Dec 09

Today’s News 9th December 2021

  • Escobar: What Putin Really Told Biden
    Escobar: What Putin Really Told Biden

    Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,

    Russian and US leaders dropped their respective rhetorical gauntlets but nobody really expects Russia to invade Ukraine…

    So Russian President Vladimir Putin, all by himself, and US President Joe Biden, surrounded by aides, finally had their secret video link conference for two hours and two minutes – with translators placed in different rooms.

    That was their first serious exchange since they met in person in Geneva last June – the first Russia-US summit since 2018.

    For global public opinion, led to believe a “war” in Ukraine was all but imminent, what’s left is essentially a torrent of spin.

    So let’s start with a simple exercise focusing on the key issue of the video link – Ukraine -, contrasting the White House and Kremlin versions of what happened.

    • The White House: Biden made it “clear” to Putin that the US and allies will respond with “decisive economic and other measures” to the military escalation in Ukraine. At the same time, Biden called on Putin to de-escalate around Ukraine and “return to diplomacy”.

    • Kremlin: Putin offered Biden to nullify all restrictions on the functioning of diplomatic missions. He remarked that cooperation between Russia and the US is still in an “unsatisfactory” state. He urged the US not to shift “responsibility on the shoulders of Russia” for the escalation of the situation around Ukraine.

    • The White House: the US will expand military aid to Ukraine if Russia takes steps against it.

    • Kremlin: Putin told Biden that Russia is interested in obtaining legally fixed guarantees excluding NATO’s eastward expansion and the deployment of offensive strike systems in Russia’s neighboring countries.

    • The White House: Biden did not give Putin any commitments that Ukraine will remain outside NATO.

    Minsk or bust

    Now for what really matters: the red line.

    What Putin diplomatically told Team Biden, sitting at their table, is that Russia’s red line – no Ukraine on NATO – is unmovable. The same applies to Ukraine turned into a hub of the Pentagon’s Empire of Bases, and hosting NATO weaponry.

    Washington may deny it ad infinitum, but Ukraine is part of Russia’s sphere of influence. If nothing is done to force Kiev to abide by the Minsk Agreement, Russia will “neutralize” the threat in its own terms.

    The root cause of all this drama, absent from any NATOstan narrative, is straightforward: Kiev simply refuses to respect the February 2015 Minsk Agreement.

    According to the deal, Kiev should grant autonomy to Donbass via a constitutional amendment, referred to as “special status”; issue a general amnesty; and start a dialogue with the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

    Over the years, Kiev fulfilled less than zero of these commitments – while the NATOstan media machine kept spinning that Russia was violating Minsk. Russia is not even mentioned (italics mine) in the agreement.

    Moscow always respected the Minsk Agreement – which establishes Donbass as an integral, autonomous part of Ukraine. Russia has made it very clear, over and over again, it has no interest whatsoever in promoting regime change in Kiev.

    Before the video link, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov remarked, “Putin will listen to Biden’s proposals on Ukraine ‘with great interest.’” Even the White House states Team Biden did not propose for Kiev to obey the Minsk Agreement. So regardless of what Team Biden may have said, Putin, pragmatically, will adopt a “wait and see” approach, and then act accordingly.

    In the run up to the video link, maximum hype revolved around Washington seeking to stop Nord Stream 2 if Russia “invades” Ukraine.

    What never transpires out of the “invasion” narrative, repeated ad nauseam across NATOstan, is that hawks overseeing an immensely polarized US, corroded from the inside, desperately need a war in what military analyst Andrei Martyanov calls “country 404”, a black hole contiguous to Europe.

    The crux of the matter is that imperial European vassals must not have access to Russian energy: only American LNG.

    And that’s what led the most extreme Russophobes in Washington to start threatening sanctions on Putin’s inner circle, Russian energy producers, and even disconnecting Russia from SWIFT. All that was supposed to prevent Russia from “invading” Country 404.

