Oct 08

Today’s News 8th October 2024

  • Slovak PM Robert Fico Opposes Ukraine's NATO Membership, Warns Against 'Russophobia'
    Slovak PM Robert Fico Opposes Ukraine’s NATO Membership, Warns Against ‘Russophobia’

    Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

    Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has reaffirmed his opposition to Ukraine’s potential NATO membership, warning that such a move could lead to broader conflict.

    In an interview with STVR on Sunday, Fico claimed that the ongoing war in Ukraine is being prolonged by Western support with the goal of “bringing the Russians to their knees,” a position he believes is futile.

    “There is a military conflict going on in a country that is Slovakia’s neighbor, where Slavs are really being killed and where Europe is significantly supporting this killing,” Fico said, as cited by the Pravda news outlet.

    He emphasized that the conflict cannot be resolved militarily and warned against further Western involvement in Ukraine.

    While he expressed support for Ukraine’s eventual membership in the European Union, the Slovak leader clarified that NATO membership is a step too far.

    “As long as I am the prime minister of the Slovak Republic, as long as I lead the deputies, whom I, as the party chairman, have under political control, I will never agree to Ukraine’s membership in NATO,” he declared.

    Fico further cautioned that Ukraine joining NATO could pave the way for a “third world war.”

    Fico also used the interview to criticize what he described as “Russophobia” in Western discourse, reminding listeners that “Freedom came to Slovakia from the east,” in reference to the Soviet Union’s contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

    He announced his intention to visit Moscow next year on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II to honor Russia’s role in liberating Slovakia despite the current geopolitical landscape.

    “Let’s not automatically assume that when we speak positively about the Red Army or the former Soviet Union, we are agents of Putin,” Fico stressed, urging for more balanced views on Russia and its historical role.

    Fico reaffirmed Slovakia’s commitment to meeting its NATO obligations by spending 2 percent of GDP on defense. However, he voiced opposition to further increases in defense spending, proposing instead that part of these funds be allocated to civilian projects, such as building a hospital in Prešov and reconstructing infrastructure.

    “The Ministry of Defense is ready to provide an additional €300 million for objectives that are on the one hand military, but at the same time can serve civilian purposes well,” Fico said, outlining his vision for a balanced approach to national defense and public investment.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 02:00

  • Hong Kong Crashes As China's Stimulus Frenzy Ends With A Bang
    Hong Kong Crashes As China’s Stimulus Frenzy Ends With A Bang

    There is some good news and some bad news for China bulls this morning (local time).

    First the good news: since mainland China (aka A-shares) were closed for the past week, mainland Indexes such as the Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 are up – just barely – because after opening up almost 11% to catch up with the frenzied rally in offshore markets and ETFs, the index has erased almost all gains since it closed for trading on Sept 30.

    For the real action, one has to go to neighboring Hong Kong, which was open while China was closed, and which proceeded to soar as much as 30% since the China stimulus bazooka was fired on Sept 23 (just two days after we said it would be). It’s also were the bad news is because one look at what the local Hang Seng China Enterprises Index is doing, and HK longs will want to throw up: as shown below, not only are HK stocks down as much as 11% after the open, but they have somehow managed to wipe out almost half the gains since the bazooka was launched in less than two hours!

    What sparked this liquidation? Well, yesterday China unveiled yet another “emergency” stimulus meeting, this time held by the National Development and Reform Commission (i.e., China’s central planning bureau). Expectations were high that just like the emergency Sept 26 Politburo meeting which was led by president Xi himself, today China would unveil even more sweet, sweet stimmies.

    Alas it was not meant to be, and the press conference led by Zheng Shanjie, chairman of China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission was an epic dud: in it, Shanjie said that while external risks and downward economic pressures were increasing, they remained confident of achieving the full-year GDP growth target. He said new policy measures will focus on expanding domestic demand, increasing support and the property and capital markets.

    In short, nothing new, and certainly nothing even remotely close to the Rmb 10 trillion in fiscal stimmies that many were expecting. As UBS writes, “the NDRC press conference has released no details on fiscal stimulus so far, with the Q&A session ongoing. Zheng Shanjie along with deputy heads Liu Sushe, Zhao Chenxin, Li Chunlin and Zheng Bei, were widely expected to announce an action plan at the press conference. As a result, USDCNH is coming up, while iron ore and copper are declining. Shenzhen’s ChiNext has narrowed gains to 13% from more than 18% earlier as China returned from the Golden Week holiday.“

    What is the take home message here? First, that Jim Cramer was – as usual – a fade.

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    The second, and far more important message, is that the half life of Beijing’s latest attempt to goose markets, at just around 10 days is the shortest of all…

    … and it means that with the market having called Beijing’s bluff, Xi has two options:

    • Do another half-assed attempt to stimulate the economy with the very limited measures already unveiled, which he knows – and more importantly the market knows – will achieve nothing, and spark another market crash and economic meltdown, or
    • Do what Goldman trader Borislav Vladimirov laid out yesterday, when he said that China Must Do QE Now, “Or It Will End Up In A Bigger Hole In 12 Months.”

    And since for Xi the time for half-measures is now over, especially if he wants to avoid a deflationary spiral, social insurrection and political mutiny, this only leaves one option open: the truly nuclear one. The only question is when, because while the market may have peaked at +30% the first time China tried to goose markets, the next time we are talking triple digits, not to mention $3K gold and $100K+ bitcoin.

     

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 23:28

  • Where Is America's Co-President, Dr. Jill?
    Where Is America’s Co-President, Dr. Jill?

    Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

    By inserting herself on the world stage in the political arena, Jill Biden is fair game for criticism about her unelected influence over U.S. policy and her role in the cover-up of the century.

    Public officials, both elected and unelected, curiously are rarely held accountable for their actions, as are the rest of us. Harvey Weinstein goes to prison, while Bill Clinton goes on his merry way. That’s just one example of many, yet the lack of accountability has gotten to the point of absurdity. And now we have deceit that has massive consequences for everyone.

    Since January 2021, when he took office until his forced departure from the 2024 race on July 21 after his disastrous debate performance on June 27, the aggressively stage-managed presidency of Joe Biden has been exposed as a fraud. This elderly man with failing physical and mental facilities has been foisted upon America as the purported “leader of the free world” who is “fit to serve,” is “sharp as a tack,” and “runs circles around those half his age.”

    As we now know, Biden was nowhere near the “unrivaled statesman” who was in “command of the facts” and “performed masterfully” at important cabinet meetings and international summits. This is what was being hidden from the public for nearly three years by the U.S. government, its enablers in the legacy media, Biden’s inner circle of advisors, and most vigorously of all by the nation’s First Lady Jill Biden.

    Long claiming to be her husband’s fiercest advocate, Jill Biden had the opportunity and influence to assume the role of a caring wife and confidant to Joe, making sure his health would not worsen given the extreme demands of the American presidency. Jill could have also shown the world what a dedicated spouse looks like, how a devoted wife and mother shows strength and resilience in troubling times as her husband’s age-related condition becomes visible to the world, and how we should treat our elderly loved ones with respect and dignity.

    This awful and truly evil person, however, has put on a disgraceful display of naked conceit and unchecked personal entitlement throughout Joe Biden’s entire presidential term. As Joe’s condition worsened, Jill’s shameless quest to be in charge of the Biden White House exposed her as an opportunistic parasite who routinely lied to the country about the real state of Joe’s infirmity while she lived the high life on the taxpayer’s dime.

    Insisting that she be referred to as “Dr. Biden,” an honorific issued from her 2007 Ed.D doctorate in education she received from the University of Delaware, a school conveniently located in the state where Joe Biden was currently a five-time-elected Senator, Jill has displayed a notable eagerness to supplant Joe as the public face of his administration. One of the most notorious examples is the picture she posted on social media in 2021, showing her pouring over paperwork on Air Force One with the caption “Prepping for the G7.” Supposedly she thought the public would be delighted to know that an unelected community college teacher would be discussing international affairs with elected world leaders.

