Today’s News 8th September 2023

• Slow Genocide Of 120,000 Armenian Christians Happening Under Azerbaijan Occupation: Report
  Slow Genocide Of 120,000 Armenian Christians Happening Under Azerbaijan Occupation: Report

  Authored by Raymond Ibrahim via The Gatestone Institute,

  The thousand-year-old genocide of Armenians at the hands of Turkic peoples has reached a new level. Several watchdog organizations — including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Genocide Watch, and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention — are accusing Azerbaijan of committing genocide against the 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh. Historically known as Artsakh, this ancient Armenian region was brought under Azerbaijani rule in 2020.

  Modern day hostilities between Armenia, an ancient nation and the first to adopt Christianity, and Azerbaijan, a Muslim nation that was created in 1918, began in September 2020, when Azerbaijan launched a war to capture Artsakh. Although it had been Armenian for more than 2,000 years and its population still remains 90% Armenian, after the dissolution of the USSR, the “border makers” granted it to the Republic of Azerbaijan, hence the constant warring over this region.

  

  Once the September 2020 war began, Turkey quickly joined its Azerbaijani co-religionists against Armenia, even though the dispute did not concern it. It dispatched sharia-enforcing “jihadist groups” from Syria and Libya — including the pro-Muslim Brotherhood Hamza Division, which once kept naked women chained and imprisoned — to terrorize and slaughter Armenians.

  One of these captured mercenaries later confessed that he was “promised a monthly $2,000 payment for fighting against ‘kafirs’ in Artsakh, and an extra 100 dollar[s] for each beheaded kafir.” (Kafir, often translated as “infidel,” is Arabic for any non-Muslim who fails to submit to Islam, which makes them de facto enemies.)

  These Muslim groups committed massive atrocities (here and here). One included raping an Armenian female soldier and mother of three, before hacking off all four of her limbs, gouging out her eyes, and sticking one of her severed fingers inside her private parts.

  The war ended in November 2020, with Azerbaijan gaining control of a significant portion of Artsakh.

  Then, on December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan sealed off the humanitarian Lachin Corridor — the only route between Artsakh and the outside world. A recent report by the Dutch journalist Sonja Dahlmans summarizes the current situation:

  “In the extreme southeastern part of Europe, known as the Caucasus, a silent genocide is looming. The Lachin Corridor that connects Armenia to Artsakh, the region in Azerbaijan where mainly Christian Armenians live, has been closed by the government for eight months. Supermarket shelves are empty; there is hardly any food, fuel, or medicine for the 120,000 Armenian Christians who live there, including 30,000 children and 20,000 seniors.

  “At the time of this writing [Aug. 24, 2023], a convoy of food and medicine has been standing in front of the border since July 25 [a month], but the International Red Cross is not allowed access to the inhabitants of Artsakh. According to journalists living in the area, most residents only get one meal a day. People in Artsakh queue for hours at night for bread, waiting for their daily rations. At the same time, sources within Artsakh report shooting at Armenians trying to harvest the land…

  “[I]n all probability bread will also soon be unavailable due to the shortage of fuel… Bakers can no longer heat their ovens. Last week, a 40-year-old Armenian man died of malnutrition. A pregnant woman lost her child because there was no fuel for transport to the hospital.”

  Separate reports tell of 19 humanitarian trucks “loaded with some 360 tons of medicine and food supplies” that have been parked for weeks and prevented from crossing.

  This is not the first time Turks starve Armenians to death (as this 1915 picture of a Turkish administrator taunting emaciated Armenian children with a piece of bread makes clear).

  On August 7, 2023, Luis Moreno Ocampo, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, framed the situation:

  “There is an ongoing Genocide against 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh.

  “The blockade of the Lachin Corridor by the Azerbaijani security forces impeding access to any food, medical supplies, and other essentials should be considered a Genocide under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: ‘Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.’

  “There are no crematories, and there are no machete attacks. Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.

  “Starvation as a method to destroy people was neglected by the entire international community when it was used against Armenians in 1915, Jews and Poles in 1939, Russians in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1941, and Cambodians in 1975/1976.”

  Similarly, after going on a fact-finding mission to Armenia, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback referred to the blockade as the latest attempt at “religious cleansing” of Christian Armenia:

  “Azerbaijan, with Turkey’s backing, is really slowly strangling Nagorno-Karabakh. They’re working to make it unlivable so that the region’s Armenian-Christian population is forced to leave, that’s what’s happening on the ground.”

  Muslim regimes regularly make life intolerable for Christian minorities, apparently to force them to abandon their properties and leave. A few weeks ago, the president of Iraq revoked a decade-old decree that granted Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako powers over Christian endowment affairs. “This is a political maneuver to seize the remainder of what Christians have left in Iraq and Baghdad and to expel them,” said Diya Butrus Slewa, a human rights activist from Ainkawa. “Unfortunately, this is a blatant targeting of the Christians and a threat to their rights.”

  In Artsakh, the situation seems to be worse: just as no one can get in, apparently no one can get out. Azerbaijan is holding those 120,000 Armenians captive, starving and abusing them at will.

  Brownback, in his testimony, said that this latest genocide is being “perpetrated with U.S.-supplied weaponry and backed by Turkey, a member of NATO.” If the U.S. does not act, “we will see again another ancient Christian population forced out of its homeland.”

  Nagorno-#Karabakh: The mystery of the missing #churchhttps://t.co/hsjclEwLwf#Artsakh #Armenia pic.twitter.com/lKZg1Qr4Fd

  — Ruzanna_A 🇦🇲 #StopArtsakhBlockade (@avaruza) March 25, 2021

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

  Not only has U.S. diplomacy been ineffective for the besieged Armenians; it has actually exacerbated matters by allowing the Azerbaijanis to continue their atrocities. According to one report:

  “[T]he only thing the Washington-backed talks appear to have produced is the emboldenment of Azerbaijan’s aggression….

  “For over eight months, the region’s 120,000 Indigenous Armenians—who declared their independence in the early 1990s following escalating violence and ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan—have been deprived access to food, medicine, fuel, electricity, and water in what is nothing less than genocide by attrition….

  “The same week peace talks began in Washington, Baku [capital of Azerbaijan] tightened its blockade by establishing a military checkpoint at the Lachin Corridor. When Washington-based talks resumed in June, Azerbaijan began shelling the region. In the months since, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access to Karabakh—and later reported that an Armenian patient in its care had been abducted by Azerbaijani forces en route to Armenia for treatment.

  “This is the predictable consequence of Washington’s insistence on negotiations amid Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh and occupation of Armenian territory. It has signaled to Baku that its strategy of coercive diplomacy is working, disincentivizing de-escalation, and forcing Armenia to negotiate with a gun to its head…

  “Washington has also actively strengthened Azerbaijan’s position by indicating support for Artsakh’s integration into Azerbaijan. Given Azerbaijan’s state-sponsored dehumanization of Armenians, the litany of human rights abuses perpetrated during and since the 2020 war, and its own disastrous domestic human rights record—it is impossible to imagine Armenians could ever live freely under Azerbaijan’s rule.

  “For Azerbaijan, this disingenuous participation in negotiations has allowed it to uphold the veneer of cooperation while engaging in conduct that has immeasurably set back the prospects of a durable peace.”

  Clearly, negotiating simply bought the Azerbaijanis more time in which to starve the Armenians, and possibly another way for the United States to pretend it was “doing something” without actually doing anything — apart from allowing more savagery.

  Indeed, part of the façade of diplomacy is that Azerbaijan insists that the Christian Armenians of Artsakh are being treated no differently than Muslim Azerbaijanis — since all are citizens of Azerbaijan. One report sheds light on this farce:

  “Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and other officials have declared that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are citizens of Azerbaijan, seeming to back prior statements of Azerbaijani authorities pledging to guarantee the rights and security of ethnic Armenians.

  “But actions speak much louder. The First Nagorno-Karabakh War three decades ago arose following waves of anti-Armenian pogroms. Azerbaijan is now one of the most repressive and autocratic countries in the world, scoring among the lowest in the world on freedom and democracy indexes—in stark contrast to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

  “Aliyev (who inherited his post from his father) has confessed to having started the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, and proudly admitted that a generation of Azerbaijanis has been brought up to deeply despise Armenians (here and here). He denies the Armenian Genocide (alongside Turkey) and negates the existence of Armenians as a nation, including their history, culture, and right to be present anywhere in the region.

  “No Armenian, not even a foreign national of ethnic Armenian descent or anyone with an Armenian sounding name, is allowed to enter Azerbaijan.

  “The results are clear: nearly every Armenian who fell into Azerbaijani captivity after the 2020 war has been persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, mutilated, decapitated or murdered. None of these acts has ever been punished. To the contrary, those who kill Armenians receive medals and are glorified in Azerbaijan. It is no wonder that Armenians are petrified and cannot fathom living under Azerbaijan’s authority.”

  Aside from the Lachin Corridor crisis, a recent 12-page report documents the systematic destruction of ancient churches, crosses, Christian cemeteries, and other cultural landmarks on land — Artsakh — that historically belonged to the world’s oldest Christian nation, Armenia.

  One example is the Holy Savior Cathedral in Shushi, Artsakh. First, Azerbaijan bombed the church during the 2020 war, an act Human Rights Watch labeled a “possible war crime.” Then, after the war, with Azerbaijan having seized the area, officials claimed to be “restoring” the church, when in fact its dome and cross were removed, making the building look less like a church. As one report notes:

  “The ‘case’ of Shushi is indicative of the well-documented history of Armenian cultural and religious destruction by Azerbaijan. From 1997 to 2006, Azerbaijan systematically obliterated almost all traces of Armenian culture in the Nakhichevan area, which included the destruction of medieval churches, thousands of carved stone crosses (“khachkars”), and historical tombstones.”

  Dahlmans also reports:

  “[A]n Armenian church in Artsakh… disappeared after Azerbaijan’s victory in the second Nagorno-Karabakh war (2020). During the victory, Azerbaijani soldiers pose on top of the church shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’… [T]he church has been completely wiped out and only a few stones remain as a reminder…

  “The Western press rarely writes about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Most reactions follow the line that it is not a religious conflict, but a claim by two countries over a disputed territory. Given the many examples that exist in which precisely religious buildings, tombs and inscriptions are systematically destroyed, it is difficult to maintain that this is the case. “

  One of the main reasons that Armenia finds itself standing alone against this genocidal onslaught is due to the West’s “desire to maintain favorable relations with Azerbaijan given its role as a European energy partner [and this] has outweighed any purported commitment to upholding human rights—bolstering Azerbaijan’s aggression.”

