Today’s News 8th November 2021

• China's Weaponization Of Space
  China’s Weaponization Of Space

  By Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at The Gatestone Institute

  Summary

  • Space satellites have become strategic assets and therefore valuable military targets.

  • “Beijing is working to match or exceed US capabilities in space to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership.” — 2021 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

  • China’s 2015 defense white paper had already formally designated space as a new domain of warfare. Also in 2015, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) established the Strategic Support Force (SSF), which brought together outer space, electromagnetic space and cyberspace under one command, indicating “the PLA’s prioritization of these critical areas of warfare.”

  • “The PLA continues to acquire and develop a range of…technologies, including kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots, as well as expanding space surveillance capabilities, which can monitor objects in space within their field of view and enable counterspace actions.” — U.S. Department of Defense, Annual Report to Congress, 2020.

  • Communist China, according to China Daily, has vowed to become the world’s leading space power by 2045.

  • “The space battlefield is not science fiction and anti-satellite weapons are going to be a reality in future armed conflicts, Shaw said.” — SpaceNews, reporting on a talk given by Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command on August 23, 2021.

  

  “China has moved aggressively to weaponize space…” These were the words of U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall at the 36th Space Symposium on August 24.

  “Both conventional deterrence and conventional operations depend on access to communications, intelligence, and other services provided by space-based systems. As a result, our strategic competitors have pursued and fielded a number of weapons systems in space designed to defeat or destroy America’s space-based military weapons systems and our ability to project power.”

  Space has become crucial: so much of what happens there now affects life on earth. There are more than 3,000 active satellites orbiting earth today and their services have become indispensable. Among these are US military-operated GPS satellites for positioning, navigation and timing, serving both military and civilian needs — think Uber, Lyft, Waze, grocery delivery services — and earth monitoring, including weather and communications, to name just a few. Space satellites have become strategic assets and therefore valuable military targets. “It is impossible to overstate the importance of space-based systems to national security,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said.

  According to the 2021 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, released in April:

  “Beijing is working to match or exceed US capabilities in space to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership… Counterspace operations will be integral to potential military campaigns by the PLA [People’s Liberation Army], and China has counterspace weapons capabilities intended to target US and allied satellites. Beijing continues to train its military space elements and field new destructive and nondestructive ground- and space-based antisatellite (ASAT) weapons.”

  In 2007, China conducted its first test of an anti-satellite missile, destroying one of its own weather satellites, creating the second-largest collection of space debris in history.

  China’s 2015 defense white paper had already formally designated space as a new domain of warfare. Also in 2015, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) established the Strategic Support Force (SSF), which brought together outer space, electromagnetic space and cyberspace under one command, indicating “the PLA’s prioritization of these critical areas of warfare.”

  The Pentagon wrote in its 2020 report about Communist China’s military capabilities:

  “The PLA continues to acquire and develop a range of counterspace capabilities and related technologies, including kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots, as well as expanding space surveillance capabilities, which can monitor objects in space within their field of view and enable counterspace actions..

  “The PRC is developing electronic warfare capabilities such as satellite jammers; offensive cyber capabilities; and directed-energy weapons… China has an operational ground-based Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile intended to target low-Earth orbit satellites, and China probably intends to pursue additional ASAT weapons capable of destroying satellites up to geosynchronous Earth orbit. China is employing more sophisticated satellite operations and is probably testing dual-use technologies in space that could be applied to counterspace missions.”

  “There is strong evidence indicating that China has a sustained effort to develop a broad range of counterspace capabilities” the Secure World Foundation, a non-profit focused on space, wrote in a report it published in April, “Global Counterspace Capabilities: An Open Source Assessment.”

  “In 2015, China re-organized its space and counterspace forces, as part of a larger military re-organization, and placed them in a new major force structure that also has control over electronic warfare and cyber. That said, it is uncertain whether China would fully utilize its offensive counterspace capabilities in a future conflict or whether the goal is to use them as a deterrent…”

  Communist China has vowed to become the world’s leading space power by 2045: “China will become an all-round world-leading country in space equipment and technology. By then, it will be able to carry out man-computer coordinated space exploration on a large scale,” wrote the China Daily in 2017.

  The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission wrote in its 2019 Annual Report to Congress:

  “Beijing has specific plans not merely to explore space, but to industrially dominate the space…. Beijing uses its space program to advance its terrestrial geopolitical objectives, including cultivating customers for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)… China’s promotion of… the Beidou global navigation system under its ‘Space Silk Road’ is deepening participants’ reliance on China for space-based services,”

  In 2019, China landed its Chang’e-4 lunar probe on the far side of the moon, something that had never been done before. September 28 marked 1,000 days since it landed with a rover, which continues to explore the moon today. China also plans to build a joint science base on the moon with Russia, the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). China’s lunar ambitions are also raising concerns about “what that kind of activity could yield in terms of future capacity to act and potentially wage war in space” according to a recent article in Air Force Magazine.

  Writing about a talk given by Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, at the recent 36th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, SpaceNews reported: “The space battlefield is not science fiction and anti-satellite weapons are going to be a reality in future armed conflicts, Shaw said.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/08/2021 – 00:00

• Russia Tests Nuclear-Powered Showers In Siberia
  Russia Tests Nuclear-Powered Showers In Siberia

  In a remote Siberian town, residents are enjoying warm showers thanks to a nuclear reactor which pumps hot water directly into homes.

  Introduced into the city of Pevek just one year ago, officials installed a new generation of ‘smaller and potentially more versatile nuclear plants’ which sits aboard a floating barge in the nearby Arctic Ocean, according to DNYUZ.

  

  “Personally, I’m not worried,” said resident Pavel Rozhkov.

  The new technology, which doesn’t emit carbon into the atmosphere, is being pitched as a green innovation.

  As countries from across the globe meet in Scotland this week to try to find new ways to mitigate climate change, Russia has embraced nuclear residential heating as one potential solution, while also hoping it can bring a competitive advantage. Companies in the United States, China and France are considering building the type of small reactors connected now to Pevek’s waterworks.

  …

  Nuclear-powered residential heating is distinct from running space or water heaters with electricity generated from nuclear sources. Direct nuclear heating, tried in small pockets of Russia and Sweden, circulates water between a power plant and homes, transferring heat directly from fissioning uranium atoms to residences. –DNYUZ

  “It’s very exciting,” said Jacopo Buongiorno, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who added that these small nuclear reactors could provide heat to greenhouses or for other industrial purposes. “The Russians are ahead,” he added.

  

  “Decarbonizing the electrical grid will only get you one quarter of the way,” Buongiorno continued. “The rest comes from all these other things.”

  Buongiorno said that he’d gladly take a ‘nuclear shower,’ but admitted that “obviously this is not going to work if people don’t feel comfortable with the technology.”

  Small-scale nuclear power also avoids wasting heat which is typically vented as steam through a nuclear plant’s conical cooling towers, and instead captures it for residential heating.

  That said, skeptics abound.

  “It is nuclear technology, and the starting point needs to be that it is dangerous,” according to Andrei Zolotkov, a researcher with Bellona, a Norwegian environmental group, offering no other solutions. “That is the only way to think about it.”

  Mr. Rozkhov’s wife (from the above example) was skeptical at first, and was “worried for the first two days” after the nuclear-heated water was piped into their building.

  “Whatever is new is scary,” she said.

  Read the rest of the report here.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 23:30

• Military Jury "Disgusted" By First Detailed Public Account Of CIA Torture In Court
  Military Jury “Disgusted” By First Detailed Public Account Of CIA Torture In Court

  Authored by John Kiriakou via Consortium News, 

  The New York Times reported last week that a military jury at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo issued a sharp rebuke against the C.I.A.’s treatment of al-Qaeda prisoner Majid Khan, calling the Agency’s torture program “a stain on the moral fiber of America.”

  The jury recommended that Khan receive a 26-year sentence, the shortest possible under the court’s rules. Seven of the eight jurors—all U.S. military officers—then hand-wrote a letter to the military judge urging clemency for Khan. The sentencing hearing, and Khan’s two hours of graphic testimony, marked the first time that details of the C.I.A. torture program were laid bare in public.

  

  Khan testified that during the course of his interrogations, after he was captured in Pakistan in 2003, he told the C.I.A. “literally everything” he knew. He was truthful with the information, but “the more I told them, the more they tortured me.” Khan said that his only alternative was to make up information about threats, anything to get his interrogators to stop torturing him. When the information then didn’t pan out, Khan was tortured yet again.

  Khan was born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents and raised in suburban Baltimore, Maryland. After his mother died in 2001 and his father sent the family back to Pakistan for an extended visit, Khan’s relatives radicalized him and he formally joined al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11 attacks.

  He was trained in the organization’s camps in southern Afghanistan and was made “operational” shortly thereafter. Khan confessed to delivering $50,000 from al-Qaeda to an associated extremist group in Indonesia that was used to finance the deadly 2003 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. Eleven people were killed and dozens more were injured.

  Khan also admitted to working closely with Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Khan said that in one case he wore a suicide vest in a failed effort in 2002 to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The vest, however, failed to detonate. Musharraf never knew how close al-Qaeda had come to killing him.

