Today’s News 8th November 2023

• Malone: PsyWar & Washington DC's Bureaucracy
  Malone: PsyWar & Washington DC’s Bureaucracy

  Authored by Dr. Robert Malone via Substack,

  Lack of market force corrections combined with PsyWar propaganda yields unstoppable parasitic growth…

  

  My Dearest American Friends and Colleagues:

  Just in case you didn’t notice, since the 1980s we have developed a very big problem which is growing exponentially. The US national debt has become unsustainable.

  To a significant extent this debt is enabled by irresponsible printing and injection of fiat currency into the overall US economy by an unaccountable private “Federal Reserve” Bank. Today’s Federal Reserve routinely acts as a willing enabler rather than a check on administrative and deep state spending. The management of the Federal Reserve has become integrated into the interests and culture of the permanent bureaucracy. But that is merely one of many symptoms of a deeper problem.

  Many factors drive this explosion of debt, but near the top of the causation list is that the executive branch and its permanent bureaucracy (administrative state + deep state) just does not care. They have no pressing reasons to care. They have developed a whole special economic logic to justify and rationalize not caring, called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).

  Functionally, unlike either industry (market forces) or the military (failed wars), there are no external forces currently limiting the expansion of the dysfunctional, counterproductive and (frankly) parasitic behavior of today’s Executive branch. Legislative branch oversight has been emasculated by consent with lobbyists collectively clamping down the Burdizzo, and in 1984 the Judicial branch conceded its authority to serve as a functional check on Executive/administrative branch arrogance via the Supreme Court Chevron Deference decision. And like the Federal Reserve, the informal “fourth estate” (corporate media), which historically provided a separate and semi-autonomous oversight function, has also been captured by this permanent bureaucracy.

  

  The administrative and deep state has been so successful in capturing and manipulating media and related communication (largely via CIA, FBI, CISA and intelligence community infiltration) that they are able to seamlessly deploy advanced modern propaganda, PsyWar technologies and financial giveaways to control all narratives and information which might otherwise cause the majority of the electorate to check their actions, and in this way they completely avoid accountability. The CIA, FBI, CISA and intelligence community have become enablers of administrative and deep state excesses and overreach. With this corrupted information ecosystem, there cannot be any accountability of the administrative and deep state. In cooperation with a variety of corporate and NGO partners via “public-private partnerships”, the executive branch has completely captured and co-opted all oversight mechanisms which could enable or enforce checks and balances. The “ballot box” is well on its way to being a mere inconvenience, because for the majority of voters the synthetic false reality projected by captured media is the only political “reality” they encounter.

  This is how modern nation-states abruptly collapse. As one recent example, recall the history of the USSR and most of the former communist Eastern European states. Modern nation-states fail by suffocating under the weight of bloated unaccountable bureaucracies whose primary objectives are to serve and sustain themselves rather than to promote and defend the general welfare and security of the citizenry. The social contract is stomped into dust by the boot of an uncontrollably arrogant, authoritarian, self-serving bureaucracy.

  To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing, if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?

  -John Marshall, Chief justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835

  To illustrate my point with one example of the current situation, please consider the following from “Heard Around the Hill”. This is a publication of the Council on National Policy, which has provided a snapshot of the current state of the Federal Budget stalemate between the Legislative branch – constitutionally tasked with managing the federal budget and funding the government, and the Executive branch (and it’s permanent administrative bureaucracy) – tasked with administering that budget.

  House Republicans passed a plan to address the nation’s debt ceiling Wednesday, tying the increase to desperately-needed spending limits and reforms.

  The package includes:

  • Limiting future spending to FY22 levels

  • Reclaiming unspent COVID money

  • Defunding 87,000 new IRS agents

  • Implementing work requirements for government assistance programs

  The White House refused to negotiate, insisting Congress give them a blank check for future spending and betting that proposed reforms could not garner enough votes in the House.

  Even Democrats have been critical of Biden’s refusal to negotiate. Senator Manchin described the approach as a “deficiency of leadership.” House Members have also disapproved of the tactic.

  “A Down Payment On Fiscal Sanity” is how economist and former Assistant Treasury Secretary Mike Faulkender detailed the Republican plan.

  In discussing the current state of US Federal government, these terms “Administrative State” and “Deep State” are often tossed about as if they are one and the same, but that is most definitely not the case. As described by Kash Patel, the Deep State is a type of shadow governance made up of informal, extra-constitutional, secret and unauthorized networks of power operating independently of a nation state’s duly elected political leadership, acting in pursuit of agendas and goals which are separate from the interests of the citizenry.

  Administrative State is a term used to describe the phenomenon of executive branch administrative agencies which exercise bureaucratic power to create, adjudicate, and enforce their own rules. The administrative state abuses congressional non-delegation, judicial deference, executive control of agencies, procedural rights, and agency dynamics to assert control over and above both republic and constitutional principles.

  Another related term often used to describe the modern American bureaucratic state is “Leviathan”, a word with biblical origins repurposed as the title of Thomas Hobbes’ monarchist 1651 book which advocates a strong centralized government. Hobbes argues that civil peace and social unity can be best achieved through the establishment of a commonwealth via a social contract. Hobbes’ ideal commonwealth is ruled by a singular sovereign power responsible for protecting the security of the commonwealth, while being granted absolute authority to ensure the common defense.\

  

  In many ways the modern American Administrative and Deep State, with its “public-private partnerships”, has come to resemble the 17th through 19th century British monarchy, with an entrenched bureaucracy (the permanent administrative state) functionally managed by a largely hereditary elite, surrounded by the concentric status rings of courtiers which comprise the Deep State (in the current embodiment). Within the growing hereditary ruling American oligarchy there is some degree of turnover and palace intrigue, as the fortunes of some wane while others rise. As with the rise of the British bourgeoisie and mixing of gentry with financially successful upper middle castes, this often reflects broader financial and technological trends within the overall geo-political and geo-economic context in which a globalized oligarchy competes.

  The obvious irony being that this type of system was precisely what the American Revolution was intended to overturn, and precisely what the US Constitution was written to prevent.

  And above all of this, we have now added a transcendently powerful new capability to the Leviathan of old. The rise of the CIA and its “Mockingbird/Mighty Wurlitzer” infiltration of both media and academia, the FBI and its politically weaponized COINTELPRO-type surveillance, infiltration and disruption capabilities, the DoD and its PsyOps/PsyWar capabilities designed for offshore conflicts but turned against domestic citizenry to support executive branch-defined “crisis” management, and the explosive growth of a new censorship-industrial complex has yielded a “Leviathan” with reality-bending information control capabilities the likes of which the historic British monarchy could only dream of. Propaganda has come a long way from the days of Edward Bernays’ seminal 1928 book by the same name.

  The Washington DC-based Administrative/Deep State has emerged as a separate entity unto itself, with its own culture, purpose, privileges and prerogatives. A key characteristic of this separate cultural phenomenon and mindset- often geographically referred to as the “inside the beltway” set (referring to the I 495 freeway loop encircling DC and environs)- is a focus on self-preservation and personal advancement, rather than on achieving a mission, producing a deliverable, or serving the needs of outside-the-beltway flyover state serfdom.

  Imperial DC beltway denizens form an incestuous culture, much like any historic imperial court. Passive-aggressive “slow walking” of initiatives has been refined to a fine art. Sexual favors are routinely exchanged to seal short-term alliances, both within agencies and between contractors and “Govies”. Nuances of administrative regulations are weaponized to enable petty counterproductive one-upmanship. “Beltway Bandit” corporations, lobbyists (registered and unregistered) and “think tanks” cultivate, collect and support Deep State “swamp monsters” when the political wing they are allied with is out of power for a period, anticipating that these courtiers will be rotated back in with the next political shift or Executive branch “change” in leadership. And all are tied together in a revolving maypole dance. Together, they collectively weave a Uniparty in which the commonalities of shared commitment to advancing the interests of the Administrative/Deep State court are far more important and lasting than any inconvenient superficial narrative about serving the interests of the general electorate and citizenry. In this beltway culture, actually solving national problems takes a back bench to the pageantry and Machiavellian machinations of the elite courtiers and their allies.

  

  No wonder the general populace often feels that their votes for elected Federal officials are irrelevant. Because they are, in fact, increasingly irrelevant. And as if that were not bad enough, the permanent administrative state considers elected and politically appointed officials to be “temporary employees”. The shadowy members of the unaccountable Senior Executive Service (SES) are the ones that actually administer the government.

  But with the advance of PsyWar capabilities, bolstered by advances in modern psychology, and combined with algorithmic control, censorship, and manipulation of all information, Deep State beltway denizens have been able to achieve a propaganda capability which rivals the Atomic Bomb in its political implications.

  These actors are now able to decouple their activities from objective truth. There can never be any accountability or consequences for mismanagement or misdeeds when they are able to effectively control all information and communication. Objective reality has become a theoretical post-modernist, surrealist construct, able to be contorted, moulded and enforced to comport with any synthetic version of reality which best supports Administrative State, SES and Deep State objectives. Corporate and social media lapdogs (rapidly becoming dominant via alliances with globalized investment funds), are bolstered and legitimized by coopted academia. Together they often act under the strong influence of Administrative State “intelligence” agencies and Deep State actors, and stand ever ready to create, control, propagate, and reinforce whatever narrative is needed.

  Desire to achieve this sort of reality-bending groupthink or mass psychosis has been a common feature of bureaucracies, aristocracies, monarchies and oligarchies for as long as historical records have been kept. But what is different now is the power and penetration of modern digital algorithmic control mechanisms. We now witness creation of a lobotomized servant caste which enables an administrative bureaucracy nirvana of complete lack of accountability is now within reach. What could possibly go wrong?

  I believe that a short answer is “paradigm shift”. This type of cognitive landscape, in which a synthetic reality is preserved and maintained despite increasing divergence from objective reality, is a setup for abrupt introduction of more adaptive alternatives. Examples of synthesized false realities include an unsustainable federal debt, a collapsing “safe and effective” COVID vaccine narrative, and the intrinsic contradictions of human activity-driven carbon dioxide levels representing a global existential crisis. Actively fabricated false realities create a situation where current governmental solutions drift further and further from optimal.

  At some point, an abrupt disruption in perception, power, global finance or available technology will occur – a paradigm shift. And when a system, technical or political, has been prevented by externals from adapting to changing conditions (such as happens with propaganda), then a crisis can trigger catastrophic realignment of divergent synthetic and objective reality. In politics, these “earthquake” moments reflect abrupt resolution of shifting internal forces which have built up tension along a fault line, and often result in either revolutions or catastrophic failures of economies and civilizations.

