTO rules for international trade, the negative effects on the UK car industry could be devastating. The current uncertainty surrounding the type of deal that will be struck with the EU is already having an effect on production output and leading major investors such as Toyota and PSA (Vauxhall) to assess their future in the region.
It’s not just investors that need to be reassured in these times of uncertainty, though.
If the industry is to prosper, demand for cars also needs to remain high among consumers. As Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows in the infographic below, the Brexit effect is also starting to take hold of new registrations.
You will find more infographics at Statista
As with production, new registrations peaked in 2016 at 2.69 million. Last year though, this fell by 150,000 to 2.54 million.
Looking ahead, forecasts by SMMT are less than optimistic, with the trend expected to continue down to 2.35 million by 2019.
- Russia's Grand Strategy In Afro-Eurasia (And What Could Go Wrong)
Authored by Andrew Korybko via Oriental Review,
Russia’s 21st-century grand strategy is all about becoming the supreme “balancing” force in Afro-Eurasia through the skillful diplomatic management of the hemisphere’s multiple conflicts, though the greatest danger to this vision comes not from the US’ Hybrid Wars, but from Russia itself if its diplomatic and expert community representatives don’t rise to the occasion in properly explaining this strategy to the masses.
Russia seems to have become one of the favorite topics nowadays of anyone who’s even remotely interested in international politics, and apparently everyone has an opinion about the country’s grand strategy. Those inclined to believe the Western Mainstream Media usually hold one of two contradictory positions in mistakenly believing that Russia is either hell-bent on militarily conquering the world or is just a few years from an all-out collapse as a result of systemic mismanagement at home. On the other hand, many followers of Alt-Media wrongly think that Russia has a self-appointed mission to save the world from American-led unipolarity in all of its manifestations and that the 5-D chess grandmaster President Putin is flawlessly winning victory after victory. All three trains of thought unfortunately fail to account for the reality of Russia’s grand strategy, which can best be summarized as endeavoring to become the 21st-century’s supreme “balancing” force in Afro-Eurasia through the skillful diplomatic management of the hemisphere’s conflicts.
From The “Ummah Pivot” To The “Golden Ring”
This ambitious vision owes its origins to the “progressive” faction of the Russian “deep state” (its permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies) that courageously decided to throw off the Soviet shackles of the past and initiate game-changing rapprochements with non-traditional partners such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan in what can colloquially be called the “Ummah Pivot”. These foreign policy pioneers “filled in the (geographic) gap” that their predecessors left unattended to after they “bookended” Eurasia with their own post-Cold War rapprochements with Germany in the West and China in the East, so it makes sense that the time would eventually come for Russia to look South towards the Muslim-majority countries lining that part of the Eurasian Rimland. As all of this has been happening, China unveiled its One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity that provides the infrastructural basis for connecting these disparate geopolitical nodes together and building the structural foundation for the emerging Multipolar World Order.
Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan summit in Tehran in 2017
Having been rebuffed in Western Eurasia by the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions that Brussels was pressured by the US into implementing, Moscow “rebalanced” its hitherto European focus and diversified its diplomatic efforts through the “Ummah Pivot”, which has seen the creation of two new trilateral partnerships. The first one centers on Syria and concerns Russia, Turkey, and Iran, while the second one is all about Afghanistan and involves Russia, Pakistan, and China. The combined geostrategic potential of these five multipolar Great Powers “circling the wagons” to protect the Eurasian supercontinental core is the “Golden Ring”, which represents the ultimate integrational objective of the 21st-century and would symbolize the institutional union of many of the Eastern Hemisphere’s most important continental powers. Of the highest strategic significance, the fulfillment of the Golden Circle would allow its members to trade with one another via forthcoming overland Silk Road routes that crucially avoid the US Navy’s dominance along the Eurasian Rimland.
Peripheral Problems
Nevertheless, the supercontinental maritime periphery is still very important because of China’s dependence on sea routes for trading with Africa, whose future is intertwined with the People’s Republic because the latter absolutely needs the continent to become robust enough of a developed market to purchase the country’s overproduced goods. Beijing’s greatest competitors in the Afro-Pacific space are Washington and its “Lead From Behind” coalition of the “Quad”, which have unveiled the so-called “Asia-Africa Growth Corridor” (AAGC) to counter the New Silk Road. Making everything all the more tense, China and the other four Golden Circle Great Powers need to prepare themselves for responding to externally provoked identity conflicts in the Silk Road’s geostrategic transit states (Hybrid Wars), and while the Eurasia Core can more or less count on multilateral solutions to these challenges via the SCO or any other related structure, Africa has no such security options.
China is therefore compelled to build up the military capacities of its Silk Road partners there and potentially even deploy its aircraft carriers along the coast in the worst-case scenario to “Lead From Behind” in assisting the locals in their counter-Hybrid War campaigns, but it’s interestingly at this point where Russia could play a pivotal role in restoring stability to Africa. Moscow is already experimenting with a new policy of using “mercenaries” to support the internationally recognized but fledgling government of the Central African Republic in its quest to reclaim the civil war-torn country from the myriad bands of militants that are occupying the vast majority of it, and the success of Russia’s version of its own “Lead From Behind” strategy would be the “proof of concept” needed to convince the rest of Africa and China that Moscow could provide much-needed security services in protecting their Silk Road projects.