  

  Full Disclosure

  When I served as chief of C.I.A. counterterrorist operations in Pakistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, one of my top priorities was to find and capture Majid Khan. We believed that he was particularly dangerous because he had spent almost his entire life in the United States, he spoke English like an American, his father and siblings were all American citizens, and we believed that al-Qaeda would use the handsome teenager to recruit other American citizens and green card holders into the group.

  My team searched literally all over Pakistan for him, but he eluded us. Finally, in late 2003, my successor found and captured him in Karachi, Pakistan. Khan was immediately turned over to a C.I.A. rendition team, which took him first to the infamous Salt Pit torture center in Afghanistan and then to a series of secret C.I.A. prisons around the world. He finally arrived in Guantanamo in 2006, where he has remained ever since.

  There was no doubt, at least in my mind, that Majid Khan was a very bad young man. He was a terrorist and a murderer, and he meant continued harm to Americans everywhere. But he didn’t deserve—nobody deserved—the treatment that he received at the hands of the C.I.A. 

  Hose in Rectum

  Khan testified before the tribunal that he was subjected to repeated rounds of waterboarding with ice water. In more than one case he nearly drowned and had to be revived. He was chained to an eye bolt in the ceiling of his cell so that he could not sit, kneel, lay or get comfortable for days at a time.

  He was subjected to sleep deprivation for as long as 12 days. (The American Psychological Association has warned us that people begin losing their minds at seven days with no sleep. They begin dying of organ failure at nine days with no sleep.)

  When he went on a hunger strike to protest his treatment, C.I.A. officers pureed his food and forced it up his rectum with a tube. On other occasions, C.I.A. officers forced a green garden hose up his rectum and turned on the water, causing incontinence and searing pain.

  Prosecutors acknowledged Khan’s “rough treatment.” His attorney, a U.S. Army major, called what the C.I.A. did “heinous and vile acts of torture.”

  Exclusive: Hear from the senior officer who, as head of a military jury at Guantánamo’s war court, wrote a damning letter calling the U.S. treatment of a terrorist “a stain on the moral fiber of America.” How it went down, how all but one juror signed it.https://t.co/HavtHLXh9L

  — Carol Rosenberg (@carolrosenberg) November 6, 2021

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  In the end, despite Khan’s cooperation, despite the torture, despite his contrition, the military tribunal formally sentenced him to 26 years in prison. He would be eligible for release in 2038. Khan had earlier negotiated a secret deal with the U.S. government, though. In exchange for his cooperation and testimony against other al-Qaeda suspects, including Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, he will be given a second, separate, sentence that will see him released sometime between February 2022 and 2025.

  Majid Khan over the past 20 years has been denied his constitutional rights to face his accusers in a court of law and to be tried by a jury of his peers. He was beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted mercilessly. He faced spending the rest of his life in a Caribbean hellhole with no access to the outside world, including to regular legal representation or to the Red Cross/Red Crescent. That worst-case scenario now won’t come to fruition.

  Even more importantly, the C.I.A.’s crimes have been exposed in public. Finally. There are no redactions to the information like there were in the Executive Summary to the Senate Torture Report. There were no C.I.A. denials that the torture program even existed. The C.I.A.’s only statement in response to Khan’s revelations was, “The detention and interrogation program ended in 2009.”

  At least now we can talk about it and not face the threat of an espionage charge. Now we can teach our children what our government did in their name.

  John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act—a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration’s torture program. The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 23:00

• Truckload Of High-End Video Cards Stolen In California As Chip Shortage Continues
  Truckload Of High-End Video Cards Stolen In California As Chip Shortage Continues

  The global semiconductor shortage, supply chain delays, and booming interest in cryptocurrency mining have sparked massive demand for graphics cards, resulting in sky-high prices. Due to scarcity and high prices, criminals are waking up to the new “silicon gold:” graphics cards. So it comes as no surprise that an entire truckload of graphics cards was “stolen” in southern California.

  News about the theft originated on EVGA Corporation’s website last week. EVGA is a US computer hardware company that produces Nvidia video cards. Product manager Jacob Freeman wrote a blog that read:

  PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on October 29, 2021, a shipment of EVGA GeForce RTX 30-Series Graphics Cards was stolen from a truck en route from San Francisco to our Southern California distribution center.

  These graphics cards are in high demand and each has an estimated retail value starting at $329.99 up to $1959.99 MSRP.

  Freeman didn’t disclose which graphic cards were stolen or quantity. He emphasized that it’s both a criminal and civil offense under state and federal law to “conceal, sell, withhold or aid in concealing selling or withholding” the stolen video cards. 

  

  The thieves could list the graphics cards on eBay or social media marketplaces. 

  “So it’s essentially impossible to buy a GPU from a legit source, and you therefore have to buy them off Ebay or some other marketplace if you don’t want to wait 8-12 months. And now if you buy an EVGA card there’s a chance it’s stolen and you’ll receive no support. I hate thieves immensely, but I feel sorry for anyone that buys one of these all excited only to find this out after the fact,” said one person on the EVGA forum. 

  An alarming problem we see is that unsuspecting people might purchase one of these stolen graphics cards, and upon registering, be flagged by EVGA and confronted by the police. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 22:30

• What Did The FBI Have On Danchenko?
  What Did The FBI Have On Danchenko?

  Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary,

  I discussed the Igor Danchenko indictment here, laying out some of the more eye-raising parts of the facts and charges against Christopher Steele’s primary sub-source.

  Taking a closer look at the Danchenko indictment, there is a curious question presented by the FBI to Danchenko in June 2017. A question that indicates the FBI might have known more about the true sources to the Steele Dossiers sooner than they have let on.

  

  FBI Questions about Danchenko source Charles Dolan

  On June 15, 0217, the FBI interviewed Danchenko regarding the Dossiers (labeled “Company Reports” in the indictment). Here’s the line of questioning from the indictment:

  

  

  These FBI questions – asking Danchenko specific questions about Dolan and his interactions with Dolan – are significant for a number of reasons:

  1. It indicates the FBI had specific information linking Dolan to Danchenko. It is quite possible the FBI knew on June 15, 2017 that Dolan was a source for Danchenko.

  2. The suspicion that Dolan was a source is explained by the FBI Agent stating that he thinks there are other Dossier sources, immediately followed by a question about Dolan.

  3. If that is the case, then the FBI would have known that Danchenko lied about his communications with Dolan.

  4. This information may have come from surveillance on Danchenko source Olga Galkina. As observed by Chuck Ross: “The IG report indicates that the FBI had Section 702 coverage on Galkina, which would have allowed the agency to surveil her communications.”

  5. If the FBI had Section 702 coverage on Galkina, it would have swept-up the communications of Dolan and Danchenko – providing them with knowledge that a Hillary Clinton supporter was a source for the Dossiers.

  Again, the dates are important. The Danchenko interview where he was questioned about Dolan took place on June 15, 2017, before the 4th FISA warrant on Carter Page, which was submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on June 29, 2017.

  Let us assume for a moment the FBI questioned Danchenko about Dolan based on information from the Galkina surveillance (the 702). What types of information might they have had? Looking at the Danchenko indictment, they might have possessed:

  1. Dolan/Danchenko e-mails.

  2. Dolan e-mails referencing Danchenko.

  3. Communications between Dolan and Olga Galkina (Russian Sub-Source 1), including social media messages, e-mails, and likely messaging apps.

  4. Communications from Olga Galkina to her associates.

  Reporting suggests the FBI had this information by June 2017 – by the time of the Danchenko interview. If that is the case, the FBI would likely have had their hands on this e-mail from Galkina to Dolan, stating that she was feeding him information on former USSR/UIC countries – and indicating her suspicion that Danchenko had informed Dolan of this.

  

  It also means that the FBI likely possessed this information that Danchenko’s source was a huge Hillary Clinton fan and hoping for a job in the Clinton State Department.

  

  Back to the FISA Court. This Court operates in secret, with no chance for the accused to present their defense or the public to review warrant applications. With this in mind, the Court demands honesty from the government.

  Under the FISA Court’s local rule 13, the FBI/DOJ had a duty to inform the Court of the new information, as they were material facts relevant to the Carter Page applications: (1) that Danchenko was a liar; (2) that Danchenko’s real “source” was a Hillary Clinton ally with deep ties to the Clintons; and (3) that Danchenko’s purported Russian source (Galkina) was expecting benefits (employment) based on her support of Clinton:

  

  And the FBI/DOJ saw to it that this information stayed hidden from the FISA Court (and from the public, until just a few days ago).

  However, the DOJ did send a July 2018 letter to the FISA Court, reassuring them that the FBI found Danchenko “to be truthful and cooperative.”

  

  The DOJ communicated this FBI assessment to the FISA Court, and thus adopted it for themselves, despite Danchenko’s obvious lies in his January 2017 interview (about his contacts with Russian intelligence) and the FBI’s recognition, in February 2017, that Danchenko wasn’t being truthful:

  

  This leads to an obvious question: Why cover for Danchenko?