  Functionally, the US Government is now managed by disconnected Senior Executive Service (SES) “leadership”, acting in harmony with Administrative and Deep State castes, massive transnational financial institutions, public-private partnerships, corporate lobbyists and globalist non-governmental organizations such as the UN, WHO, WEF and Gates foundation. This supra-constitutional alignment has enabled permanent Administrative and Deep State “management” of an out-of-control federal budget which supports a grotesque obsession with their maypole dance, court drama, one-upmanship, and Machiavellian machinations. And all who object are censored, subjected to character assassination and labeled fringe outliers by captured media.

  Rather than solving the missions and problems which plague the electorate that they currently parasitize, these erstwhile public servants have removed any ability of citizenry and electorate to provide the oversight, control and correction function originally designed into the US Constitution by those with lifelong experience in dealing with an earlier Leviathan. One that was also characterized by arbitrary and capricious administrative authoritarianism. And in the current embodiment we now have amazingly powerful psychological tools placed in the hands of venal, self-serving, immature and all too often sociopathic individuals seeking self-gratification.

  Indeed, what can possibly go wrong?

  Abrupt, catastrophic economic and/or military collapse, that’s what.

  How many wars has the USA lost since WW II? And now this amazingly expensive and corrupt Ukrainian foreign adventure is deconstructing itself. Which (mis) adventure seems to have mostly worked to strengthen and hone Russian military might while depleting and fracturing NATO unity and capabilities. Biden sought to drain and exhaust Putin, thereby yielding Russian regime change. In an amazing feat of geopolitical jiu-jitsu, the precise opposite may well come to pass.

  And then we have the obscenely bungled public health and financial responses to the COVIDcrisis. And growing awareness that the “climate crisis” has been synthesized and weaponized to advance a variety of geopolitical power, control and financial objectives.

  This level of massive Administrative and Deep State mismanagement is not sustainable, even with US economic and natural resource muscle.

  History and archaeology is littered with the bones of civilizations and bureaucracies which became inwardly focused and lost track of their function and purpose. I would love to believe in a fairy tale world in which modest modifications in administrative agency guidelines and practices could result in a more functional ruling bureaucracy. But I am too old for fairy tales, and have myself spent too many years in the bowels of the Federal administrative state.

  I fear that the dysfunctional and fundamentally corrupt DC Beltway culture will not change until we have a massive paradigm shift of some sort or another. Resolving these structural problems will require a major correction. It could occur at the ballot box, but the power of the intelligence community/censorship-industrial complex to distort reality to protect itself may have already reached a stage where this cannot happen. However, the debt, the massive unsustainable debt, combined with the insatiable hunger of the Administrative and Deep State working cooperatively with the industrial masters of forever war and “biodefense” may soon trigger a global paradigm shift in power and finance.

  And if that happens, I can only hope that I have enough guns, ammo, farm infrastructure and a well developed network of like minded friends to ride out the following storm.

  But in such a brave new world, getting diesel for trucks and tractors will definitely be a problem. Probably time to dust off my equine teamster skills and train some horses to pull.

  *  *  *

  Who is Robert Malone is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 23:45

• Tlaib Censured By House For Saying Biden 'Supports Genocide' In Gaza
  Tlaib Censured By House For Saying Biden ‘Supports Genocide’ In Gaza

  Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was censured by the House Tuesday night after posting a video on X claiming that President Biden “support(s) the genocide of the Palestinian people.”

  

  The clip also shows pro-Palestine protesters chanting “from the river to the sea” – a refrain which Tlaib described as “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” and Jews interpret as “kill all the Jews.”

  From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.

  — Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 3, 2023

  She was reprimanded by a vote of 234-188-4, with 22 Democrats joining the majority of Republicans to support the resolution, and four Republicans voting against it on free speech grounds (Buck (CO), Duarte (CA), Massie (KY), McClintock (CA)). Four voted present. Joyce (R-OH), Norcross (D-NJ), Spanberger (D-VA), Wild (D-PA).

  According to Business Insider:

  McCormick’s resolution focused on three aspects of Tlaib’s rhetoric:

  • Her use of the word “resistance” in her statement on the Hamas attack, where she argued that the “suffocating, dehumanizing conditions” in the Palestinian territories could “lead to resistance.”
  • Her claim that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza, despite contradictory evidence. She later acknowledged that the Gaza Health Ministry’s claims were in doubt and called for an independent investigation.
  • Her use of the slogan “from the river to the sea,” a slogan that many view as antisemitic but is viewed as a call for freedom and equality by many Palestinians.

  In a floor speech earlier on Tuesday, Tlaib argued that Republicans were trying to censor her and dehumanized Palestinians, while fellow Democrats argued that she has a right to free speech.

  I am the only Palestinian American serving in Congress, and my perspective is needed here now more than ever. I will not be silenced and I will not let anyone distort my words.

  I’m from Detroit, where I learned to speak truth to power, even if my voice shakes. pic.twitter.com/bXhGPCcKat

  — Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) November 7, 2023

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  “It’s a shame my colleagues are more focused on silencing me than they are on saving lives, as the death toll in Gaza surpasses 10,000,” wrote Tlaib in a statement “Many of them have shown me that Palestinian lives simply do not matter to them, but I still do not police their rhetoric or actions.”

  NEW: Rep. @RashidaTlaib has been censured by the House for her comments on Israel — the 26th lawmaker in American history.

  TWENTY-TWO Democrats voted to censure Tlaib, while 4 Republicans voted against it.

  Four lawmakers voted present. pic.twitter.com/gaWJ1dPUGX

  — bryan metzger (@metzgov) November 8, 2023

  Last week an effort to censure Tlaib failed, after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a resolution accusing Tlaib of “leading an insurrection” on Capitol Hill during an Oct. 18 protest.

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  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 23:25

• DOJ Launches 'All Hands On Deck' Initiative Cracking Down On San Francisco Open Drug Market
  DOJ Launches ‘All Hands On Deck’ Initiative Cracking Down On San Francisco Open Drug Market

  Authored by Lear Zhou via The Epoch Times,

  A comprehensive response to the open air drug market in San Francisco, coordinated with joint federal, state, and local law enforcement was launched last week, announced Ismail J. Ramsey, the U.S. Attorney of California Northern District of California in a press conference.

  “‘All Hands on Deck’ was designed to change the basic cost/benefit analysis for fentanyl dealers,” said Mr. Ramsey.

  “Together with all our federal, state, and local partners, my office is using targeted wiretaps, arrests, and searches throughout the Bay Area to stem the flow of drugs and dealers coming into San Francisco from nearby counties.”

  With the new strategy Mr. Ramsey revealed, not only drug suppliers but even low-level street fentanyl dealers arrested by local law enforcement may also face federal charges, if they’re picked up on a random day once a week.

  

  U.S. Attorney of California Northern District of California, Ismail J. Ramsey speaks at the ‘All Hands on Deck’ initiative to crack down on San Francisco’s open drug market. He is joined by SFPD Chief Bill Scott (L) and FBI special agent Robert K. Tripp (R) on Nov 2 in San Francisco, Calif. (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times)

  In the last four months, more than 30 suspects have been charged with federal crimes. Meanwhile, nearly 50 kilos of fentanyl and 12 kilos of methamphetamine have been removed from the streets in Tenderloin, nearly double or a 169 percent increase compared with the amount seized in the same period last year, said Mr. Ramsey.

  From Feb. 12, 2020 to Feb. 12, 2023, there were 218 fatal overdoses in San Francisco, many of them due to fentanyl. There were another 8,974 non-fatal overdoses, and a map showed that hot zones of violent crimes overlapped with the locations where drug issues were dominant.

  

  Map shown at the “All Hands on Deck” initiative to crack down on San Francisco open drug market at 450 Golden Gave Ave on Nov. 2 (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times)

  “It is no secret that parts of this great city are infamously known for an open air drug market where substance use and crime have exploded,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Brian Clark of the San Francisco field division.

  “That is due in large part to tolerance for drug trafficking, permissive attitudes, fast profits, and a lack of penalties, [which] has been an open invitation for organized crime to come in and operate in San Francisco.”

  The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has identified two primary organizations responsible for flooding San Francisco communities with fentanyl: the Sinaloa and Holy School cartels, according to Mr. Clark.

  “These criminal enterprises rely on a global supply chain from chemical companies in China who supply the cartels with precursor chemicals, which are then manufactured in Mexico for distribution throughout the United States,” Mr. Clark added.

  The Sinaloa Cartel is primarily responsible for manufacturing and drug trafficking in the Tenderloin district and is primarily controlled by Honduran organizations whose members commute into San Francisco to peddle their poison. Dealers have often lived together in East Bay Area homes and purchased drugs from their network, according to Mr. Clark.

  This information was gathered with months of covert operations throughout the Tenderloin, Mr. Clark said.

  “We’ve seen numerous firearms, a variety of drugs, and over 1.6 million lethal doses of fentanyl,” he said.

  This operation has resulted in the arrest of more than 70 individuals in the past 90 days, many of whom are Honduran nationalists, Mr. Clark said.

  San Francisco Mayor London Breed thanked multiple agencies at state and federal levels for their help. Ms. Breed said these have been “of significant importance to us here in San Francisco.”

  “Our local law enforcement agencies … they have been working really hard to help combat this problem in the best way that they could based on many of our local laws, which in some ways provide a number of various limitations,” Ms. Breed said.

  “Well, this is happening, and it is here to stay. We are not letting up; even as APEC approaches, we are not letting up after APEC goes away from San Francisco.”

  San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said, “One of the challenges that my office has faced is having some of our judges take this issue seriously.”

  Prosecutors in the San Francisco DA’s office have filed almost 300 motions to detail drug dealers being charged, but only approximately 30 of those were granted, Ms. Jenkins said.

  

  From left to right: U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Shawn Bradstreet, ATF special agent Jennifer Cicolani, San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins and SFPD Chief Bill Scott at the ‘All Hands on Deck’ initiative at the federal building at 450 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco on Nov 2 (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times)

  “We cannot allow our courthouses to be revolving doors for the people who are killing vulnerable San Franciscans and who are tormenting our neighborhoods and our children. The need for federal assistance in this effort was clear,” she added.

  Police Chief William Scott had a message for drug dealers: “So if you think you’re going to outlast us, you’re wrong. If you think you’ve got to adapt and are smarter, you’re wrong. If you think we’re going to go away and let you continue to kill people in our city in record numbers, you’re wrong.”