    Jill Biden repeatedly made speeches and appearances at numerous functions in place of her husband, the president of the United States, inserting herself as a proxy president and speaking on behalf of America’s commander-in-chief. This was not only inappropriate and deceptive, but it was also an important element of the massive cover-up of Joe’s rapidly deteriorating mental and physical health, a conspiracy that included his vice president, the anointed replacement for Joe once it was apparent he couldn’t win in November. This is in addition to other members of his cabinet who should have invoked the 25th Amendment to move him out the door years ago. This is in addition to other Democrat power brokers like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and so many others who perpetuated this hoax on all Americans, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike.

    At an event celebrating Pride Month, Jill Biden was featured in an official White House video saying, “Looking out at all of you, I see America. I hope that all of you feel that freedom and love on the South Lawn today because your home is here.” Not seen on that video or the South Lawn that day? The elected president of the United States.

    It has been noted that Jill Biden pushed for the appointment of Kimberly Cheatle as director of the Secret Service, who resigned in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. How many other appointees in Biden’s administration carry Jill Biden’s fingerprints?

    It is telling of the ruthless nature of Dr. Jill Biden and her stubborn pursuit to hold onto the perks and privileges of power while maintaining the illusion that her husband had the facilities to serve as president. The term “elder abuse” does not define what we have seen here; this is a person who has an iron grip on a privileged lifestyle and will do anything, including the humiliating parading of her failing husband in front of the world, to keep living the taxpayer-funded luxury life of which she always dreamed.

    Nobody is fooled here. Jill has succumbed to a sort of main-character syndrome, similar to that of former First Lady Hillary Clinton, assuming that the public wants “two for the price of one.” Jill will learn the hard way that a presidential spouse’s aggrandizing power is not something the country finds appropriate. She is held in contempt by most Americans who haven’t drunk the Orange Man Bad flavor of Kool-Aid sold by the Democrat Party since 2015.

    Jill participated in the elaborate lie that Joe was fit to serve as president. In fact, she was arguably the most guilty of committing fraud against the public. As Axios reported, Jill Biden “created a cocoon” around the president “that initially seemed earnestly protective but now appears potentially deceptive.” This inner praetorian guard helped to “make up for mental lapses, including prompting him to remember people he has known for a long time.”

    Joe Biden was never a good man, a good husband, a good father, or a good leader. His public and private life is rife with failure, mediocrity, and abject disaster, and he will likely go down in history as our nation’s worst president. But even Joe deserves to be treated with human dignity in his final days. As a man facing irreversible debilitation, he should be in a comfortable, loving, safe environment and not paraded in front of the world—stumbling, slurring, shouting, staring, forgetting, whispering, and uncontrollably soiling himself—all so that his narcissistic, opportunistic, greaseball wife can pretend to be important while flying around the world on Air Force One.

    As the Biden presidency was in its dying days last month, we witnessed the spectacle of Dr. Jill presiding over the president’s first full cabinet meeting in nearly a year. If his cabinet cared about the country and their constitutional responsibilities, one or all of these sycophants should have stood up, invoked the 25th Amendment for the purpose it was intended, and removed Joe and Jill Biden from their sham presidency.

    Dr. Jill Biden is a power-craving status addict. Her role in the purposeful cover-up of Joe Biden’s failing health has consequences for the nation and should never be forgiven nor forgotten.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 23:25

  • Largest Crude Transhipment Hub In Crimea On Fire After Ukraine Drone Attack
    Largest Crude Transhipment Hub In Crimea On Fire After Ukraine Drone Attack

    Ukraine says it successfully hit a major oil terminal in Crimea in an overnight drone and missile operation. The impacted oil terminal is in Feodosia, on the south coast of the Crimean peninsula, and is believed to be a key Russian military supply hub. It is also the biggest petroleum transhipment hub in the region.

    “At night, a successful strike was carried out on the enemy’s offshore oil terminal in temporarily occupied Feodosia, Crimea,” the Ukrainian military announced Monday.

    Fire at an oil depot in Feodosia, Crimea. Via Reuters

    It further described the strike on the key facility as part of an ongoing effort to “undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian Federation.”

    On the Crimean side, the following was confirmed:

    Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said a fire had broken out at an oil facility in the Black Sea port town of some 70,000 people and that there were no casualties.

    The defense ministry said that 12 Ukrainian attack drones had been downed over the peninsula overnight, out of a total of 21 deployed by Kyiv against Russian targets.

    RT News also confirmed the major oil hub is on fire. Such attacks on vital energy infrastructure have proven hard for Russia to defend against, as they’ve come at a fast pace, but this still hasn’t changed the state of the front lines in Eastern Ukraine, where Kiev forces are being steadily pushed back.

    Via Telegram

    A Ukrainian media report has described of videos from the scene, “More night videos from Feodosia. It is clearly visible that at least three tanks are on fire.” And related to more footage: “Later, a morning video was posted on the Telegram channel, where plumes of smoke can be seen over Feodosia.”

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a new interview with Newsweek took the opportunity to warn the West yet again that it is playing with fire in mulling giving Kiev the greenlight for long-range strikes on Russian territory.

    Purported overnight video within hours after the attack on Feodosia on the Crimean coast:

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    “They are discussing authorizing the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] to use Western long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory. ‘Playing with fire’ in this way may lead to dangerous consequences,” the top diplomat said.

    “As stated by [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, we will take adequate decisions based on our understanding of the threats posed by the West. It is up to you to make conclusions,” Lavrov emphasized.

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    President Zelensky had pitched this long-range capability as part of his ‘victory plan’ in Washington recently, but it has become clear even to the US administration that Ukraine is not going to win Eastern Ukraine back.

    By many accounts Zelensky was subject to an icier reception on Capitol Hill compared to past visits. But Biden has still been more than willing to shovel billions in taxpayer funds out the door into Kiev’s coffers. Vice President Harris is vowing to continue doing the same if she’s elected.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 23:00

  • California Reports 3rd Possible Case Of Human Bird Flu
    California Reports 3rd Possible Case Of Human Bird Flu

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

    California officials are investigating a potential third case of bird flu in humans, with the individual likely getting infected from cows, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

    CDPH confirmed the first two human cases of bird flu in California on Oct. 3. while the third possible case was revealed in an Oct. 5 update.

    “The case was identified in a Central Valley individual who had contact with infected dairy cattle,” CDPH said in the update. “Specimens are being sent to the CDC to undergo confirmatory testing.”

    There is “no known link or contact” between the third case and the first two reported cases, it noted. This suggests “only animal-to-human spread of the virus in California,” it said.

    The two confirmed cases were also in Central Valley, with all three individuals having had contact with dairy cattle at three different farms.

    “Like the first two cases, this individual also experienced mild symptoms, including eye redness or discharge (conjunctivitis). None of the individuals have been hospitalized,” the department said.

    CDPH assessed that the risk of bird flu infecting the general public was low. People who interact with affected animals, such as workers at poultry or dairy farms, are at a higher risk of contracting bird flu, it said.

    The agency advised such individuals to use personal protective equipment such as respirators, gloves, and eye protection when working with animals that are infected or have potentially contracted the virus.

    Although milk from sick cows is not permitted in the public supply according to state and federal regulations, milk and dairy products that are pasteurized are safe to consume, as the process inactivates the virus, the CDPH said.

    According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bird flu in cows was detected for the first time in the United States this year.

    The virus is widespread among wild birds and has been responsible for outbreaks among poultry in the country since 2022.

    In total, 17 human cases have been reported so far this year, as of Oct. 3, in five states—Texas, Michigan, Colorado, Missouri, and California.

    Six of these cases were linked to exposure to infected or sick dairy cows, while nine were due to exposure to infected poultry. Colorado registered the highest number of cases, at 10.

    Bird Flu in the United States

    The first multistate outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows was reported in late March. A few days later, the CDC confirmed a bird flu infection in an individual from Texas who was exposed to these animals.

    By Oct. 1, more than 10,000 wild birds with bird flu were identified. More than 100 million poultry birds across 48 states have been affected. As of Oct. 4, outbreaks in dairy cows have been reported across 14 states, with 255 herds impacted.

    The CDPH advises people exposed to infected animals to monitor themselves for the following symptoms for 10 days after last exposure—eye redness (conjunctivitis), cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue, ​​trouble breathing, and fever.