  Because in covering for Danchenko, the FBI and DOJ were covering for themselves, hiding their own misconduct and lies and violations of Constitutional rights – and, at the same time, keeping the Trump/Russia investigation alive.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 22:00

• Here's What's On China Traders' Plenum Watch List
  Here’s What’s On China Traders’ Plenum Watch List

  By John Liu, April Ma and John Cheng , reporters and commentators at Bloomberg Markets.

  After a year-long regulatory crackdown that wiped out trillions of dollars from Chinese stocks, investors are on high alert for the risk of more policy change as the Communist Party kicks off a major convention this week. The plenum is seen as a chance for President Xi Jinping to reinforce his current “Common Prosperity” push or even usher in new policies that reverberate through equities.

  There is no shortage of sectors that could see sharp price moves from the event. Technology and gambling giants are still licking their wounds following regulatory curbs on monopolistic practices and ownership control. Energy suppliers are racing to prepare for winter amid shortages. Property developers remain deep in a debt crisis

  Any mention of the real estate sector could be the first item investors search for in the official statement from the closed- door meeting, which is usually published at its conclusion. China Evergrande Group’s liquidity crisis and a slump across developers’ dollar bonds have sparked a record pace of defaults and rating cuts for local issuers

  Traders will thus monitor any signs of a shift in the Party view that Evergrande’s risks are controllable, and whether it will maintain the stance that developers must meet their debt obligations. Further, China revealed last month a plan to expand property tax trials. Any details on the pace and scope of the reform, launched in Shanghai and Chongqing in 2011, would draw intense attention from traders seeking policy clarity

  • Semiconductors: China has unveiled ambitions for tech self- sufficiency in its latest five-year policy blueprint, as it tries to reduce dependence on the West for crucial supplies like semiconductors. More specific measures to support the research and application of cutting-edge technologies will give the nation’s internet giants a much-needed chance to lure investors, after their shares were beaten down by government regulation
  • Coal & Power: Shares of coal miners have been slumping as the government took extraordinary steps to tame surging prices amid power shortages. Any developments in this space would trigger swift reaction by stock traders
  • Renewables: The renewable energy sector has been a rare safe haven amid the regulatory storm. Government backing is clear as China aims to make its economy carbon neutral by mid-century. While optimism is widespread about the long-term prospects of wind and solar power and electric cars, a blessing by the plenum would give their shares an immediate boost
  • Consumption: “Fully promoting consumption” was included in last year’s plenum communique as a way to facilitate “dual circulation” as China seeks to hedge against global trade risks. Stimulating consumption and making it a greater growth driver will likely remain pivotal, even though mixed signals could be sent amid the campaign to reduce the wealth gap

  Food and liquor firms tanked when Xi hinted at an expansion of consumption tax in an October article.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 21:46

• It's The "Most Honest Market We Have" – Peter Thiel Warns Bitcoin Exposes Our Current "Crisis Moment"
  It’s The “Most Honest Market We Have” – Peter Thiel Warns Bitcoin Exposes Our Current “Crisis Moment”

  Outspoken billionaire Peter Thiel said this week at at the National Conservatism Conference that the high price of bitcoin is an indicator of U.S. inflation, which has also recently touched a 13-year high.

  “You know, $60,000 bitcoin, I’m not sure that one should aggressively buy,” Thiel said, according to Bloomberg.

  “But surely what it is telling us is that we are having a crisis moment.”

  These comments come a week after the tech visionary – who recently opined on the origins of bitcoin – offered an even more ominous projection:

  “[Bitcoin]’s the canary in a coal mine. It’s the most honest market we have in the country and it’s telling us that this old regime is about to explode.”

  Thiel also slammed The Fed, claiming that they were not acknowledging the seriousness of the problem, and mentioned that the prices were not coming down any time soon, adding that Powell and his pals are in a state of “epistemic closure,” meaning close-mindedness, and they were of the view that printing money to resolve market issues will not impact inflation.

  

  Finally, Thiel reiterated the fact that he wished he had bought more bitcoin, adding now that he thinks inflation is here to stay; something that Goldman has recently noted as a driver of upside from crypto…

  

  Which fits with a recent report from JPMorgan analysts who noted that “we believe the perception of bitcoin as a better inflation hedge than gold is the main reason for the current upswing, triggering a shift away from gold ETFs into bitcoin funds since September.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 21:30

• Submarine Accident Highlights Risk Of Naval Collision Between US & Chinese Militaries Is Growing
  Submarine Accident Highlights Risk Of Naval Collision Between US & Chinese Militaries Is Growing

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The risk of an accident between the militaries of the US and China is growing as Washington is increasing its presence in the South China Sea and other waters in the region, The South China Morning Post reported Friday.

  The Post quoted Wu Shicun, who heads the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, and is concerned that the current mechanism between the US and China for crisis management “might not be effective in critical moments.”

  

  Wu pointed to a near-miss in 2018 between a US destroyer and a Chinese destroyer. The vessels passed within 41 meters (134 feet) of each other in the South China Sea. “Sailing within 41 meters is very dangerous. It is not that we do not have rules, but that the rules are not followed through in [a] critical moment. This is where the risk lies,” he said.

  “If the same scenario happened to two nuclear submarines, this would become a huge disaster,” Wu added. The danger of a possible nuclear submarine collision was highlighted by a US submarine crashing into an object the US Navy said was an underwater mountain in the South China Sea on October 2nd. According to the South China Sea Probing Initiative, the US has sent 11 nuclear submarines to the South China Sea in 2021 alone.

  More nuclear submarines are headed to the region after the US, Britain, and Australia signed a new military pact in September. The deal will give the Australians access to nuclear submarine technology, although they are not expected to be developed and enter the water until the late 2030s.

  Earlier this week, the Post cited Wu in another report that said the US had conducted over 2,000 reconnaissance flights in waters near China so far this year compared with just under 1,000 in 2020. With such a high risk for an accident, Wu is calling for the US and China to work on better mechanisms to avoid conflict.

  These incredible photos show how close a Chinese warship came to colliding with a US destroyer during a tense standoff in the South China Sea https://t.co/tDuueVD3x1 pic.twitter.com/W0x5UBpBPQ

  — Indo-Pacific News – Watching the CCP-China Threat (@IndoPac_Info) October 3, 2018

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  “Establishing a risk-control mechanism with the United States is very urgent. Conflicts in the military and security fields are completely different from those in the economic and trade fields,” he said.

  In 2001, a US spy plane collided with a Chinese plane about 59 miles off the coast of Hainan Island. With US-China relations at such a low point today, a similar accident could risk sparking a wider conflict.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 21:00

• China's Largest State Grid Operator Says Power Back To Normal 
  China’s Largest State Grid Operator Says Power Back To Normal 

  The largest Chinese Power Grid Company, State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), announced Sunday that power supply and demand in its service areas have returned to normal and rolling blackouts have decreased, according to state news agency Xinhua.

  SGCC’s power grid reaches more than 1.1 billion people over 88% of China’s territory. It said thermal coal inventories rebounded to 99.3 million tons, and the available days of inventory now stand at 20. Increasing inventories come as Beijing imposed price controls on coal. 

  Just last month, when we reported that Beijing had imposed price controls on its coal prices, we said that the problem with such explicit measures which create an artificially low price is that they don’t fundamentally address the underlying problem (too much demand, not enough supply), but instead accelerate panic hoarding and lead to a run on the artificially underpriced commodity. 

  One recurring theme with central planning is that the greater the level of intervention, the worse and more widespread the unexpected adverse consequences. Beijing has been playing a giant game of “whack a mole” as it was directly responsible for soaring coal prices in September/October, telling state energy firms to “secure supplies [coal] at all costs,” to only then impose price controls that sent prices tumbling by early November. 

  Thermal coal futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange have been halved in the last few weeks, allowing state energy firms to purchase coal at lower prices, but panic hoarding could result in another push higher. 

  

  Even though SGCC is normalizing its grid, power to energy-intensive industries remains limited. It warned the grid will suffer an “overall tight balance with partial gaps” this winter. 

  China skipped out on last week’s Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow as President Xi Jinping ramps up coal imports, coal power generation, and coal stockpiling. China Meteorological Administration recently warned a La Nina weather event would unleash a cold blast across the country. This has forced the country to increase fossil fuel power generation that has led to air quality deterioration. 

  

  Mean temperatures in Beijing are below freezing this weekend as the capital experienced its first heavy snowfall of the season. Suburbs of Beijing saw the heaviest snowfall, up to 15.8 inches. 

  

  As the colder weather rolls in, central planners have been on a multi-month frenzy to stockpile fuel and, as of last week, told households to stock up on food in case of emergencies, mainly because it expects food shortages as La Nina could trigger a winter of discontent. 

  Interventions can only last so long as supplies are limited. Coal prices are likely to increase from here, and China’s energy crunch to persist through the winter season. 

  … and then there’s this from the editor-in-chief of state-run media Global Times… 

  China’s State Grid said the power supply crunch is improved and power supply/demand has returned to normalcy. Isn’t China acting quickly? How long will the US and Europe take to solve the issues of power crunch and empty shelves? pic.twitter.com/8Ov14JYido

  — Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) November 7, 2021

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 20:30

• When Will The CDC Correct Its COVID Death-Counts, As Italy Just Did?
  When Will The CDC Correct Its COVID Death-Counts, As Italy Just Did?