  “Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for adults in the United States between 18 and 49, and the entire Justice Department under the direction of Attorney General Garland is committed to focus our efforts to try to address the scourge,” Mr. Ramsey said.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 23:05

• New Dehli Implementing Driving Bans Due To Polluted Air
  New Dehli Implementing Driving Bans Due To Polluted Air

  In move that we’re sure we’ll eventually see in U.S. cities as the climate change rhetoric continues to go parabolic (especially heading into the 2024 election), New Dehli is now implementing license plate based driving bans in order to try and restrict the number of cars on its roads at any given time.

  The measure, which separates cars into license plates ending with odd and even numbers, is going to be put in place on alternate days for a week beginning on November 13, Bloomberg reported this week. 

  The goal is to “lower vehicular pollution”, the report says. In addition to the car ban, heavy vehicles have also been banned from the capital city, with exceptions for essential services. 

  Bloomberg wrote that in recent days, Delhi has persistently emerged at the pinnacle of global pollution rankings, facing alarmingly toxic air quality conditions.

  

  In response, the regional administration has enacted emergency protocols, including the suspension of educational institutions, a moratorium on construction activities, and a push towards greater reliance on public transportation systems, the report says.

  Previously, the capital has resorted to episodic vehicular restrictions in an effort to mitigate the environmental crisis.

  On the judicial front, the Supreme Court of India is slated to address the issue of Delhi’s escalating pollution on November 7th. Anticipated at this hearing, representatives from Delhi and contiguous states will brief the court on the progress and measures adopted to ameliorate the air quality disaster.

  We’re certain shocked liberals in the U.S. will be beside themselves that there are other places in the world not “doing their part” to fight climate change. Has anyone in India considered taking a hammer to a piece or art to try and fix the problem?

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 22:45

• Yellen To Meet China's New Economic Czar This Week Ahead Of Biden–Xi Meeting
  Yellen To Meet China’s New Economic Czar This Week Ahead Of Biden–Xi Meeting

  Authored by Dorothy Li via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to hold economic talks with her Chinese counterpart this week before a potential meeting between the top leaders of the world’s two largest economies.

  

  Ms. Yellen is scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Nov. 9 and 10, the Treasury Department announced on Nov. 6. The meetings will take place before the start of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, where Ms. Yellen will host the top finance officials and ministers from the 21 member states of APEC on Nov. 11.

  The Yellen–He meeting was also confirmed by China’s Foreign Ministry. Mr. He will visit the United States from Nov. 8 to Nov. 12, the ministry’s spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said on Nov. 6.

  The announcement came shortly after state media revealed that Mr. He became the head of two separate Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committees that Chinese leader Xi Jinping created in March, a move to bring the financial system under the Party’s direct control.

  ‘Serious Concerns’

  The upcoming Yellen–He meeting follows a series of diplomatic engagements between Washington and Beijing amid rising tensions. The U.S.–China relationship has been strained over issues ranging from the CCP’s military aggressions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea to the U.S. export controls and investment bans on advanced technologies to counter the regime’s military modernization.

  Ms. Yellen said ahead of the meeting that the United States is seeking “a stable and healthy economic relationship” with China that requires a “rules-based, level playing field.”

  “This week, I will speak to my counterpart about our serious concerns with Beijing’s unfair economic practices, including its large-scale use of non-market tools, its barriers to market access and its coercive actions against U.S. firms in China,” Ms. Yellen wrote in a Nov. 6 Washington Post op-ed.

  “In certain sectors, these unfair practices have resulted in the overconcentration of the production of critical goods inside China.”

  The United States has responded by seeking to diversify its critical supply chains with a target of not triggering “a disorderly, wholesale private-sector pullback from China,” she wrote

  During her four-day trip to Beijing in July, Ms. Yellen told Chinese officials that the United States wouldn’t allow its national security to be compromised.

  “We continue to take targeted actions to secure our vital security interests,” she said.

  At the same time, Ms. Yellen emphasized that direct conversations with the regime’s senior officials could help reduce the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation. To facilitate the communications, the U.S. Treasury Department and China’s Finance Ministry in September launched two joint working groups to deal with economic and financial issues.

  

  China’s New Economic Czar

  Mr. He was recently appointed as the head of the office of the Central Financial Commission, a Party organ responsible for making policies and supervising the nation’s $61 trillion financial sector, state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Nov. 6.

  Separately, Mr. He also assumed the leadership role of the Central Financial Work Commission, a super financial watchdog that’s tasked with strengthening the CCP’s ideological role in the finance sector, according to the agency.

  The new appointments of Mr. He, a trusted ally of Mr. Xi, make him China’s new economic czar, heading the country’s top decision-making bodies in both economic and financial sectors.

  Mr. He first met with Ms. Yellen in July, when the Treasury chief traveled to Beijing to meet the regime’s senior officials as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to reopen the high-level communication lines between Washington and Beijing.

  No ‘Smooth Sailing’ for Biden–Xi Meeting

  Following visits by four senior U.S. officials, as well as a bipartisan Senate delegation, to Beijing this year, the CCP sent its top diplomat, Wang Yi, to Washington in October. During the three-day visit, President Joe Biden hosted Mr. Wang at the White House after talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also met with Mr. Wang.

  President Biden is expected to meet Mr. Xi during the APEC summit, which would mark the first in-person meeting between the two leaders in a year.

  However, Beijing has yet to confirm whether Mr. Xi will travel to Washington for the summit.

  Mr. Wang, who also serves as China’s foreign minister, said the Biden–Xi meeting will be challenging.

  Speaking on the last day of his trip in Washington, Mr. Wang told the U.S. strategic community that arranging a meeting between President Biden and Mr. Xi “will not be smooth sailing” and that the two sides can’t rely on “autopilot” to make it happen.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 22:25

• Supreme Court Appears Likely To Preserve Gun Law Disarming Domestic Abusers
  Supreme Court Appears Likely To Preserve Gun Law Disarming Domestic Abusers

  The Supreme Court spent much of Tuesday morning listening to the oral arguments from the Biden administration’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling striking down the law barring individuals with domestic violence protective orders from owning firearms. The Justices appeared unwilling to overturn the federal ban on firearm possession for people involved in domestic violence disputes. 

  In the first major gun case since last year’s New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, which fundamentally changed how courts view gun control laws, the justices suggested they would reverse a ruling from the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that struck down a 1994 ban on firearms for people under restraining orders.  

  Justices, conservative and liberal, appeared to be persuaded by the oral arguments of the Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer to keep the longstanding practice of disarming dangerous people. 

  

  Several members of the court’s conservative majority said they didn’t interpret the Constitution’s Second Amendment as covering the gun rights of dangerous/non-law abiding people. 

  We previewed last Friday the Biden Department of Justice fast-tracked the case United States v. Rahimi to the Supreme Court in an attempt to nullify or limit the reach of the landmark NYSRPA v. Bruen decision from 2022. 

  “You don’t have any doubt that your client is a dangerous person, do you?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked the lawyer for Zackey Rahimi, a Texas resident and drug dealer convicted of violating a domestic violence restraining order by possessing a firearm. The man is challenging the 1994 law after a judge imposed a restraining order to protect a former girlfriend he was accused of attacking. 

  Biden’s top lawyer, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, told justices that the 1994 law is critical to the nation’s tradition of disarming dangerous people. 

  “Throughout our nation’s history, legislatures have disarmed those who have committed serious criminal conduct or whose access to guns poses a danger. For example, loyalists, rebels, minors, individuals with mental illness, felons and drug addicts,” Prelogar said.

  This is the High Court’s first test after the year-old NYSRPA v. Bruen ruling strengthened Second Amendment protections and established the constitutional right to carry across the US. 

  However, the implications of the ruling could go well beyond the realm of domestic abuse. It has the potential to result in a re-interpretation of NYSRPA v. Bruen. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 22:05

• Jiu-Jitsu Associations 'Lead By Example' In Barring Males From Competing In Female Matches
  Jiu-Jitsu Associations ‘Lead By Example’ In Barring Males From Competing In Female Matches

  Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Three national jiu-jitsu associations have recently enacted policies prohibiting males from fighting in female brackets after several competitors went public with their experience in fighting a male opponent who identifies mentally as a female.

  

  “It was a huge turnaround in a really short time,” Marshi Smith, a former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) swimming champion from the University of Arizona and co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), told The Epoch Times. “We’ve never seen a sport enact change as quickly as Jiu-Jitsu has.”

  Ms. Smith co-founded ICONS with Kim Jones—herself a former NCAA tennis champion and mother of an Ivy League swimmer who had to compete against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.

  ICONS was set up to give women like Ansleigh Wilk and Jayden Alexander, both of whom fought a man in his early 40s at a July competition in Marietta, Georgia, a platform, support, and a voice.

  “I was launched into this after seeing Lia Thomas win the national title, standing on the same podium where I achieved my greatest swimming accomplishment,” Ms. Smith said.

  

  Olympic gold medalists, American record holders, multiple world champions, and NCAA Women of the Year petitioned the NCAA for change but to no avail.

  Despite no response, ICONS has become a resource for advocacy for women’s sports in a time when the trans ideology is challenging and encroaching on the domain of women, as seen in an adult male registering in a Jiu-Jitsu tournament and being placed to compete with young women.

  “It’s too shocking for the public to ignore at this point,” Ms. Smith said.

  After Reduxx—a feminist media platform that spotlights the trans ideology’s corruption of women’s rights—began reporting on the issue, the Jiu-Jitsu associations responded with their change in policies.

  On Oct. 28, NAGA stated, “We will have divisions for only biological females. Transgender females will not be entered into these divisions.”

  For men who believe they are women, NAGA said, “Transgender females must compete in the men’s division. We hope that the simplicity of this revised policy will help to avoid any future occurrences where transgender females enter women divisions. If NAGA staff is informed that a transgender female is in a women’s division, they will be given the choice to go to the men’s division or given a refund.”

  ‘Obvious Differences’

  After Ms. Wilk’s post on X describing her experience, she was attacked as a bigot. But she also received support, getting the attention of J.K. Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” series, who told her, “You’ve done nothing wrong. This isn’t, and never was, about hate, it’s about fairness and safety for women and girls.

  “You stood up to protect your fellow athletes, which makes you a heroine in all sane people’s eyes. I know backlashes aren’t fun (believe me, I know) but there are things far more important than pleasing all the people, all the time. All power to you x.”

  Ms. Wilk, a former U.S. Archery World Champion, told The Epoch Times she began training in Jiu-Jitsu at 15.

  “I feel like it gives me an opportunity to not have anxiety when competing,” she said. “The competition mat is a place where I’m truly comfortable. All my social anxiety goes away when I get on those mats.”

  She was primarily at the July competition to coach her brother’s team but also sought to compete at a lower level to get back into the swing of sparring after her back surgery.

  However, she realized halfway through the match that something wasn’t right.