    “If they start to feel sick, they should immediately isolate, notify their local public health department, and work with public health and health care providers to get timely testing and treatment,” the CDPH said.

    A person holds a test tube labeled ‘Bird Flu,’ on Jan. 14, 2023. Dado Ruvic/Reuters

    On Friday, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response’s Center for Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority announced it was providing roughly $72 million to three companies to boost the manufacture of bird flu vaccines as part of national preparedness.

    The funds are being provided to CSL Seqirus, Sanofi, and GSK. These firms will “fill and finish additional doses of their influenza A(H5) vaccines from bulk storage into ready-to-use vials or pre-filled syringes so that vaccine[s] will be ready to distribute if needed.”

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has scheduled an Oct. 10 meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to discuss preparedness for countering threats posed by the bird flu virus.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 22:35

  • Georgia Supreme Court Reinstates State's Abortion Law
    Georgia Supreme Court Reinstates State’s Abortion Law

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A judge’s ruling striking down Georgia’s abortion ban was stayed on Oct. 7 by the Georgia Supreme Court.

    The stay means the ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected will go back into effect as the case proceeds.

    The Nathan Deal Judicial Center, home of Georgia’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals in Atlanta on May, 1, 2024. Kate Brumback/AP Photo

    Six justices granted a request by Georgia officials to reinstate the law after a county judge on Sept. 30 concluded that the law violates the right of women in the state to have an abortion.

    Georgia’s Constitution gives residents liberty, and that liberty includes the right of women to “control what happens to and within her body,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in his ruling.

    In a one-page order from the Georgia Supreme Court, a majority of justices said they were staying McBurney’s ruling as of 5 p.m. on Oct. 7. The majority did not explain their reasoning.

    The law states that abortion is not authorized if the heartbeat of an unborn child has been detected. Exceptions include cases where doctors determine a medical emergency exists and, in some instances, incest or rape.

    The Georgia Supreme Court order does not impact the block of a provision that would provide abortion-related health records to district attorneys.

    According to the high court, Justice Nels S.D. Peterson was disqualified from considering the state’s emergency request to intervene, and Justice Andrew A. Pinson did not participate.

    In an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, Justice John J. Ellington said the state had not provided sufficient arguments to prompt a stay, particularly in light of how groups suing over the law met the burden of establishing that the law violates Georgia’s Constitution.

    “Fundamentally, the state should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution,” he wrote. “The ’status quo’ that should be maintained is the state of the law before the challenged laws took effect. Accordingly, I dissent.”

    Ellington concurred only with the choice not to reinstate the provision concerning health records.

    Justices Michael P. Boggs, Sarah Hawkins Warren, Charles J. Bethel, Carla Wong McMillian, Shawn Lagrua, and Verda M. Colvin formed the majority.

    The stay is in place as the state lodges an appeal, which will be heard in due course. The stay could become permanent or ultimately be withdrawn.

    The abortion bill was approved by the Georgia Legislature in 2019 and the law took effect in 2020.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 22:10

  • Iran Earthquake Sparks Speculation, Rumors Of Covert Nuclear Weapons Test
    Iran Earthquake Sparks Speculation, Rumors Of Covert Nuclear Weapons Test

    Via The Cradle

    On Saturday a 4.5-magnitude seismic event occurred in Iran’s Semnan province, sparking speculation that Iran has tested a nuclear weapon for the first time. Such a seismic event is typically the result of an earthquake, but speculation has arisen on social media suggesting the event was instead an underground nuclear test carried out by the Islamic Republic in response to Israeli threats to bomb Tehran’s nuclear energy and oil facilities.  

    According to Iranian sources speaking with The Cradle, the possibility that a nuclear test was indeed conducted is being discussed at high levels in Iran. Syrian sources speaking with The Cradle in September predicted that Iran would seek to develop breakout nuclear weapons capability in response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

    Iran launched at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, causing damage to three airbases on October 1, following Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforushan on September 27. Iran is now awaiting a possible Israeli response.

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    The speculation that Iran carried out a nuclear test comes just days after the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank in the US, published a report stating that “Iran can produce nuclear weapons far more rapidly than expected.”

    Published on October 1st, the report noted that in late April 2024, a senior Iranian lawmaker stated that there is only a “one-week gap from the issuance of the order to the first test” of a nuclear bomb.

    In May, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Iran may be forced to change its nuclear doctrine, which until now has called only for using nuclear technology for civilian purposes. “We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kamal Kharrazi stated.

    The Heritage Foundation report added that in July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to corroborate this claim when he stated that “instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, [Iran] is now probably one or two weeks away.”

    The statements accompanied a significant increase in Iran’s stockpile of Uranium enriched to the 60 percent level between May and August 2024, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

    Notably, Uranium that is enriched up to 60 percent purity is just a short, technical step away from the 90 percent required for nuclear weapons, the report added.

    The Foundation for Defense of Democracy (FDD), an Israeli-linked think tank based in Washington, DC, issued a report in 2019 claiming that Iran had begun a program to build underground nuclear test sites starting in the 2000s known as “Project Midan.”

    The FDD stated, “Using openly available, corroborating geospatial information, we have identified the likely location (in an area southeast of Semnan) where underground non-nuclear explosives tests were conducted in 2003 as part of developing seismic methods of measuring the yield of an underground nuclear explosive.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 21:45

  • South Georgia City "Consistently Altered" Its Speeding Tickets To Skirt State Revenue Laws
    South Georgia City “Consistently Altered” Its Speeding Tickets To Skirt State Revenue Laws

    As if the implementation of traffic cameras, EZ Pass scanners and ‘smart’ cars which can pinpoint your exact location at any given time wasn’t enough for big brother to have the edge, one town in South Georgia decided to go ‘old school’ and simply lie about tickets it handed out.

    The Georgia Department of Public Safety suspended the city of Lenox’s speed detection permits for 180 days in July. Located on I-75, about three hours south of Atlanta, Lenox altered speeding citations to “unsafe driving,” skirting a state law capping revenue from speeding fines at 35% of a police budget.

    An audit revealed nearly 40% of Lenox’s budget came from these fines last year.

    An investigation found that the city “consistently altered” tickets that “had the effect of excluding the fines and forfeitures for citations issued for speeding”, according to a report from Atlanta News First.

    DPS Commissioner Col. William Hitchens stated that while Lenox has been altering tickets for years, it only surpassed the 35% revenue cap in 2023. An audit revealed the city initially reported $477,685 from speeding fines, but after adjusting for altered citations, the total rose to $514,456—a $36,771 difference.

    The Atlanta News First report says that Lenox relied on police-generated revenue more than any other city in Georgia, collecting $1.3 million—73% of its budget—from fines and forfeitures in 2022.

    Neither Mayor Henry Baker nor Police Chief Shane Daughtrey responded to requests for comment. During a DPS hearing, Daughtrey apologized, calling the issue an “honest mistake.” Investigators disputed this, noting 85% of the police budget came from fines and that nearly all speeding tickets were issued on I-75, not city streets.

    The DPS investigator said: “That tells me there’s not a whole lot of enforcement going on other than the interstate.”

    Charlie Johnson, who was ticketed by Lenox Police, commented: “It’s an abuse of power. I felt very abused, taken advantage of.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 21:20

  • Vance Made The Case For Erudition
    Vance Made The Case For Erudition

    Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The day before the Vance/Walz vice presidential debate, I was having lunch with a gentleman with an old-world education, certainly of the highest levels, but just Brooklyn public schools in the old days. He is not a credentialed intellectual in any official sense but it was fascinating to hear him speak about almost anything, even when we disagreed.

    Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) participates in a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City on Oct. 1, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    He mentioned in passing that he can hardly have a conversation with anyone under 40 these days. This is not because they are stupid or inexperienced. It is because they do not speak properly. They cannot seem to form sentences coherently. They are not adept at normal communication. The language they speak is not anything like standard English and neither is it some charming slang.

    The new language is something else, born of purely oral transmission and heavily informed by influencer culture and podcasting. Buzzwords are thrown around everywhere as a replacement for actual language. The vocabulary is small, including the incessant use of “literally,” “so,” “annoying,” and “actually.”