  It is these same priorities that have made Russia, once the defender of all Orthodox Christian nations in the East, more apathetic than might be expected. According to another report:

  “Azerbaijan was able to impose this blockade because Russian peacekeepers allow them to do so. The Russians are there as part of a ceasefire agreement ending the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The same agreement, inked by Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, guarantees access along that now-blocked road. Although Russia is often portrayed as Armenia’s patron, the reality is more complicated. Russia’s largest oil company owns a 19.99% share of Azerbaijan’s largest natural gas field. It is not so surprising then that Armenians in Artsakh demonstrated against Russian inaction after the killings of their police officials.”

  Longtime Armenian-activist, Lucine Kasbarian, author of Armenia: A Rugged Land, an Enduring People, sums up the situation:

  “We who are Armenian, Assyrian, Greek and Coptic bitterly know just how this will end. It’s deja vu all over again. Again and again, we’ve seen the deceit and brutality, received the chilling reports, warnings, graphic videos, open letters and petitions from alarmed genocide scholars. But alas, NATO, Islamic supremacism, gas and oil are going to take precedence over life and liberty once again unless high-powered vigilantism can save the day.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/08/2023 – 02:00

• The Petro-Dollar's Shaky Future: How The Biden Admin Has Alienated One Of Our Crucial Allies
  The Petro-Dollar’s Shaky Future: How The Biden Admin Has Alienated One Of Our Crucial Allies

  Authored by Christopher LaBorde via GooldSeek.com,

  In late 1973 a deal was struck between the US and The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that changed the future of both nations and the U.S. dollar for the next 50 years.

  The importance of the deal has been downplayed, and the Biden administration’s near destruction of this deal has almost been outright ignored.

  However, I have had a front row seat to the sentiment changes I am writing about, and I recommend that the reader consider this political game a concerning matter for the long-term stability of the U.S. dollar. 

  In summary, it appears that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is open for new alliances outside of the US that would have never been considered before this time.

  

  The History

  In October of 1973, the US, UK, Netherlands, Canada and Japan were the targets of an OPEC oil embargo that increased the price of oil from $3 a barrel to $12 a barrel in a matter of months after they chose to support the Israelis in the Yom Kippur War. In the four years prior, Nixon price ceiling policies had doubled our dependency on foreign oil and 83% of that oil came from the Middle East. To make matters worse, in the three prior decades, US industry and consumers had become drunk on stable cheap energy, built an entire infrastructure and prosperous economy that was dependent on prices remaining low, and had firmly closed the door on any form of alternative energy options (nuclear). The sudden 4-X spike in oil prices over a 3-month period from this embargo created a real shock to the US way of life and threatened to cripple the US economy. OPEC had our attention and its un-official leader, Saudi Arabia, was in a good position to listen to proposals from the US.

  In late 1973, A deal was made to end the embargo in early 1974 and pull the United States out of the Oil Crisis. Despite the US being in a tight spot, the negotiations created a deal that benefited both countries unimaginably over the following 5 decades that was described in a May 2016 Bloomberg article.

  The gist of this deal can be summarized in the following two reciprocal agreements:

  • Agreement 1.
    • The Al Saud family, the ruling family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, agreed to sell the US oil at a price that we could live with if we agreed to become their defender and supplier of military equipment – This helped ensure the family and the kingdom’s position in the region and provided a great customer for the US military industrial complex over the next 50 years.
  • Agreement 2.
    • The Al Saud family also agreed to buy an unfathomable amount of U.S. treasuries with some of the proceeds from the annual oil purchases – This helped back the Saudi Arabian currency with dollars while providing the U.S. economy with a very healthy and regular dose of liquidity.

  This two-part mutually beneficial deal allowed the US to continue to spend money and have the stability of OPEC’s energy reserves behind it, while providing support for the kingdom and its ruling family. This deal has been active for multiple administrations up until this very day despite some rough waters, but as you will read, it appears to be changing.

  Recent History

  In 2015, a freedom of information act was filed in the 9-11 investigations that sought reparations from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia based on the participation of some of its citizens’ roles in the bringing down of the twin towers. During the following years the Obama administration maintained the position that the KSA government could not be held responsible for the action of a few of its people, and the treasury / petrol dollar deal maintained its mutually beneficial terms. The PR troubles of the deal were then inherited by the Trump administration, who quickly realized the value of maintaining the trade relationship and worked hard at continuing to have the kingdom recognized as a pro-US ally and one of our primary supporters in the region against the backdrop of an unstable nuclear Iran. Officials from the Kingdom suggested that the US get its political house in order rather than bring the 1973 deal to light for the full scrutiny of the general public to digest; and the Trump administration saw an opportunity to ask the kingdom to be the fulcrum for a “Peace in the Middle East” deal.

  In 2017, the then 32-year-old Mohammed Bin Salmon “MBS”, the emerging leader of the kingdom, was in the process of both fully securing his leadership position and managing a country-wide corruption clean-up campaign. In many discussions with Saudi nationals the prince’s cleanup exercise was seen as a god-sent action that put the country back on track. However, in the U.S. the press chose to cover the event from the point of view of an old-school coup playing out on live television, which served the press well and renewed U.S. / K.S.A. tensions. Despite another round of disturbances in the optics between the countries, the deal survived and continued on. 

  In 2018, after the “house cleaning exercise” was cooling down the young millennial prince emerged as the clear leader for the kingdom and the Trump administration vowed its support for him and the continued U.S. / Saudi alliances. The idea was to bring things back on track as quickly as possible and start working with the new normal. Unfortunately, it was later determined that someone in the young prince’s afterguard was not in favor of how he was being spoken about after the house-cleaning exercise and independently took matters into their own hands to quiet down the opposition.

  On October 2nd, 2018, the unfortunate result was a journalist and son of a powerful family that had been promised a diplomatic position in the pre-housecleaning KSA regime, entered into the KSA Embassy in Turkey and would never exit. As a result of the rogue actions of a staff member, the young prince became embroiled in a freedom of the press / human rights scandal with the apparent assassination of a reporter and outspoken critic of his administration. The PR situation only became worse in the US press as MBS appeared to not fully realize the crimes he was being accused of. The problem was that with each stab from the press, MBS felt as though he was being personally wronged, and with each response from the prince, the U.S. social media public gained a deeper split with the Kingdom. As the Kingdom was gaining new foreign eastward facing ties, this was quickly becoming a bigger problem for the US than it was for the Kingdom.

  In late 2019, a very exposed relationship between the Kingdom and the U.S. became a campaign topic for Trump opposition. There was no shortage of Western judgment for the Kingdom, and it became an important point for critics to associate Trump with, but the deal and its steady flow of cash that made the U.S. way of life possible was never up for discussion. This was clearly a challenging time to keep the full nature of how much the U.S. needed the kingdom under control and away from the press and the U.S. public. A win from the Arab region was needed and it was needed fast to cool down growing negative sentiments from the U.S. towards the kingdom if the deal was to remain intact. 

  In Q1 of 2020 the Abraham Accords campaign went into full force. With a renewed desire from both parties to refresh their relationship and get back on the “right foot” the idea of “Peace in the Middle East” was hatched as a new goal to focus on. The strategy was that such a grand goal could wipe clean the slate between the U.S. public opinion and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the two countries could find themselves looking at a new deal for new hope in the region. In short, the Abraham Accords aimed to reconcile centuries old tensions between Middle Eastern nations sharing Abrahamic religious ties. This deal had been discussed since the beginning of the Trump campaign, but its timing was needed and looked like it could possibly bring together the Arab world with Israel. For years the Arab world had not acknowledged Israel and Israel had not acknowledged Palestine. The deal was designed to slow tensions between the warring neighbors and to start to bring trade between Israel and all of the Middle East.

  On August 13th, 2020, the Abraham Accords were signed and Israel was free to trade technology with the Arab world and “the greatest peace deal” of all time was signed. However, in order for this concession to be made, the KSA prince would have to show weakness on some level with the people of the Arab world because it is widely understood that the Palestinians have long suffered at the hands of the Israelis. As a fierce young leader this was not a concession that would easily be made, so the concession deal that was struck was a deal for access to restricted US defense technologies. The U.S. would have to agree to sell full capability F35’s to the K.S.A. and the U.A.E. militaries, something that had never been allowed.

  On January 20th 2021, President Joe Biden took office and the “catch” to the deal was discovered. In this case the catch was that the deal was signed with the Trump administration, not the Biden administration, and after the administration change, no full capability F35’s would be allowed to be delivered to the K.S.A. or U.A.E. military. The Biden administration decided to not honor that part of the deal and then decided not to acknowledge MBS as the current leader of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The administration then decided to double down on declaring MBS personally to be a very unpleasant person and an enemy of human rights, despite the incredible changes taking place for women’s equality within his Kingdom at that very moment. As you may imagine this was not the prince’s G-20 membership welcome that he felt he was due, nor one that made much sense for what was at stake for the U.S. and its economy. Unfortunately, Biden’s political posturing also watered down the goodwill of the accords and prolonged the tensions in the relationship triangle between the Kingdom, Israel and Palestine, but Biden’s tone towards KSA was about to shift. 

  On February 24th, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. In the months following, Europe had to find a new energy supplier as Putin shifted Russia’s supplies East and the price of all energy climbed steeply. President Biden then made a plea to OPEC to increase its supply to help ease the price of oil that the U.S. was starting to experience because of the shortage, but as you can imagine, the plea fell on deaf ears and the execution of one of the fastest full Karma circles recorded in international history took place. 

  On March 3rd, 2022, in an Atlantic Article, MBS suggests that President Biden should be concerned about the cares of the United States as it is not something that he himself is worried about any longer. MBS also clearly communicated that he was no longer concerned about the U.S.’s view of him or his kingdom’s actions. He stated that he will still do business with the US as well as many other countries, but that the US should probably pay more attention to their own country than to his. The article also mentions that MBS felt snubbed by the U.S. for assuming he was responsible for the death of the reporter and that that Biden refused to acknowledge his position as leader of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the clear text of this article, it can be read just how much damage had been done by the president to the relationship between the two countries in the 14-months since he took office. 

  On March 15th, 2022, The Wall Street Journal announced in a headline, “Saudi Arabia Considers Accepting Yuan Instead of Dollars for Chinese Oil Sales”, which proved that MBS was remaining true to his statements that he was exploring trade relationships outside of the US and the petro-dollar. The article explains that there are many difficulties in a move like this but that some of these difficulties can be mitigated and will likely be considered. This act seemed to suggest that the Kingdom was actually willing to make moves away from the petro-dollar deal and that the Biden administration’s political posturing had consequences beyond the OPEC request being denied.