  Her opponent was too strong to be a person registered as a woman.

  Ms. Wilk was able to beat him but noticed that younger competitors were afraid.

  She felt blindsided, she said, and her suspicion was later confirmed when she looked up the person on Instagram and discovered that he was a man.

  “I don’t care how trans people want to live their life, I just think there should be transparency,” she said. “There are obvious differences between the male and female body, and I’m hoping these policy changes can spread to other sports to really show the vast difference between men and women.”

  ‘Absolutely Unacceptable’

  Ms. Alexander told The Epoch Times that her first impression was of her male opponent’s size.

  “I was just thinking, ‘Oh my God, that chick is huge,’” she said.

  But because tournaments are chaotic, she said, with everyone just scrambling to get through them, she went along with the match. But quickly realized there was a problem.

  The difference in hand sizes and strength eventually led her to realize that she was fighting a man, she said, and she began to feel unsafe.

  “At that point, there was nothing I could really do about it,” she said. “There was adrenaline pumping and I was in fight or flight mode. I was starting to panic.”

  

  She went into automatic mode, she said, and focused on her coach’s words.

  “Because my coach is super calm and precise in how he coaches, I was able to pull everything I had out of me to finish that match,” she said.

  Ms. Alexander won, but the experience was enough to bring her to tears when she returned to her team.

  Ms. Alexander self-excluded from later matches in which she would have had to fight males.

  She didn’t know what to do next, she said, because she didn’t want to be called transphobic.

  “If you know me personally, you know that’s not the case at all,” she said in her Instagram post. “The simple fact is that men signing up in a combat sport to fight women is absolutely unacceptable. We don’t deserve to be having to self-exclude from competitions to avoid fighting men. We deserve for there to be rules and regulations in place that keep us safe and that protect us from these situations happening in the first place.”

  Ms. Alexander said she wasn’t surprised by the associations changing policies.

  “Jiu-Jitsu is a very tightly knit, supportive community,” she said. “I’m shocked by how fast it happened but not shocked that it did happen.”

  It’s now set the bar for other sports, she said.

  “I think it’s leading by example,” Ms. Alexander said.

  An Uphill Battle

  But it’s been an uphill battle, Ms. Smith said.

  “We’re hoping that this is a trend,” she said.

  Earlier in October, Strongman Corp Canada created a separate category for trans athletes nine days after Maria Barwick, an ICONS-sponsored competitor, spoke out about having to compete against a male.

  “Before Jiu-Jitsu, that was the quickest policy change that we’ve seen recently,” she said.

  However, in February, Minnesota District Court Judge Patrick Diamond ruled that USA Powerlifting is no longer allowed to bar males who believe they are females from participating in the women’s category.

  Internationally, some governing bodies are moving toward making rules for trans athletes more stringent, she said.

  “They are relying on this 12-year-old timeline in which if you haven’t transitioned younger than 12, you can’t compete in the women’s category, which we do not advocate for,” she said. “What we believe at ICONS is, ‘female at birth,’ but they’re moving in the right direction.”

  The problem in America is that the U.S. governing bodies aren’t following their international overseers, she said, resulting in the U.S. conflicting with international rules.

  In addition, she said, there are sitting board members on national governing bodies for sports whose livelihood depends on their convincing children to medically transition, she said.

  “I don’t like the word transition because no one can actually transition,” she said. “It’s basically just medicalizing children for life. And there’s a ton of money on the opposite side.”

  

  Because the trans ideology flourished in the United Kingdom before the United States, it’s also been ahead on “correcting and redirecting” issues in accommodating for trans-identifying individuals, Ms. Smith said.

  An organization in the UK with the same mission as ICONS called “Fair Play for Women” has been advocating for a change of policy in British sports.

  “Though we’re a couple of years behind them, I’m hoping that we can get our national leaders to get there, too,” she said. “At ICONS, we’re trying to shorten that amount of time because this is unsustainable. We cannot continue seeing these kinds of stories in which girls are getting concussions in volleyball, their teeth knocked out, or put on a Jiu-Jitsu mat with men.”

  ICONS continues to see men competing at every level in American sports, even taking national titles away from women, she said, “So, we still have a long way to go.”

  “But with every win, as we saw in Jiu-Jitsu and Strongman, it’s building a stronger and stronger foundation, and giving other governing bodies more and more security to be able to defend their women faster,” she said. “But it’s not fast enough. We need everybody to agree that women and girls deserve safe and fair competition.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 21:45

• Possible Cyberattack? Massive Telecommunication Outage Leaves Millions In Australia Without Cellular Service
  Possible Cyberattack? Massive Telecommunication Outage Leaves Millions In Australia Without Cellular Service

  Global internet monitor NetBlocks has reported in a post on social media X platform that millions of Optus customers cannot make calls or use the internet due to a major nationwide outage. 

  “Metrics show Optus mobile services are down across much of Australia, leaving millions of customers unable to make calls or access internet since early morning; authorities said to be investigating possible cyberattack as trains and infrastructure disrupted,” NetBlocks said. 

  

  Optus is aware of an issue that may be impacting some of our mobile and internet customers,” the telecommunications company wrote in a statement. 

  We’re aware of an issue impacting Optus mobile and nbn services and are working to restore services as quickly as possible. We understand connectivity is important and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

  — Optus Help (@optus_help) November 7, 2023

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

  Australian Broadcasting Corporation said, “Federal authorities are checking whether the outage is the result of a cyber attack, although, at this stage, they do not believe it is a hack.”

  *Developing… 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 21:25

• Decisionmakers Never Pay The Price
  Decisionmakers Never Pay The Price

  Authored by David Lapp-Jost via RealClear Wire,

  The novel River City One tells a personal tale of a soldier long returned home, but permanently adrift. Partly the experiences of a man carrying the heavy weight of many white Middle American challenges, the story’s theme of brokenness coming from war is never too far in the background. Defying expectations, tropes, and stereotypes, River City One’s story is compelling and powerful.

  

  A novel like this must be readable, well-paced, and strike appropriate notes of plausibility and authenticity. River City One absolutely delivers as a modern American veteran’s story. The characters feel right. Their motivations, values, foibles, jobs, and dispositions command interest and draw the reader into the book’s community while at the same time not at all seeming exaggerated or caricatured. At welcome intervals, bleak-but-enjoyable segments bring a dry, fun humor to the text, usually relating to the narrator’s tragicomic job at a law practice.

  Significant stretches of the narrative reflect aspects of the white Middle American experience. White men are seen as the most privileged in our society, rightfully, but communities like the protagonist John Walker’s carry terrible burdens. Many characters have largely meaningless “Bullshit Jobs,” to cite a defining sociological book of our time, jobs that neither serve nor fulfill. Long dead is Bush-era religiosity; this is an era of secular disillusionment. The characters are driven by the harsh demands of money and work, and some are deeply lonely. People lack community and are unhealthy. While the opioid epidemic does not really make an appearance, drugs and sickness are present and a minor character lost a girl decades ago to a car accident – a painful recounting of a sort of catastrophe that claims 1 percent of American lives and hollows out people and communities, much as killing does. John is an insightful observer of brokenness, and honest about crises that others dismiss or ignore.  

  The driving focus of the text is relationships and the lack thereof, and the story starkly depicts the white male experience of loneliness, told through an ex-military lens. Men in general are lonely in the U.S., often having few friends, often relying heavily on one marital partnership that these days has a 50 percent chance of failure. Middle-aged white men commit suicide at about twice the national average rate (with veterans spearheading the trend at a rate that eclipses our losses in war). Some simply “die of loneliness” – an epidemic of health issues related to isolation that are not widely or well understood. And of course, war adds another element. Twenty years ago, conservative-leaning, white middle class Americans (as well as African Americans from the South) signed up in droves to go fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. These ex-soldiers face a heightened crisis of health and human relationship, as we see in John Walker’s circle of military connections, who seem to all have relationship problems. With its strong and effective focus on relationships, River City One humanizes and compassionately depicts a hurting veteran.

  In John’s life, we witness a deep loneliness, aimlessness, and a lack of friendship aside from an old war buddy and faintly sociopathic colleagues. “Friends don’t appear out of nowhere,” says Grace, John’s wife. “They develop over time – like, a long time, a lot longer than one week.” She intuitively understands the lack of human connection that drags John down. This crisis of relationship is seriously hurting our overworked, under-vacationed, “Bowling Alone” nation today, to name another relevant book. Sadly, Grace has faded away as an influence on John, and like so many men and especially men in masculine-coded sectors like the military, John doesn’t seem to have much connection with women as friends, or to have relationships with people who show him care and love.

  The legacy of war is a deep and powerful undercurrent of the text… and is also elusive. John’s acquaintances wonder what it was like to kill an Iraqi or Afghan (the settings – past and present, in war or in peace – are ambiguous) or how it was to lose a comrade. John does not offer a fixed answer or take a uniform approach to the question, and he actually doesn’t have a fixed answer. Our defining memories of trauma change over time, like our national memory of 9/11 or a child’s experience of losing a parent. Like insensitive acquaintances who ask John about killing and dying, we readers are partly-unwelcome interlocutors in John’s life, witnesses of a painful inner journey, not people entitled to a juicy story. Soldiers and veterans aren’t there to fulfill our fantasies or show us deep truths about honor or heroism. Their way is hard for anyone committed to holding onto goodness, and their job is not part of the purpose we humans are for. John teaches his son to pray for souls in purgatory even though he says “doesn’t know what that means.” Perhaps he does know, more than most.

  The author’s role in telling this story is a contribution to the world. But we as a society must consider the consequences of war not just for the soldier, but for the people he or she is supposed to be protecting, at home and (in theory) abroad. The perhaps $8 trillion that the United States expended on the War on Terror caused maybe a million to four-and-a-half million deaths – almost all poor people in Muslim countries – and shattered many communities, many families, many dreams. The war disillusioned millions of Americans and billions of people in the Global South.

  And the cost of the war precluded building the society that John needs and longs for, one that is beautiful, healthy, and rich in relationships and free time for its residents. Let us imagine John comes from an economically average U.S. city of 500,000. Its proportional financial share in the War on Terror was over $12 billion. Especially considering that investing in human capital and healthy development yields exponential returns, those $12 billion are a huge loss. They could have addressed drug dependence, mental health, urban beautification, safe and sustainable transit. Instead, the resources went to failed wars. As veterans like the author intuitively know, we as a country misused our resources. Money, yes, and even more than that, the youth and strength of young men and women who could have served in other ways.