The African Angle
As was explained in the hyperlinked analysis above, Russia’s involvement in African conflict resolution processes could expand from the initial military phase to a secondary diplomatic one in making Moscow a key player in any forthcoming political settlements there, provided of course that its national companies can be guaranteed privileged access to the said nation’s marketplace and resources. This win-win tradeoff could appeal to African elites and their Chinese partners alike, both of which don’t have the combat or diplomatic experience that Russia has earned through its anti-terrorist campaign in Syria and attendant Astana peace process to handle the coming Hybrid War challenges ahead. So long as Russia exercises prudence and avoids getting caught in any potential quagmires, then it can continue to “do more with less” in “cleaning up” the many messes that are predicted to be made all across Africa in the coming future.
Together with the military dimension of this “balancing” strategy comes its traditional diplomatic one, which Russia is already practicing to a degree with China’s Indo-Japanese rivals. The reinforcement and betterment of bilateral relations with each of these American-aligned Great Powers is to both Russia and even China’s advantage because it could allow Moscow to exercise “moderating” influence on each of them in the event that the US succeeds in getting them to provoke a crisis with Beijing. Taking it even further, though, Russia should explore opportunities to become a full-fledged member of the AAGC in order to “piggyback” off of these two much more entrepreneurial countries’ progress in Africa, especially when considering that China isn’t helping Russia gain access to this marketplace (though that could change if it becomes Beijing’s strategic security partner in the continent). “Balancing” between the two economic “blocs” would be to Russia’s premier advantage, and it could even yield benefits for its underdeveloped Far East and Arctic regions.
Strategic Review
Reviewing the grand strategy that’s been expounded upon thus far, Europe’s rejection of Russia as a result of American pressure motivated Moscow to commence the “Ummah Pivot” in solidifying the Eurasian Core through two interlinked trilateral partnerships that collectively form the basis of the Golden Ring Great Power nexus. By leveraging its centralized position in Eurasia, Russia aims to become the irreplaceable transit state for most continental connectivity ventures as well as the neutral “balancer” for constructively resolving the Hybrid War chaos that the US has wrought all across the landmass, thereby flexing both economic and diplomatic muscle through this strategy. Moving beyond the Eurasian Core and into the Rimland, Russia’s multi-vectored relationships with India and Japan can skillfully be put to use to acquire a market presence in Africa that would complement its unofficial military one via “mercenaries” and thereby allow it have a chance at “balancing” that continent’s affairs too.
No Narrative, No Chance
For as nifty as this approach may sound, there’s a lot of risk inherent in it, particularly when it comes to American-encouraged Hybrid Wars in the Eurasian Heartland and divide-and-rule infowar operationsdesigned to break the Golden Ring, but these can still be managed on the state-to-state level with enough multilateral coordination and trust. More difficult to handle, however, are the consequences of Russia’s soft power “shortcomings” in traditionally “failing” to properly explain its “balancing” strategy to the masses, thereby leading to discontent and confusion that in turn provides a fertile environment for devious US-backed NGO operations aimed at sowing discord between the society and their elites. Russia assuredly communicates its “balancing” intentions to each of its “deep state” counterparts, just as it has a history of doing, but the Russian Federation hasn’t been able to match the USSR when it comes to getting its message across to average folks in each of those countries.
Armenian protests, Velvet Revolution, April 2018
Armenia is a perfect example of what went wrong with Russia’s soft power strategy and deserves to be concisely analyzed as a case study. Russia’s “military diplomacy” of preserving the regional balance of power by selling arms to both Armenia and its neighboring foe Azerbaijan is a sound strategy in the geopolitical sense but a risky one when it comes to Russia’s image in the minds of each of its partners’ populations. Azerbaijanis don’t mind much since Russia was regarded as previously being closer to their enemy until recently, but the Armenians were understandably upset when they learned that their CSTO mutual defense ally was arming their adversary. Even if the majority of its citizens wouldn’t ever “come around” to seeing Russia’s side of this situation, Moscow could have at least invested enough soft power resources and effort in trying to explain its grand strategic intentions in this situation, but it didn’t and this in turn fueled Pashinyan’s “protest” movement against the ruling Armenian authorities.
It’s not just Armenia either, but many of Russia’s traditional partners are uneasy over its newfound “balancing” relations with their historic rivals. The Serbian, Syrian, Iranian, and Indian publics would rather that Russia didn’t cooperate so closely with Croatia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, but seeing as how it already is, the “least” that Moscow could do, many of them feel, is try to explain to them why this is occurring even if they don’t ultimately end up agreeing with it. Unfortunately, that’s not happening, at all, and the consequences of this soft power “ineptitude” is that people are losing trust in Russia. Instead of having a chance to consider it as being a skillful player on the “19th-Century Great Power Chessboard” in “balancing” everything and therefore counteracting the destabilizing effects of American foreign policy, the country is coming off as overly “self-interested”, “untrustworthy”, and superficially “no different from the US”.