  On May 31st, 2022, the U.S. had imposed the final SWIFT sanctions on Russia and opened the door for Russia to negotiate oil deals with China – Also Not In Dollars. Had this been done at any time before the sanctions were initiated, this act would have been considered an act of aggression to the United States and a possible act of war against the United States of America and the “Petro-Dollar.” However, in this instance it became a basic chess move in response to the weaponization of the SWIFT system and the sanctions placed against Russia, a move that the US encouraged and opened the door for. As business dealings appeared to be moving more East, this weaponization of the SWIFT system forced the hands of OPEC members to also consider the possibility that the timing of a dollar exit may not be here, but an alternative may be wise to consider, and the news outlets started to report that many other countries were feeling the same.

  In July of 2022 the Arab news media started to cover stories of talks of the Kingdom moving into the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). In May of 2023 the story had progressed to a Bloomberg article with the title, “The BRICS Bank Wants New Members as Saudi Arabia Looks to Join”. Besides Saudi Arabia, it was also reported that eight other OPEC member nations have been reported to have applied for membership to the BRICS alliance, including: Algeria, Angola, Congo, Gabon, Nigeria, Iran, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. When you include the existing BRICS countries, the OPEC countries that have applied and other oil producing countries that have applied to the BRICS alliance (such as Iraq, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Indonesia and Argentina) the list includes 19 of the top 25 oil producing countries in the world. These countries also represent up to 78% of the world’s oil reserves and possibly 36% of the global GDP, at a time when the US GDP only represents 25% of the Global GDP. I don’t suffer from the idea that these vastly different cultures will suddenly be able to get along and sing in harmony, but it should be understood that the US led weaponization of the SWIFT system clearly signaled something to these countries. That message intended, or not, might have been that the US is willing to default on their promise to accept dollars your country holds in reserve for trade if they do not like your politics. If that was the understood message, you can see how this may be very upsetting to countries who hold large sums of dollars in reserve.

  On August 9th 2023 it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that the Biden administration had finally switched on to the gravity of the situation and was now working to repair relations with the kingdom, and that they had started trying to negotiate around the very topics that have been covered in this article. Ironically, 31-Months after the Abraham accords deal was damaged by the current administration; the administration is now trying to use this very deal as a vehicle to repair US KSA relations and move forward. On the cover of this updating of the Abraham Accords, it is being actioned to bring Palestine and Israel to more peaceful terms. However, the meat of this deal for the US may have more to do with Saudi Arabia’s growing Eastern relationships, possibly with the BRICS, and assurances that KSA will not include Chinese military bases within the kingdom or the pricing of Oil outside of the dollar. The Kingdom has clearly stated that they are not ready to fully agree to a deal with the US at this time, but that if they move forward, they will be requesting additional security guarantees and access to civilian nuclear technologies. The US has always refused sharing US nuclear technology with the region, but the Kingdom understands their current leverage with Biden’s prior actions towards the Kingdom.

  On August 22, His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, The Kingdom’s foreign minister and senior diplomat, announced that he would be attending the BRICS summit in South Africa on behalf of MBS. Now that this meeting has concluded, one can only wonder what was discussed in the hallways and side-venues…

  *  *  *

  Hopefully next time you are at the pumps you can reflect on our relationship with the Kingdom and how it has been part of a delicate balance that has helped facilitate the U.S. way of life for the last 50 years. Kings and presidents have come and gone but the support that these nations have had for each other have been part of the fabric that have made the existence and growth of both nations possible. However, it is under these very different times that these arrangements are changing, and these changes are not small changes. Many of you will read this and think that the U.S. needs to make itself more independent, and I would agree with you that there is great value in that; we just need to carefully consider the timing, the price of those actions, how this will shift the political landscape and where this will leave the US dollar.

  What to do in the meantime?

  In no way am I writing to say good or bad things about the United States or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I am writing to say that part of the bedrock that the US dollar has been built on over the last 50 years may be changing. I suggest that readers keep a keen eye on the headlines that involve OPEC and Eastern powers, as subtle headlines buried far off the front page may be the headlines that harken the news of a new trajectory for the dollar over the coming decade.

  As discussed in the last article, the US dollar has other pillars underneath it, but it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the bridge footings.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 23:40

• Fani Willis Scolds Jim Jordan For 'Illegal Intrusion' Into Her Trump Hunt
  Fani Willis Scolds Jim Jordan For ‘Illegal Intrusion’ Into Her Trump Hunt

  Fulton County, GA District Attorney Fani Willis (D) fired off a nastygram to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), who she says is trying to ‘interfere with and obstruction [sic] this office’s prosecution’ of Donald Trump and 18 other defendants, after Jordan asked her to turn over all documents related to the case.

  Willis argues that Jordan’s federal powers to investigate are “not unlimited,” and that “there is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do.”

  

  In Jordan’s original Aug. 24 letter to Willis, he suggested that Willis is trying to interfere with the 2024 election for which Trump is the front-runner for the GOP nomination, adding that her investigation might infringe on the free speech of Trump and other defendants.

  On Thursday, Willis accused Jordan of peddling “inaccurate information and misleading statements” which improperly interfered with a state criminal case.

  “Its obvious purpose is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous misrepresentations,” Willis wrote of Jordan’s letter. “As I make clear below, there is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do.”

  According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jordan’s letter came 10 days after a Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 other people for their roles in an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 US election.

  Trump faces charges in four separate criminal cases even as he solidifies his place as the leading Republican candidate for president next year. Many Republicans believe the prosecutions are political.

  In recent days, some Georgia Republicans have pushed to impeach or sanction Willis, though Gov. Brian Kemp has rejected such proposals. In Washington, Jordan’s committee has launched an investigation to determine whether federal and Fulton County authorities have coordinated their Trump prosecutions.

  In his letter, Jordan noted that Willis began her investigation of Trump in February 2021 but “did not bring charges until two-and-a-half years later, at a time when the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is in full swing.

  “Moreover, you have requested that the trial in this matter begin on March 4, 2024, the day before Super Tuesday and eight days before the Georgia presidential primary,” wrote Jordan. “It is therefore unsurprising many have speculated that this indictment and prosecution are designed to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.”

  Read the letter to Jordan below:

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 23:20

• Leading The Charge On Civics Education
  Leading The Charge On Civics Education

  Authored by Thomas Kelly via RealClear Wire,

  The need for stronger civics instruction has never been clearer. As recently released test scores revealed, American students simply do not possess the civics knowledge they need to become thoughtful and engaged citizens. Knowledge of basic facts is important; knowledge of our nation’s story and founding ideals—which gives meaning to these facts—is more so.

  

  Unfortunately, many K-12 civics teachers do not have the necessary training to succeed in the classroom. Schools of education do not typically afford aspiring teachers an opportunity for in-depth study of key texts in the American tradition. High levels of polarization and a lack of trust in public schools mean many teachers are unsure how to teach about key figures and moments in our history or how to discuss controversial political issues in a nonpartisan way.

  That’s where my organization, the Jack Miller Center (JMC), comes in. We are a non-partisan, nationwide network of scholars and teachers dedicated to teaching the American political tradition. Our scholars have the expertise teachers need to navigate our current divisions and build trust. They can help teachers understand the contours of our most fundamental debates and squarely address the failures in our nation’s history while fully appreciating our achievements.

  To that end, JMC introduced a Founding Civics Initiative in 2016. “Founding Civics” has clearly resonated with teachers. In just eight years nearly 2,000 teachers have participated in this initiative. In fact, this year we’ve reached an all-time high for summer programs: JMC has completed 24 teacher education programs across nine states this summer alone, training nearly 500 teachers for the upcoming school year and beyond.

  These programs offer in-depth explorations of some of the most challenging topics in civics today by avoiding simple left-right narratives and focusing on primary sources.

  This year, multi-day programs were held in partnership with nine campuses. Programs like the “Civic Literacy and Citizenship Symposium” with the University of Wisconsin-Madison offered teachers the opportunity to discuss the importance of virtue for liberty, the evolution of the First Amendment, and the development of judicial review. The “Summer Civics Institute on American Principles and Debates” at American University saw teachers digging into the roots of contemporary ideologies and examining them in relation to the American founding.

  Programs at Baylor University and the University of North Texas allowed teachers to confront race and American politics head-on through sessions on slavery and the American founding, Lincoln and the Civil War, and African American political thought. “Investigating Foundational Questions in American Civics,” in partnership with North Greenville University, encouraged teachers to think more carefully about concepts such as American exceptionalism and whether the Declaration was really for all Americans.

  Florida is a state on the frontlines of education reform, so JMC made our work there a strategic priority. We offered six programs across the state and continue to play a leading role in statewide civics reform with nearly 800 Florida teachers having participated in JMC programs since 2020.

  At the University of West Florida program, special attention was paid to dissent in American politics—from the Anti-Federalists in the ratification debates, to the dissents in the Dred Scott case, to anti-slavery advocates such as William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. At Florida Atlantic University teachers considered the American founding in 21st century contexts by examining Hamilton the musical in light of Alexander Hamilton’s actual writings and considering issues of free speech and civil discourse on social media.

  In St. Petersburg, we also commenced our second year of the competitive-admission year-long American Political Tradition Institute, which consisted of a five-day residential program and will continue with virtual curriculum-development sessions during the academic year. Teachers loved the summer sessions, with one tweeting that she “walked away exhilarated” while another described it as “truly empowering.”

  Summer institutes and workshops such as these are tremendously important, but credit-bearing graduate courses in American political thought and history are also essential. Graduate courses can help public school teachers rise in district pay scales while offering the rigor of a formal class structure and graded assignments.

  We sponsored four graduate courses for teachers this summer, including “Teaching Civics in an Age of Controversy” and “Political Thought of the American Revolution” through the University of Chicago, “Alexis de Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America’” at Tufts University, and “The American Constitutional Experience” at Lake Forest College. All courses offered deep dives into crucial primary sources while also considering prominent secondary sources that shape the way we understand the American story.

  The mission of the Jack Miller Center is to help teachers and students connect with and safeguard our nation’s ideals. Improving K-12 teachers’ knowledge of America’s history and its founding will help preserve that vital knowledge for future generations. This is an urgent mission all educators should share. As JMC’s founder and chairman, Jack Miller, says, “The battle for the soul of our nation will be won or lost in our classrooms.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 23:00

• Morgan Stanley Created 2015 Hunter Biden Dossier Highlighting "Fraudulent" Looking Schemes And "Suspicious" Transactions
  Morgan Stanley Created 2015 Hunter Biden Dossier Highlighting “Fraudulent” Looking Schemes And “Suspicious” Transactions

  Whistleblowers at Morgan Stanley raised the alarm over what they thought looked like “fraudulent” schemes and “suspicious” transactions all the way back in 2015, eventually escalating his concerns to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just a few days before Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, according to documents obtained by Just the News.