  Those who have borne burdens for their service to our country don’t just deserve care, love, healing, and resources. As we offer support to those who have been harmed in body, mind, or soul, let us also learn from the caution of so many veterans. Do not repeat the mistakes of the past. Do not send more young people to be broken in expeditionary wars of choice. The failures of the administrations – all administrations – of the last decades must not be repeated. In the end, in this life, it is not the decision-makers who pay the price.

  ---

  David Lapp-Jost (M.Ed.) is a Friedensarbeiter (Peace Worker) with the German Mennonite Peace Committee, which since World War II has worked for peace in Europe.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 21:05

• 30,000 Pounds Of Tyson "Fun Nuggets" Hit With Recall Over Metal Shards
  30,000 Pounds Of Tyson “Fun Nuggets” Hit With Recall Over Metal Shards

  Tyson Foods has issued a recall for 30,000 pounds of its “Fun Nuggets,” a fully cooked chicken product targeted at children, due to concerns over potential contamination from metal fragments. 

  “A limited number of consumers have reported they found small, pliable metal pieces in the product, and out of an abundance of caution, the company is recalling this product,” Tyson wrote in a press release. 

  According to a release from the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the nuggets were shipped to distributors in Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin in 29-ounce packages.

  

  The Food Safety and Inspection Service said the problem was discovered after a number of customers complained about “small metal pieces” in the nuggets. 

  “There has been one reported minor oral injury associated with consumption of this product,” the food agency said. 

  Tyson’s recall was classified as “Class I,” indicating a “reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death,” according to the FSIS. 

  Consumers purchasing Tyson Fun Nuggets for their children might ask this question: How did the metal get into the nuggets? 

  Also, consumers should abandon the industrial-meat complex for proteins sold at local farms. There’s no telling what else could be in the nuggets.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 20:45

• Data Analyst Defends 2020 Georgia Election Rolls Challenges
  Data Analyst Defends 2020 Georgia Election Rolls Challenges

  Authored by Dan Berger via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  One of the individuals who created the data to challenge thousands of voters during Georgia’s controversial 2020 election and subsequent runoff testified to the pains taken to ensure the lists were fair.

  

  Derek Somerville said he and data analysis partner Mark Davis used multiple databases and levels of comparison to identify Georgia voters who didn’t live where they were registered to vote and then to exclude many who were, in fact, legal voters.

  They are two of six individuals named, along with the True The Vote organization, in a federal lawsuit alleging that their work intimidated minority voters and was a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

  They are being sued by Fair Fight, an organization founded by two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to fight voter suppression. Fair Fight seeks to stop True The Vote and the co-defendants from any election integrity work in Georgia. Their non-jury trial in Gainesville, in Georgia’s Northern District, before Judge Steve Jones, began on Oct. 26.

  Mr. Somerville returned to the witness stand on Nov. 3 after testifying the previous day. He testified that he and Mr. Davis compared state-published voter rolls, absentee ballot rolls, post office change of address records, and geospatial data.

  They first created a list of 364,000 voters who had moved from where they were registered to vote. They then used that and other data to “funnel” it down to 39,000 voters for whom there was “probable cause” to believe they were no longer entitled to vote where they were voting.

  He described some of the “funnels” they used to exclude people from the probable cause list. Those who move within 30 days of an election may vote at their old address. They went back 18 months, but no more, because federal law requires states to review and purge their rolls every two years, and that’s done after general elections.

  Military service members and their families, moving from base to base, may be entitled to vote from a home address elsewhere, as are college students in dorms or apartments away from their family homes.

  

  They used mapping data to locate and then eliminate thousands of people in those categories, he testified. He gave Atlanta’s Morehouse College, a historically black university and the alma mater of Martin Luther King, as one location where they performed that exclusion.

  They also used the mapping data to exclude those who moved within the same county, which had less effect on their voter eligibility.

  Those on the final “probable cause” list weren’t intended to be automatically disqualified from voting, he said. That would be up to their county board of elections, which would need to review and investigate a case before making that determination, he said.

  And, he said, in most cases being notified of a challenge to their voting status wouldn’t keep them from going to the polls because, in most counties, they were only told of the challenge if they showed up to vote.

  Mr. Somerville said his work was non-partisan, not examining the data for party registration, race, or gender, and only doing so after the fact to ensure their work had been accurate. It was, he said.

  

  The defendants’ lawyers said in a trial brief that black voters represent about 29 percent of Georgia voters but only 27 percent of those on the list, showing there was no discriminatory intent.

  One of their lawyers, Michael Wynne of Houston, told The Epoch Times that Mr. Davis had been studying the issue for 30 years, going back to the last century, and that Mr. Somerville shared the interest. Their work was of interest primarily to computer and statistics buffs until the closely fought election of Nov. 3, 2020, made it a hot issue.

  Mr. Somerville said he had never heard of True The Vote until Dec. 15, 2020, when he was contacted by co-defendant Ron Johnson about the organization and then had dinner the same night with True The Vote co-founder Catherine Engelbrecht. That was only three weeks before the Jan. 5, 2021 runoff in which both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats were in play for control of the chamber. True The Vote sought to empower private citizens, who by law in Georgia can challenge voter registrations, to do so.

  And part of his interest in the issue, Mr. Somerville said, was to counter some of the more far-fetched election conspiracy theories purporting to show why then-President Donald Trump was running more than 11,000 votes behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Georgia’s tally.

  Their techniques, using public data and modern statistical analysis tools, gave those interested a more concrete and rational way to consider election results, he said. And he hoped that it would restore confidence in the system among those so disillusioned they hesitated to vote in the runoff.

  Both he and Ms. Engelbrecht have testified that state governments are years behind in their techniques for keeping their data up to date.

  Both have used the word “nerds” on the stand to describe themselves and each other: those who love data, computers, and what you can do with them.

  “We were relatively obsessive about it,” Mr. Somerville testified under direct examination by one of the defense attorneys, Cameron Powell of Houston.

  Their geeky demeanor on the stand belies the intensity of what transpired three years ago.

  Now-President Biden’s narrow lead in Georgia of 11,779 votes sparked recounts and not only then-President Trump’s repeated charges of electoral fraud, but his second impeachment over his efforts to overturn the state’s count and his pressuring of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a lengthy telephone call alleging many irregularities in the process and how they affected the count:

  “So, what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. You know, we have that in spades already.” And “Look Brad. I got to get … I have to find 12,000 votes and I have them times a lot. And therefore, I won the state.” And, “You will find you will be at 11,779 within minutes, because Fulton County is totally corrupt.”

  The impeachment failed, but President Trump currently faces criminal conspiracy charges in Fulton County over the matter. Among 18 co-defendants are some who have pled guilty, making them available to testify against the former president.

  The turmoil also led to the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the Capitol, which Democrats and others have sought to label an “insurrection.”

  A year ago, Ms. Engelbrecht was in jail, where she and True The Vote’s co-founder Gregg Phillips spent a week for contempt of federal court in Texas over their refusal to identify a whistleblower giving them information in a different elections case.

  The trial involves a lot of fine points of federal law, including the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which makes voter intimidation easier to prove, and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which directs states to update voter rolls regularly.

  The defense has sought to show that the defendants—True The Vote and the individual defendants—didn’t communicate with challenged voters or seek to intimidate them. After the plaintiffs rested their case in the morning, the defense moved to dismiss the case, saying the plaintiffs hadn’t supported the allegations they’d made.

  At the very least, defense attorney Jake Evans of Atlanta argued to Judge Jones, four of the six co-defendants, including Mr. Somerville, Mr. Davis, Ron Johnson, and James Cooper, should be dropped from the lawsuit because little testimony had born upon them and their connection to the case was so tangential.

  Judge Jones, appointed to the federal bench in 2010 by President Barack Obama, questioned plaintiffs’ attorneys, including Christina Ashley Ford and Uzoma Nkwonta, both of Washington, D.C., sharply over the four co-defendants but ended up declining to dismiss them from the lawsuit.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 20:25

• California Spent $4 Million On Gender-Affirming 'Enhancements' For Prisoners
  California Spent $4 Million On Gender-Affirming ‘Enhancements’ For Prisoners

  California is helping prison inmates cope with their stints, having forked over more than $4 million of taxpayer funds on surgical sex changes and cosmetic “gender-affirming” enhancements for 157 inmates, including four who are on death row, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

  

  Breaking it down, the state has coughed up:

  • Over $4 million for vaginoplasties

  • $180,000 for breast implants

  • $184,141 on facial feminization surgeries

  • $224,000 on laser hair removal

  • The state has spent over $1 million removing the breasts of female prisoners

  “People who think they’re transgender have rights, and they should be treated with dignity and respect, but it does not include taxpayer dollars being used to do surgeries that are experimental at best and scientifically unjustified at worst,” said attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who has represented California inmates.

  California’s lack of guardrails for trans-identifying prisoners stands in sharp contrast to its rules around inmate dental care, for instance, which don’t allow for root canals on back teeth, cosmetic tooth restoration or replacement, or treatment of oral ulcers—among other services.

  From 2017 through mid-July 2023, taxpayers have bankrolled at least 157 transgender procedures and treatments, spending nearly $2.5 million on vaginoplasties—the creation of artificial vaginas and vulvas—for 35 male prisoners, according to previously unreported records obtained by women’s prison advocate Amie Ichikawa and reviewed by the Free Beacon.

  Four people on death row have received sex reassignment surgery.

  Meanwhile, corrections officials have requested nearly $2.2 million in new funds just for transgender care, according to budget documents.

  The state’s mandate to cover sex-change procedures for inmates stems from a 2016 legal settlement with convicted male murdere Shiloh Quine, who is serving a life sentence. Quine was represented by the George Soros-funded Transgender Law Center.

  Quine secured the right for trans-identifying prisoners to have items typically prohibited to male inmates for security reasons—such as chains, necklaces, and scarves.

  In 2014, just 131 California inmates identified as transgender. At last count this month, that number was up to 1,847, including hundreds who identify as nonbinary. A February 2021 legislative report said the corrections agency “believes that the recent growth in the transgender inmate population is due to agency efforts” to transfer inmates based on their chosen “gender identity.” -Free Beacon

  Stunning and brave, and not what Californians voted for (or is it?).

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 20:05

• China's Grand Strategy & The Four Wars
  China’s Grand Strategy & The Four Wars

  Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

  “There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.”

  – Sun Tzu

  China’s grand strategy to take its turn at dominance over the global scene depends on bogging down the USA in four wars at once.

  

  How’s it working so far? Pretty darn well.

  Amazingly, China hardly had to lift a finger to make it happen – though it did write some bank checks to the soulless old grifter sitting in the White House.  Our country has arranged its collapse and downfall masterfully on its own.