    Secretary of State Tony Blinken – present at the video link – said a few days ago in Riga that “if Russia invades Ukraine”, NATO will respond “with a range of high impact economic measures.” As for NATO, it’s far from aggressive: just a “defensive” organization.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in early December, at the OCSE Ministerial Council meeting in Stockholm, was already warning that “strategic stability” in Europe was “rapidly eroding”.

    Lavrov said, “NATO refuses to consider our proposals on de-escalation of tensions and prevention of dangerous incidents…On the contrary, the alliance’s military infrastructure is moving closer to Russia’s borders… The nightmarish scenario of military confrontation is returning.”

    So no wonder the heart of the matter, for Moscow, is NATO encroachment. The “invasion” narrative is crass fake news sold as fact. Even the CIA’s William Burns admitted that US intel had no intel to “conclude” that Russia will dutifully answer the War Inc. prayers and finally “invade” Ukraine.

    Still that did not prevent a German sensationalist rag from presenting the full contours of the Russian blitzkrieg, when the actual story is the US and NATO attempting to push “country 404” to commit suicide by attacking the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

    That legally binding guarantee

    It’s idle to expect the video link to produce practical results. As NATOstan remains mired in concentric crises, the current level of high tension between NATO and Russia is a gift from heaven in terms of maintaining the convenient narrative of an external Slavic evil. It’s also an extra bonus for the military-industrial-intelligence-media-think tank complex.

    The tension will continue to simmer without becoming incandescent only if NATO does not expand in any shape or form inside Ukraine. Diplomats in Brussels routinely comment that Kiev will never be accepted as a NATO member. But if things can get worse, they will: Kiev will become one of those NATO special partners, a desperately poor, hungry for territory, rogue actor.

    Putin demanding from the US – which runs NATO – a written, legally binding guarantee that the alliance will not advance further eastward towards Russian borders is the game-changer here.

    Team Biden cannot possibly deliver: they would be eaten alive by the War Inc. establishment. Putin studied his history and knows that Daddy Bush’s “promise” to Gorbachev on NATO expansion was just a lie. He knows those who run NATO will never commit themselves in writing.

    So that allows Putin a full range of options to defend Russian national security. “Invasion” is a joke; Ukraine, rotting from the inside, consumed by fear, loathing, and poverty, will remain in limbo, while Donetsk and Lugansk will be progressively interconnected with the Russian Federation.

    There will be no NATO war on Russia – as Martyanov himself has extensively demonstrated NATO wouldn’t last five minutes against Russian hypersonic weapons. And Moscow will be focused on what really matters, geoeconomically and geopolitically: solidifying the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and the Greater Eurasia Partnership.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/08/2021 – 23:40

  • Air Force Secretary Reveals Two New Secret Combat Drones 
    Air Force Secretary Reveals Two New Secret Combat Drones 

    US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall revealed at the Reagan National Defense Forum that two new secret combat drone programs are preparing to be funded.

    “I’ve got two that I’m going to have in the ’23 budget in some form,” Kendall told Politico on Saturday at the conference. 

    “They’re both unmanned air combat vehicles, unmanned platforms that are designed to work in conjunction with fighter aircraft like [the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter] or F-22 or the F-35. On the other hand they work in conjunction with bombers like the B-21,” he said. 

    Kendall said the two combat drones are designed to operate alongside stealth fighter jets and bombers. He said the existence of the drones would be disclosed in the upcoming military budget request that heads to Congress early next year. 

    “These will be acknowledged classified programs,” he explained, “but I am going to try to get them started in ’23.”

    There is speculation the two new drones could be the USAF’s attempt to expand its Loyal Wingman program. So far, Boeing has developed the Loyal Wingman drone in partnership with the Defence Department and Royal Australian Air Force. The drone uses artificial intelligence to attack enemy targets and flies alongside high-value assets such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, Boeing P-8 Poseidon, and Boeing E-7 Wedgetail.