  

  “Due diligence on involved parties reveals less than clean records,” one Morgan Stanley investment bank compliance presentation from May of 2015 states.

  The bank even created a dossier about Hunter Biden’s history, including his expulsion from the US Navy, his association with Ukrainian energy giant Buisma, and photos of the Bidens.

  In a May 8, 2015 presentation deck titled “Overview of Wakpamni Series 2014 Bonds Potentially Suspicious Structure & Transactions,” the bank warned that some activities – such as the Native American tribal bond scheme, required the bank to take compliance action.

  “No clear illegal activity is being accused, but authors of this presentation determined activity was suspicious enough to warrant escalation of review by appropriate internal Compliance representatives,” reads the presentation, which singled out several business partners, including Devon Archer and Hunter Biden.

  

  “The Navy Reserve discharged Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter this year after he tested positive for cocaine,” it states.

  The dossier also flagged an August 25, 2008 NYT article noting that Hunter had been “Caught Up in Hedge Fund Trouble,” stating “A son and a brother of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware are accused in two lawsuits of defrauding a former business partner and an investor of millions of dollars in a hedge fund deal that went sour.”

  See below (via Just the News):

  As JTN further reports:

  The presentation is one of the earliest known whistleblower activities to raise serious questions about Hunter Biden and his foreign business exploits. It triggered suspicious activity reports (SARS) filed by banks and a SEC complaint that would eventually lead to the 2016 indictment of several Hunter Biden business partners in a bond fraud scheme and later FBI and IRS investigations targeting Hunter Biden himself for tax evasion.

  While SARS reports are frequently generated by compliance officers in the financial industry, the step of independently reporting information directly to the SEC is much more rare.  

  The documents obtained by Just the News chronicle the efforts by at least one vice president inside the Morgan Stanley investment bank to blow the whistle on companies affiliated with Hunter Biden and one of his chief business partners, Devon Archer. The concerns included that the firms may have been involved in a fraudulent bond scheme with the Native American Wakpamni tribe and may have improperly benefited from tax dollars in a separate technology investment.

  After some time, two Morgan Stanley officials filed whistleblower complaints against Hunter Biden with two federal agencies.

  Read the rest here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 22:40

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Whips Out Race Card To Dismiss His "Slow Start" And Other Criticisms
  Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Whips Out Race Card To Dismiss His “Slow Start” And Other Criticisms

  By Mark Glennon of Wirepoints

  Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday night lambasted critics, arguing that he’s being held to a “different standard” as a black man, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.

  

  From the Tribune: “There is a different standard that I’m held to. There is,” Johnson said. “And that’s not something that I’m mad at, but that’s just the reality. I’m not the first person of color, particularly a Black man, that will be held to a different standard than other administrations.”

  Johnson apparently doesn’t like being called “slow,” which he says is a “microagression.” He has been criticized for a slow start as mayor.

  “You all read the press. I don’t. But you all look at these dynamics. You all know how there’s been a certain, particular coverage of me, right? Think about it. You know, there’s coverage of me being slow, right?” Johnson said. “These are microaggressions, that if you don’t have the lens of those who have lived through these experiences, you would just miss it. You would, because the same — some of the folks who would call me slow, do you understand what that term means? Particularly (toward) the Black community. So you have these forces that perpetuate a particular view of Blackness.”

  He also blamed racism for concerns about subservience to the Chicago Teachers Union, which helped elect him and where he previously was a political organizer. When asked about that, he said, “You think I’m going to suddenly be surprised or get upset because now all of a sudden, oh my goodness, the world is oppositional to a Black man on the left who leads with love?” Johnson responded. “And that the only rationale that can be possible for any of my decisions is that somehow a Black man is being controlled?”

  Same for criticism over his firing of Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s former public health commissioner. She crossed swords with the teachers’ unions by trying to get schools open during the pandemic.

  When asked about that, Johnson said, “Perhaps things should go without saying, but as far as this dynamic that a Black man executive can’t make decisions on his own,” Johnson said, and he ripped “the same forces” that he said didn’t believe he could balance a budget, unite the City Council or win the election. “Well, let me just offer news for the city of Chicago: The people of Chicago elected me as mayor, and if anybody has a problem with it, come see me in four years.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 22:20

• Former FTX CEO To Forfeit $1.5 Billion, Pleads Guilty To Federal Campaign Finance And Money-Transmitting Crimes
  Former FTX CEO To Forfeit $1.5 Billion, Pleads Guilty To Federal Campaign Finance And Money-Transmitting Crimes

  With Biden’s weaponized Dept of Justice intending to seek a second indictment of Hunter Biden after the catastrophic disaster that was the government’s first sweetheart plea deal, which revealed the corruption of “special counsel” David Weiss, who now is scrambling to slap Hunter’s wrist for the second time over a, drumroll, gun charge which will lead to the president’s crackhead son not spending even a minute in prison for being, along with his senile father, a bought and paid for Chinese muppet, the US Department of “Justice” needed a big enough distraction and got that today when SBF’s former right hand figurehead and former FTX CEO Ryan Salame, pleaded guilty Thursday in New York federal court to campaign finance and money-transmitting crimes, and agreed to forfeit more than $1.5 billion. Yup, Salame had $1.5 billion in cash just hanging around courtesy of the epic criminal syndicate that was FTX, and is about to part with it.

  

  According to CNBC, Salame, during his plea, admitted that from fall 2021 to November 2022 he steered tens of millions of dollars of political contributions to both Democrats and Republicans – but really mostly Democrats…

  

  … in his own name when in actuality the money came from Alameda Research, the hedge fund arm of the cryptocurrency exchange owner FTX. Those contributions were made at the behest of then-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Salame said, making SBF the second biggest Democrat donor during the 2022 midterms, only behind George Soros…

  

  … in which the Dems managed to avoid getting steamrolled thanks to Biden draining the SPR. Oh and, according to Vox, it was SBF who was “one of the people who is most responsible” for Biden being “elected” president.

  

  “From at least in or about 2020, up to and including in or about November 2022, Ryan Salame, the defendant, engaged in multiple conspiracies to advance the interests of Samuel Bankman-Fried … and the cryptocurrency companies Bankman-Fried founded and controlled — including FTX.com (“FTX”) and Alameda Research (“Alameda”) — through the operation of an unlawful money transmitting business and violations of the federal election law,” the charging document filed against Salame says.

  That document says that Salame, in a private message to a confidant, wrote that “the purpose of these bipartisan donations would be ‘to weed out anti crypto dems for pro crypto dems and anti crypto repubs for pro crypto repubs,’ and that donations would likely be routed through Salame ‘to weed out that republican side.’”

  Salame, who was released on a $1 million bond Thursday, faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison for the campaign finance violation and charge of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. His sentencing was scheduled for March 6 by Judge Lewis Kaplan in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

  In addition to what must be a record monetary forfeiture, which will be paid to the U.S. government, the 30-year-old Salame will pay $5 million to debtors of FTX and $6 million in fines to the government. Salame also will surrender two houses he owns in Lenox, Massachusetts, and his 2021 Porsche automobile.

  Salame’s attorney, Jason Linder of the firm Mayer Brown, in a statement said. “Ryan looks forward to putting this chapter behind him and moving forward with his life.″

  A source told CNBC that Salame is not cooperating with federal prosecutors who are preparing for the criminal fraud trial of 31-year-old Bankman-Fried. But three other former executives who previously pleaded guilty in the same court are expected to testify against Bankman-Fried.

  They are Caroline Ellison, who had been CEO of Alameda; former FTX technology chief Gary Wang; and Nishad Singh, who was FTX’s engineering boss.

  U.S. Attorney Damien Williams, whose office is prosecuting the FTX cases, in a statement said, “Ryan Salame agreed to advance the interests of FTX, Alameda Research, and his co-conspirators through an unlawful political influence campaign and through an unlicensed money transmitting business, which helped FTX grow faster and larger by operating outside the law.”

  Meanwhile, SBF – who yesterday lost his appeal to get out of Brooklyn jail where they don’t serve adderall or vegan food. and is set to go on trial Oct. 3 on wire fraud and securities fraud charges related to his alleged looting of billions of dollars in customer funds from FTX courtesy of endorsements from some of the highest profile politicians criminals in the country.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 22:00

• FDA Refuses To Provide COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Data To US Senator
  FDA Refuses To Provide COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Data To US Senator

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

  U.S. officials are refusing to provide COVID-19 vaccine safety data to a U.S. senator.

  

  Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the results of analyses on data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System in January. The request came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said none of the safety signals it identified for the COVID-19 vaccines were “unexpected.”

  The two agencies have run different types of analyses on the system’s reports, which are primarily made by health care professionals.

  The CDC ran Proportional Reporting Ratio analyses, which involve comparing the number of reported adverse events to the number of adverse events reported after vaccination with other vaccines.

  The first time the agency ran analyses using the method for the COVID-19 vaccines, in 2022, hundreds of signals were triggered, files obtained by The Epoch Times show.

  The FDA in 2021 started a different type of analysis, called Empirical Bayesian (EB) data mining.

  The Proportional Reporting Ratio results “were generally consistent with EB data mining, revealing no additional unexpected safety signals,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC’s director at the time, told Mr. Johnson previously.

  Mr. Johnson demanded answers on that claim, prompting the CDC to point him to the FDA.

  The FDA recently responded to Mr. Johnson, telling him that it cannot provide the information he seeks.

  “FDA’s EB data mining analyses of adverse events contained in VAERS reports for COVID-19 vaccines are currently the subject of pending FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] litigation. FDA is unable to comment on pending litigation or provide information or data that is currently being considered in pending litigation,” the agency told the senator.

  Mr. Johnson in a new letter told FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf that the claim was wrong.

  “As you are well aware, Congress has a right to information contained at U.S. federal agencies as it conducts its constitutional oversight responsibilities,” Mr. Johnson said.

  “It is outrageous that FDA would assert that pending litigation, and particularly FOIA litigation, would allow your agency to obstruct my congressional oversight,” he added. “Any pending litigation FDA may have relating to its EB data mining records has no bearing on its responsibility to comply with a congressional request.”

  Mr. Johnson said in the past he’s repeatedly received from the government documents subject to litigation, including from the FDA’s parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

  He urged the FDA to produce the EB data mining analyses by Sept. 20.