Global Risks
Russian strategists and policymakers are indeed adhering to a Neo-Realist paradigm of International Relations, but their country’s grand interest in maintaining stability in Afro-Eurasia and consequently securing the New Silk Roads that are expected to form the foundation of the emerging Multipolar World Order fully overlap with each of its partners’, though all of them should accept that each party must “compromise” on something or another in order to reach the Moscow-mediated “deals” for bringing this win-win future about. This “inconvenient” reality might not be popular among their publics but it’s nevertheless what has to happen in order for Russia’s model to succeed, though the actual problem arises when people aren’t made aware of any of this by their leaders and then all of a sudden hear on the news or come across rumors (whether true or not) that their country might be on the verge of “sacrificing” something dear to them.
Had the proper “preconditioning” and “perception management” been implemented prior to this happening, then the potential for the US or other hostile third parties to exploit this sentiment in stirring unrest like they did in Armenia after Russia’s repeated weapons deals with Azerbaijan would be a lot less because there’d at least be a “constructive” narrative already available to counter the newly created destructive one that’s been weaponized by Moscow’s foes. Regrettably, because Russia prefers to deal mostly with its partners’ “deep states” when it comes to these issues and tends to “neglect” public opinion in those countries, this soft power vulnerability is now present all across Afro-Eurasia and waiting to be exploited by the US, which wields considerably stronger sway in “winning hearts and minds” on the local level, even if it has to rely on indirect (NGO) means to do so. Russia’s partners, especially those with nominally “democratic” systems, are therefore at risk of being “blackmailed” by demagogic mobs.
Concluding Thoughts
It can’t be stressed how important it is for Russia’s grand strategic vision of “balancing” Afro-Eurasian affairs to be clearly expressed by its diplomatic and expert community representatives in order to prevent the US from weaponizing “public pressure” against it inside of each of its partners’ societies. Sensitive issues such as arms shipments to both Armenia and Azerbaijan or cooperating with Turkey in northern Syria need to be discussed at the local level and not just with each traditional partner’s “deep state” so as to retain public trust in Moscow’s international measures by making at least some degree of effort in trying to explain these policies to the masses. The lack of any narrative whatsoever from the Russian side in these regards leads to an informational void that is quickly filled by the US and its unipolar allies, which endangers the long-term sustainability of Moscow’s “balancing” efforts because of the risk that its partners might cave to externally manipulated “public pressure” (Color Revolutions).
For as ambitious as it sounds, it’s certainly possible for Russia to pull off its strategy in repairing the damage that the US made all across the hemisphere (especially in its non-European quarters), but only so long as there are equal measures of “deep state” and public trust in its initiatives. Nobody, let alone average folks, should ever be under any false impressions about Russia’s motives in doing this, which are first and foremost to secure its own interests but also overlap with the primary ones of each of its many partners when it comes to the general goal of advancing multipolarity, but false expectations about Moscow’s “commitment” to them will only lead to a sense of disappointment with time which will inevitably be capitalized upon by its American adversary. Along the same lines, having no understanding whatsoever of what Russia is up to is equally dangerous because it could also result in the same disruptive outcome.
Therefore, Russia needs to prioritize its soft power outreaches and must urgently make attempts through its diplomatic and expert community representatives to communicate its “balancing” intentions beyond its partners’ “deep states” and directly to their people. Regular citizens must be made aware of Russia’s global vision so as not to be as easily manipulated by America through the exploitation of the existing narrative void and/or their false hopes that wishfully arise from it, though it must nevertheless be accepted that not everyone will agree with Moscow’s “balancing” means regardless of its intentions. That’s perfectly alright because the importance is in making the narrative known so that subsequent soft power efforts can be invested in promoting it among the public, which is why the first step must immediately be undertaken in making people aware of this message to begin with so that follow-up plans can be implemented for advancing it in the future and strengthening this grand strategic vision at all levels of Afro-Eurasian society.
- Visualizing The 10 Wealthiest Countries In The World
According to market research company New World Wealth, the world has accumulated $215 trillion in private wealth, a 12% increase over the last year.
Incredibly, as Visual Capitalist’s Jeff Desjardins notes, the vast majority of this wealth – about 73.5% – is held by just 10 countries:
Over the last decade, China and India have more than doubled their wealth. Meanwhile, developed economies like the United States and Japan have increased wealth at modest rates – and some, like Italy and France, even lost modest amounts of private wealth over that duration of time.
Finally, it should be noted that the United Kingdom’s decrease above is mainly due to the depreciation of the GBP, which dropped in dollar terms from roughly $2.00 to $1.35 over the decade in question.
FUTURE PROJECTIONS
How is global wealth expected to shift in the future?
According to New World Wealth, the same 10 countries will dominate the landscape – but the order will change considerably over the next decade:
While the ranking order of the top three wealthiest countries will remain the same, India is expected to shoot up 200% to claim the #4 position with $24.7 trillion in private wealth.
Meanwhile, France and Australia are two other significant movers – and they are going opposite directions.