    There are repeated words that grate on one’s nerves: “go” instead of said or did, “you know” and “know what I’m saying?” as a random filler, ending most sentences with “right?” plus the worst offender: the incessant deployment of the word “like,” often every 4 or 5 words.

    This prattle is embedded in a lyrical formulation that includes three crucial elements: nasal sonorities, raising intonation, followed by an ending vocal fry. Every bit of combination conveys an attitude of “nothing matters,” “I don’t care,” and “to make sure you don’t criticize me, I’m making sure that my words mean as little as possible.”

    Yes, I’ve noticed all this, and it is getting worse. English is being replaced by something else entirely. Sitting on a train a few weeks ago, I had people in front, behind, and to the side who were all deploying this strange language. They spoke incessantly the entire trip, and said nothing at all of any meaning.

    I simply cannot understand why this is happening. It strikes me as highly dangerous for a culture to lose its language and have it replaced by a series of pidgin utterances that are vague, strange, and largely without content.

    What proved so striking about JD Vance’s performance in the debate was the full rejection of this entire way of speaking. Even apart from his content, logic, and command of facts was the erudition itself. That’s what commanded the evening. It caused his points to soar above his opponent and also the hectoring moderators who were reading from scripts.

    I hope millions of young people listened in but they should recognize something here. He won the evening not only because of the points he had to make. He won because of the clear way that he made them. Even now, and probably especially now, erudition inspires trust and credibility.

    Even as the debate opened, Vance’s opponent punctuated his stream of filler with various sounds of uhhh, which already prepared the listener to disregard the rest.

    As Vance took his turn, we got clear English with no filler words or verbal tics at all. His elocution and vocabulary were such a relief! It served as a reminder of they way Americans used to speak before the digital age.

    Most times, it is not obvious what distinguishes a compelling answer from one that is not. We tend to think it is about facts or charm or some attitude of joy. It is not. All those evaporate when countered with a clean and meaningful presentation of ideas, with sentences that start and stop with an intuitive cadence and no superfluous extras thrown in to distract.

    Here is a secret you will never learn in school and no one will tell you: this kind of erudition is vital and essential to success in absolutely everything. It does not matter your profession or area of specialization. Those who can speak clearly and without fluff will be more successful than those who cannot.

    It’s not obvious that the under 40 set that speaks the language we might call “influencer” understands that the habitual gibberish that has replaced English is professionally disastrous for them. Absolutely no one really wants to hear it. It’s awful and once you really take note of the mechanics of this language, the words themselves become sources of grave irritation.

    Maybe this is why noise-canceling earbuds have become so popular!

    Even now, nothing replaces coherent and cohesive language and vibrant and confident elocution.

    At some point in the past, I had somehow picked up the “like” virus. When I realized it was happening, I simply worked on deleting it from my conversations. When I said it, I would give myself a mental pinch. It worked. By day’s end, it was gone. Even now, I do have to concentrate a bit to keep it out of conversation. When you are speaking with someone who deploys it constantly, it can creep into your own language when you do not realize it.

    The same strategy can be used for the other problematic tics that festoon contemporary language. Carving them away is like making a sculpture: leave only what matters and then you are in a better position to evaluate the quality of what you are saying. I personally still have a problem with saying “you know” too often, a habit I picked up from a British friend many years ago. It’s a constant struggle to purge it, and when I fail to be conscious of the problem it comes back.

    Beyond culling the gibberish, what else can you do?

    First, before you speak in answer to any question, simply take a second or two to think about your first word. Make it matter. If you do this, you can stop with the habit of always saying “well” and “so” in front of every sentence (in fact, Vance himself could work on this). Pausing briefly also leaves a bit of space in the audible environment that directs more attention to what you are about to say.

    Second, read more. And here I do not mean captions on TikTok videos. I mean actual books. Some of my favorite stylists in American English are H.L. Mencken, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Garet Garrett, and Albert Jay Nock. You don’t need to be super fussy about this, the Harry Potter books are fantastic for young people and adults too. And try to read them out loud so that you hear new words and expand your vocabulary.

    Third, try some exercises. Go to the park or the store or just take a walk, come home, and stand in front of the mirror and describe what you did, what you found, and offer an opinion. Consider videotaping yourself while you are speaking with a conscious effort toward erudition. Watch it back and critique it again.

    If you do these three things, you will discover that you can upgrade your language skills in a matter of days. Constant practice will give you a huge advantage over all your peers. Clear speaking is compelling in all times but especially now because it is so rare.

    Laura Ingraham said of Vance’s performance that it was the finest she had seen of any political candidate in the 18 years she had covered politics. There are many reasons but the least understood and the most important one is that he speaks plainly, cleanly, coherently, and cohesively. As should we all.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 20:55

  • Supreme Court Rejects Musk's Case Against Jack Smith Over Trump's Twitter Records
    Supreme Court Rejects Musk’s Case Against Jack Smith Over Trump’s Twitter Records

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge filed by Elon Musk’s X platform to rulings that forced it to turn over data on former President Donald Trump’s X account to special counsel Jack Smith.

    In 2023, Smith obtained a warrant for Trump’s Twitter account as part of federal prosecutors’ 2020 election case against the former president. Trump had frequently used the account during the 2016 presidential campaign and during his first administration.

    The high court on Monday rendered its decision without any comment. There were no noted dissents.

    The Musk-owned platform had initially refused to comply with a nondisclosure order and was fined $350,000 by a judge in August 2023, records show. At the time, the court had rejected X’s claim that it should not have been held in contempt or sanctioned.

    Smith’s team repeatedly mentioned Trump’s posts on Twitter in the first indictment, which was unsealed last year. A revised indictment was brought against Trump by Smith in September after the Supreme Court separately ruled in July that presidents should be declared broadly immune from prosecution for their official acts and duties. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges in the case.

    Prosecutors obtained the search warrant on Jan. 17, 2023, directing Twitter to produce information on Trump’s account after a court “found probable cause to search the account for evidence of criminal offenses,” according to last year’s court ruling. The government also obtained a nondisclosure agreement that had prohibited Twitter from disclosing the search warrant, the filing says.

    In its appeal to the Supreme Court in May, X argued that Smith’s team carried out an “unprecedented end-run around executive privilege” by obtaining a “nondisclosure order preventing Twitter from notifying former President Trump of a warrant for private communications that he sent and received during his presidency.”

    “Although Twitter had provided these communications to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the government informed Twitter and the district court that it ‘did not want to obtain data from NARA, as it would require notification [to the former President] pursuant to the Presidential Records Act,’” the petition said.

    In trying to bolster its case before the Supreme Court, X had said its petition was designed to allow the court to uphold the First Amendment.

    “The potential consequences are far-reaching,” the company said.

    “Twitter alone annually receives thousands of nondisclosure orders attached to demands for user information. Indeed, the D.C. Circuit agreed that this issue is likely to recur for Twitter. Other platforms, too, receive thousands of requests for user information—many with nondisclosure orders.”

    Lawyers for Smith’s team dismissed X’s arguments, telling the Supreme Court that the social media platform cannot assert any privilege over the records in question.

    “The First Amendment did not justify petitioner’s refusal to comply” with the special counsel’s warrant “before litigating its separate challenge to the nondisclosure order,” the government wrote, adding that X is trying to assert a “right to immediate resolution of its First Amendment claim to interests.”

    Arguing that the Fourth Amendment allows the government to get a warrant to “search property belonging to an innocent third party,” Smith’s office suggested that the warrant for X “is supported by probable cause that ‘evidence of a crime will be found.’”

    Meanwhile, Smith last week filed a 165-page brief that included what prosecutors say is evidence that proves Trump committed crimes and tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s lawyers had argued that the Smith filing at this time would be tantamount to election interference due to its close proximity to the 2024 election, which a federal judge ultimately rejected.

    Monday is the Supreme Court’s first day back from its summer break. The nine justices are now scheduled to hear major cases from now until around June 2025.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 20:05

  • Putin Halts Visits To His Sochi Residence, Fearing Drone Attacks: Report
    Putin Halts Visits To His Sochi Residence, Fearing Drone Attacks: Report

    The anti-Kremlin Russian-language investigative news website Proekt has issued a fresh report which found that President Vladimir Putin has stopped visiting his residence in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi over fears for his safety, given the uptick in drone attacks from Ukraine which have targeted the region.