    Kendall’s acknowledgment of the new drones suggests that the USAF is rapidly investing in autonomous weapon systems, giving fighter pilots an edge over China and Russia. 

    “Investing in unique and highly capable unmanned aerial vehicles is something people not only expect, but is indicative of the fact that the Air Force is exploiting the technologies out there to give it a decisive technology edge,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, the former deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance who now runs the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, an industry-backed think tank.

    Kendall said preparation work for the two new programs is already underway.

    “I will be doing things to try and get them ready to go,” he said. “We will be able to use study money and some science and technology money to set the stage for that.”

    In a separate program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon’s research arm, developed an AI-controlled virtual fighter pilot that can beat human pilots in mock dogfights.  

    The rise of Skynet continues…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/08/2021 – 23:20

  • Ron Paul: Biden's "Democracy Summit" Is A Joke
    Ron Paul: Biden’s “Democracy Summit” Is A Joke

    Authored by Ron Paul,

    On December 9-10 President Biden will preside over an online “Summit for Democracy,” which claims it will “bring together leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today through collective action.”

    What a joke. This is not about promoting democracy. It’s really about undermining democracy worldwide with US interventionist foreign policy.

    Yes, the conference is anti-democracy, not pro-democracy.

    The countries whose elected leaders do the bidding of the United States – disregarding the wishes of those who elected them – are to be favored with an invitation to this “virtual” event. The countries that pursue domestic and foreign policy that is independent from the demands of the US State Department and CIA are not allowed into Washington’s sandbox to play.

    Much of the world has seen through the pettiness of such an infantile approach. It is like the fairy tale of the emperor with no clothes. None of the sycophantic foreign leaders graced with an invitation to the banquet dare point out that the US is in the business of undermining democracy overseas, not promoting it.

    Color revolutions, where elected governments are overthrown with US backing, is about the only thing the US exports these days. Ask the Ukrainians how their US-backed overthrow in 2014 has worked out for them. Ask any victim of US anti-democratic “color revolutions” about the US commitment to democracy.

    For Washington, democracy means “you elect who we tell you to elect.”

    European Union member country Hungary is the only EU country not invited to participate in the “Summit for Democracy” even though it has undeniably held fully democratic elections since the end of communism 30 years ago. There is no question that Hungary is a democratic country, but it is not invited to Biden’s “Summit for Democracy.”

    Why? Because the Biden Administration does not like Hungary’s democracy. It does not like the fact that the Hungarian people have voted for a conservative government that occasionally pursues foreign and domestic policies at odds with the dictates of Foggy Bottom and Langley.

    The Biden Administration does not like that Hungary resisted the mass invasion of refugees from countries and cultures absolutely alien to Hungary’s history. Biden does not like the fact that Hungarians have voted time and time again for a conservative government that openly professes Christian values. But what they hate most is that when Washington says “jump,” Budapest doesn’t always ask “how high?”.

    It’s a petty game that has already backfired like all of Washington’s idiotic interventionist initiatives. For example, in the Hungarian situation, Washington’s childish snub of Hungary has meant that the rest of the European Union cannot participate in the summit as the EU.

    Washington’s intervention overseas is always an own-goal. Sanctioning Russia over phony Russiagate has resulted in more Russia-China cooperation. The US tells Iran it must not sell oil anywhere, and similarly-demonized China cuts a good deal for Iranian oil.

    It won’t shock anyone that Russia and Iran – which both hold elections no less democratic than those in Ukraine, where opposition parties are outlawed and their leaders jailed – are not invited to Biden’s little party. But no doubt their absence will be more than made up by North Macedonia, Suriname, and Micronesia. Democracy summit? More like propaganda summit! What a joke!

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/08/2021 – 23:00

  • Earthquake Swarm Hits Off Oregon Coast, Causing Fears Of 'The Next Big One' 
    Earthquake Swarm Hits Off Oregon Coast, Causing Fears Of ‘The Next Big One’ 

    The Blanco Transform Fault Zone (BTFZ) off Oregon’s coast, one of North America’s most active fault lines, generated 50 earthquakes in the last 24 hours. 