  War No. 1: There was absolutely no need to start the war in Ukraine, you understand, which has by now not only bled Ukraine’s young male population to the bone, but drained our own military of field weapons and ammunition. After the Soviet collapse, Ukraine existed as a poor backwater in Russia’s orbit, causing no trouble for anyone — except itself, due to world-beating corruption — until the USA started a push to include it in NATO. Our neocons made it clear that the purpose of this was to hem-in and weaken Russia. (Why? “Reasons,” they said.) This policy alarmed and infuriated the Russians who made it clear that NATO membership wasn’t going to happen.

  The US persisted, engineered a coup in 2014 against the Russian-leaning president Yanukovych, and spurred his replacements, first Poroshenko and then Zelensky, to pound the ethnic Russian provinces of the Donbas with rockets and artillery for years on end. Meanwhile, we trained, armed, and supplied a large Ukrainian army and refused to negotiate the NATO expansion in good faith until Mr. Putin had enough in 2022 and moved to put a stop to all this monkey business.

  After some initial mis-steps, the Russians began to prevail in early 2023. Now, there is a general consensus that Russia controls the battle space with its superior ordnance and troop strength, and the conflict is close to being over. Our NATO allies are not hiding their disgust over the fiasco. Ukraine is wrecked. What remains is how the “Joe Biden” regime reacts to yet another major overseas humiliation. As I see it, Mr. Putin must do his level best to not rub it in, since our country is in the throes of a psychotic fugue and might be capable of world-ending craziness.

  War No. 2: Little more than a month ago, the Middle East was thought to have reached a moment of praiseworthy stability, according to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. We awaited an upgrade of the Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Then, the savage Hamas operation of October 7 blew it all up. The Israeli-Palestinian quandary seems to have no possible solution.

  The Palestinians want their own state, of course, but they push to establish it in the entire territory that Israel occupies now. (From the River to the sea….) The Israelis have no intention of being pushed out, and they resist other possible divisions of the land there that might serve to satisfy the Palestinians’ wish for a country of their own. Israel understands that a basic tenet of jihadi Islam, expressed clearly and often, is to exterminate the Jews, and there is no way around that. Israel’s adversaries don’t seem to understand the meaning of “never again.”

  Israel now must deal with the latest affront to its existence and its clear goal is to disarm and destroy the Hamas terror organization. To the world’s horror, they are going about it brutally in Gaza because Hamas is dug-in in a vast tunnel network under the civilian overlay of houses, shops, schools, and hospitals. What else might Israel do? Probably seal off the tunnel system with Hamas in it, creating a gigantic graveyard of Islamic martyrs — a recipe for future cycles of vengeance.

  As you can see, there appears to be no way this ends well for anyone. Other big Islamic players wait on the sidelines, making only threatening gestures so far. I doubt that Iran will risk its oil infrastructure and its electric grid to intervene. And despite Mr. Erdogan’s drum-beating and his large army, the Turkish economy and currency (the lira) would collapse if he jumped in. Egypt has zero appetite for war. That leaves Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, on Israel’s northern frontier. If they amp things up enough, Damascus and Beirut could become ashtrays.

  So, I would expect that Israel grinds on methodically to put Hamas out of business and the region returns to its miserable stalemate status quo until the next generation of angry Palestinians starts a new cycle of violence. Meanwhile, Israel has its own fractious internal political problems to contend with. And also meanwhile, the Palestinians and Israelis compete by birth-rate to out-populate the other side — a contest that might stop suddenly with the economic collapse of the US and Europe, and the end of current global economic relations, including an orderly oil trade, that has produced nearly a century of global super-prosperity allowing populations to expand as they have. (There is also Israel’s 90-percent Covid vaccination rate to consider, with its detrimental effects on health and reproduction.) In a desperate scramble for resources that follows, things that can’t go on, stop.

  Bringing us to War No. 3: The US Government’s war against its own citizens. This has been going on since Mr. Trump stepped onto the scene, and has included a semi-successful war against Mr. Trump personally — except that not only has it failed to put him out of business as a politician, it has substantiated many of the claims he made about corrupt and perfidious government that resulted in his election in 2016. All of that has only enhanced his polling numbers. And the lawless, bad faith court cases lodged against him have demonstrated the US government’s grievous fall into willful malfeasance that has the DOJ arresting and unfairly persecuting hundreds of innocent Americans that support Mr. Trump.

  A big part of the government’s war against US citizens has been the bizarre Covid-19 episode and the long-running effort by public officials to deceive the population about it, including lockdowns and destruction of small businesses, the dishonest suppression of viable treatments, gross censorship about the harms of the mRNA vaccines, and trickery around the origins of the vaccines in the back rooms of our Department of Defense.

  Another front of this war is the wide-open Mexican border, a lawless state of affairs created as deliberate policy by our cabinet secretaries, and done at a time when there is tremendous animus against the US from many other nations who send thousands of sketchy young men into our country with no attempt by our border officials to determine who they are.

  It looks like “Joe Biden’s” hash will be settled shortly when the House, reorganized under a young and vital new speaker, reveals the Biden family’s bank records and begins the process of impeaching the president for bribery. “Joe Biden’s” party pretends that this is not happening and appears to have no plan to deal with consequences. For the moment, they still stupidly tout him as their candidate for the 2024 election, another arrant falsehood you can add to the thousand-and one affronts against the public that this party has tried to put over. Many Americans suspect there will not be a 2024 election, specifically that whoever is president in the coming year will invoke yet another national emergency order to postpone it on spurious grounds. Many are also far from persuaded that the 2020 election that installed “Joe Biden” was honest and legitimate.

  Which brings us to War No. 4: The American peoples’ war against a government gone rogue. Obviously, it is not underway yet, but it’s easy to see how it might develop.

  I think it could commence in the aftermath of a financial calamity that is visibly brewing in the debt markets. The net result will be a collapsed standard-of-living for everyone in the USA, the breakdown of supply lines and daily business, and a very sharp loss of legitimacy for the people who have been in charge of anything in this country.

  We emerge from this catastrophe a nearly medievalized society with a steeply-reduced population, unable to resist China’s attempt to colonize us. Pretty scary, huh? Just let’s keep doing what we’re doing.

  *  *  *

  Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 19:45

• NYC Speed Cameras Have Issued 4.5 Million Tickets Totaling "Hundreds Of Millions" This Year
  NYC Speed Cameras Have Issued 4.5 Million Tickets Totaling “Hundreds Of Millions” This Year

  In the first 9 months of New York City’s school zone speed cameras, almost 4.5 million tickets have already been issued with fines totaling an astonishing “hundreds of millions of dollars”. 

  The speed cameras in New York City now monitor and issue citations continuously, operating 24/7 throughout the year, after a considerable enlargement of the program in August 2022, according to SILive.com.

  This expansion marks a significant shift from the previous restriction that limited speed camera operation to weekdays between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

  While there is a legislative limit of 750 school zones where cameras can be placed, the actual number of cameras exceeds this figure due to the allowance of multiple cameras within these zones, resulting in approximately 2,000 cameras deployed across all five boroughs.

  The report, analyzing data from the city’s Open Data page, notes that New York City’s speed cameras, restricted to within a quarter-mile of schools, have levied $50 fines on drivers going over the speed limit by 10 mph or more.

  

  From January 1 to September 26, 2023, these cameras recorded 4,458,783 violations, amounting to approximately $222.9 million in fines. Averaging 16,575 violations daily or 12 per minute over 269 days, Queens saw the highest number of fines, while Staten Island recorded the fewest.

  This intensive ticketing has prompted criticisms of the city’s reliance on cameras as a revenue source rather than a means to enhance public safety, especially among Staten Islanders.

  The Department of Transportation (DOT) disclosed in August that there was an average reduction of 30% in speed camera citations within the initial year following the implementation of round-the-clock enforcement, accompanied by a 25% decrease in traffic-related deaths during the periods covered by the extended enforcement hours.

  DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez commented: “One year ago we launched 24/7 speed camera enforcement, and the results are in: the program has reduced speeding, decreased the number of injuries, and made our streets safer. Speeding happens most often on nights and weekends, and expanded enforcement has been a highly effective tool to keep New Yorkers safe.”

  Here are the total sums of fines issued, from SILive:

  – STATEN ISLAND
    – Violations issued: 312,083
    – Total fines: $15,604,150

  – BROOKLYN
    – Violations issued: 1,400,365
    – Total fines: $70,018,250

  – MANHATTAN
    – Violations issued: 330,683
    – Total fines: $16,534,150

  – QUEENS
    – Violations issued: 1,739,351
    – Total fines: $86,967,550

  – THE BRONX
    – Violations issued: 676,301
    – Total fines: $33,815,050

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 19:25

• Another Hugo Chavez-Style Idea On Electricity Rates From California's One-Party Regime
  Another Hugo Chavez-Style Idea On Electricity Rates From California’s One-Party Regime

  Authored by Monica Showalter via AmericanThinker.com,

  Cash-strapped California has proposed to set electricity rates based on one’s income, not one’s consumption.

  

  What could go wrong?

  According to San Diego’s right-leaning county supervisor, Jim Desmond:

  Earlier today, I had the opportunity to participate in the California Public Utilities Commission public meeting regarding the proposed new fixed-rate electricity plan. This proposal has sparked significant concerns, particularly for the residents of San Diego. If you’re… pic.twitter.com/hWNfbWgXBO

  — Supervisor Jim Desmond (@jim_desmond) November 7, 2023

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

  His tweet begins: 

  Earlier today, I had the opportunity to participate in the California Public Utilities Commission public meeting regarding the proposed new fixed-rate electricity plan.

  This proposal has sparked significant concerns, particularly for the residents of San Diego.

  If you’re unfamiliar with this plan, let me provide a breakdown of its essential components and the potential implications it holds for our community.

  The proposed fixed-rate bill fundamentally operates on an income-based charging model, where the more one earns, the higher the flat-rate electricity charges.

  This scheme would impose fixed monthly charges based on your income before a single kilowatt-hour is used.

  Here’s a breakdown of what this could mean for San Diegans:

  • *Households earning between $28,000 to $69,000 would face a monthly charge of $34.

  • *Those with incomes ranging from $69,000 to $180,000 would see a monthly charge of $73.

  • *Households earning above $180,000 would encounter a monthly charge of $128.

  Median-income households in San Diego would end up paying $876 annually for electricity, irrespective of their actual consumption.

  It’s also ridiculous that individuals who have invested in residential solar won’t be exempt from these fixed charges.

  So if you’ve been foolish enough to invest in solar energy as the state encouraged you to do in the name of saving the planet, hoping that $7,000 investment in the roof plates you shelled out for would eventually pay for itself through lower electricity rates, well, too bad about you.