    The Bocharov Ruchey state dacha is one of four main residences believed assigned to Putin. Constructed in 1934, and heavily remodeled in 1955, it was long a preferred vacation spot of Soviet leaders.

    Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Sochi, Russia, in 2023.

    It was last renovated for the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and Putin has sometimes received foreign heads of state there, akin to how the US president uses Camp David. For example, President George W. Bush met with Putin at the Bocharov Ruchey in 2008.

    Proekt’s investigators say that Putin’s use of the residence is at a record low for this year, after he “felt a threat to his physical safety” – especially in the wake of several drone attacks on Sochi from Ukraine in the fall of 2023.

    The Amsterdam-based Moscow Times has written based on the Russian report, “Putin has been spending at least 30 days per year at the Bocharov Ruchey residence since it was renovated for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and likely stayed there throughout the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

    But there’s also the possibility that he’s been avoiding the Sochi location due to new major construction at the complext: “Proekt’s investigation also revealed that the main building of the Bocharov Ruchey residence was completely demolished at the beginning of the year, giving way to a new construction project,” Moscow Times continues.

    Throughout the Ukraine war, Kiev forces have become capable of sending drones deeper and deeper into Russian territory, sometimes many hundreds of kilometers away. The Kremlin believes this is being done with satellite and targeting help from the US and NATO.

    A report issued this summer in Ukrainian media, and based on open source data, said that a Pantsir missile system has been positioned not far from Putin’s Sochi residence, offering special anti-air protection for the Russian leader and his guests.

    The self-propelled surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery system has frequently been used to protect sensitive infrastructure from airborne threats, also in and around Moscow.

    The battery which protects Bocharov Ruchey is estimated to be about 15km from the compound itself. Currently, there’s a likelihood that Putin primarily stays and works from a location which is completely unknown to the outside world. This also after Ukrainian drones have targeted the Kremlin complex in Moscow.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 19:40

  • Watch: Black Hawk Helo Wreaks Havoc On Civilian Hurricane Outpost, Raising Questions
    Watch: Black Hawk Helo Wreaks Havoc On Civilian Hurricane Outpost, Raising Questions

    The pilots of what appears to be an unmarked Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter generated a massive downwash, also known as rotor wash, that sent tents and aid flying in all directions at a volunteer supply zone operated by private citizens in western North Carolina.

    This action by the helicopter pilots is up for debate, with many on X believing this was an intentional act of sabotage by the federal government. 

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    There are no official statements by local, state, or federal governments about the incident. Flight tracking data shows that the Black Hawk is military-owned. 

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    The big discussion here is whether the incident was intentional or unintentional.

    Commentary on the video may suggest intentional… 

    That the Black Hawk approached and hovered directly over the volunteer supply zone certainly raises questions about the mission of this chopper; especially in light of the fact that many residents, officials, and private citizens point out the government’s apparent efforts to block or intercede in rescue efforts outside of FEMA’s control.

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX found out this stark reality just days ago. 

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    “Believe your eyes, people! Believe what you see is happening!” one X user wrote in response to the video.

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    Others said…

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    As we’ve previously noted, the poor residents of western NC should consider identifying as “Ukraine,” “Lebanon,” or non-US citizens to receive federal aid more quickly. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 18:50

  • 'If He Loses I'm F**ked': Musk And Tucker Carlson Sit Down For Must-Watch Interview
    ‘If He Loses I’m F**ked’: Musk And Tucker Carlson Sit Down For Must-Watch Interview

    Tucker Carlson sat down with Elon Musk for an extensive interview this week, where they covered a broad spectrum of topics that ranged from political endorsements and disaster relief efforts to social issues and technological advancements.

    Musk offered his perspective on current events – including his enthusiastic support for Donald Trump, his concerns about democracy, and his criticisms of government decisions affecting his businesses like Starlink. Musk also shared his views on broader societal trends, such as the declining birthrate in Europe and the influence of religion in modern society.

    Musk also shared his thoughts on the impact of technology in everyday life, including artificial intelligence and the intersection of big tech and global politics.

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    All In On Trump

    “If Trump loses, I really fear for what’s going to be left of democracy in America,” said Musk, suggesting that immigration policies have been manipulated to bolster Democratic voter bases, potentially undermining the fairness of elections.

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    Musk also suggested that if Trump loses, “I’m fucked.”

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    Starlink to Hurricane Victims

    Musk discusses the use of Starlink to aid victims of Hurricane Helene, criticizing the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to cancel a contract that Starlink had won previously. According to Musk, “The FCC pulled the rug under us after a political decision,” suggesting that the decision was influenced by partisan politics rather than practical considerations.

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    The Last Election

    Musk warns that if Trump doesn’t win in November, it will be the end for genuine democratic elections in the United States. He argues that certain policies favor a demographic shift intended to secure a permanent Democratic majority. “If Trump doesn’t win this election, it’s the last election we’re going to have.“

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    Epstein and Diddy

    The pair then discussed the Epstein client list, with Musk slamming the lack of accountability for high-profile individuals implicated in Epstein’s scandals – and predicting that if Trump wins, the Epstein client list “is going to become public.”

    “It’s strange that there has been no significant action against those on the list,” Musk remarked.

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    Vaccines

    Musk then touched on vaccines, slamming the push for repeated COVID-19 jabs and the morality of forcing people to take them. He questions the efficacy and safety of continually administering boosters, especially without substantial data to support long-term health impacts.

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    The Movement to Decriminalize Crime

    Musk criticizes policies that he perceives as effectively decriminalizing certain behaviors, linking them to rising crime rates in cities like San Francisco. He specifically slams laws that reduce penalties for theft under $1,000, arguing that they hurt small businesses and encourage lawlessness. He also slammed California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose policies he says are ineffective and detrimental to the state’s economic and social health. Musk predicts that these policies, if not revised, might lead to significant long-term problems for California.

    Europe’s Declining Birthrate (53:11) The conversation turns to Europe’s declining birthrate, with Musk expressing concerns about demographic trends and their implications for Europe’s future. He emphasizes the need for policies that encourage family formation and higher birth rates to sustain economic and cultural vitality.

    We Need Religion

    Musk emphasized the importance of religion in society, arguing that it provides a necessary moral framework and sense of community. He warns against the loss of religious adherence, suggesting it could lead to a breakdown in societal cohesion.

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    Watch the entire interview above, and subscribe to the Tucker Carlson Network here.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 18:25

  • Watch: Hezbollah Unleashes Massive Missile Strikes On Israel's Haifa
    Watch: Hezbollah Unleashes Massive Missile Strikes On Israel’s Haifa

    The last 24 hours have seen Hezbollah launch massive missile strikes on Israel’s major northern port city of Haifa. The rockets have rained down on Haifa since Sunday, and launches have continued into Monday.

    Widely circulating social media videos have confirmed a series of direct ground strikes. BBC has said in a Monday update that at least five rockets have been recently launched, inuring eight people and causing damage in Haifa. Dozens more have been sent.

    Haifa attacks, via X

    Israel’s military has admitted that its much-touted air defenses have been failing in the north, and says it is investigating as a result. 

    Hezbollah has since said it is targeting military bases near Haifa, but local reports say a restaurant was among the places to be directly struck, resulting in significant damage.

    Jerusalem Post writes that “a restaurant in Haifa had reportedly suffered a direct hit as approximately 20 rockets were identified crossing from Lebanese territory.”

    “Among those evacuated for medical treatment, a 13-year-old was reportedly lightly wounded, while two others were moderately wounded from broken glass,” the report details. “Three people sustained light injuries from broken glass, two were lightly injured while heading to a protected area, and one person was treated for anxiety.”

    And separately another local media report cites damage in the middle of the city: “Footage captured in Haifa, however, appeared to show heavy damage at a traffic circle struck by a rocket, while other videos showed smoke rising above apartments during the barrage.”

    Watch: most significant strikes on Haifa since war’s start…

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    On Sunday alone a total of some 120 rockets were fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel. By all accounts these projectiles have been reaching further and further into Israel, since the start of the IDF bombing campaign over southern Beirut.