  The FDA declined to immediately provide a comment.

  The agency was sued in January over its refusal to provide the results of the EB data mining to The Epoch Times and the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, citing exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

  Children’s Health Defense, the litigant, said that the refusal to provide the records was illegal.

  In the last update in the case, the FDA said it has 150 responsive pages but that it has to do a “page-by-page, line-by-line review” to determine whether any information on the pages should be withheld, or redacted. The agency said it is “facing an unprecedented FOIA workload” stemming from federal courts ordering it to release information it had said would be made public on the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

  

  Ignored Questions

  In another new letter, Mr. Johnson pressed the HHS on the program it administers to provide compensation to people injured by the COVID-19 shots.

  Despite injections starting in December 2020, and more than 1.5 million reports being lodged with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. HHS has compensated just four people, paying $8,592 in total.

  Others have been approved for compensation but the money is still pending.

  Mr. Johnson in April asked for more details on the program as the agency has not been forthcoming, including whether there are caps on the amount of money an injured person can receive and whether the government has advertised the program.

  Mr. Johnson also demanded communications between HHS and COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers regarding compensation claims.

  In a recent letter, HHS declined to answer many of the questions.

  Mr. Johnson on Sept. 5 urged HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to provide answers to all of his questions.

  He pointed to how Mr. Becerra, when being vetted by the Senate, told senators that he would commit to providing a prompt response to any questions addressed by Senate Finance Committee members.

  “As a member of the Senate Finance Committee and as ranking member of the Senate’s top investigative subcommittee, your agency’s June 23, 2023 response is completely unacceptable and calls into question the veracity of the commitment you made before the Senate during your confirmation hearing,” Mr. Johnson said. “I call on you to immediately revise HHS’s incomplete response and provide the requested information.“

  HHS did not respond to a request for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 21:40

• San Fran Is Officially America's Worst City: 1 In 8 Home Sellers Lose Money With An Average Loss Of $100,000
  San Fran Is Officially America’s Worst City: 1 In 8 Home Sellers Lose Money With An Average Loss Of $100,000

  In retrospect, it’s surprising that it took so long.

  With Case-Shiller reporting that the nation’s worst-by-far (not to mention feces-covered) real-estate  market is that of San Francisco, where prices have seen annual declines for the past 8 months, half of which have seen double-digit drops…

  

  …. overnight RedFin reports more bad news for those unlucky enough to be living in the socialist utopia that is San Francisco: home sellers in this liberal bastion are four times more likely than the average U.S. home seller to take a loss, as the Bay Area metro reels from an outsized drop in home prices. In fact, according to the report, the typical San Francisco seller who takes a loss sells their home for $100,000 less than they bought it for. And when they do, they have to walk on shit-covered streets, through crowds of homeless, to buy another home one which they pray won’t be burgled in the near future because, well, good luck calling cops in San Fran.

  Here are the details from Redfin:

  Roughly one of every eight (12.3%) homes that sold in San Francisco during the three months ending July 31 was purchased for less than the seller bought it for, up from 5% a year earlier. That’s a higher share than any other major U.S. metro and is quadruple the national rate of 3%.

  

  Next came Detroit (6.9%), Chicago (6.5%), New York (5.9%) and Cleveland (5.8%). 

  In San Francisco, which tied with New York for the largest median loss in dollar terms, the typical homeowner who took a loss sold their home for $100,000 less than they bought it for. Nationwide, the typical homeowner who sold their home for less than they bought it for lost $35,538.

  Homeowners were least likely to sell at a loss in San Diego, Boston, Providence, RI, Kansas City, MO and Fort Lauderdale, FL. In each of those metros, roughly 1% of homes sold for less than the seller originally paid.

  * *  *

  Turning back to San Francisco, just because it’s both terrifying and amusing to watch a formerly great city implode under the weight of Soros-funded DAs, here home sellers were most likely to lose money because the region has experienced outsized home-price declines. It was one of the first markets to see prices sink when high mortgage rates triggered a slowdown in the housing market last year. By April 2023, San Francisco’s median home sale price was down a record 13.3% year over year, more than triple the nationwide drop of 4.2%. As of July, it was down just 4.3% year over year to $1.4 million, but that compared with a national gain of 1.6%. The total value of homes in San Francisco has fallen by roughly $60 billion since last summer, a separate Redfin analysis found.

  Prices in the Bay Area have fallen fast for a few reasons:

  • First, it’s home to the most expensive real estate in the country, meaning housing costs had a lot of room to come down. It has also been hit hard by layoffs in the technology sector.
  • Additionally, it’s not as popular as it once was; remote work has allowed scores of people to relocate to more affordable areas.

  Next, read the following sentence and see if you can spot the common thread:

  “San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago and New York, which top the list of metros where home sellers are most likely to take a loss, all rank among the top 10 metros Redfin.com users are looking to leave.”

  If you said these are all traditionally Republican-controlled bastions… you failed.

  

  “Some condos in the Bay Area are now worth less than their owners bought them for in 2018 and 2019, in part because commuting from Oakland and other outlying areas into downtown San Francisco isn’t really a thing anymore,” said local Redfin Premier real estate agent Andrea Chopp, who focuses on Oakland and other East Bay neighborhoods. “There are buyers out there, but they’re a lot more cautious and picky than they were when mortgage rates were low. The Bay Area housing market was unsustainable before, so this correction is probably healthy, but the unfortunate thing is prices remain unaffordable for a lot of people—especially with rates now above 7%.”

  But while the liberal bastion of San Francisco is now officially America’s worst city, the vast majority of U.S. home sellers are still reaping gains, especially those

  Even though home prices have fallen from their peak, a majority of home sellers are still reaping significant financial gains. Nationwide, 97% of home sellers sold for a profit during the three months ending July 31, with the typical home that sold going for 78.4% ($203,232) more than the seller bought it for.

  Today’s home sellers are making money despite an ongoing housing downturn in part because a scarcity of homes for sale is fueling bidding wars and propping up home values. Most people who bought when home prices peaked would lose money if they sold now, so they’re not selling. Many of the homeowners who are selling today have owned their homes for long enough to make a profit regardless of month-to-month fluctuations in housing values.

  In Boise, ID, Redfin Premier agent Shauna Pendleton has clients who will likely have to take a $100,000 loss on their home because they’re selling it after only about a year. They’re moving back to Seattle because their employer is requiring them to return to the office. Pendleton noted that it’s not common for homeowners to sell at a loss in Boise, but when it does happen, it often involves homes selling for upwards of $750,000.

  More in the full Redfin report available here.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 21:20

• 2 Million Guns Sold In August, 49th Straight Month Of Over 1 Million Sales
  2 Million Guns Sold In August, 49th Straight Month Of Over 1 Million Sales

  Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Gun sales in the United States exceeded 2 million last month—the 49th straight month in which firearm sales crossed a million.

  

  In August, 2.04 million checks were conducted through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), according to an analysis by Guns.com. Though this is a 16.4 percent dip from the 2.45 million checks conducted in August 2022, the numbers are still higher when compared to the years before the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, it said.

  This August registered the fifth highest NICS checks for any August in the past 25 years. This was also the 49th consecutive month that gun sales crossed the 1 million mark.

  Data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) showed around 1.1 million background checks last month, down 13 percent from the same month last year.

  While NICS numbers include checks conducted for reasons like clearing concealed carry permit applications, the NSSF adjusts these numbers. As such, NSSF data is seen as a potentially truer depiction of retail gun sales.

  In a statement to Guns.com, Mark Oliva, public affairs officer with the NSSF, said that the 1.1 million gun sales figure shows “the desire for lawful firearm ownership is far from over.”

  “Americans, literally by the millions, are investing in exercising their Second Amendment rights. This has happened every month for more than four years continuously.”

  “While the Biden administration proposes rules to infringe on fundamental American rights and certain governors, attorneys general and district attorneys general and district attorneys refuse to lock up criminals that prey on communities without consequence, Americans are sending a clear and unequivocal message that their personal safety, and the free exercise of their rights, is non-negotiable.”

  According to safety research organization Safehome, around 17.4 million guns were sold across the United States in 2022, a lower number compared to 2021 and 2020.

  The organization attributed the decline to “consumers reducing their spending and the economy experiencing inflationary pressures that have led to a slowdown in discretionary expenses overall.”

  Gun sales saw a 64 percent increase in 2020, the biggest annual rise in two decades. The current downward trend “indicates a return to the typical sales figures seen in the years prior to 2020.”

  The sales boom in 2020 was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to which people spent more time in outdoor activities, Safehome said while pointing out that 2020 was also a presidential election year.

  “Traditionally, election years can spark an increase in gun buying as customers may worry new leaders could change laws regarding gun ownership. There were similar smaller increases in gun sales in 2016 and 2012, both presidential election years.”

  In 2022, states like Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska had the highest estimated gun sales per capita. In contrast, this figure was the lowest in Iowa, Oregon, and the District of Columbia.

  Biden’s Gun Crackdown

  While gun sales continue to exceed a million on a monthly basis, the Biden administration is proposing a rule that would essentially classify any American who sells guns as a firearms dealer, thereby tightening gun control measures in the country.

  At present, individuals can engage in selling firearms without having to be a registered firearms dealer. The new rules would classify gun sales under business activities and require that individuals get a license as well as undertake background checks.

  Randy Kozuch, executive director of the National Rifle Association–Institute for Legislative Action (NRA–ILA), called the move a “war on the Second Amendment.”

  The Gun Owners Association said the proposed rule is “virtually outlawing private firearm transactions to ensure the government gets its hands on your personal information and transaction records for their illegal gun registry.”

  The Biden administration had also introduced a law that would make Americans felons if caught possessing an unregistered braced firearm.

  Multiple federal judges have issued preliminary orders blocking the rule from being enacted. However, these rules only apply to members of the groups who filed lawsuits and in the jurisdictions of the judges who issued the verdicts.

  Guns Promote Safety

  President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are also pushing for a nationwide ban on “assault weapons.” In a statement to Fox News, the NRA criticized such attempts.

  The organization pointed out that the AR-15 rifle, which which many gun control advocates refer to as an “assault weapon,” is one of the most popular self-defense rifles in America.

  “A testament to this is the 8-month pregnant Florida mother who, with her AR-15, defended her family from two armed intruders who brutally assaulted her husband,” NRA spokesman Billy McLaughlin told the outlet.

  He was referring to an incident from 2019 when a pregnant woman shot an armed intruder and sent a second intruder fleeing. “Joe and Kamala ought to speak to the many ignored and forgotten law-abiding Americans who rely on AR-15s for their safety.”