  Authored by Andrew Widburg via AmericanThinker.com,

  Summit News caught a fascinating story out of Italy: the Italian Higher Institute of Health decided it had miscounted COVID deaths.  Instead of looking at people who died with COVID, as it once did, it looked only at people who died from COVID — leading to a 97% decrease in Italy’s COVID death count.  So far, the CDC shows no signs of following suit.

  

  According to Summit News:

  The Italian Higher Institute of Health has drastically reduced the country’s official COVID death toll number by over 97 per cent after changing the definition of a fatality to someone who died from COVID rather than with COVID.

  Italian newspaper Il Tempo reports that the Institute has revised downward the number of people who have died from COVID rather than with COVID from 130,000 to under 4,000.

  “Yes, you read that right. Turns out 97.1% of deaths hitherto attributed to Covid were not due directly to Covid,” writes Toby Young.

  Of the of the 130,468 deaths registered as official COVID deaths since the start of the pandemic, only 3,783 are directly attributable to the virus alone.

  “All the other Italians who lost their lives had from between one and five pre-existing diseases. Of those aged over 67 who died, 7% had more than three co-morbidities, and 18% at least two,” writes Young.

  “According to the Institute, 65.8% of Italians who died after being infected with Covid were ill with arterial hypertension (high blood pressure), 23.5% had dementia, 29.3% had diabetes, and 24.8% atrial fibrillation. Add to that, 17.4% had lung problems, 16.3% had had cancer in the last five years and 15.7% suffered from previous heart failures.”

  There’s more interesting material here, for the article discusses the ethics of overcounting to induce panic.

  Reading between the lines, the problem in Italy was that the socialized medicine system was unable to cope with an influx of patients during a bad flu season.  (And it was a bad flu season.)

  The actual data match closely what those who are not panicking have observed in America.  As with every flu season, there are unlucky young (and youngish) people who die from the flu.  Overall, though, the ones who die are either very elderly or have comorbidities of the type described in the quoted material above.

  In America, however, counting COVID deaths is more of an art than it is a science (and that’s not even getting into the way the government incentivized hospitals to count COVID deaths).  You can see here the CDC’s instructions.

  A February 2021 article at the American Association of Medical College’s website assures readers that no one is really overcounting in America: “There’s no evidence of orchestrated inflation, but parsing the role that the disease plays in some deaths is not always easy for doctors — nor is the process clear to the public.”

  The article then discusses the fact that deaths from COVID are confusing because COVID creates a lot of “clinical complications.”  However — and this is where the article starts tying in with what we know to be true:

  [T]he disease’s brutal impact on people with other medical conditions — such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart ailments — can make COVID-19 one of several contributors to a death, says Sally Aiken, MD, chief medical examiner of Spokane County, Washington. Aiken has seen cases where elderly people who were in advanced decline due to Alzheimer’s disease and atrial fibrillation contracted COVID-19 and soon died.

  In other words, COVID hastens death but doesn’t necessarily cause it.  Moreover (and, again, this matters), when it comes to death certificates:

  Part I and II of a death certificate ask what caused a death and what other factors contributed to it. If COVID-19 appears among the causes and contributors, CDC guidance counts that as a COVID-19-related death.

  Part I asks for the “immediate cause” of death, followed by any “conditions that led to the immediate cause,” the CDC explains in guidelines for certifying COVID-19 fatalities. For example: In some COVID-19 cases, the immediate cause is an affliction that arose from the disease, such as pneumonia, while COVID-19 gets listed under that as an underlying condition that led to death. In other words, COVID-19 caused the pneumonia.

  Alaska’s policy is a good yardstick for what’s going on:

  The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services explains on its website why the disease is cited if it played any role at all:

  “Whether COVID-19 shortened a life by 15 years or 15 minutes; whether COVID-19 is an underlying or contributing condition, the virus was in circulation, infected an Alaskan, and hastened their death.”

  Parse your way through all of this, and it becomes clear that COVID, because it is a new and highly adaptable coronavirus, hastened the deaths of those with one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel by increasing their vulnerability to the things that were already killing them.  This is sad, for every minute, day, or week spent with a loved one matters.  Additionally, the extreme lockdowns consigned so many to heartbreakingly lonely deaths.

  However, if you do as the Italian government did and strip away age and comorbidities from the death count, COVID is just another flu for most people.  The economy does not need to stop; people do not need to be locked up; the disease is treatable; and mass vaccination mandates are unnecessary, ineffective, and totalitarian.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 20:00

• US Rents Rose At Slowest Pace Since February In Latest Sign Of Housing Market Exhaustion
  US Rents Rose At Slowest Pace Since February In Latest Sign Of Housing Market Exhaustion

  After months of soaring rents as housing markets in densely populated cities recovered from the pandemic, which prompted millions of Americans to flee (at least temporarily) to suburbs or exurban places (while younger members of the workforce returned to the basements of their parents to seek refugee and conserve resources), the latest reading from the Apartment List National Rent Report showed national rents increased by just 0.8% between September and October.

  That’s the lowest month-over-month reading since February, when the pace of rent growth has slowed down significantly from its July peak. Still, the rate at which rents are rising still outpaces pre-pandemic trends.

  Still, since January of this year, the national median rent has increased by a staggering 16.4%, mirroring a surge in home prices.

  To try and put that into context: rent growth between January and October increased just 3.2% on average during 2017, 2018 and 2019, the three years prior to the pandemic.

  Back in August we were talking about rental hyperinflation and the threat it poses to workers whose earnings aren’t rising nearly as fast as inflation.

  But the fact that national rent growth has cooled – an indicator coming just days after Zillow announced it might take a massive loss as it scrambles to sell its inventory of 7K homes for $2.8 billion, the latest sign that the “iBuyer” business might be the first victim of the surge in housing prices post-COVID – might have broader lessons for the housing market.

  To be sure, rents are still rising; they grew by 0.8% this month, but the rate of growth slowed for the third straight month after peaking at 26% in July.

  

  In an attempt to illustrate how the pace of rent increases has been impacted by the pandemic, Apartment List shared its model for the pace of rents in 2020 and 2021 if the pandemic had never happened.

  

  But right now, it looks like Americans’ (and investors’) appetite for buying homes is running out of steam. e pace of rent growth is cooling in 95 of America’s largest cities. As the dark red bands on the right side of the chart depict this year’s rent boom, the final column also shows how the  pace of increases has cooled over the past month.

  

  95 of the 100 largest cities in the US saw slower rent growth this month compared to last. But there’s one place where rent appreciation is still accelerating at a pretty strong pace: Florida.

  

  Apartment List’s takeaway is this: Although the pandemic created some softness in the rental market last year, 2021 has brought the fastest rent growth we have on record in our data as rents in cities like NYC bounced back and cities like Boise and other small cities have seen an influx of residents. 

  Nationally, and in nearly all individual cities across the country, rent growth in 2021 has exceeded average growth rates from pre-pandemic years. This month however, that record-setting growth is finally showing signs of a meaningful slowdown.

  What do impact do you think that will have on the housing market?

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 19:30

• Biden's Infrastructure Plan May Be Hugely Inflationary
  Biden’s Infrastructure Plan May Be Hugely Inflationary

  Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

  What is the worst thing a government can do when there is high inflation and supply shortages? Multiply spending on energy and material-intensive areas. This is exactly what the US infrastructure plan is doing and -even worse- what other developed nations have decided to copy.

  If you thought there were problems of supply and difficulties to access goods and services in the middle of a strong recovery, imagine what will happen once central banks and governments turn the printing machine to maximum level to spend on white elephants.

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  There is no such thing as “multi-cause inflation”. What Biden calls “speculation” is simply more money going to the same number of goods. So-called “supply chain disruptions” is more money to the same services, and “cost-push inflation” nothing else than more money created to bloat government spending and “infrastructure” plans to the same number of goods. As one of my followers explains, “more credit issued for GDP related purposes chasing the same amount of goods and services”.

  More money printed to bloat government spending chasing the same goods and services. Monetary inflation.

  Who benefits from this massive spending plan? The biggest beneficiaries of Biden’s large spending plans are Asian economies, according to Bloomberg Economics. Vietnam, Indonesia and South Korea would get a boost of up to 1% of GDP, with India, Japan and China gaining between 0.4% and 0.8% of GDP.

  However, an additional -and quick- one trillion US dollar spending boost in energy-intensive and material consuming industries is likely to also create important challenges in terms of inflation and supply shortages.

  The key parts producers in the world are likely to see more orders but much higher energy prices and transport costs.

  The reader will likely argue that infrastructure spending is good and needed. However, the problem of demand-side policies is that they create a bottleneck and inflationary pressures in the worst moment possible.

  

  Even if the plan is implemented in eight years it is likely to put further pressure on prices of essential goods and services instead of putting more effort on reducing the burdens to improving the technology and supply chains through competition and investment.