    The quake swarm hit 200-250 miles west of Newport, Oregon, and ranged between magnitude 3.5 to 5.8. The area’s seismic activity has generated a lot of buzz on social media, of worried people believing the next big one could be nearing. 

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    “If you had asked me yesterday where on Earth would be most likely to produce a bunch of magnitude 5.0+ quakes in a single day, this would have been high on my list,” Harold Tobin, Director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington, told CNN.

    BTFZ is a strike-slip boundary which means tectonic plates slide along one another. The most dangerous are the subduction zones, where one plate dives underneath another. 

     “Blanco Fracture zone quakes are strike-slip (lateral motions of the crustal blocks on either side, rather than up-down displacement), so it is very unlikely for them to pose a tsunami threat, even if a bigger quake happened, like a magnitude 7.0 for example,” Tobin said. 

    Social media users were concerned that the quake swarm was from the Cascadia Subduction Zone closer to shore. 

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    Meanwhile, the Oregon Office of Emergency has warned if a powerful 9.0+ magnitude earthquake originates from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, it could unleash a “tsunami of up to 100 feet in height that will impact the coastal area.” 

    The state agency adds, “Currently, scientists are predicting that there is about a 37 percent chance that a megathrust earthquake of 7.1+ magnitude in this fault zone will occur in the next 50 years.”

    The Cascadia Subduction Zone has had seven major earthquakes. The last one was in the 1700s. 

    Professor of Marine Geology Dr. Chris Goldfinger at Oregon State University has focused research on the Cascadia Subduction Zone. He warned at a 2016 TED Conference, an earthquake for the area is “overdue.” 

    So when Pacific Northwest residents hear about quake swarms off the coast, they get concerned because a monster tsunami could be headed their way. They also have to worry about supervolcano fears in Yellowstone National Park. 

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 22:40

    • Police Detective Warns People Not To Visit Los Angeles Due To Rising Crime
      Police Detective Warns People Not To Visit Los Angeles Due To Rising Crime

      Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

      A Los Angeles detective has warned against people visiting the city due to rising crime rates while adding that police are unable to guarantee their safety.

      “We’re telling people don’t visit because we don’t think we can keep you safe right now. And that’s just sad to say,” Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detective Jamie McBride told Fox News on Tuesday.

      McBride blamed Governor Gavin Newsom, L.A. County DA George Gascon, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for propagating the Proposition 47 bill that has led to such a situation.

      “How did we get here? The ACLU advocated for Proposition 47 which changed the sentencing guidelines,” McBride said.

      “So, right now, you can literally go out and do whatever you want, commit crimes, and you will be out faster than the officers can finish the report, and that’s a fact.”

      Supporters of the bill claim California’s prisons are now less filled with prisoners because of it, while opponents say that lawbreaking has surged as many crimes, that were earlier felonies, such as shoplifting, are now considered misdemeanors, and offenders are easily let out.

      Based on 2020 data from the Public Policy Institute of California, Los Angeles reported a 40 percent increase in homicides from the previous year, while Oakland, San Francisco, and San Diego reported 36, 41-48, and 50-58 percent hikes respectively.

      “We’re wondering how many times somebody has to be arrested here in L.A. before they stay in jail,” said McBride, adding that there’s a lot of violence in the city and that’s unsafe for people to go shopping.

      Los Angeles was number one in the top 10 worst cities in the U.S. for retail crime, according to a 2020 survey by the National Retail Federation. The Californian cities of San Francisco and Sacramento also featured on the list. The Bay Area has especially been hit with a spate of retail theft.

      McBride advocated for getting rid of “progressive district attorneys” who he said, support criminals.