  “They’re playing politics with human lives and are blind to the fact that their pro-criminal policies drive more people to buy guns,” he said.

  A CNN poll from May showed that Americans are divided on how the availability of guns affects public safety.

  While 36 percent of respondents said the presence of guns would make public places less safe, 32 percent argued that allowing gun owners to carry their firearms would make public places safer.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 21:00

• "Davos In The Desert": UAE Becomes Global ATM As Western Finance Dries Up
  “Davos In The Desert”: UAE Becomes Global ATM As Western Finance Dries Up

  Five years ago, virtue-signaling American finance executives peeled out of a Saudi Arabian event in Riyadh following the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

  

  Now, with Western financiers hampered by rising interest rates and a reduced appetite for dealmaking, private equity, venture capital and real estate funds have come back with hats-in-hand to tap into the Middle East’s vast wealth – which has been bolstered by higher energy prices thanks to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

  It turns out nothing heals old wounds like money… as major Western financial firms scramble to set up offices in the Middle East to win local investments.

  While the Middle East steps on the gas, the traditional backers of investment funds—pension plans and college endowments—are in retreat. The global shift to higher interest rates caused losses in the biggest parts of their portfolios—especially stocks and bonds.

  Investors put $33 billion toward U.S.-based venture capital funds in the first half of 2023, less than half the $74 billion in the same period in 2021, according to PitchBook. Global fundraising for all private funds fell 10% last year to $1.5 trillion, according to Preqin—a decline many expect to continue.  -WSJ

  “Fundraising has become much, much harder over the past 12 months,” said Brenda Rainey, an executive vice president at Bain & Co. who advises private-equity funds, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.

  But not in the Middle East…

  To wit, this year’s Future Investment Initiative Institute, known as “Davos in the Desert,” will take place on Riyadh, and is expecting so much demand that it’s charging $15,000 per head to attend, the Journal reports.

  Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has seen commitments rise to $56 billion in 2022, a significant jump from $33 billion last year.

  “Now, everybody wants to go to the Middle East—it’s like the gold rush in the U.S. once upon a time,” according to fundraising advisory firm CEO Peter Jädersten of Jade Advisors. “It’s difficult to raise money everywhere.”

  Gulf funds now have the upper hand in negotiations, able to be “very thoughtful and selective” about things such as stakes in the fund managers themselves, or side-by-side investments, as per Ibrahim Ajami of Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala.

  All eyes on Abu Dhabi

  One of the most influential dealmakers to emerge in the last few months is Abu Dhabi’s national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who has been using the country’s $1.5 trillion investment war chest to make runs at buying Standard Chartered and Lazard, as well as recent deals to buy a $1.2 billion UK healthcare giant and a nearly $6 billion Columbian food company, according to Bloomberg.

  

  In March, Tahnoon was handed control of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) following a March reshuffle. The $993 billion wealth fund is among the world’s largest, and now ranks as the second-largest spender on deals among regional peers since the beginning of last year.

  

  Born in the late 1960s, just after the discovery of oil in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan has graduated from the close-knit circles of the UAE’s royal family to become one of the world’s most potent financial juggernauts.

  Over the past few months, he has been on a capital-injecting spree, drawing billionaires like Ray Dalio into his vortex. According to Karen Young, a senior research scholar at Columbia University, “The UAE leadership has recognized its most important source of statecraft is financial. Sheikh Tahnoon is now the strategist behind multiple economic statecraft tools.”

  Over the past few months, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan has gained control of the largest sovereign wealth fund in the United Arab Emirates, expanding the assets he oversees to almost $1.5 trillion. He’s proceeded to bankroll billions of dollars in deals via an expanded empire of private and state entities. Drawing in titans of finance such as Rajeev Misra and billionaire Ray Dalio, Sheikh Tahnoon — one of Abu Dhabi’s two deputy rulers, the UAE’s national security adviser and brother to its president — has sought to invest in everything from technology to finance, with varying degrees of success.

  Known to be a fan of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, cycling and chess, Sheikh Tahnoon now helms two wealth funds, the region’s most important private investment firm, the country’s largest lender and its biggest listed corporate. That’s made him the defacto business chief of the wealthy Al Nahyan family, with access to seemingly endless reserves of cash in OPEC’s third-largest producer — an unusual amount of financial firepower even in the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

  Other notable deals Tahnoon has been involved with include an investment in TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance, a $10 billion fund targeting tech opportunities, and a deal to bankroll Softbank Vision Fund’s key architect Rajeev Misra’s new $6.8 billion fund. Another of Tahnoon’s entities, G42, is partnering with Nvidia competitor Cerebras Systems, which just completed the first of nine AI supercomputers aimed at taking a run at Nvidia.

  

  That said, it’s not all a cakewalk for Sheikh Tahnoon. Navigating the intricate labyrinths of international regulations has proven to be a challenge. As Abu Dhabi inches closer to Beijing, with intentions of joining the BRICS bloc, it’s raising eyebrows across Washington corridors.

  Lynn Ammar, an Abu Dhabi-based partner at law firm Cleary Gottlieb warns, “The broad geographic scope is likely to continue to attract attention from FDI authorities, such as CFIUS, who may be concerned about potential information flow to China.” This comes as the United States puts foreign investments under the microscope, tightening scrutiny over deals tied to the Chinese government.

  What’s more, Tahnoon isn’t just the de facto business chief of the wealthy Al Nahyan family, he’s also the UAE’s national security adviser, wearing a dual hat that integrates economic and geopolitical strategy. Recent reports indicate significant UAE investments in Asian and African economies, marking a clear orientation toward emerging markets.

  Wonder if this would be happening under a second Trump term and no Ukraine invasion?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 20:40

• Judge Skeptical As Prosecutors Claim Trump Georgia Trial Could Take Four Months
  Judge Skeptical As Prosecutors Claim Trump Georgia Trial Could Take Four Months

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A Georgia judge handling the trials of former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants appeared to be skeptical of prosecutors’ proposals to bring all the co-defendants together for a trial starting next month.

  “It just seems a bit unrealistic to think that we can handle all 19 in forty-something days,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee told the court in a Wednesday hearing in regards to motions to sever that were brought by co-defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell. The judge denied the request to split the two cases.

  

  During the hearing, prosecutors estimated the trial would take four months and that they’d call more than 150 witnesses. “That is our time estimate,” prosecutor Nathan Wade told Judge McAfee during the hearing, which was also broadcast live on television and on the judge’s YouTube channel.

  But Mr. McAffee told prosecutors that he believes the trial would take twice that—or eight months. “It could easily be twice that,” he said, noting the number of defendants in the case.

  “We’re on an expedited timeline with these statutory speedy trial demands,” Judge McAfee said, while adding that he plans to press forward and “make that October 23 trial date stick” for Mr. Chesebro and Mrs. Powell. It’s not clear when the other co-defendants will go to trial.

  The judge also suggested that any trial he conducts could be rendered moot if a defendant successfully appeals to a higher court. Already, a federal judge held a hearing in former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who is charged in the case.

  “It could potentially even be a six-month turnaround just for the 11th Circuit to come up with a decision,” Judge McAfee said of the appeals process. “Where does that leave us in the middle of a jury trial?” the judge asked.

  Mr. Wade, who provided the four-month estimate, said that did not include jury selection and added that whether or not defendants choosing to testify could affect timing. But he said he expects a trial to take that long regardless of how many defendants it includes, arguing that because the trial was brought under Georgia’s anti-racketeering law prosecutors would seek to prove the entire conspiracy against each defendant.

  Another prosecutor, Will Wooten, argued that under the state’s RICO—or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act—statute, the defendants should be tried together. All 19 defendants were accused of participating in the alleged scheme under Georgia’s RICO law last month.

  “Anytime a person enters into a conspiracy they are liable for all of the acts of all of their co-conspirators, and that’s it. Evidence against one is evidence against all, and that’s it,” Mr. Wooten said.

  

  The hearing was also broadcast live on television and on the judge’s YouTube channel, a marked difference from the other three criminal cases against Trump, where cameras have not been allowed in the courtroom during proceedings.

  Whenever and wherever any trial in the case ultimately takes place, jury selection is likely to be a significant challenge. Jury selection in a racketeering and gang case brought last year by Ms. Willis began in January and is still ongoing. In another large racketeering case, Ms. Willis tried nearly a decade ago against former Atlanta public schools educators, it took six weeks to seat a jury.

  On Tuesday, Ms. Willis’ team asked the judge to allow the use of a jury questionnaire that prospective jurors would have filled out before they show up for jury selection, writing in a court filing that it “will facilitate and streamline the jury selection process in many respects.”

  Prospective jurors may be more comfortable answering personal questions on paper than in open court and lawyers for both sides could agree that certain jurors aren’t qualified without additional questioning, prosecutors said.

  Meanwhile, Mr. Meadows was in federal court last week arguing that he was acting in his capacity as a federal official and his case should be heard by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones has yet to rule on that request. Four other defendants who are also seeking to move their cases to federal court have hearings set before Jones later this month.

  As for President Trump, the former president on Wednesday told radio host Hugh Hewitt that he would “absolutely” testify in one of the four trials against him. He was charged in separate cases in Georgia, New York, Florida, and Washington, D.C., pleading not guilty to all the charges.

  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 20:20

• How Did SK Hynix's Chips End Up In New Huawei Smartphone?
  How Did SK Hynix’s Chips End Up In New Huawei Smartphone?

  US lawmakers have been infuriated with Huawei Technologies Co.’s ability to produce a new smartphone with a cutting-edge processor despite mounting US sanctions. The inquiry into Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro started when Bloomberg hired TechInsights to conduct a complete teardown of the smartphone, which released the report earlier this week. 

  Huawei uses an advanced 7-nanometer processor built by China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. But another report from TechInsights shows memory and flash in the Mate 60 Pro comes from SK Hynix Inc. 

  

  Bloomberg said Mate 60 Pro’s components are almost entirely sourced from domestic suppliers, “and Hynix’s hardware is an isolated example of materials sourced from overseas, according to TechInsights.” 

  South Korea-based Hynix told Bloomberg that it “no longer does business with Huawei since the introduction of the US restrictions against the company and, with regard to the issue, we started an investigation to find out more details.” 

  

  The mystery of how Huawei sourced the memory chips deepens, as Hynix said it “is strictly abiding by the US government’s export restrictions.” 