France will continue its descent down the ranking to 9th place with just 10% growth in a decade, and Australia will increase wealth at a rate that is very impressive for a developed economy. By 2027, it’s expected to be the world’s seventh richest country in terms of private wealth, with a total of $10.4 trillion. That will rival powerhouses like Germany and the United Kingdom, each with private wealth near the $11 trillion mark.
For more on private wealth, see the 15 wealthiest cities as well the countries that are gaining (or losing) wealth at the fastest rates.
- 'Rulers', 'Foolers', & 'Shooters': They're Closing The Cage In Plain Sight
Authored by Jeremiah Johnson via SHTFplan.com,
A picture that has been around awhile depicts Homo sapiens society at its finest…as it truly is.
There are four “tiers,” so to speak, with the politicians, royalty, and rulers occupying the uppermost level, followed by the clergymen and religious swamis on tier two, and then the gendarmes/police/soldiers on tier three. The bottom tier is occupied by the people, supporting the other three tiers upon their back. The caption is “We rule you [Leaders], we fool you [Religious Heads], we shoot you [the “Enforcer” class].
These “tiers” are to be found in every nation, among every people and tongue. It is not a new concept: these three levels of nabobs have existed ever since man formed social communities that encompassed more than the nuclear family.
The difference between the past and now: for the first time, these tiers will soon be interconnected regardless of location and mutually supportive of one another to obtain global totalitarian rule.
They already have so much in place, as outlined in previous articles: cell phones for most of the populations that transmit user location along with biometrics (in the latest models), interconnected CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras that coordinate and fix your position with the phones, and a record of all that you buy or sell at a POS (Point of Sale) in the happy big-box stores. They have laws to make you pay taxes on income, property, and they will come to seize your property and/or you if you don’t pay it…with force.
The laws are increasing in number, tightening the corral around you in your daily life…controlling where you can live, what type of home you can build, how you can communicate on the Internet, how you conduct business. Every business has a corresponding government inspector or regulator. The death of cash is coming soon, as governments replace it with EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) completely: they will then be able to keep track of every dime you earn or spend, keep track of what they can tax you (overt theft) and what they can pilfer (covert theft, in the case of an electronic “glitch,” a “matter of national security,” or some other nonsensical operation).
Many people do not realize the depth…the lengths these people are going to in order to achieve global totalitarian rule over all mankind. Recently Bill Gates announced a decision to invest with corporations to place 500 satellites in orbit to be able to monitor every inch of the globe in real-time surveillance. Last week he announced his intentions to develop a “super vaccine” in order to “safeguard” the health of the planet from an outbreak that could kill tens of millions of people.
There is one “biggie” that must be “taken care of” before all this control can be finalized: They must first confiscate all firearms.
The most recent news headlines show their intent to do just that. Let’s take it by “category” of the three tiers:
- Rulers: The United States’ very own Representative Eric Swalwell, (D-CA) is the one representing the first big push toward totalitarian takeover via gun seizures. On Thursday, 5/3/18, Swalwell (as reported by NBC News on an interview with Swalwell by USA Today) proposed a complete ban of what he describes as “military-style semiautomatic assault weapons,” along with a government “buy-back” of these rifles…and pursuit of those who refuse it. Swalwell describes this last part as “criminally prosecute any who choose to defy [the buyback] by keeping their weapons.” Swalwell cited the Australian mandatory gun buyback laws and as an example used the “unprompted” walkout and demonstrations of Parkland High School students after that school’s shooting. Here’s what Swalwell had to say:
“There’s something new and different about the surviving Parkland high schoolers’ demands. They dismiss the moral equivalence we’ve made for far too long regarding the Second Amendment. I’ve been guilty of it myself, telling constituents and reporters that ‘we can protect the Second Amendment and protect lives.’ The right to live is supreme over any other. Australia got it right.”
- Foolers: On Sunday, 5/6/18, the Pope came out and said that all firearms must be confiscated and taken away, and that the only firearms must be in the hands of the UN (United Nations). This is not a new thought, as it was John F. Kennedy who proposed a ban of all nuclear weapons and firearms, with the UN “peacekeepers” being the only ones who retained any weapons. That “clarion call” has been echoed by the UN Small Arms Treaty (the one that Bolton…current Secretary of State…refused to sign when he was UN ambassador under Bush Jr.). Sure, many may try to disregard what the Pope is saying…but you can’t completely discount anyone who has a billion people under his dominion, spiritually and economically.
- Shooters: There are two excellent articles for your perusal written by John W. Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute. One of them is entitled Armed and Dangerous: If Police Don’t Have to Protect the Public, What Good Are They? on 2/28/18. The other more recent article of 5/2/18 is entitled Dial T for Tyranny: While America Feuds, the Police State Shifts Into High Gear.
In “tier 1” of the “Rulers,” we have a sitting Representative of Congress who openly advocates bypassing the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States by banning a specific type of rifle; he also proposes the governmental “buying” of those semiautomatic rifles. It would do well here to remember the words of Alexis DeTocqueville in “Democracy in America,” [para.] “The end of the Republic [America] will come when the government can buy the people with their own money.” Then(so-called) Representative Swalwell suggested the government follow (in the event weapons owners do not submit) a violation of due process, as well as the supreme law of the land to illegally confiscate any weapons not submitted under a proposed government buyback…a clear violation of the 2nd Amendment.