  The problem of demand-side policies is that they create a bullwhip effect that is likely to reduce the potential in jobs. Why? Because firms that are already facing rising energy bills are unlikely to be able to hire personnel as they would have in a normal recovery.

  The first effect of such an energy-intensive plan is a damage on the costs of the service sector and the expenses of citizens. Pushing a massive spending bill financed with printed money just when the United Nations Food Price Index reaches a new all-time high and oil, gas, copper and aluminium are at five-year highs is a big problem for small and medium enterprises and families. You may have a job, but costs are going to be very steep.

  The entire plan reads “more oil, gas, copper and aluminium demand”: $110 billion in new spending for roads and bridges, $73 billion for power grid upgrades, $66 billion for rail and Amtrak, $65 billion for broadband expansion, and $39 billion for transit.

  

  Original Biden plan before the cuts. Source: Bloomberg

  Is this infrastructure needed? Maybe. But it would have been a better idea to present the plan with a stronger emphasis on allowing the private sector to pace it according to the reality of supply and demand, and less as a spend for spending’s sake way to boost nominal GDP without understanding the risk to the services sector, which is 67% of the United States economy.

  The services sector is going to be hurt badly from the rise in inflation as well as the shortages. The US consumer might find that the job creation is much smaller than what the government expects, because it has always been so in these plans, and that the inflation tax will be much steeper for all. US citizens may think that the government pays for this plan, but it is wrong. Consumers and taxpayers will suffer the rise in cost of living added to higher taxes.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 19:00

• Republican-Led Attempt To Legalize Cannabis Could Reignite Pot Stocks
  Republican-Led Attempt To Legalize Cannabis Could Reignite Pot Stocks

  Cannabis stocks could become hot again on Wall Street Bets after Marijuana Moment reported Friday a new Republican-led congressional marijuana legalization bill is “imminent.” 

  The text of the draft legislation, obtained by Marijuana Moment, specifies Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) leads the attempt to legalize pot. The measure, titled States Reform Act, is being examined by stakeholders for feedback and is subject to change before its official filing later this month. 

  This is yet another development in what’s proved to be an active year cannabis reform on Capitol Hill. But the GOP angle is notable, as many have raised doubts about the prospects of Congress passing the far-reaching, large-scale marijuana bills that Democrats are leading in the House and Senate. Getting Republican buy in could prove critical to getting something over the finish line, and the Mace measure seems aimed at appealing to the states’ rights and business interests of conservative colleagues on her side of the aisle while also incorporating some restorative justice and tax elements largely favored by progressives.

  The freshman congresswoman, who was the sole GOP vote in favor of a cannabis research bill for veterans during a committee markup on Thursday, aims to deschedule marijuana and create a regulatory scheme federally—but still ensure that existing state markets are not unduly burdened or undermined by new rules. – Marijuana Moment

  The cannabis news website published a breakdown of the draft legislation and summary documents: 

  –Cannabis would be federally descheduled and treated in a manner similar to alcohol.

  -A 3.75 percent excise tax would be imposed on cannabis sales. Revenue would support grant programs for community reentry, law enforcement and Small Business Administration (SBA) aid for newly licensed businesses.

  -The Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) would be the chief regulator for marijuana with respect to interstate commerce.

  -The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be limited in its regulatory authority, with the intent being that it would have no more control over cannabis than it does for alcohol except when it comes to medical cannabis. The agency could prescribe serving sizes, certify designated state medical cannabis products and approve and regulate pharmaceuticals derived from marijuana, but could not ban the use of cannabis or its derivates in non-drug applications, like in designated state medical cannabis products, dietary supplements, foods, beverages, non-drug topicals or cosmetics.

  –Raw cannabis would be considered an agricultural commodity regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

  -The legislation would grandfather existing state-licensed cannabis operators into the federal scheme to ensure continued patient access and incentivize participation in the legal market.

  -As federal agencies work to promulgate rules, there would be safe harbor provisions to protect patients and marijuana businesses acting in compliance with existing state laws.

  –People with certain federal cannabis convictions that were non-violent would be eligible for expungements.

  -To prevent youth use, there would be a mandatory 21 age limit for recreational cannabis, and the bill also prescribes certain restrictions on things like advertising.

  –SBA would need to treat marijuana businesses the same as other regulated markets, like it does for alcohol companies, for example.

  -The measure also stipulates that veterans can’t face discrimination in federal hiring due to cannabis use, and doctors with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would be specifically authorized to issue recommendations for medical cannabis for veterans.

  -Federal agencies could continue to drug test for marijuana.

  -The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) would be required to issue a report to Congress on the marijuana industry.

  Bloomberg quoted the U.S. Cannabis Council who said it welcomes the “growing bipartisan effort in Congress to end federal cannabis prohibition” and is reviewing the legislative text. 

  “It is encouraging to see more Republicans embracing cannabis legalization and putting forward comprehensive frameworks for reform,” U.S. Cannabis Council CEO Steve Hawkins said. 

  News of the bipartisan efforts to legalize marijuana may have sparked some positive sentiment among the WSB crowd on Friday. There’s a notable positive sentiment spike in positive conversations surrounding ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ).

  

  But there is a caveat for WSB or other investors piling into MJ – that is, the ETF, which holds notable pot companies such as GrowGeneration Corp, Tilray Inc, and Canopy Growth Corp, has seen its outstanding shares balloon 5x since mid-2018 as shares were more than halved.  

  

  So the point is, if new legalization is filed in the near term, WSB will be all over pot stocks, and our warning is, MJ’s issuance of shares could be a hindrance to sustaining an uptrend. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 18:30

• Get Ready For Your 'Woke' 401(k)
  Get Ready For Your ‘Woke’ 401(k)

  Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

  Here’s our weekend roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.

  

  Woke 401(k) rule quietly moves forward

  Almost exactly one year ago, the US Department of Labor issued a regulation requiring that employers and their financial advisers choose employee investment plans based solely on financial factors… and nothing else.

  Even more specifically, the regulation prevents employers from choosing a mutual fund or ETF whose main objectives are anything other than financial, i.e. mutual funds which place social or environmental justice above investment returns.

  The rule effectively stopped employers from injecting their personal beliefs into their employees retirement plans.

  Yet earlier this year, new Labor Department under the administration of Hunter Biden’s dad announced that they would no longer enforce this rule.

  Three weeks ago they went a step further and created a new regulation called “Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investments”.

  This new rule proposes to formally reverse the old regulation by expressly allowing businesses to “make investment decisions that reflect climate change and other environmental, social, or governance (“ESG”) considerations. . .”

  The proposed regulation goes on for THIRTY THREE PAGES and outlines every possible woke investment initiative imaginable.

  For example, the rule allows employers to invest your savings in a stock based solely on that company’s “progress on workforce diversity [and] inclusion. . .” as opposed to, you know, profit and growth potential.

  But there’s something even more striking about this regulation.

  Normally whenever the federal government proposes new rules and regulations, they give the public an opportunity to comment on the proposal… and these comments are made public.

  In this case the comments are, in fact, NOT public.

  The rule even claims that all comments will be made available on www.regulations.gov and www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa

  Yet public comments to this regulation are available at neither website.

  Moreover, the rule also states that public comments will be made available to anyone who physically visits the Employee Benefits Security Administration’s (EBSA) office in Washington DC.

  Yet according to the EBSA website, they have “temporarily moved to telephone and website contact only” because of COVID-1984.

  So, at the moment, all public comments for this new regulation are being quietly buried as the deadline for its passage (December 13th) quickly approaches.

  Click here to read the proposed rule.

  *  *  *

  A US Court Declares Colombian Hippos People

  The hippopotamus is not native to Colombia.

  But drug lord Pablo Escobar imported four hippos to his private estate back in the 1980s. When he was killed in a 1993 shootout with police, the hippos were simply abandoned in the wild.

  Now there are upwards of 100 hippos living in the Magdalena River in Colombia, and a debate has erupted over what to do with them. Some people want them sterilized, while others say they should be killed to prevent environmental damage or threats to humans.

  But a handful of animal activists decided to file a lawsuit… in the United States.

  What’s even more ridiculous is that the Federal Court for the Southern District of Ohio actually took the case, even though this situation has nothing to do with the US, let alone the Southern District of Ohio.

  But as a final absurdity, the judge actually ruled that the hippopotamuses should be seen as “interested persons” with full legal rights to representation.

  Click here to read the full story.

  *  *  *

  Australia Prepares to Confiscate Property for Unpaid COVID Fines

  Many Australian serfs broke the law last year when they left home to exercise, sit on the beach alone, or attend a public protest to demand basic human rights.

  The government issued these political dissidents excessive fines—sometimes thousands of dollars for a single offense—for their extremist, borderline terrorist behavior: leaving home without permission from the government.

  The state of Queensland, in particular, is dealing with 3,046 unpaid fines worth a total of $5.2 million. That accounts for over 43% of the fines it issued to individuals and businesses for breaking COVID rules.

  Now the government has started to freeze bank accounts, garnish wages, suspend driver’s licenses, and register charges on property which could lead to confiscation of the property if the fines are still not paid.

  Click here to read the full story.