  The danger here is that California is more likely than ever to see electricity shortages, given that the cost incentive to use less will be gone with this new proposed policy. People will just leave the power on, given that there is no difference in the rate for doing so.

  With that kind of incentive to overconsume, from the state with the most green mandates and highest electricity costs in the nation, you can be there won’t be electricity when it’s going to be needed. The coming heat waves, wild fires, and cold waves are going to be something else.

  This is one of the most Hugo Chavez-style ideas ever proposed in this economically mismanaged state.

  Back when Venezuela was a recognizable country in 2007, Hugo decided to expropriate all the electricity companies, public and private, in the name of achieving socialism and “equity,” and then turning their management over to ignorant Cuban government operatives whose only experience with electricity was in applying electrical shocks to dissidents.

  By 2010, Chavez had a full-blown “electricity emergency” on his hands, with artificially deflated costs to special interest groups and overconsumption the inevitable result. Not surprisingly, electricity rationing was the next step, with Chavez blaming the weather.

  According to Reuters

  CARACAS (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez inaugurated a folksy new radio talk-show on Monday by declaring an “electricity emergency” in oil-rich Venezuela.

  Despite its huge crude reserves, the South American OPEC member relies on hydro-electricity for 70 percent of its power needs, and a drought has hit supply since late 2009.

  “We are ready to decree the electricity emergency, because it really is an emergency,” Chavez said in the first edition of a show on state radio air waves called “Suddenly Chavez.”

  With electricity cuts weighing on Chavez’s popularity ahead of important legislative elections in September, the government blames the shortages on the drought and soaring demand during five years of economic growth until 2008.

   That’s socialism in action and anyone who thinks it can’t happen here is delusional — it already is happening here. Why anyone would want to imitate that Venezuelan model, after what happened there, is the only mystery.

  The problem with this scheme is not only the inevitable supply crunch, but the invasion of privacy and erosion of human freedoms, with the state accessing tax records and spying on citizens to set rates. There will be a load of corruption to get the cheaper rates, while the residents who can’t get out of them will have another reason to flee the state.

  Once the hooks are in, the state will be free to impose any surcharges and rate hikes it likes, at its discretion, depending on how much money it wants to keep spending. The people who will have no sayso in the rate matter will be the taxpayers who consume electricity. That’s your one-party state for you and don’t think the rigging hasn’t already been set in place.

  What a nightmare this will be for Californians if the bat-brained idea is not stopped. Desmond recommends calling up the state’s public utilities commission, which has proposed this wokester scheme, and tell them it’s a no-go with the public. If it’s not done and this proposal shut down, it will be a heck of a lot harder to get rid of it and restore normal citizen freedoms. Desmond provides the names and numbers to call in his tweet and he should be heeded.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 19:05

• World's Top Tractor Maker Slashes Outlook, Trims Jobs In Response To Slowing Sales 
  World’s Top Tractor Maker Slashes Outlook, Trims Jobs In Response To Slowing Sales 

  CNH Industrial, a global leader in farm equipment with top brands such as Case, New Holland, and Steyr, saw its stock prices tumble on Tuesday – the largest intraday drop since June 2020. The decline followed the company’s decision to cut its revenue outlook for 2023, attributing the downward revision to a global deceleration of agricultural machinery demand. Also, the company announced an immediate restructuring program that will result in a cut of 5% of its salaried workforce. 

  

  A quick look at the Italian-American company’s yearly forecast reveals net revenue forecast from industrial activities will be between 3-6% this year, down from a previous forecast of 8-11%. It also revised its free-cash-flow estimate lower to be between $1-1.2 billion from $1.3-$1.5 billion. 

  YEAR FORECAST 

  • Sees industrial net sales +3% to +6%, saw +8% to +11% 

  • Sees industrial free cash flow $1 billion to $1.2 billion, saw $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion

  Sales for the third quarter fell 1% to $5.33 billion, below Bloomberg’s estimate of $5.8 billion. 

  THIRD-QUARTER RESULTS

  • Adjusted EPS 42c, estimate 43c (Bloomberg Consensus)

  • Industrial net sales $5.33 billion, estimate $5.8 billion

  • Industrial Sales Constant Currency -3%

  • Agriculture net sales $4.38 billion, estimate $4.77 billion

  • Construction net sales $948 million, estimate $975.9 million

  • Agriculture Adj. Ebit $672 million, estimate $708.8 million

  • Construction adj. Ebit $60 million, estimate $49.3 million

  •  Agriculture adj. Ebit margin 15.3%, estimate 14.8%

  • Construction adj. Ebit margin 6.3%, estimate 5.04%

  The decline in sales is primarily due to falling tractor demand across South America and Europe: 

  In North America, industry volume was up 19% year over year in the third quarter for tractors over 140 HP and was down 7% for tractors under 140 HP; combines were down 4% from prior year. In EMEA, tractor and combine demand was up 4% and down 18%, respectively. Industry volume in Europe alone was down 7% for tractors and down 40% for combines. South America tractor demand was down 16% and combine demand was down 47%. Asia Pacific tractor demand was down 10% and combine demand was up 33%.

  As a result of the slowdown, the company announced an “immediate restructuring program targeting a 5% reduction in salaried workforce cost” and will be “coupled with a comprehensive rightsizing of the Company’s cost structure to be implemented early next year.” 

  Shares in Milan were repeatedly halted, while shares in the US fell 12%. 

  

  The news follows Caterpillar’s earnings seven days ago, where it warned about a more cautious fourth quarter and said order backlogs fell. 

  A softening in worldwide tractor sales could serve as a harbinger for a global slowdown, signaling growing economic turbulence due to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 18:45

• Behind Mike Bloomberg's $500 Million Donation To 'Finish The Job On Coal'
  Behind Mike Bloomberg’s $500 Million Donation To ‘Finish The Job On Coal’

  Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Billionaire philanthropist and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $500 million in September toward shifting electricity production in the United States to wind and solar energy and shutting down its coal- and gas-fired plants.

  

  However, some experts say that Bloomberg’s millions, together with the billions being spent by the Biden administration, are paving a road to ruin.

  The donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies, which adds to the $500 million Mr. Bloomberg pledged in 2019, aims to “finish the job on coal” and “accelerate the clean energy transition to reach the goal of 80 percent of total electricity generation” from renewables, according to an official statement.

  “With 372 of 530 coal plants announced to retire or closed to date—more than 70 percent of the country’s coal fleet—this next phase will shut down every last U.S. coal plant,” Bloomberg Philanthropies stated.

  The effort also aims to “slash gas plant capacity in half, and block all new gas plants.”

  Many of those who study America’s electric infrastructure say this is taking us down a dangerous path.

  

  “We’re following people here that are pied pipers,” physicist and energy analyst John Droz told The Epoch Times, referring to the literary character who led children to their doom through delusive enticement.

  “This whole business of promoting renewables as a solution is completely unproven, scientifically.”

  The transition is destabilizing America’s power grid, which could damage transformers and cause long-term outages, according to Steven Milloy, energy expert, news commentator, and publisher of Junkscience.com.

  “We are in this nonsensical, headlong rush to wreck our grid,” he told The Epoch Times.

  What’s overlooked in this drive to close coal and gas plants is America’s ability to keep the lights on. And while neither the Biden administration nor Mr. Bloomberg has produced a cost-benefit analysis for their plans, analysts say we can look to places such as Germany and Texas, which have taken the lead in transitioning to wind and solar, for a preview of what’s in store.

  German energy economist Lars Schernikau has assessed the results of his country’s “Energiewende” (energy transition) and warns Americans to not follow Germany’s example.

  “Wind and solar do not seem to work; otherwise, after 20 years of ‘Energiewende,’ power prices would be lower and Germany would not be in trouble,” he told The Epoch Times.

  Germany spent hundreds of billions of euros to build wind and solar facilities since 2002, doubling its power generation capacity and boosting the share of renewables to 60 percent from about 10 percent. However, its electricity production has been flat, while the cost of electricity skyrocketed.

  Wind and solar don’t increase output proportionately because of their significantly lower “capacity factor,” or the percentage that’s actually generated versus capacity built.

  

  The capacity factor for wind and solar is about 35 percent and 25 percent, respectively, compared to roughly 92 percent for nuclear and 50 percent for coal and natural gas. That many utilities prioritize buying power from wind and solar facilities rather than from coal and gas plants artificially inflates the capacity factor for wind and solar, even from these low levels.

  For all the billions spent, Germany’s “Energiewende” has delivered an increasingly unreliable electric system at a cost to consumers that’s higher than virtually every other developed country.

  The process of shuttering coal and nuclear plants has left the country at the whim of the weather and unfriendly neighbors, such as Russia, and also dangerously short of dependable power that can be adjusted to meet fluctuations in demand.

  

  Before the current trend of closing coal plants, electric utilities in the West typically ran their power generation systems with a 20 percent installed reserve margin over expected peak demand, to ensure that they could always meet consumers’ needs.

  That margin ensured that the electric grid would still function even during unpredicted events, such as a winter freeze in Texas or a summer heat wave in California.

  Depleting Reserves to Balance Renewables

  The transition to renewables is now eroding that safety margin. Germany, where peak demand is around 80 gigawatts, once had about 100 gigawatts of reliable, dispatchable capacity; now, reliable capacity is down to 80 to 85 gigawatts, according to Mr. Schernikau.

  “That means they are actually at the margin,” he said. “As soon as you get close to the margin, whether your reliable power supply equals or is barely above your peak power demand, you’re running into trouble, which is exactly what Texas has done.”

  Electric utilities in the United States, one by one, are following in Germany’s footsteps, and we’re already seeing similar results. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that coal and natural gas plants will account for 98 percent of plant closures in 2023 and that U.S. utilities have halted an average of 11 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity per year since 2015. 

  

  The problem for the electric grid as a whole is that the electricity supply must always match the demand. If the system goes out of equilibrium, substantial damage to the grid’s hardware could result, leading to long-term outages.

  “Wind comes and goes, and you can’t operate off of something that’s an unpredictable source; you need an auxiliary source of power to balance it out,” Mr. Droz said. “Something like 99 percent of that balancing power is gas.

  “When these people say wind, that is deceptive because there is no such thing as wind by itself. What they should be saying is a wind-plus-gas package.”

  What many U.S. utilities are doing is expanding their wind and solar capacity but not adding reliable backup facilities to match it, he said. Instead, the utilities “just dump any excess need for balancing onto the system,” hoping that they can draw on other regions when there’s a shortfall.

  Increasingly, they’re also drawing on the emergency reserve.

  “The wind developers are using the reserve as the auxiliary, and that’s not supposed to be what happens,” Mr. Droz said. “They should not be allowed to take from the emergency reserve to balance their wind projects.”