It runs deeper, as we can see how the “Parkland Students” cited as an example by Swalwell are the new mantra, the new paradigm to enforce social consciousness and supplant Constitutional law with the law of the mob…the “tyranny of the majority” (a phrase of DeTocqueville) inflicting its wishes. Then there’s the “Australia got it right” grammatical eyesore of Swalwell’s populist jargon, a phony attempt to appear “grass roots” and an average guy…jargon that also pushes the “groupthink” (Australia’s doing it, why shouldn’t we?) so necessary to obtain global governance.
In “tier 2” we have a Marxist who is the leader of one of the world’s largest religions openly calling for a confiscation of the guns, with only the UN holding them. As mentioned, this guy has more than a billion people under his control, and he’s clearly in the “pocket” of those moving toward global governance. Standard Alinsky principle in “Rules for Radicals” is “organizing the organized.” His loyal followers will follow his lead. Don’t worry: Protestants, Jews, Mormons, and all the others are also “subjected” to the same playbook, perhaps not under one “figurehead” but with their own “Master of Puppets” enforcing their submittal to his/her authority and then compliance with outside directives of the governments.
In “tier 3,” when you read these articles, you will come to see how there is no more “Officer Friendly.” The police are duty-bound to protect the taxpaying corporate entities, businesses, and politico-oligarchy, and nothing more. They are our jailers, not our protectors. They ensure the continuity of the establishment: the existing social, political, religious, and economic order of things, nothing more. Those who mistakenly believe in the law (as police officers) will eventually be marginalized and drummed out of the force. Recently it was reported in Austin, TX that trainees/police cadets were informed by their instructors that the public are nothing more than cockroaches. In truth, the public pays for their funding…and they are under governmental control and direction: to obtain ad valorem for the municipal and state coffers while keeping the beeves moving, “tagging” the strays with tickets for the quotas and ensuring the docility of the herd.
The rulers, “foolers,” and shooters are tightening their grasp by the day, aided by the ever-increasing technology that allows for more surveillance and control, along with the stultified and complacent mentality of the public. There is a conspiracy, but it is not a theory: it is a fact. It is no longer a hidden agenda, but openly being pursued in plain sight. The goal is global governance and the complete abrogation of all rights. We’re seeing it today, and it becomes worse with the passage of time.
- California Residents Flee, Chased Away By Soaring Home Prices And Cost Of Living
Last month, a Wall Street Journal op-ed posited that the new tax bill could create a mass exodus of roughly 800,000 residents from the state of California who will flee the state for low-tax red states.
“In the years to come, millions of people, thousands of businesses, and tens of billions of dollars of net income will flee high-tax blue states for low-tax red states. This migration has been happening for years. But the Trump tax bill’s cap on the deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT, will accelerate the pace. The losers will be most of the Northeast, along with California. The winners are likely to be states like Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.” –WSJ
Taxes aside, a new report by Next 10 and Beacon Economics suggests the California exodus may get a lot worse, as new housing construction since the Great Recession has been tepid at best, and as a result, California faces a housing backlog of 3.4 million units by 2025 if the trend continues – and 2.8 million units at the current rate of construction.
From 2007 to 2017, only 24.7 housing permits were filed for every 100 new residents in California – much lower than the U.S. average of 43.1 permits.
By 2025, California would have a housing backlog of 3.4 million units if the trend continues. At the current pace of construction, California would add just a minimal amount of new housing – about 600,000 new housing units (net of housing unit losses due to demolition and other causes) – leaving the state with a housing gap of 2.8 million units by 2025. –Next10
“California’s current housing supply is not able to support its growing population,” the report concludes, and as such “the low levels of construction will likely result in further increases in home prices, such that fewer and fewer California residents will be able to afford homes.“
According to the report, California lost over a million residents in the decade between 2006 and 2016, due primarily to the high cost of housing disproportionately hurting lower income households. Over 20% of those who moved over that decade did so in 2006 – at the height of the housing bubble.
And since American consumers are genetically predisposed to never learning from their mistakes, median home prices in California are once again gapping well above the national average in a very similar pattern, making housing once again prohibitively expensive:
Meanwhile, migration out of California is mostly tied to income, as most of those leaving the state earn less than $30,000 per year.
Those migration patterns are shaped by socioeconomics. Most people leaving the state earn less than $30,000 per year, even as those who can afford higher housing costs are still arriving. As the report noted, California was also a net importer of highly skilled professionals from the information, professional and technical services, and arts and entertainment industries. On the other hand, California saw the largest exodus of workers in accommodation, construction, manufacturing and retail trade industries. –MarketWatch
Crunched California homeowners spent an average of 21.9% of their income on housing expenses in 2016, while home ownership rates are terrible at just 53.6% of homes owner-occupied; the 49th worst in the nation on both counts. California renters meanwhile come in 48th in the nation when it comes to percentage of income spent on housing at 32.8%.