  *  *  *

  Spain Rules COVID Fines Were Illegal— Will Return the Money

  Meanwhile, in the civilized world where human rights still exist, the Spanish Constitutional Court declared Spain’s first lockdown, confining people to their homes, illegal.

  That also means the fines it issued were illegal. So now the Spanish government is starting to return that money to the people it fined.

  The Court is also considering declaring subsequent lockdowns illegal as well.

  Click here to read the full story.

  *  *  *

  On another note… We think gold could DOUBLE and silver could increase by up to 5 TIMES in the next few years. That’s why we published a new, 50-page long Ultimate Guide on Gold & Silver that you can download here.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 18:00

• UN Committee To Decide Who Gets Afghanistan's Seat Amid Rival Claims
  UN Committee To Decide Who Gets Afghanistan’s Seat Amid Rival Claims

  The Taliban has now held power over Afghanistan for nearly three months, yet it’s the former US-backed Afghan national government that’s still being represented to the United Nations in New York, creating a tense diplomatic showdown with the Taliban, which is vying for official recognition to take the seat.

  The ousted government of former President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country in August amid the rapid Taliban advance on Kabul, is still being represented by Amb. Ghulam Isaczai. For now he’s continuing to act as Afghanistan’s ambassador, while the Taliban’s nomination for the position, Suhail Shaheeen, has been waiting on the sidelines.

  

  Bloomberg describes that the standoff looks to continue unresolved for at least the near future: “At a meeting this month, a UN committee that includes China, Russia, and the US is widely expected to punt on rival requests for diplomatic representation – one from the UN ambassador of the deposed Afghan government and another from the Taliban.”

  The committee has nine members who’ve expressed a desire to see Afghanistan stabilized, and for the Taliban to enact reforms – specifically promises it’s previously made such as upholding human rights for all including women and girls, as well as combatting terrorism. 

  Both Russia and China have appeared more ready to recognize the Taliban government, maintaining increased communications with the Islamist rulers, and with the latter opening up trade and investment ties. But Washington has so far refused to bestow official legitimacy, keeping Taliban assets abroad under sanction, and only recently authorizing the resumption of humanitarian aid into the war-torn country.

  As for Russia, as spokesman was quoted last week: “No-one is in a hurry to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Friday, signaling that Moscow is not ready to allow the Islamists to represent Afghanistan at the United Nations.”

  “The primary thing today is to stabilize the country,” Nebezia added in the statement. “The economy is on the verge of collapse with the lack of any resources, which are frozen and are not being released anytime soon, judging by the statements that we hear.”

  But in its latest report Bloomberg underscores the Taliban is hamstrung by the lack of UN recognition, given this translates to not receiving badly needed aid from international institutions – the World Bank and International Monetary Fund being prime examples:

  The Taliban is facing a cash crunch after the U.S. and its partners froze Afghanistan’s access to more than $9 billion in overseas assets, mostly central bank reserves held in American banks. The Biden administration has rejected appeals from Russia and China to release the assets as the situation worsens. On Nov. 3, the Taliban banned the use of foreign currencies and ordered the public to use local currency in a bid to ease the crisis. 

  Finally settling the UN ambassador post dilemma in favor of the Taliban would essentially mean international and Western acknowledgement that the Taliban is there to stay. But this is the very thing that many powerful countries are as yet unwilling to do.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 17:30

• Taxes Set To Rise In 2026, No Matter What Happens With Build Back Better
  Taxes Set To Rise In 2026, No Matter What Happens With Build Back Better

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  Many provisions of the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act signed by Trump will expire. Let’s look at the impacts…

  

  Tax Breaks Set to Expire

  Some provisions in the package of tax cuts which Trump signed in 2017 are now set to expire. The bill was known as the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act.

  As a result, Taxes Will Rise Regardless of what happens with Biden’s Build Back Better initiative.

  “Most of the individual provisions of the [law] do expire at the end of 2025,” said Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation. “Just like [many households] saw a tax cut in 2018, they might see a tax increase relative to current policy in 2026.”

  Rising Again

  • Prior to the 2017 tax law, the highest earners paid a 39.6% marginal income-tax rate. (Individuals paid the rate on income exceeding $426,700 and married couples on income over $480,050, according to the Tax Policy Center.) The law reduced the top rate to 37%. It will jump back to 39.6% in 2026.

  • Estates owe a 40% federal tax once values exceed a certain amount. The tax law roughly doubled the threshold, which was $5.49 million per person in 2017. (The amount, which changes each year to account for inflation, is $11.7 million a person and $23.4 million for married couples in 2021.) The threshold would fall to roughly $6 million in 2026 after accounting for inflation

  • The 2017 tax law allowed entrepreneurs who structure their business as a pass-through (such as a partnership or sole proprietorship) to deduct up to 20% of their business income from taxes. (Such entrepreneurs pay taxes on business income at their individual tax rates.) Business owners would lose the tax break in 2026. 

  Evaluation

  • Estate Tax: Estates with valuations over $6 million will see an additional tax of 40% of the difference between roughly $6 million and $12 million.

  • Top Brackets: Individuals making more than $426,700 and married couples on income over $480,050 will see their taxes rise by 2.6 percentage points in 2026.

  • Pass Through Income: The 2020 income limit for single filers is $213,300 and couples filing together can’t earn more than $426,600. The 20% tax break also expires at the end of 2025.

  Trump’s Mistakes

  • Trump hugely front-loaded most of the package. By 2020, the economic boost was largely over. 

  • The bill certainly did not pay for itself as advertised. They never do, regardless of which party proposes them.

  • The real killer from a 2020 election point of view is that the cuts did very little for the middle class. This upset a lot of independents.  

  Biden Pledge

  Biden pledged not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000. 

  That should mean he would not eliminate this tax break. Alternatively, he would set the limit at $400,000.

  Individuals Impacted By Expiring Benefits 

  In terms of the number of people affected, the pass through tax benefit likely hits the highest number of people.

  Hiking taxes on those making more than $426,700 per year likely impacts the least. 

  In terms of dollar amounts, estates with valuations between $6 million and $12 million would seemingly get clobbered. 

  For example, an estate worth $12 million would pay an extra tax of  $2.4 million (40% of $6 million). 

  In practice, however, people use tax shelters to avoid such events.

  *  *  *

  Like these reports? If so, please Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 17:00

• Iran Blames US For Assassination Attempt On Iraq PM As Fresh Unrest Set To Explode In Streets
  Iran Blames US For Assassination Attempt On Iraq PM As Fresh Unrest Set To Explode In Streets

  Iraq is on edge Sunday while bracing for potential protests and unrest following the widely reported assassination attempt of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in the overnight hours. As we reported earlier an explosive-laden drone struck his residence in Baghdad, while the military said Kadhimi was unharmed in the attack and is in good health. Subsequent reports indicated three drones were launched toward his residence in the high-secure Green Zone, with the military saying two were shout down by anti-air defenses. 

  Kadhimi is now calling for “calm and restraint” following priors days of protests by pro-Iran groups which turned violent in the heart of the Iraqi capital. He denounced the “cowardly assault”. Following a hotly contested Oct.10 election involving rival political groups and their attempt to form a new government, the drone incident has unleashed fresh accusations and speculations over who was behind it. A heavy Iraqi troop presence has been observed in Baghdad’s streets. 

  

  “Hundreds of supporters of pro-Iran political groups, which suffered heavy losses in the polls, have clashed with security forces in Baghdad near the heavily fortified Green Zone over the weekend,” Middle East Eye observes. 

  No group has as yet claimed responsibility for the attack which reported wounded multiple of the PM’s personal body guard. Supporters of Kadhimi, as well as Western sources and officials quickly pointed the finger at Iran, given that pro-Iran militias are disputing “fraudulent” elections which saw their Shia political parties lose bigtime in parliament: 

  Kadhimi, who has been in power since May 2020, was accused by pro-Iran groups of overseeing “fraud” after election results saw their vote share drop dramatically.

  The Fatah coalition, which comprises the Badr Organisation, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, and Kata’ib Hezbollah among others, saw their seats decrease from 47 in the 2018 elections to about 20 seats following the 10 October parliamentary vote.

  But perhaps to be expected, Iran is now strongly suggesting that the United States and its allies were behind the attack. In provocative Sunday statements, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Said Khatibzadeh has said the assassination attempt served the interests of the US.

  “Such incidents are in the interest of those who have violated the stability, security, independence and territorial integrity of Iraq over the past 18 years,” the spokesman said in reference to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and subsequent lengthy occupation. 

  

  “They have sought to achieve their sinister regional goals by creating terrorist groups that seek to stir sedition,” Khatibzadeh alleged. He urged the Iraqi public to be “vigilant” against “conspiracies that have targeted Iraq’s security and progress.”

  Iran has been frequently blamed over the past couple years for almost monthly rocket and drone attacks against bases hosting US troops, as well as attacks on the US Embassy in the Green Zone.