  

  ‘Reliability Chicken’

  Brent Bennett, policy director at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, refers to this process as “reliability chicken.”

  “They’re having to play a lot of games now in order to justify building more wind and solar,” he told The Epoch Times.

  Among the utilities, Mr. Bennett said, “everybody is pointing at each other and saying, ‘We’re going to get energy back from these guys,’ and these guys over here say, ‘We’re going to get energy back from those guys.’”

  As long as there’s only a small percentage of wind and solar in the system, “they can get away with that,” according to Mr. Droz.

  “But when you get a more severe case, like the Texas freeze, all of a sudden that reserve that was built in for emergencies is completely gone,” he said.

  Texas’s winter storm Uri in 2021 caused hundreds of deaths, many from hypothermia, when power outages prevented Texans from heating their homes. In that case, utilities in the state came within minutes of collapsing the grid for weeks or longer.

  

  Ultimately, Texas electricity operators were able to implement emergency rolling blackouts and shed enough load to rebalance the system in time to prevent an even greater catastrophe. However, experts warn that operating so close to the margin is a very dangerous game to play.

  Testifying before the U.S. Senate in 2015, former CIA Director James Woolsey was asked what would happen to Americans if the electric grid went down for an extended period.

  “There are essentially two estimates on how many people would die from hunger, from starvation, from lack of water, and from social disruption,” he said.

  “One estimate is that within a year or so, two-thirds of the United States population would die. The other estimate is that within a year or so, 90 percent of the U.S. population would die.”

  Despite that risk, government policies are pushing utilities to move faster to shut down coal and gas plants.

  “All the incentives are for utilities to build more wind and solar,” Mr. Bennett said.

  Read the rest here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 18:25

• Biden Briefed On China's Plans For First Military Base In The Middle East
  Biden Briefed On China’s Plans For First Military Base In The Middle East

  China is reportedly seeking to establish a permanent military base in the Middle East for the first time, which Washington will certainly see as a significant ‘challenge’ – also given the planned base would be in the Arab Gulf region, where the US also has major bases, as in the case of the Navy Central Command installations in Qatar and Bahrain. 

  “President Joe Biden has been briefed on what his advisers see as a Chinese plan to build a military facility in Oman, people familiar with the matter said, amid a broader effort by Beijing to deepen defense and diplomatic ties with the Middle East,” Bloomberg writes in its major Tuesday story.

  

  “Biden was told that Chinese military officials discussed the matter last month with Omani counterparts, who were said to be amenable to such a deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. They said the two sides agreed to more talks in the coming weeks,” the report continues.

  It’s as yet unknown precisely where the potential Oman base would be located. Just last August, Oman and China held a formal celebration for their 45 years of official diplomatic relations. 

  The Chinese and Omani militaries have in the recent past coordinated events and exercises, with Oman’s port of Muscat semi-regularly hosting Chinese PLA warships. Last month, the Omani and PLA militaries held joint drills, and pledged to work “to expand their naval defense and military cooperation.”

  China is also believed to have long eyed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a possible host country for another base. Currently, Beijing’s only other significant overseas military base is in the East African country of Djibouti. 

  Bloomberg suggests the deepened military ties between China and Oman parallels energy ties:

  Oman is sometimes referred to as the Switzerland of the Middle East given that it follows a policy of neutrality and regularly acts as a mediator, including between the US and Iran. It’s also sought to balance between maintaining its partnership with the US and nurturing ties with China, which imports the bulk of its crude output. China also invested in the first stage of Oman’s Duqm special economic zone, which will be the site of the Middle East’s biggest oil-storage facility.

  The US itself doesn’t have a permanent, stand-alone military base inside Oman; however, it has a key agreement with the government to use Omani bases when needed for a variety of operations. 

  

  For example, the US Air Force uses RAFO Thumrait airbase, a military airport located near Thumrait in the country’s south. The US Navy also frequently patrols waters off Oman’s coast, looking for Iranian weapons and sanctioned oil or other shipments. One military publication has described of the Pentagon’s minimal presence (compared to other Gulf nations) in Oman as follows: 

  The U.S. maintains an ability to use Omani bases through the Oman Facilities Access Agreement, originally signed in 1980, and most recently renewed in 2010.55 This accord made Oman the first country among the Persian Gulf States to explicitly partner militarily with the U.S.56 According to the agreement, the U.S. can request access to these facilities in advance for a specified purpose. Some of the bases listed in this section are those the U.S. may access, but not necessarily where a presence is maintained. Oman has allowed 5,000 aircraft overflights, 600 landings, and 80 port calls annually. 

  Starting in 2021, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) began warning that China is not content with its Djibouti base on the continent’s east coast, but is looking to establish a military presence on the Atlantic. The US has long seen China as the top threat to the so-called “rules-based international order” (alongside Russia)–but Beijing very obviously lacks a global military presence like Washington has.

  China also has a small naval outpost at Pakistan’s major Indian Ocean port.

  

  Lately, every Chinese move to expand militarily is seen as a serious “threat” by US officials, and this is even more acute now with the Ukraine and Gaza wars happening, given Beijing often takes stances opposite Washington’s when it comes to these raging conflicts.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 18:05

• Escaping The Socioeconomic Bullseye
  Escaping The Socioeconomic Bullseye

  Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

  Imagine that it’s 5th August 1945 and you’re the only person in Hiroshima who knows that, the following day, the US will drop an atom bomb in your back yard.

  It goes without saying that you’d choose the fastest form of transportation available to you and head out of the city as quickly as possible.

  Where would you go? It wouldn’t matter very much. The goal would be to get as far as possible from Hiroshima, since you wouldn’t know how far out the damage would extend.

  For many years, I’ve been advising people on what I’ve perceived as a coming economic crisis that would carry with it both a political crisis and a social crisis of epic proportions.

  These three arrows would be concurrent, with each one exacerbating the other two.

  Not surprisingly, many people have been either unwilling or unable to accept that such a major series of events might take place.

  However, the writing is now very much on the wall and even those who don’t really understand the crisis have a feeling in the pit of their stomachs that unfolding events will end very badly.

  So, we’re at the Hiroshima moment – that brief time prior to the collapse stage of the crisis when it may still be possible to “get out of Dodge.”

  

  And much like Hiroshima, the devastation will have its epicentres. They will be the major cities of those countries that will be most greatly impacted.

  We can expect that New York City, London, Toronto, Tokyo, Melbourne and others will experience dramatic decline in quality of life. In fact, this is already under way and people have begun exiting the affected cities, not planning to return.

  We can imagine these epicentres as the bullseye in the image above. They represent the worst places to be caught in the coming years of crisis.

  But like Hiroshima, the areas immediately outside the city will be the second-riskiest places to be. We might see them as the red ring on the target in the image above.

  What locations might they be?

  Well, the fact that some of the world’s most prominent cities will be the epicentre tells us that the countries in which they exist have devolved to the point that their economies are deeply in trouble.

  Therefore, after an initial hit in the major cities, the remainder of each country will experience economic turmoil, which will generate political and social turmoil.

  And again, this has already begun in such countries as the US, UK, Canada, the EU and Australia.

  Therefore, those who were located in, say, New York, may have already left for perceived greener pastures in Colorado, Texas or Florida.

  But this solution may well prove to be very temporary, as the same governments that created the strife in the cities will impact those who have sought to escape but who remain within the country’s borders. Also, these locations are now filling up with “refugees” from cities, who often find themselves unwelcome by longtime residents.

  What locations, then, would constitute the white band above – the next band away from the bullseye?

  Well, that might be those countries that are not part of the former Free World, the host of countries that followed the US into prosperity after World War II, then followed it into destructive debt decades later.

  They would be the countries that have existed on a lower economic tier – failing to get on the A-team, but still having ridden on the coattails of the US, via trade agreements.

  Such countries would be heavily impacted by the collapse, but with less distance to fall. They would therefore not experience such dramatic change.

  Such countries might include Mexico, Spain, Colombia and a host of others.

  Then, even further from the epicentre would be the outer rings – those countries that have taken on a minimum of trade and/or other forms of dependence upon the US and its main partners.

  They would include Thailand, Uruguay and other far-flung “under-achievers.”

  Uruguay, for example, imports only about ten percent of what it consumes and almost all of that comes from other Spanish-speaking countries. It also exports only about ten percent of what it produces. Whilst this has caused Uruguay to remain a sleepy little country with minimal dynamics, it has allowed it to sit out major events elsewhere in the world. (In the last century, it sat out both World Wars and the Great Depression.)

  Therefore, those who recognize that their home country and its population centres may soon become less than livable, may find that, by moving to Cafayate, Argentina, Chiang Mai, Thailand, or Lake Chapala, Mexico, may dramatically decrease the odds of becoming a casualty of the unfolding crisis.

  But there’s another, final ring on the target above: the white ring. This one goes one step further.

  In times of crisis, wealth does not vanish. It simply changes hands and, often, geographical location.

  Therefore, as wealth exits the more troubled countries of the world, it will gravitate to the less-troubled jurisdictions. As the old saying goes, “Money flows to where it’s treated best.”

  When this occurs, the target jurisdictions will experience development, prosperity and trickle-down advances in social conditions. There will, therefore, be locations in the world that are on the rise, as other locations are in decline.

  In the West, there are only a handful of jurisdictions that stand to rise as a result of the crisis. However, in Asia, there are many. Indeed, in each of the more productive countries of Asia, the mood on the street is one of opportunity. In Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and others, the mood is buoyant. Asians fully understand that this is their century.

  On any evening out with Asian businessmen, we find that the former perception of playing second fiddle to the West is gone, that the only obstacle remaining to Asians is China. Asian industrialists regard their main objective to be building up factories and exports to raise their position against their one great local rival.

  Over the coming decades, Asia will be in a literal gold rush as nations compete to challenge China’s present lead.

  The world is therefore a series of concentric circles of opportunity. The outer rings afford the greatest likelihood of prosperity.

  Conversely, the closer the individual is to the epicentre of the crisis, the poorer his chances are to thrive in what is certain to be a period of dramatic change.

  At such a time, it might be advisable for the reader to ponder which of the rings would best represent the one in which he presently resides and whether it might be advantageous or even necessary to choose another.

  *  *  *

  The political and economic climate is constantly changing… and not always for the better. Obtaining the political diversification benefits of a second passport is crucial to ensuring you won’t fall victim to a desperate government. That’s why Doug Casey and his team just released a new complementary report, “The Easiest Way to a Second Passport.” It contains all the details about one of the easiest countries to obtain a second passport from. Click here to download it now.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/07/2023 – 17:45

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