And how are Californians coping with the skyrocketing costs of housing? One strategy is doubling up – as nearly 14% of renters have more than one person per bedroom, making it the state with the highest percentage of overcroweded renter households.
Another solution?
Leaving.
In a separate analysis noted by MarketWatch‘s Andrea Riquier, “Realtor.com found that the number of people searching real estate listings in the 16 top California markets compared to people living there and searching elsewhere was more than double that of other areas — and growing.”
Searches for homes in pricey California towns – primarily Santa Clara, San Mateo and Los Angeles – experienced virtually no increase over the past year, while views of listings in other parts of the country were up 15%.
So where do most broke Californians move? Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington .
Read the report below:
- Believe It Or Not, Bolton's Right – North Korea Will Follow The "Libyan Model"
Authored by Andrew Korybko via Oriental Review,
The new US National Security Advisor John Bolton controversially advocated the so-called “Libyan model” for North Korea’s denuclearization.
While he was indeed speaking about the technical aspect of this example in having the North African country completely surrender all of its nuclear-related capabilities, others are interpreting it differently and almost as a Freudian slip given that it was precisely because of Tripoli’s sincere adherence to this model that it was defenseless in deterring the NATO-led war that ultimately led to its destruction in 2011. On the surface, it makes one question why any country, let alone North Korea (whose media specifically said right after the beginning of the NATO campaign that Libya should have kept its nuclear program), would ever follow that model, but then again there’s a lot speculatively going on behind the scenes that the public isn’t privy to.
The entire denuclearization process is such a sensitive one and full of face-saving moves by all sides that it’s unlikely that Bolton would recklessly jeopardize the process by speaking as boldly as he did without he and his “deep state” handlers being certain that it wouldn’t offend Kim to the point of pulling out of the talks for reasons of national dignity. The opposite is actually happening, and he’s instead welcoming American and other experts to observe the decommissioning of his country’s mountainous nuclear test site later this month and even invite the media to report on the entire process. Furthermore, all of this is going ahead despite a South Korean presidential advisor saying last week that North Korea wants “American investment…sponsors, and multinational consortiums” coming to the country, which the man predicted could eventually lead to McDonalds and even a Trump Tower opening up in the former so-called “Hermit Kingdom”.
Again, despite the obvious sensitivity of this issue and North Korea’s history of strongly responding to those types of remarks, the denuclearization process is continuing unabated. It’s all the more remarkable then that a South Korean official quoted Kim as saying that “if we meet often and build trust with the United States, and if an end to the war and nonaggression are promised, why would we live in difficulty with nuclear weapons?”
For all intents and purposes, North Korea has reversed its previous position and is now willingly – and one could even say, eagerly – doing exactly what Libya once did, especially in regard to surrendering its tangible deterrence capacities in exchange for simple promises that don’t remove the regional threat posed by American forces.
John Bolton, National Security Advisor of the United States
It can only be conjectured at this point why Pyongyang is doing this and whether it’s related to the reported collapse of its mountainous nuclear test site that some rumors allege might have been destroyed by a new type of American weapon, but conventional analyses point to China’s active participation in the latest UNSC sanctions regime against North Korea as being one of the prime catalysts for Kim’s nuclear backtracking. The communist country might fear that it’ll eventually collapse without the sanctions relief that only denuclearization can provide at this point, and that its future will be much brighter if it embraces its pivotal transit role in facilitating the construction of a multimodal Russian-Chinese “Korean Corridor” and courts international expertise to develop its prospective $6-10 trillion rare earth mineral deposits.
Therefore, it’s because of these strategic reasons – both due to international pressure & its own prerogative as well as a mix of fact & speculation – why North Korea is surprisingly following in Libya’s footsteps, though it remains to be seen whether this risky gamble will ultimately lead to a different outcome.
- Border-Jumpers Face Criminal Prosecution, Seizure Of Children After DHS Mandate
A new directive by the Trump administration has paved the way for the criminal prosecution of every migrant caught jumping the US-Mexico border, as opposed to civil deportation proceedings employed in most cases up until now.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen issued the directive last week, announcing that DHS will refer those entering the country illegally for criminal cases.
Illegal entry into the United States is a misdemeanor crime, however attempts to sneak back in after a prior deportation are a felony which DHS says needs to be enforced.
“DHS will enforce the immigration laws as set forth by Congress,” said a Homeland Security official via the Washington Times.
The move will be a major test for federal prosecutors and courts, who could see their caseloads surge as they deal with what could be thousands of new cases each month.
But it’s likely to thrill Border Patrol agents who had begged for the government to impose serious consequences on illegal immigrants, for whom crossing the border, getting deported and trying again is just a part of their way of life. –Washington Times
On Monday morning, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reinforced the DOJ’s new push at curbing illegal immigration, telling a Scottsdale, Arizona law enforcement conference that those entering the country illegally with children will be subejct to separation.
“If you are smuggling a child then we will prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you as required by law,” said Sessions. “If you don’t like that, then don’t smuggle children over our border.”
Later, speaking from San Diego, Sessions reiterated the push – only changing his language from “will be separated from you” to “may be separated from you as required by law.”