  Still images from inside the residence of the #Iraq-i Prime Minister shows the aftermath of the drone attack that he survived it. pic.twitter.com/bzu8m6Y8HO

  — Middle East Times 🇵🇸 🇮🇷 (@middleeasttime) November 7, 2021

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

  Tehran now seems to be suggesting that the assassination attempt was by design intended to put more international scrutiny and pressure on Iran and Iran-backed groups inside Iraq. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 16:30

• Maté: Russiagate Has No Rock-Bottom
  Maté: Russiagate Has No Rock-Bottom

  Authored by Aaron Maté via Substack,

  The indictment of the Steele dossier’s key source newly humiliates the Clinton campaign, FBI, and US media…

  

  It did not seem possible for the Steele dossier – the collection of Trump-Russia conspiracy theories funded by the Clinton campaign; hyped by the US media establishment; and tapped by the FBI for surveillance and investigative leads – to get more embarrassing for all of those involved.

  But the indictment by Special Counsel John Durham of Steele’s key source, Igor Danchenko, offers 39 pages of new evidence that Russiagate — after five years of failed innuendo, debunked “bombshells”, and humiliating revelations — has no rock bottom.

  Danchenko is accused of making false statements to the FBI about his role in feeding Trump-Russia allegations to Christopher Steele, a former British spy working for the private intelligence firm Fusion GPS, which in turn was working for the Clinton campaign. Steele’s so-called “intelligence reports” were planted in the media to fuel the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. The FBI also used Steele’s work as source material to chase multiple leads and obtain surveillance warrants on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.

  Whereas Steele claimed to have access to “well-placed and established Kremlin sources,” his main source was in fact Danchenko, a DC-based Russian expat who had worked for the Brookings Institution, a Beltway (and Clinton-tied) think tank.

  In late 2019, Danchenko humiliated the Steele dossier’s powerful champions when it emerged that he had informed the FBI, in a January 2017 interview, that corroboration for the Steele dossier’s key claims was “zero.” This was for good reason: instead of speaking to Kremlin officials, as Steele had claimed, Danchenko told FBI agents that he had instead relied on booze-fueled “hearsay” in his “conversations with friends.”

  Now it gets worse. Durham’s indictment reveals that one of Danchenko’s key “sub-sources” was not even Russian, but a U.S. public relations executive with deep ties to none other than Bill and Hillary Clinton. Another purported “sub-source”, Sergei Millian, is Russian, but there is one problem: contrary to what Danchenko told the FBI, he and Millian never even spoke.

  The indictment also suggests that not only was the FBI aware in 2017 that the Steele dossier was fraudulent, but that its key source, Danchenko, was lying to them. But instead of informing the public and indicting Steele’s source, the FBI continued the Trump-Russia investigation and tapped the dossier for it. Anonymous intelligence officials even told the public that Steele’s farcical claims were bearing out.

  Durham’s indictment offers new details on how the farce came to be.

  Longtime Clinton operative was key dossier source

  The public relations executive revealed by Durham to be a key (yet perhaps unwitting) Steele dossier player is Charles Dolan, a longtime Democrat tied to the Clintons since the early 1990s. After two consecutive stints as the Virginia state chair for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, Clinton appointed Dolan to an influential State Department board in 1997. Dolan also served Hillary Clinton’s two presidential campaigns, as advisor in 2008 and as a volunteer in 2016. (Durham did not name Dolan, but included biographical details that made him easy to identify).

  I think I’ve found a match for “PR Executive 1”: Charles Dolan. pic.twitter.com/4bW5C2qbA7

  — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) November 4, 2021

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  Now it appears that Dolan can add another key role to his Clinton-world resume.

  According to Durham, Steele’s claim that Trump cavorted with prostitutes in Moscow’s Ritz Carlton was likely embellished from benign information that Dolan gave to Danchenko. During a June 2016 visit to Moscow in preparation for an upcoming conference, Dolan toured the Moscow Ritz Carlton, where he met with the hotel manager and visited the hotel’s presidential suite. Danchenko then met with Dolan at the same hotel before flying to the UK to meet with Steele.

  Three days after Danchenko’s arrival in London, Steele produced his first report, which included the allegation about Russia possessing a pee tape of Trump in Moscow’s Ritz Carlton. As Durham notes, Steele references “the Moscow Hotel, the Presidential Suite, and a Moscow Hotel manager and other staff.”

  According to Durham, Dolan and an associate learned from a hotel staffer that Trump had stayed in the Presidential suite. But Dolan claims that no one at the hotel mentioned anything to do with “sexual or salacious” activity.

  Dolan’s account suggests that Danchenko took the basic details about Trump’s stay at the Ritz Carlton and added his own creative spin about the pee tape.

  Whether Hillary Clinton and her campaign were aware of Dolan’s role– and Dolan insists that they were not – it’s yet one more embarrassing Clinton tie to the Steele dossier, revealed long after the damage was done.

  Dolan’s place in the Steele supply chain offers yet another glaring (and hilarious) irony: after four-plus years of fanatical and ultimately fruitless efforts to uncover any damning Trump connection, financial or otherwise, to Moscow, Durham reveals that this key Steele dossier player and Clinton ally has far deeper Russia ties than anyone in the Trump orbit.

  According to Durham’s indictment, Dolan, while an executive at the PR firm Ketchum, was hired by the Kremlin “to handle global public relations for the Russian government,” as well as its state-owned energy company, Gazprom.

  This is far from the Clintons only inconvenient Russia tie, right to the top of the chain. Although much was made of a Trump Tower Moscow project that ultimately involved zero dollars exchanged and never got off the ground, the Clintons have a lucrative Russia tie that their campaign worked hard to memory-hole.

  Back when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, the Russian firm Renaissance Capital paid Bill Clinton $500,000 to deliver a speech at a Moscow conference. At the time, Renaissance openly opposed the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on Russian officials. Hillary Clinton came out against the sanctions during that same period. Campaign emails later released by WikiLeaks show that Clinton staffers “killed a Bloomberg story trying to link HRC’s opposition to the Magnitsky bill” to Bill’s half-a million-dollar payday.

  If Russiagate’s conspiratorial, moronic and Russophobic standards were applied across party lines, then these established Clinton-Russia ties would have left Hillary deeply compromised by the Kremlin.

  Because of Dolan’s deep ties to Russia, Durham adds, the longtime Clinton operative “frequently interacted with senior Russian Federation leadership whose names would later appear” in the dossier. Indeed, the pee tape is not the only instance where Dolan’s connections to Russia created dossier fodder. According to Durham, Dolan’s personal relationship with a Russian diplomat, Mikhail Kalugin, led to another embellished Steele dossier claim.

  In a September 2016 entry, Steele claimed that Russia had just withdrawn Kalugin (misspelled by Steele as “Kulagin”) from its Washington embassy “because Moscow feared his heavy involvement in the US presidential election operation… would be exposed in the media there.”

  But according to the indictment, Kalugin’s return to Moscow was not some hasty measure taken by the Kremlin, but in fact a long-planned move that Dolan and an associate were informed about weeks before. Following a May 31st meeting at the Russian embassy, an embassy staffer sent Dolan email mentioning that Kalugin would be returning to Moscow in September. In August, Kalugin himself personally wrote to Dolan to inform him of his impending departure the following month. Durham then notes that Dolan and Danchenko spoke by phone one day before Steele wrote his report containing the allegation about Kalugin.

  Steele’s claims about the Russian diplomat, Durham says, “like the allegation concerning the Presidential Suite of the Moscow Hotel — bore substantial similarities to information that [Dolan] received during the 2016 time period.” In short, Danchenko took innocuous, Russia-tied information from Dolan, and then embellished it with his own creative spy thriller spin.

  Steele – the supposed James Bond-level sleuth – either added his own creative touches as well, or simply reproduced it in his dossier, no questions asked (and no brain cells used).

  For another allegation that ended up in the Steele dossier, this time about Paul Manafort, Dolan even informed Durham’s team that he “obtained the information… from public news sources.”

  As I been arguing for years, this should have been obvious to anyone reading the dossier chronologically. Writing in The Nation, I summarized Steele’s conspicuous timing:

  If the Steele dossier’s far-fetched claims were not enough reason to dismiss it with ridicule, another obvious marker should have set off alarms. Reading the Steele dossier chronologically, a glaring pattern emerges: Steele has no advance knowledge of anything that later proved to be true, and, just as tellingly, many of his most explosive claims appear only after some approximate predication has come out in public form.

  …In short, far from having access to high-level intelligence, Steele and his “sources” only had access to news outlets and their own imaginations.

  Steele’s media and Congressional accomplices

  Rather than notice Steele’s obvious pattern – coming out with an explosive allegation after a predicate has already been publicly reported, and failing to report anything later substantiated that wasn’t yet publicly known at the time of his “reporting” – prominent media and political figures treated Steele’s creative spin on public events as evidence of intrepid sleuthing.

  Accordingly, on top of the Clinton campaign, the Danchenko indictment offers new humiliation for many prominent media figures who treated Steele as the Pee Tape Pied Piper. I have previously called out some of the worst offenders. I will keep here to some of those media figures who, somehow, are continuing to dig in.

  Guardian reporter Luke Harding repackaged Steele’s gossip for his best-selling book, Collusion, and promoted him at every turn. It was thus no surprise then that Harding was unable to defend any of his claims when I interviewed him in December 2017.