    Injuries have also been reported from the town of Tiberias. It has become clear that thus far Israel’s ground offensive in south Lebanon and bombing of Beirut has not stopped Hezbollah rockets from reaching deep into the north.

    Among Israel’s chief goals for the Lebanon offensive is to push Hezbollah back dozens of kilometers, to create a buffer zone which will allow Israeli residents of the north to return to their homes.

    Al Arabiya confirmed footage which captured the Hezbollah hit on a Haifa restaurant…

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    Israel’s aerial bombardment of Beirut has remained steady, with jets on Sunday night targeting buildings said to belong to Hezbollah’s intelligence division in Beirut, or places deemed command centers, according to Israeli statements.

    Apparent weapons depot in the middle of the Lebanese capital blown up:

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    Images showed an a strike on an apparent Hezbollah weapons depot, releasing huge and sustained fireballs and secondary explosions. The IDF on Monday warned that the Israeli Navy will soon begin to operate against Hezbollah from the sea.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 18:00

  • VDH: We Are In Need Of Renaissance People
    VDH: We Are In Need Of Renaissance People

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    The songwriter, actor, country/western singer, musician, U.S. Army veteran, helicopter pilot, accomplished rugby player and boxer, Rhodes scholar, Pomona College and University of Oxford degreed, and summa cum laude literature graduate, Kris Kristofferson, recently died at 88.

    Americans may have known him best for writing smash hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “For the Good Times,” his wide-ranging, star-acting roles in A Star is Born and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, his numerous solo albums, especially with then-spouse and singer Rita Coolidge, and the country group super-quartet he formed with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.

    In other words, Kristofferson was a rare Renaissance man who could do it all in an age of increasingly narrow specialization and expertise.

    At certain times throughout history at particular locales, we have seen such singular people from all walks of life.

    Classical Athens produced polymaths like Aristotle—tutor to Alexander the Great, logician, student of music, art, and literature, educator, think-tank founder, biologist, philosopher, and scientist. Later Greeks like Archimedes and Ptolemy, as men of action, mastered six or seven disciplines and applied their abstract knowledge in ways that made life easier for those around them.

    The late Roman Republic was another cauldron of multitalented geniuses. It produced the brilliant stylist, historian, politician, and consummate general Julius Caesar, as well as his republican archrival Cicero—politician, philosopher, orator, master stylist, lawyer, and provincial governor.

    Turn-of-the-century Victorian Great Britain produced giants like Winston Churchill—prime minister, statesman, essayist, historian, orator, strategist, and wartime veteran. As Britain’s war leader, between May 10, 1940, and June 22, 1941, he, almost alone, resisted the Axis powers and prevented Adolf Hitler from winning the war.

    But we associate the idea of a “Renaissance man” mostly with Florence, Italy, between the 15th and 16th centuries. In that brief 100 years, the Florentine Republic hosted multi-talented geniuses like Leonardo De Vinci—master painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, engineer, and inventor—best known for the Mona Lisa and Last Supper.

    The multifaceted talents of his younger contemporary Michelangelo were as astounding, whether defined by his iconic sculptures David and Pietà, his stunning painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or as the master architect of the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica.

    The American Revolution was a similar embryo of Renaissance men.

    Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the most famous example of unchecked abstract and pragmatic genius displayed in almost every facet of late 18th– and early 19th-century life—main author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. President, founder of the University of Virginia, inventor, agronomist, architect, and diplomat.

    But Benjamin Franklin may best approximate the model of the Florentine Renaissance holistic brilliance—journalist, publisher, printer, author, politician, diplomat, inventor, scientist, and philosopher.

    Franklin’s life was one of perpetual motion and achievement. In one lifetime, he helped to draft the Constitution, invented everything from the lightning rod to bifocals, founded the American postal service, and successfully won over European countries to the nascent American cause. Theodore Roosevelt—president, historian, essayist, conservationist, naturalist combat veteran, battle leader, explorer, and cowboy—exemplified the idea of an American president as the master at almost everything else.

    The history of our own contemporary Renaissance people often suggests that they are not fully appreciated until after their deaths—especially in the post-World War II era.

    Why?

    We have created a sophisticated modern society that is so compartmentalized by “professionals” and the credentialed that those who excel simultaneously in several disciplines are often castigated for “amateurism,” “spreading themselves too thinly,” “not staying in their lanes,” or not being degreed with the proper prerequisite letters—BA, BS, MA, PhD, MD, JD, or MBA—in the various fields that they master.

    But specialization is the enemy of genius, as is the tyranny of credentialism.

    Because the Renaissance figure is not perfect in every discipline he masters, we damn him for too much breadth and not enough depth—a dabbler rather than an expert—failing to realize that his successes in most genres he masters and redefines is precisely because he brings a vast corpus of unique insights and experience to his work that narrower specialists lack. The Greek poet Archilochus first delineated the contrast between the fox who “knows many things” and the hedgehog who “knows one—one big thing.” We have become a nation of elite hedgehogs, whose narrow expertise is not enriched by awareness of or interest in the wider human experience.

    Renaissance people often live controversial lives and receive 360-degree incoming criticism, not surprising given the many fields in which they upstage specialists and question experts—and the sometimes overweening nature of their personalities that feel no reason to place boundaries and lanes on their geniuses and behavior or to temper their exuberances.

    The best American example of the current age is the controversial Elon Musk, a truly Renaissance figure who has revolutionized at least half a dozen entire fields.

    No one prior had broken the Big Three auto monopoly of GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

    Musk did just that. He exploded all three companies’ dominance with his successful creation of the first viable electric vehicle, Tesla, whose comfort, drivability, reliability, safety, and power rivaled or exceeded the models of all his competitors.

    His spin-off battery storage and solar panel companies allowed thousands of families to go off the grid and stay self-sufficient in power usage.

    Musk’s revolutionary Starlink internet system—a mere five years old—provides global online service to over 100 countries. Through its some 7,000 satellites, Starlink brings internet service to remote residents far more effectively and cheaply than do their own governments. When natural disasters overwhelm utilities or war disrupts the normality of peace, all look to Musk to restore online reconnections to the outside world.

    Musk, almost singlehandedly, transformed the U.S. space program from a NASA 60-year-old government monopoly to an arena of fervent private-public competition. His Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) created a rocket and spacecraft program that has kept the U.S. preeminent in space exploration and reliable satellite launches. When NASA and old aerospace companies falter, the government looks to Musk to bail them out.

    Musk, at great personal cost, radically transformed the old Twitter—poorly managed, censorious of ideas and expressions not deemed progressive, and mired in scandal for partnering with the FBI to silence news deemed possibly injurious to Democratic candidates and left-wing campaigns.

    His new X replacement is an unfettered platform for free expression. And the more the left abhors their loss of the monopolistic old Twitter’s ideological clearing house, and vows to flee X and start their own new left-wing, censorious Twitters, the more they stay on X.

    Musk’s newest companies have now entered the convoluted, little-understood, radically competitive, and dangerous field of artificial intelligence (OpenAI) and the emerging discipline of bonding the natural brain to the electronic online world (Neuralink). To the degree Musk is successful, America will lead these areas of intense international rivalry that involve the gravest issues of national security and survival.

    Overspecialization has helped make vulnerable and sometimes doomed complex top-down societies from the Mycenaeans to the Aztecs to the Soviets.

    A tiny credentialed and often incestuous elite manages the lives of a vast underclass whose daily lives are scripted by top-down master planners—as an autonomous and skeptical middle class disappears.

    America is increasingly becoming a bifurcated, two-tiered society of a specialized government-corporate-media-political-credentialed class of degreed overseers and managers who attempt to micromanage an increasingly less well-educated, dependent underclass.

    The overclass cult lacks sufficient common sense and pragmatic expertise outside their narrow areas of specialization to direct society, and the masses are often without the education, money, and power to challenge them or the esoteric complexity of their modern society. And the result is often disastrous, as we see everywhere, from the trivial to the existential—from our currently paralyzed state space station program and inability to build a floating pier in Gaza, to ineffectual and insensitive state responses to natural disasters like Hurricane Helene and an increasingly dangerously incompetent Secret Service.