“If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you – and that child may be separated from you as required by law,” AG Jeff Sessions says during speech at U.S.-Mexico border. https://t.co/FjCeNLvINp pic.twitter.com/t0RRjU2inx
— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) May 7, 2018
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Protesting Sessions was a man equipped with a bullhorn wearing a white shirt which read “Nazi Fascistas ¡No Pasarán!” – who asks “Why are you here? Are you gonna be separating families? Don’t.. why are you doing this? Do you have a heart? Do you have a soul?“
Protester with bull horn shouts at Sessions. #nbc7 pic.twitter.com/ykrAXAijPQ
— Artie Ojeda (@ArtieNBCSD) May 7, 2018
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Sessions announced last Wednesday that the DOJ will be sending 35 prosecutors and 18 judges to the southern U.S. border in order to more efficiently prosecute illegal immigrants. Texas will receive 15 attorneys, followed by eight to California, six to Arizona and six to New Mexico. The judges will be deployed similarly.
“The American people made very clear their desire to secure our borders and prioritize the public safety and national security of our homeland,” said Sessions. “Promoting and enforcing the rule of law is essential to our republic. By deploying these additional resources to the Southwest border, the Justice Department and the Trump Administration take yet another step in protecting our nation, its borders, and its citizens. It must be clear that there is no right to demand entry without justification.”
In early 2018, the Washington Times reported on one migrant who was deported a record 44 times between 2000 and 2015, while migrants with over a dozen deportations “are not unusual.” The Times points out that the immigrant who murdered Kate Steinle in 2015 had been deported five times.
About two-thirds of all asylum claims lodged with U.S. Customs and Border Protection last year came between the ports of entry, meaning people jumped the border, were caught and then asked for asylum.
Homeland Security said those migrants, if they jump the border, will be prosecuted for illegal entry while their asylum cases proceed, just like other border jumpers. –Washington Times
“Those apprehended will be sent directly to federal court under the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, and their children will be transferred to the custody of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. The U.S. Marshals will then place the individuals in approved detention centers during the course of the criminal process and, if convicted, to complete their sentences,” the official said.
“During the prosecutorial process, immigration proceedings will be advanced by ICE Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO). Upon completion of the criminal proceedings, and after a finding of removability, individuals will be returned to their country of origin.”
The DHS push to secure the border and criminally prosecute illegal entries into the country comes two weeks after the remains of a giant migrant “caravan” made its way from Central America to the San Ysidro border crossing. The last of the 181 asylum seekers from the caravan entered the U.S. on Friday and are currently being processed.
President Trump railed against the caravan, calling it a threat to national security, while Sessions referred to it as “a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system.”
It turns out all Trump needed to justify beefing up border enforcement was a giant caravan of illegal immigrants directly challenging the U.S. border.
- Is Social Media Destroying Humanity On Purpose?
Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,
You may not be on social media yourself, but chances are your friends and family are. Some of us are on there for work purposes and some so we can keep in touch with loved ones who live far away. There are valid reasons we have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But things are getting ugly out there in Internetland and it begs the question of whether social media is destroying humanity.
And even worse, is social media destroying humanity on purpose, because it was engineered to do so?
You’d have to live under a rock big enough to block all internet communications to not have heard about the privacy scandals that have plagued Facebook recently. From Cambridge Analytica mining user’s datato Facebook’s massive profits from your data, it’s been all over the news. Zuckerberg even had to testify to Congress about it for 10 hours recently, in the end apologizing for his part in the scandal.
But your lack of privacy may be just a drop in the bucket.
A while back, Facebook admitted that they were performing psychological experiments on users by adjusting their news feeds to see if they could alter the moods of users. They have a long and disturbing history of experimenting on users.
But it may be far more serious than merely toying with us. It’s entirely possible that they’re actually programming us. All it takes is a glimpse at the headlines to realize the world has become more insane than ever – and maybe this has been done deliberately. Maybe social media is destroying humanity on purpose.
One former Facebook executive said, “We have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”
And everyone knows this is true.
The only law in social media is mob rule. People band together to blast those they consider politically incorrect. They “dox” people with whom they disagree. (To “dox” someone is to “ to publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge.) Social media is busy censoring viewpoints with whom the owner disagrees while allowing flagrantly abusive points of view from people on “their side.”
People will say horrible, hateful things on the internet that they’d never say to a person’s face. Or at least, that used to be the case – now, it seems like people are more likely to be hateful than ever before, regardless of the medium.
In other examples that should be no less terrifying, we miss the experiences when we go on vacation because we’re so busy grabbing the perfect Instagram shot to show our “audiences.” We don’t talk to the people who are right across the table from us because we’re busy instant-messaging someone online. For many, their worlds are on their phones and not in the physical realm. We’re happier to get likes on social media than we are to have a real, no-electronics conversation.
We’re being programmed by social media.
In this video, Melissa Melton Dykes explores how some of the early executives are horrified at what Facebook and other social media outlets have become.
It’ll be much easier to silence – or even depopulate – people who have been utterly dehumanized by social media. Social media has fanned the flames of race war and hatred. During the previous election, it caused so much political animosity that some families and friendships never recovered. People have live-streamed murders and suicides, abuse and rapes for the “entertainment” of their “friends.”