  What should be a surprise – assuming that the Guardian is interested in minimal journalism standards – is that he is still allowed to cover anything to do with Steele or Russia. Harding’s report on the Danchenko indictment downplays its significance and even resorts to outright fabrication. In an apparent bid to vindicate himself and Steele, Harding declares that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has “noted that there were multiple contacts in 2016 between Russian spies and Trump aides.” Mueller has never made such a claim.

  (An accurate description of what Mueller and the FBI actually found was recently offered in passing by CNN’s Marshall Cohen. The Russia probe, Cohen wrote, “uncovered contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians.” That is correct. The most hyped scandal in US history uncovered contacts with Russian passport holders. To fabulists like Harding, that translates to “spies.”)

  As Matt Taibbi notes, the most prominent and embarrassing offender was MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Steele’s allegation that Russia had withdrawn Kalugin from Washington, for example, was the centerpiece of a March 2017 segment from Maddow titled “More Pieces Of Donald Trump Russia Dossier Check Out.”

  Recall that Maddow was such a fervent believer in Steele’s sleuthing powers that she even speculated, just days before Trump’s 2017 inauguration, that Putin might use the pee tape to blackmail Trump into withdrawing US forces near Russia’s border.

  With all the pee tape jokes today I’d like to submit that the biggest pee tape joke has been the pundits & other prominent voices who’ve taken it seriously. Here eg is @Maddow in Jan 2017 warning that Putin may use the pee tape to force Trump to withdraw US troops near Russia: pic.twitter.com/XuXXagyCNb

  — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 12, 2018

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  Maddow: Here’s the question – is the new president going to take those troops out? After all the speculation, after all the worry, we are actually about to find out if Russia maybe has something on the new president? We’re about to find out if the new president of our country is going to do what Russia wants once he’s commander-in-chief of the U.S. military starting noon on Friday. What is he going to do with those deployments? Watch this space. Seriously.

  Spoiler alert: Trump did not withdraw the troops. In fact, he sent even more troops to Russia’s borders. Seriously.

  True to form, Maddow devoted her coverage of the Danchenko indictment to dismissing it as a “Trumpian” ploy, as part of Durman’s “mission to demonize the investigation of Trump’s associations with Russia.”

  Just last month, ABC News released an entire special featuring Steele’s first on-camera interview since Russiagate began. The 68-minute documentary, hosted by former senior Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, goes to great lengths to portray Steele as credible.

  George Stephanopoulos: And today, do you still believe that that tape exists?

  Christopher Steele: I think it probably does, but I wouldn’t put 100 percent certainty on it.

  Stephanopoulos: So you stand by the dossier?

  Steele: I stand by the work we did, the sources that we had, and the professionalism which we applied to it.

  It’s only in the closing minutes that we learn about the 2019 Department of Justice Inspector General report that “eviscerated” the dossier. But that is soon countered with a parting offering from ABC News’ Matthew Mosk: “Now looking back on it, there are people who will say Christopher Steele’s dossier has been debunked. And there are other people who will say it’s mostly held up. Maybe it’s somewhere in between.”

  These examples only scratch the surface of the US media’s Steele stenography. And although ABC News, Maddow, Harding et al. remain in apparent Steele denial, there are signs that the dam is breaking elsewhere. Most notably, the Post’s Devlin Barrett and Tom Jackman responded to the Danchenko indictment by acknowledging that its allegations “cast new uncertainty on some past reporting on the dossier by news organizations, including The Washington Post.”

  “The allegations cast new uncertainty on some past reporting on the dossier by news organizations, including The Washington Post.”

  Yes it does. But that uncertainty was cast a long time ago by journalists who actually did our jobs. https://t.co/YA07S6OjUu pic.twitter.com/GcpnHyoTfQ

  — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) November 5, 2021

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  The same could be said not only for the Post’s media contemporaries, but for Democratic members of Congress. Adam Schiff and Bill Pascrell were such Steele-Believers that they even read the dossier into the Congressional Record.

  “Is it a coincidence that the Russian gas company Rosneft sold a 19 percent share after former British Intelligence Officer Steele was told by Russian sources that Carter Page was offered fees on a deal of just that size?,” Schiff intoned in March 2017. “Is it a coincidence that Steele’s Russian sources also affirmed that Russia had stolen documents hurtful to Secretary Clinton that it would utilize in exchange for pro-Russian policies that would later come to pass?”

  No, it wasn’t a coincidence: in the summer of 2016, Steele’s “sources” had managed to successfully read in the news media that Page had visited Moscow, and that Russia was accused of stealing the Democratic Party’s emails.

  “I include in the Record the link to the entire Trump/Russia dossier produced by Christopher Steele, so future generations will know the truth of how we got here today,” Pascrell declared the following year, just before Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladmir Putin in Helsinki.

  Pascrell presumably did not anticipate that future generations would also be able to read indictments and Justice Department reports showing Steele and his key source to be frauds.

  “A lot of it is bearing out”

  While the Danchenko indictment brings new embarrassment to Steele’s media and political dupes, it offers new evidence of negligent and potentially even criminal behavior on the part of the FBI.

  The FBI conducted a series of interviews with Danchenko starting in January 2017. Even after he informed them that the Steele dossier was based on alcohol-fueled hearsay, the FBI continued to cite it in surveillance warrants on Carter Page. Anonymous intelligence officials even proceeded to feed the media with the lie that Steele’s dossier was being corroborated.

  In February 2017 — just weeks after the FBI’s first interview with Danchenko — CNN reported, based on intelligence sources, that “US investigators corroborate some aspects of the Russia dossier.” The FBI is “continuing to chase down stuff from the dossier, and, at its core, a lot of it is bearing out,” an unidentified intelligence official told The New Yorker later that month.

  We now know that Steele’s main source had told the FBI the precise opposite. And we also learn from Durham’s indictment that the FBI appears to have been aware, at least in June 2017 if not earlier, that Danchenko was lying to them when he denied speaking to Dolan about anything that later showed up in the dossier.

  

  Yet instead of indicting Danchenko for false statements, the FBI let him walk, all while pursuing its investigation of the Trump campaign based on the innuendo that Danchenko and Steele had fueled.

  The new Durham indictment accordingly raises fresh questions about the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation.

  Whether or not any FBI officials are ultimately held to account, the Danchenko revelations underscore that there is a lot of humiliation to go around, and likely a lot more humiliation to come.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 16:00

• 5 Unanswered Questions As FBI Raids Project Veritas Over A Missing Biden Diary
  5 Unanswered Questions As FBI Raids Project Veritas Over A Missing Biden Diary

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  There is a curious story out this weekend on reported FBI raids of writers or associates of Project Veritas, the conservative investigative journalism outfit. Project Veritas has been described variously as “Gonzo” or “guerilla” journalism and some insist it is more of a political than a press organization. However, it fits the definition of journalism, in my view, and that makes the raids troubling. All the more troubling is the cause: the missing diary of President Biden’s daughter Ashley.

  

  The New York Times reported that the FBI searched two locations in New York in search of the “stolen” diary that went missing days before the 2020 presidential election. Project founder James O’Keefe questioned how the Times received the story within an hour of the first raid.

  O’Keefe says that the organization actually received a tip that the diary was abandoned in a room, an allegation that harkened back to the abandoned laptop of Hunter Biden.  However, Ashley reportedly insisted it was stolen.

  The use of the FBI is also reminiscent of the still unexplained use of the FBI when Joe Biden was Vice President to search for a gun discarded by Hunter Biden behind a restaurant.

  Project Veritas decided not to run the story because it could not verify that the diary belonged to Biden. (The FBI may have just offered that confirmation). Instead, it alerted the police, according to O’Keefe:

  “Project Veritas gave the diary to law enforcement to ensure it could be returned to its rightful owner. We never published it.”

  So why the raids?  Since when does the FBI conducted raids over missing diaries?

  The FBI can cite the interstate elements of the alleged theft as raising a federal crime. However, what is the crime? It is not clear if they are suggesting that the responsible parties were seeking to sell the diary or that there was some national security element (which would be bizarre since Biden’s daughter was writing before her father ever became president).

  Journalist organizations are routinely given material removed from businesses, agencies, or private owners without permission by confidential sources. If this is a federal crime subject to FBI raids, what happened to the new media policies of the Biden Administration after the Tucker Carlson controversy?

  There are a host of unanswered questions. Here are five to start with:

  1. What was the context for the diary’s loss? (Did Ashley Biden leave the diary in a room or was it stolen?)

  2. What is the alleged federal crime (and what is the precedent for a major federal investigation over such an alleged theft)?

  3. What precautions were taken by the Biden Administration in light of the claimed media status of the targeted individuals?

  4. Why was there a delay in this action being taken if the alleged theft occurred a year ago?

  5. Has this matter been under investigation for a year and did the White House request the intervention of the FBI?

  Regardless of how one feels about Project Veritas, there should be calls from media outlets for some answers to these basic questions.  Likewise, Congress should be seeking such answers as part of its oversight responsibilities.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 11/07/2021 – 15:00

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