    Renaissance people provide a link to the proverbial people, as they master almost anything they attempt while keeping themselves attuned to the practical effect of their achievement among the people.

    The Renaissance physicist Richard Feynman once explained to the entire nation why the Space Shuttle 1986 Challenger catastrophically imploded shortly after launch. A polymath Albert Einstein explained to America why it had to begin the Manhattan Project and beat Nazi Germany to the acquisition of an atomic bomb. Theodore Roosevelt used his expertise as a politician, conservationist, outdoorsman, explorer, and writer to help establish and preserve 230 million acres of public lands.

    So, we should occasionally pause and reflect on the Kristoffersons and Musks in our midst. They play a vital role in enriching culture and civilization for the many without becoming part of the narrow few. And we owe these people, who belong to a rare and hallowed caste of the ages, for making our lives richer, more enjoyable, easier, and safer.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 17:40

  • Cybersecurity Incident Hits America's Largest Regulated Water & Wastewater Utility Firm
    Cybersecurity Incident Hits America’s Largest Regulated Water & Wastewater Utility Firm

    The largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States revealed in a filing published on the SEC’s website that it has discovered a cybersecurity breach on its computer networks and systems. 

    New Jersey-based American Water Works wrote in the filing that last Thursday, it “learned of unauthorized activity within its computer networks and systems, which the Company determined to be the result of a cybersecurity incident.” 

    “Upon learning of this activity, the Company immediately activated its incident response protocols and third-party cybersecurity experts to assist with containment and mitigation activities and to investigate the nature and scope of the incident,” American Water said.

    It noted, “The Company has taken and will continue to take steps to protect its systems and data, including disconnecting or deactivating certain of its systems.” 

    So far, the company “currently believes that none of its water or wastewater facilities or operations have been negatively impacted by this incident.” However, it pointed out, “The company is currently unable to predict the full impact of this incident” but “does not expect the incident will have a material effect on the Company, or its financial condition or results of operations.”

    American Water stated on its website that it provides drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people with regulated operations in 14 states and on 18 military installations.

    This year, there has been an increase in foreign hackers targeting critical US infrastructure, from transportation to food supply to health care to communications. 

    On Sunday, NBC News quoted the director of the National Security Agency, who said an investigation had been underway following a recent cyber incident involving Chinese hackers who gained access to at least three telecommunication companies: AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies. 

    America’s critical infrastructure is owned by much of the private sector and remains ripe for ransomware attacks. The risks of a cyber event bringing down part of the grid remain an elevated concern.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 17:20

  • Adapt Or Die, Or…?
    Adapt Or Die, Or…?

    Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

    Those few who grasp the crisis in its entirety have been marginalized, and those who are left are drifting downstream, unable to move the mass of self-interested inertia even if they wanted to.

    In eras of stability when little changes, the capacity to adapt takes a back seat. As noted in Why Political “Solutions” Don’t Fix Crises, They Make Them Worse, absent any pressure from tumultuous change, nature is hard-wired to keep the genetic instructions unchanged, as there is little selective benefit in modifying what’s working well and potential risks in messing with it.

    In other words, nature is conservative in eras of stability and low volatility. Since its genetic instructions are working pretty well, the shark genome is relatively stable over millions of years, with a few tweaks here and there to adapt to changes in its environment.

    But adaptative churn takes the driver’s seat when the ecosystem changes rapidly and the existing instructions are failing. This is the adapt or die moment, when species must experiment by churning out modifications (semi-random mutations in the instructions) and test them in trial-and-error: the ones that add selective advantages live, the ones that don’t die.

    If this period of intense adaptive experimentation is ultimately successful, the species’ rate of change spikes and then drifts down to the baseline of low activity. This is known as punctuated equilibrium: the instructions drift along when nothing much is changing, suddenly spike when selective pressures shoot up, threatening extinction, and then diminish as the new adaptations relieve the selective pressure.

    All this is automatic and beyond the individual’s and the species’ conscious control. We can’t order our genome to speed up mutations and get cracking on the adaptive modifications.

    Human civilization operates on the same principles of adapt or die: when circumstance change, selective pressures mount and the society must adapt or perish.

    What’s different is humans can stifle or encourage adaptive churn. As social beings hard-wired to organize ourselves in hierarchies, those at the top of the power pyramid will naturally deploy all their power to conserve the status quo, as any modifications might threaten their outsized share of all the good things such as wealth and status.

    The view from the top of the pyramid is rather grand. Those at the top see the vastness of the imperial reach, the army’s strength, the peasantry toiling away and the obsequious Mandarin bureaucrats bowing and scraping, and the idea that all this immense structure could decay and blow away is incomprehensible.

    There is little sense in the top circle that the extinction of the entire social order is a threat. The threat is more personal: is my private fiefdom at risk of being diminished? Are rivals gaining influence? Are the reforms being proposed positive for my fortunes or could they pose a threat?

    This narrow view of the overlapping crises (a.k.a. polycrisis) favors short-term expediency over more radical long-term modifications, as the Powers That Be have a grip on expedient “stave off the immediate crisis” measures such as imposing curfews, lowering interest rates and increasing the pay of soldiers, but these measures are slapdash rather than part of a recognition that radical changes in the structure of the society must be organized now, not later, for later will be too late.

    In other words, there is no urgency for the kind of reforms needed to avoid extinction, there is only urgency for expedient “kick the can down the road” measures because these measures 1) are within easy reach and 2) they don’t threaten the pyramid of power the “deciders” dominate.

    Put another way, faced with skyrocketing risks of a heart attack, the leadership concludes that cutting out the HoHos but keeping the DingDongs and Twinkies will be enough to maintain the status quo. That the crises demand a complete overhaul of diet and fitness, now, not later, is both 1) too painful to contemplate, and 2) beyond the reach or the leadership’s atrophied adaptive skillset: the leadership only has experience with managing stability, not tumultuous crises.

    There is an irony in this atrophy of competence: the longer the good times roll, the less experience anyone has of polycrisis. In the competitive churn at the top of the pyramid, the skills that are most valuable in periods of stability are those of bureaucratic in-fighting and maintaining the status quo. Since there is no selective pressure demanding radical changes to survive, the skills needed to manage such a radical transition are nor longer present.

    Those with the necessary character and skills to manage radical transformations have all been sent to Siberia for threatening the status quo with all their crazy proposals. Those in power have been selected to believe the organization they rule is perfectly capable of adjusting as needed, without actually changing anything.

    This is the exact opposite of what’s needed to survive the challenges ahead. And so expedient can-kicking continues (cough, the Fed), grand pronouncements yield nothing but hot air, and everyone reckons cutting out the HoHos and reducing the DingDongs will be enough to ride out the rough patch.

    This is of course hubristic delusion. But since events are accelerating and interacting in ways far beyond the grasp of the under-competent leaders, the focus is not on managing a desperately needed radical transformation but on managing the narrative so it looks as if the crises are under control, and the status quo is functioning as intended: we have top people on it, top people. Indeed.

    Adapt or die or… decay. Complex systems that have survived for a long time seek to restore equilibrium. These are the expediency feedback loops, where interest rates and taxes are trimmed, money is thrown around, narratives that question the competence of the status quo are suppressed, insiders who reveal the self-serving predation of the leadership are hustled off to Siberia, and all is well, as the decay can be covered up for quite some time.

    So quality decays first, then quantity decays, too. Each crisis reveals another layer of under-competence and dry-rotted foundations, and each one is dutifully papered over.

    Those few who grasp the crisis in its entirety have been marginalized, and those who are left are drifting downstream, unable to move the mass of self-interested inertia even if they wanted to–and they don’t really want to because why should we risk upsetting such a splendid arrangement that’s capable of handling anything that arises with ease?

    Decay is a perfectly adequate strategy if there’s sufficient resources to keep everything glued together as it slowly unravels. Magical thinking (AI!) helps smooth the decline, and soon everyone habituates to decay.

    Polycrisis has a way of disrupting decay. If conditions remain stable, decay can be managed. But if volatility soars and multiple crises arise and reinforce each other, decay accelerates into collapse.