  Bloomberg offers some ideas of how Huawei might have procured the Hynix chips: 

  “Huawei may have procured the memory chips from Hynix, whose Chinese base cranks out an estimated one-third to half of its DRAM for global markets. One possibility is that Huawei may be tapping a stockpile of components it accumulated as far back as 2020 before the full set of US trade curbs had been imposed on it. International suppliers of advanced technology have been prohibited from supplying Huawei over the past three years by US trade curbs, implemented on fears of the hardware being used to aid China’s military.”

  News of the Bloomberg/TechInsights report enraged some US lawmakers who have spent the last several years slapping China with sanctions to curb its progress in chip technology. Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on Competition with China, said Wednesday the US should end all its exports to both Huawei and SMIC: 

  “The time has come to end all US technology exports to both Huawei and SMIC to make clear any firm that flouts US law and undermines our national security will be cut off from our technology.” 

  How Huawei obtained the memory chips from Hynix remains unclear. However, given this week’s developments, US lawmakers will likely not be done imposing tech sanctions on Beijing.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 20:00

• Snyder: 'Mad Max' Conditions Are Coming
  Snyder: ‘Mad Max’ Conditions Are Coming

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

  How far would you go to feed your family? 

  Hopefully that is a question that you will not have to answer any time soon, but right now we are seeing millions upon millions of people become more desperate as economic conditions rapidly deteriorate and food costs soar.  At this point, most Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month, and in poorer countries on the other side of the world there are people that are literally starving to death. 

  

  As I have detailed previously, the UN has reported that 2.4 billion people did not have enough food to eat last year, and 900 million of them were facing severe food insecurity.  Sadly, those numbers will inevitably be even higher for 2023.  A global rice crisis has erupted, and the collapse of the Black Sea grain deal has greatly restricted the flow of agricultural goods from that part of the globe.  Food costs are spiking all over the planet, and that is really bad news for all of us.

  For those of us that live in the United States, the good news is that nobody is starving at this stage.

  But food prices have become extremely oppressive, and economic conditions are quickly moving in the wrong direction.

  670,000 full-time jobs have been lost in just the past two months, and on Friday we witnessed the worst unadjusted payrolls report for the month of August since the Great Recession.

  Yes, things really are that bad.

  One recent survey discovered that 61 percent of Americans are currently living paycheck to paycheck, but I expect this number to go even higher in the months ahead…

  Inflation, mortgage rates over 7% and credit card APR’s north of 20% have pushed all income brackets into living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new survey from Lending Club Bank.

  “In July 2023, 61% of U.S. consumers live paycheck to paycheck, unchanged from June 2023, but 2 percentage points higher than July 2022. Generally, more consumers of all income brackets reported living paycheck to paycheck in July 2023 than last year,” Alia Dudum, a money expert at LendingClub told FOX Business.

  Things are particularly dire for low income workers.  That same survey discovered that a whopping 78 percent of those that earn less than $50,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck at this point…

  Lower-income workers have been the hardest hit by higher prices, particularly for food and other necessities, since those expenses account for a bigger share of the budget, studies show.

  Now, 78% of consumers earning less than $50,000 a year and 65% of those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 were living paycheck to paycheck in July, both up from a year ago, LendingClub found. Of those earning $100,000 or more, only 44% reported living paycheck to paycheck.

  As I discussed last week, U.S. households that are feeling financial strain are increasingly turning to debt to make ends meet, and this has pushed debt levels to unprecedented heights…

  Total household debt climbed to a new high in the second quarter of 2023, reaching $17.06 trillion, with credit card debt exceeding $1 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As interest rates stay high, costs continue to rise for expenses like housing and cars, and student loan payments resume, the amount of debt may rise, according to economists who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

  “The amount of debt outstanding, and in particular the surpassing of the $1 trillion mark, is significant and worrisome,” Peter Earle, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, told the DCNF. “It owes to a combination of several factors. The initial response to the pandemic, which prominently included the Fed setting policy (interest) rates at essentially zero for several years, made the amount of credit and the price of taking on debt extraordinarily cheap.”

  As economic conditions get worse, people are becoming more desperate.

  This is helping to fuel a crime wave all over the nation, and retailers are being forced to implement extreme measures.

  According to the Wahington Post, a Giant Food store in Washington D.C. is actually going to be taking all Tide, Colgate and Advil products off the shelves completely because theft has become such a problem…

  In the coming weeks, a Giant Food market in D.C. will clear its beauty and health aisles of all national labels. No more Tide, Colgate or Advil, only store brands. Shoppers also will have to present their receipts to an employee before exiting the store.

  It’s the regional supermarket chain’s most overt gambit against the rampant theft that’s plaguing retailers of all sizes. It’s also a potential last-ditch effort to avoid shutting down the unprofitable store on Alabama Avenue — the only major grocer east of the Anacostia River in Ward 8.

  An executive for the chain told the Washington Post that the company has “no other choice” and she noted that other stores in the area have done similar things…

  “We have no other choice,” Diane Hicks, senior vice president of operations said Thursday during a walk-through with officials from the D.C. mayor’s office, the Metropolitan police and fire departments, and Chamber of Commerce. She added that other nearby stores have locked up all their product on those aisles or removed them altogether.

  “I’ve been leaving it out for our customers and unfortunately it just forces all the crime to come to us.”

  This is where our entire society is heading.

  It is just a matter of time before we see armed guards stationed in grocery stores and on food trucks all over America.

  Desperate people do desperate things, and right now we are seeing things happen that are absolutely nuts.

  Just a few days ago, an extremely shocking incident that happened in broad daylight at a Home Depot store in California made headlines all over the nation…

  Brazen thieves were caught on camera casually walking out with $9,000 worth of goods from separate California stores as lawlessness in the state governed by Gavin Newsom continues.

  A group of masked thieves stormed into a Home Depot store in Signal Hill on August 27 and stole $5,000 worth of power tools in full view of shocked staff and customers.

  The seven men loaded two shopping carts with expensive goods and carried as much as possible in their arms before walking out.

  These sorts of robberies have become so common that I couldn’t possibly cover them all.

  We really are starting to become a “Mad Max” society.

  Of course the truth is that the entire world is moving in that direction.  Global supplies of food are getting tighter and tighter, and the recent spike in rice prices has created a tremendous amount of concern…

  Countries worldwide are scrambling to secure rice after a partial ban on exports by India cut global supplies by roughly a fifth. Global food security is already under threat since Russia halted an agreement allowing Ukraine to export wheat and the El Nino weather phenomenon hampers rice production.

  Now, rice prices are soaring, and it’s putting the most vulnerable people in some of the poorest nations at risk. Vietnam’s rice export prices, for instance, have reached a 15-year high. Even before India’s restrictions, countries already were frantically buying rice in anticipation of scarcity later when the El Nino hit, creating a supply crunch and spiking prices.

  Civil unrest has already started to erupt in various parts of Africa, but if current trends continue things will get a whole lot worse around the globe in 2024.

  Are you prepared for what is ahead?

  Right now, a lot of people are apparently asking that question.  In fact, according to Zero Hedge the number of Americans searching for the term “live off grid” on the Internet has hit the highest level in years…

  What’s piqued our interest is the sudden panic by some Americans searching ‘live off grid’ on the internet, hitting the highest level in five years. The driving force behind finding a rural piece of land for dirt cheap, buying or building a tiny home, installing solar panels, and sourcing your own food and water might have to do with the worst inflation storm in a generation while Democrat cities implode under the weight of soaring violent crime.

  I have been relentlessly warning my readers that “Mad Max” conditions are coming for years.

  Anyone that took an honest look at the long-term trends should have been able to see that.

  Global leaders have been making absolutely disastrous decisions for a very long time, and now we are all going to reap the consequences.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 19:40

• 'Lee' Explodes To Category 4 Hurricane 
  ‘Lee’ Explodes To Category 4 Hurricane 

  Update (1920ET):

  In about a 12-hour timeframe, Hurricane Lee rapidly intensified from a Category 1 to Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. 

  The National Hurricane Center’s latest update said, “Lee becomes a category 4 major hurricane. Dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents are likely in the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Bahamas and along the east coast of the U.S.” 

  5PM AST Sep 7: #Lee becomes a category 4 major hurricane. Dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents are likely in the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Bahamas and along the east coast of the U.S. Visit https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ for the latest pic.twitter.com/Rg0Z5gAAwx

  — National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 7, 2023

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

  Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore said, “Another cat5 on the way… Almost a double rapid intensifier. Impressive to say the least.” 

  Cantore continued, “Still much to be watched into next week as steering sets up. Any potential direct USA impacts would be likely a week away.” 

  Well that didn’t take long. #Lee has gone from a 75mph hurricane 24 hours ago to a 130mph beast. Likely another cat5 on the way… Almost a double rapid intensifier. Impressive to say the least. Still much to be watched into next week as steering sets up. Any potential direct… pic.twitter.com/qI3jIv4sOR

  — Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) September 7, 2023

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

  Here are the latest spaghetti models of Lee’s possible paths.

  

  Cat 5 by tomorrow morning?

  *   *   * 

  The National Hurricane Center warned Hurricane Lee is intensifying, and computer models suggest it might reach “major hurricane” status by early Friday. 

  Lee is located 965 miles from the northern Leeward Islands in open waters with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. The Category 1 storm is moving west-northwest at 13 mph.

  

  “The environment around the cyclone looks ideal for rapid intensification. The models are in fairly good agreement that significant strengthening should begin later today and continue into the weekend, when Lee will likely reach its peak intensity,” NHC said. 

  NHC warned, “Fluctuations in strength are likely from days 3 to 5 due to potential eyewall replacements, but Lee is still expected to be a dangerous hurricane over the southwestern Atlantic early next week.” 

  Computer models show Lee “slowing down before making a turn to the north in response to steering currents around it, particularly a dip in the jet stream moving toward the East Coast,” said Axios. 

  Late next week, it’s possible that Hurricane Lee tracks close to New England and/or Atlantic Canada.

  The path out to sea may be blocked by a ridge of high pressure.

  A long time to go, but I’d say the trend is not our friend with regard to land impacts 😬

  Tracking @ECMWFbot 👇 pic.twitter.com/vNrZOhfSPQ

  — Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) September 7, 2023

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

  Possible Cat. 5?

  There is a chance that #Lee could be a Cat5 hurricane. We have one in the Pacific now called #Jova which has nearly doubled its wind speed in 24 hours.( 85 to 160mph). No threat to land with Jova. pic.twitter.com/knoCjsdF4c

  — Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) September 7, 2023

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

  Axios noted Lee is about “week to 10 days away from a potential threat to the U.S. mainland.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 19:20

• Will Hunter Go Full NRA? A Biden Indictment Could Bring A Surprising Challenge
  Will Hunter Go Full NRA? A Biden Indictment Could Bring A Surprising Challenge

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  After the spectacular collapse of his sweetheart deal with the Justice Department in court, Hunter Biden’s lawyer angrily told the prosecutors in open court to “just rip it up.”