This, of course, doesn’t mean that you can’t use social media at all.
But if you do, use it wisely.
I have it for business and spend very little time on there aside from helping people in my group. Some people have very small “friends” lists with just a few family members or close friends. These days, it’s a lot easier to get local information from social media groups than it is from a local newspaper or radio station. There are ways you can use it that aren’t harmful.
But, beware. Anything you put on there is there forever, even if you delete it later. Anything you click “like” on it recorded as well. Marketers have a snapshot of who you are based on what you like, and they have even developed software to help them predict what you’ll do next.
Social media may be destroying humanity in the macro perspective, but we don’t have to let it destroy us.
- "We've Never Seen Anything Like This" – Hawaii Officials Warn Residents Of Dangerous Volcanic Smog
More than four days after the first fissures opened up in the ground surrounding Hawaii’s Mt. Kilauea, the volcano’s destructive eruptions continued on Monday, destroying more buildings in the island’s tony Leilani Estates neighborhood, CNN reported.
Lava and hazardous gases are bubbling up through the cracks in the volcano’s East Rift Zone, a situation that has been exacerbated by a series of powerful Earthquakes that rocked the area late last week.
High levels of dangerous sulfur dioxide has been released into the air, forcing the government to issue a warning to residents living downwind from the volcano. Already, nearly 2,000 residents of the surrounding area have fled or been evacuated. They include residents of Leilani estates and the nearby Lanipuna Gardens.
But while the lava has caught the attention of photographers who’ve snapped thousands of pictures of the glowing red substance devouring homes, the Washington Post reports that an unseen danger has been threatening visitors and residents alike.
They’re calling it “vog” – short for volcanic smog. Though the smog isn’t a killer, it has made tens of thousands of Hawaiians during previous eruptions, and could make thousands more ill this time around.
Unfavorable winds could spread far from the volcano on the Big Island to affect people as far away as Oahu, 200 miles to the northwest. Similar patterns emerged in 2008 and 2016.
Vog, which mainly consists of water vapor, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, can appear as “hazy air pollution.” It can also contain several other compounds such as hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen fluoride and carbon monoxide, all of which are harmful to people, according to the Geological Service. However, of the three primary gases, sulfur dioxide, which has an acrid smell reminiscent of fireworks or a burning match, is the “chief gas hazard in Hawaii,” the service reported.
[…]
Vog is nothing new to people living on the Big Island or the surrounding islands. The summit of Kilauea has been emitting high levels of sulfur dioxide for the past 10 years, Babb said.
In past years when vog has plagued the islands, many reported suffering from debilitating symptoms.
Experts say vog exposure symptoms include headache, soar throat and lethargy.
The user’s symptoms included a headache, a raw swollen sore throat and lethargy. The government is also warning that the smog can’t be totally filtered out with store-bought gas masks – especially in high concentrations.
“We are planning on going to VNP [Hawaii Volcanoes National Park] today and if I had an oxygen tank I’d wear it!” the user wrote. “My question is will this get any better or should we just take our losses and leave?”
One day later, the same user provided a status update: “We are leaving today for Oahu. Hopefully I can recover enough to redeem the rest of our vacation. This has indeed been brutal!”
While the smog is threatening a broader swath of the island’s territory, the lava continues to cause the bulk of the destruction.
Longtime residents have been shocked by the destruction.
“It’s nothing that I’ve ever experienced on a personal level ever before,” said Jessica Ferracane, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Their chief concern now is the earthquakes that have occurred frequently after the eruptions.
“That’s the big concern for everybody on the island,” Ferracane said Monday. “The earthquakes continued through the night.”
To help accommodate evacuees with nowhere to turn, the American Red Cross has opened shelters at the Pahoa and Keaau community centers.
Officials are expected to provide an update on the violent volcanic eruption in Hawaii shortly.
Since the eruptions began on Thursday, the volcano has destroyed more than 35 buildings and nearly two dozen homes. As we pointed out earlier, in one video shared on social media, lava can be seen destroying a car.
Time Lapse of giant #lava flow consuming car, telephone pole falling
Date: 5-6-2018
Location: Leilani Estates, Hi #LeilaniEstates #Leilani #Hawaii #volcano pic.twitter.com/7Td2ecfV62— WXChasing (@bclemms) May 7, 2018
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The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said Sunday that the lava flow from the Kilauea volcano has traveled more than half a mile, and aftershocks continue to shake the region, as NPR pointed out.
Kilauea has been in a continuous state of eruption since the early 1980s, according to NPR. But the carnage being caused by this latest eruption is the result of a dramatic shift in the pattern of magma flows. In a historical incident that doesn’t bode well for the current eruption, back in 1955, a Kilauea eruption lasted 88 days.
According to Hawaii News, the number of open fissures expanded to 10 on Monday, though not all of them are actively spewing magma.
The fissures are scattered across the Puna subdivision on the island of Hawaii – also known as “the big island.”
Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim told local media the county will house and feed evacuees for “as long as we need to.”
So far, no deaths have been reported.
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