    The ability to discern an existential challenge before it’s too late is rare and unrewarded. “When you’re thirsty, it’s too late to dig a well.”

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 17:00

  • After Mass Resignations, Chicago Mayor Appoints New School Board
    After Mass Resignations, Chicago Mayor Appoints New School Board

    After all seven members of the Chicago public school board resigned last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a complete overhaul of the board amid rising tensions due to budget shortfalls.

    Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

    Speaking at a press conference in a South Side church, Johnson, a first-term mayor and former Chicago Teachers Union organizer, declared, “I was elected to fight and fight I am.” His decision to replace all seven board members has sparked concerns across various sectors of the city, from the city council to business leaders and educational watchdogs, Bloomberg reports.

    The mayor’s plan to replace all seven board members sparked concern on the part of most of the city council, members of the Chicago business community and watchdogs. The district serves more than 320,000 students, making it one of the nation’s largest.

    Johnson announced only six nominees to the board on Monday until a new 21-member hybrid board is installed in January, of which 10 will be elected.

    The tension at the heart of this upheaval is rooted in longstanding disputes between the teachers’ union and the district, compounded by dwindling enrollments and the looming threat of school closures. Johnson’s election in early 2023 had already raised eyebrows given his background with the teachers’ union, and his swift move to overhaul the board signals a significant shift in how the city’s schools might be governed moving forward.

    This sweeping change comes as the teachers’ union and the district haggle over terms for a new five-year contract, with negotiations hitting a dead end after the previous contract expired in June. Adding to the controversy, reports have emerged that Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, a holdover from former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, has openly rejected Johnson’s proposal for a short-term loan to cover escalating salary and pension costs.

    Martinez, who penned an opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune defending his stance, has also resisted calls from Johnson for his resignation. According to Joe Ferguson, president of watchdog group The Civic Federation, this resistance underscores a deepening rift he says “raises fundamental questions of governance.“

    Johnson’s remarkable power struggle with Martinez and his own appointed school board erupted after contentious budget talks this summer, ultimately leading to all board members opting to resign rather than side with him. The disagreement stemmed from Martinez and the board’s refusal to take out a high-interest loan to cover a pension payment and part of the upcoming contract for the Chicago Teachers Union, a close political ally of the mayor’s.

    Martinez said in September the mayor asked him to step down, which he refused. The schools’ chief can only be forced out by the board. Now that the first iteration of Johnson’s Board of Education has been purged, the path to fire Martinez — and take out the $300 million loan — looks clearer than ever. –Chicago Tribune

    Over the weekend, more than 40 city aldermen agreed with Martinez – posting an open letter which blasted Johnson’s handling of the situation and warned against taking on a loan. They also demanded that Johnson convene a hearing before the end of the month, and before any new appointments to the CPS board are made.

    “This inserts a level of uncertainty and instability into our schools that is extremely concerning,” state Rep. Ann Williams (D) wrote on Sunday. “The level of state oversight necessary for the district will be informed by the decisions made by this Mayor and his administration in the coming weeks and months.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 16:40

  • "They're Plum Out Of Tricks… And They Know It…"
    “They’re Plum Out Of Tricks… And They Know It…”

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    Like A Prayer

    “Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter or X or Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content we lose total control…”

    Hillary Clinton

    “We lose total control. . .” she said.

    Perhaps when you heard that you thought, “What do you mean ‘we,’ Kemosabe?”

    You have also known for some time now, that Hillary is exactly the something wicked that has been coming this way for many years, to the siren song of the cable news harpies shrieking Trump Trump Trump. . . Putin Putin Putin at all hours, day and night, month after dreary month, and all the other avatars of ruin pretending to run the life of our nation. But this utterance begs enough questions to keep Chat GDP vexed and perplexed for the rest of its unnatural life: We lose total control. . . ?

    Yes, as matter of fact, you do. This might be a book tour too far for Mrs. Clinton and her claque, now that her basket of deplorables shivers in the cold and dark out in Appalachia amid the stink of their kinfolks’ uncollected corpses. The Party of Chaos has managed to piss-off the most ferocious demographic in the land, the wild and cross-grained Scotch-Irish who populate those devastated hills and hollows of Western Carolina and East Tennessee, the people who, for generations, were first to volunteer to fight in America’s wars, the Sargent Yorks, the moonshiners and the stock car heroes, the Johnson Boys, Boones and Crocketts, Hatfields and McCoys, the very warp and woof of our folklore, half horse and half alligator, born fighting. And now you and your gang of wine-club harpies, Beltway mezzofinukes, Hollywood Satan-conjurors, Hamptons charity-hags, globe-trotting errand boys, color revolution maestros, race hustlers, drag queens, lawfare shysters, spooks, cut-outs, beach friends, and grifters has gone and pissed these folks off royally.

    My guess would be that you have not begun to see the repercussions of the Hurricane Helene fiasco, which will resound far from the gates of Dollywood for years to come. I hope Alejandro Mayorkas enjoys the waffle-weave sweater he picked up in a Georgetown boutique on Saturday while the dazed people of Buncombe County, NC, stumbled dazed through a shattered landscape of creek-bed and forest scraped down to little more than what their ancestors first came upon in the 1760s. It may have to last him through the term he serves in federal prison when this is all over. And by this, I mean mainly the reign of this wicked regime he’s a major player in, with its claws slipping off the levers of power. Do you really suppose that America will elect the empty pant-suit Kamala Harris to front for this depraved cabal?

    Remember what the Romanians did to Madame Ceaușescu on Christmas day in 1989, when she and her husband Nicolae, erstwhile president of that sore-beset country, just liberated from decades of communist captivity, were summarily tried by a provisional court after attempting to flee. I’ll tell you: they trussed the two of them up like a couple of Carpathian wild hogs (Sus scrofa), and hauled them before a firing squad. Which is not exactly to say that the United States is like Romania, but that such things happen surprisingly in formerly quiescent places. The people hated her as much, perhaps even more, than her despot husband. Just sayin’.

    Why exactly Hillary Clinton would be dumb enough to come out on every news channel and Internet site on Gawd’s green earth to declare the end of free speech throughout Western Civ might remain one of those abiding mysteries of history. Bad timing doesn’t begin to explain it. What does explain it is the psychotic desperation of her party now that the days to election dwindle down and the pathetic figure they “nominated” stumbles from one campaign blunder to the next, and the whole sick crew behind her entertains dark visions of courtrooms and prison cells — including, by the way, her cohort in nation-wrecking Barack Obama, who could be liable to charges such as conspiracy to commit sedition, or even a higher crime, if the election goes the wrong way for him. You might suppose they are fighting for their very lives without being accused of exaggeration.

    In the event of Hurricane Helena and other churning contingencies of the season, Mr. Trump is not only looking more presidential, he is apparently being regarded as something close to an actual acting president in the eerie absence of “Joe Biden,” who looks more and more like one of those three-hundred-dollar Home Depot animatronic ghouls Americans are planting in the front yard this season of the walking dead, along with the giant inflated jack-o-lanterns , beckoning skeletons, and plastic tombstones. In other words, it looks like the people are going to vote Mr. Trump back into office, since he is the only thing the least bit presidential on offer in 2024. Even the Covid-addled, the many new demoralized Woke drop-outs, and the beaten-down male youth of America are leaning his way now and it scares the Democrats down to their livers and lights.

    Accordingly, I received notice late Sunday from an informant in commercial aviation, with connections to military aviation, that a massive deployment of aircraft is preparing logistics for a major operation set to go down in about a week, probably in the Middle East. I can’t guarantee you that it is for real, but it was a real warning message, at least, from a serious person, and you know that something could be up. . . some humdinger of an October Surprise, like a big fat world war. What else have they got now? Jack Smith’s lame-ass attempt to beef-up an “insurrection” charge against Mr. Trump in Judge Chutkan’s abject facsimile of a federal court? Everything else has been fail, fail, fail all year long . . . the head-cases with rifles. . . all the other court cases contrived by Merrick Garland, Andrew Weissmann, Norm Eisen, and Mary McCord. . . the ineffectual bleatings of The New York Times’s editorial board? They’re plum out of tricks and they know it. So, yes, Hillary. You lose total control. Totally. For now and forever, amen.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 16:20

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