  It appears, however, that the defense team does not want to shred one part of the deal: the diversion agreement to avoid any charge over his false statement to obtain a gun permit.

  The defense is now arguing that, since the two sides signed the agreement before the implosion in court, it is final and complete.

  

  The Justice Department thinks otherwise. It is arguing that neither the probation officer nor the Court agreed to the plea agreement to finalize it. Indeed, it was the sweeping immunity language buried in the gun charge section that led the Court to throw a flag on the play.  Accordingly, the Justice Department is now pledging to indict Hunter by the end of the month.

  Hunter, however, is insisting that the Justice Department will have to pry the agreement from his cold, dead fingers. Indeed, the President’s son may be channeling more from the National Rifle Association (NRA) than its catchline. If the court rejects the diversion agreement as executed, Hunter could be making an argument that will leave the Biden White House in something of a pickle.

  One obvious attack against a charge is to argue that the underlying law itself is unconstitutional.

  Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), anyone who is an “unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance,” including marijuana, is barred from possessing a gun and can face up to 10 years in prison.

  However, recently the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled the law violated the Second Amendment in United States v. Daniels. The case involved a man who was arrested in possession of marijuana and two loaded firearms. The Fifth Circuit relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen v. New York Rifle & Pistol Association, which established that firearms laws must conform with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

  President Biden denounced Bruen as a virtual abomination and has been a vocal supporter of the underlying law. Hunter, however, may now find himself in strange company in seeking to avoid any federal charge.

  In the appellate opinion, Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote that “Our history and tradition may support some limits on an intoxicated person’s right to carry a weapon, but it does not justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage.”

  That sounds tantalizingly familiar, but is it enough for Hunter to go full Wayne LaPierre?

  If so, this would not be the first time that Hunter followed a path that his father has previously condemned in others. For example, for decades, Joe Biden has railed against “deadbeat dads” despite his son’s long effort to avoid paying child support to Lunden Alexis Roberts. Hunter spent years fighting support for his daughter Navy, even after a court confirmed that he was her father. Joe Biden himself only recently acknowledged the existence of Navy after routinely excluding her from the list of his grandchildren.

  Yet, the President may not be quite ready for his son to join actual hunters in advocating for sweeping gun rights protections, including for drug users.

  In making the argument, Hunter will have to claim that references to gun ownership by “law-abiding citizens” in past cases like District of Columbia v. Heller and Bruen should not be read to exclude everyone who breaks the law. Judge Smith cites a prior ruling in United States v. Rahimi, rejecting the federal ban on gun possession by people subject to domestic violence restraining orders. In that decision, the court held that the phrase should be read as “shorthand” alluding to “people who were historically ‘stripped of their Second Amendment rights.’”

  The government has argued (and would likely argue in the Biden case) that there were laws from the 17th and 18th centuries barring people from publicly carrying or firing guns while intoxicated.

  However, the Fifth Circuit rejected the historical claim and noted that “under the government’s reasoning, Congress could ban gun possession by anyone who has multiple alcoholic drinks a week…based on the postbellum intoxicated carry laws. The analogical reasoning Bruen prescribed cannot stretch that far.”

  The government has tried to use other laws barring guns to the mentally ill and dangerous individuals as historical analogs, but the court would have none of it.

  Indeed, Hunter could find himself arguing that people are too often denied rights by the government under claims that they are “insurrectionists.” Sound familiar?

  The government has pointed to how “Founding-era governments took guns away from persons perceived to be dangerous.”

  However, the Fifth Circuit noted that those laws targeted unpopular people, including Catholics, as akin to traitors to the Revolution. Judge Smith wrote that drug users “are not a class of political traitors, as British Loyalists were perceived to be. Nor are they like Catholics and other religious dissenters who were seen as potential insurrectionists.”

  So, a rejection of the gun diversion agreement could prove an even greater diversion for the Biden family as Hunter embraces the very decisions and rights long opposed by his father.

  In the meantime, the Justice Department would be citing historical precedent used against Catholics (like the Bidens) as potential insurrectionists who cannot be trusted with weapons.

  Of course, White House Press Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre could defend all of this by paraphrasing the NRA that the “only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun [case] is a good guy with a gun [case].”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 19:00

• Woke Bill Gates Foundation Becomes One Of Anheuser-Busch's Top Shareholders
  Woke Bill Gates Foundation Becomes One Of Anheuser-Busch’s Top Shareholders

  A new Form 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that one of the ‘wokest’ billionaires has put his stamp of approval on one of the wokest beers in America. 

  The filing showed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust bought 1.7 million shares of Anheuser-Busch, valued at around $95 million, signaling Gates has confidence in the beer company that imploded its Bud Light brand after a disastrous advertising campaign in April with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney. 

  

  Gates’ Seattle-based $69 billion trust bought the shares around the latest earnings report around $59.89 per share. Shares are currently trading at a 6% discount around $56.24. 

  

  Last month, Anheuser-Busch said US revenues slid 10% in the second quarter due to the consumer backlash of Bud Light. This allowed Modelo Especial, the nation’s new king of beers, to become the best-selling beer among US consumers. 

  Gate’s bet on Anheuser-Busch ranks him as the ninth largest shareholder. 

  

  Gates, who has previously said he’s “not a big beer drinker,” has bought other brewers, including a 3.76% stake in Heineken Holding NV earlier this year. 

  A former Anheuser-Busch executive told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that Gates’ investment into the brewer is a “mistake.” 

  “Bill Gates is definitely making a mistake.

  “Earlier this year, he already made a $900 million mistake when he invested into one of Anheuser-Busch’s largest rivals, Heineken. He did that earlier this year. And since that investment, Heineken’s down about 10%, whereas the broader markets are up 10%.”

  “So if I was looking for advice on investing to software companies, tech companies, I might go to Bill Gates. But if you’re looking at the beer industry, he doesn’t have a great track record of investing in winners at this point,” former Anheuser-Busch executive Anson Frericks said. 

  Bill has put his stamp of approval on Bud Light. 

  

  Some on social media have called for a doubling down on the Bud Light boycott following the news Gates is now a majority shareholder of the brewer. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 18:40

• CDC Warns RSV Cases Are Rising Among Infants, Babies
  CDC Warns RSV Cases Are Rising Among Infants, Babies

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning physicians and caregivers about an increase in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases across some parts of the Southeastern United States in recent weeks.

  

  In a Sept. 5 health advisory, the health agency said the rise in cases suggests a “continued shift toward seasonal RSV trends observed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

  “Historically, such regional increases have predicted the beginning of RSV season nationally, with increased RSV activity spreading north and west over the following 2–3 months,” the CDC said.

  CDC data shows increases in weekly RSV levels since July but the agency said that nationwide, RSV test positivity had remained below the season onset threshold of 3 percent for two consecutive weeks.

  However, more recent data show test positivity has increased in Florida since late July, and the three-week moving average has been greater than 5 percent for the last month.

  RSV hospitalizations also increased in Georgia in August, the CDC said.

  From Aug. 5 through Aug. 19, the rate of RSV-related hospitalizations increased from 2 in 100,000 kids aged 4 and younger, to 7 per 100,000, with the majority of those hospitalizations being in babies less than a year old, the CDC said.

  In response to the rise in cases, the health agency urged clinicians to “prepare to implement new RSV prevention options” ahead of the 2023–2024 RSV season, including administering shots of monoclonal antibody products to patients as well as a preventative antibody treatment called nirsevimab.

  

  FDA Approves RSV Treatments

  “For all infants ages <8 months, and infants and children ages 8–19 months who are at increased risk of severe RSV, clinicians should start to offer Nirsevimab when it becomes available (expected by early October),” the CDC said.

  A panel of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted unanimously in July to approve nirsevimab for RSV in newborns and infants up to 24 months of age.

  Sold under the brand name Beyfortus, the treatment is made by AstraZeneca and marketed by Sanofi. The companies said the drug showed efficacy in several clinical trials.

  Regulators in countries including Canada and the United Kingdom have already approved Beyfortus.

  A month later in August, regulators with the FDA also approved the first vaccine to be taken by pregnant women to prevent RSV infections in babies and toddlers.

  Made by Pfizer, the Abrysvo single-dose injection was approved for use at 32 through 36 weeks of pregnancy. According to the pharmaceuticals giant, pregnant women who receive immunity from the shot will pass that immunity along to their unborn baby before birth, thus protecting them from lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) and severe LRTD caused by RSV until at least the age of 6 months.

  In trials, a dangerous hypertensive disorder known as pre-eclampsia occurred in 1.8 percent of pregnant individuals who received Abrysvo compared to 1.4 percent of pregnant individuals who received a placebo, according to the FDA.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 18:20

• Fan Appeal: Could Basketball Kick Football Off Its Throne?
  Fan Appeal: Could Basketball Kick Football Off Its Throne?

  As the NFL season kicks off, millions of Americans will be glued to their television screens (or whatever screens their watching on), happy to finally see the return of their favorite sport.

  According to Statista Consumer Insights, American football – or just football depending on where you live – is still the clear number 1 sport in the United States. 77 percent of U.S. adults who generally follow sports said they follow football, putting it far ahead of basketball, followed by 59 percent of respondents, and baseball at 50 percent.

  But, as Statista’s Felix Richter reports, while football has been America’s true favorite pastime for decades (sorry baseball), that doesn’t necessarily mean things will stay that way forever.

  In fact, there are some signs that football’s reign could eventually come to an end, as the sport has struggled to resonate with younger fans in the same way that the NBA has.

  As the following chart shows, football has already lost its lead to basketball among 18- to 24-year-olds, while retaining a dominant lead in older age groups.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  With game times of around three hours that aren’t exactly action-packed, NFL games just aren’t ideally suited for younger consumers who are no longer used to pay attention to anything for that long.

  The NBA has been quicker to embrace the change in sports consumption, catering to an audience that is more likely to watch highlight clips on social media than sitting through entire games on ESPN. The fact that basketball is also easier to pick up and play casually adds to the sport’s popularity among young fans, not to mention the appeal of superstars such as LeBron James, who are deeply ingrained in popular culture.

  Whether this trend will continue long enough for basketball to kick football off its throne remains to be seen, but for now basketball is winning the battle for young audiences.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/07/2023 – 18:00

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