      “And to be honest with you, it shouldn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. I think we should all want to feel safe in your home, and we should be tough on crime, and that’s where it starts. We have to start from the top and clean house all the way down,” he said.

      When asked whether low bail and Proposition 47 were considered compassionate policies as expounded by progressives, McBride said that the criminals are not out for grabbing “milk, meat, cheese,” but “Rolex watches,” hitting “jewelry stores,” and “Louis Vuitton stores.”

      He added that the ACLU was a “partner-in-crime for the suspects,” and brought up the website, ACLU-Watch, where he says details of how the organization helps criminals succeed, and “stay on the streets and commit crimes” are given.

      Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) made a controversial statement last week to The Washington Times when she said,

      “A lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out. I believe it’s a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up.”

      In response, Walgreens told the Times that crime “has evolved beyond shoplifting and petty theft to the sale of stolen and counterfeit goods online.”

      As organized crime remains one of the top challenges, security costs at Walgreens’ San Francisco stores have shot up 46 times the national average.

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 22:20

    • These Are The Things Real People Are Spending Millions Of Real Dollars On, In The Metaverse
      These Are The Things Real People Are Spending Millions Of Real Dollars On, In The Metaverse

      While billions are joking about Facebook’s “metaverse” plans, real people are spending millions (and soon billions) in real cash to buy imaginary objects. As BofA’s Alkesh Shah writes, metaverse land (and yacht) purchases are accelerating as blockchain-enabled applications and new frontiers continue to develop.

      Here are some examples of what people are spending all too real money on:

      • Metaverse Group, a subsidiary of Tokens.com, purchased a 116-parcel estate in Decentraland’s Fashion Street district for ~$2.4 million (618k MANA) on Nov 23.1 If you’re wondering where Decentraland is on the map, it’s not.The 6,090 square feet of digital land purchased exists solely in the metaverse. The purchase was the largest acquisition of metaverse land to date and equates to 0.13% of all land to ever exist in Decentraland. And as Decentralands monthly users are expected to reach an all-time high of 300k this month it is not surprising that so many individuals and organizations want a piece of the action.

      • Republic Realm, a digital real estate firm, purchased 259 parcels of land in Decentraland’s Metajuku district for ~$914k (1.3mn MANA) on Jun 18. The firm plans to transform its 16,000 square feet of digital land into a virtual shopping district where users can purchase digital wearables.
      • Retail stores are leased and operated by third parties with current occupancy at 40%. If the idea of digital clothing sounds a bit farfetched, Balenciaga, Burberry,Dolce & Gabbana, Givenchy, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, among others, have already released digital collections.
         
      • Axie Infinity, a play-to-earn gaming platform, announced on Nov 24 that it had sold a “Genesis” plot of digital land – one of 220 – for ~$2.3 million (550ETH).

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      • Worried about inflated land prices? You probably should be… although it is likely that they prices will get much higher before they pop: the largest known sale of metaverse (sur)real estate took place at the all too real price of $4.3 million. Republic Realm said it paid $4.3 million for land in the world Sandbox, the biggest virtual real-estate sale publicized to date. Republic Realm bought the digital land from videogame company Atari SA and the two firms said they plan to partner on the development of some of the properties.

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      • That acquisition broke a record set just last week by a subsidiary of Canadian investment firm Tokens.com Corp., which said it paid around $2.5 million for land in the world Decentraland’s Fashion District: “This is like buying land in Manhattan 250 years ago as the city is being built,” said Andrew Kiguel, chief executive of Tokens.com.

      • Then there are yachts: Republic Realm sold its Metaflower Super Mega Yacht, a virtual yacht, on Nov 23 for ~$650k (149 ETH) in The Sandbox to an anonymous buyer.

      Participants can buy a virtual yacht or paintings for their virtual homes

      • The yacht includes a relaxing Jacuzzi, two helipads, lounge areas, and even a dance floor to entertain its guest.

      Needless to say, such “meta” investments are extremely risky. Unlike actual real estate, which tends to retain some value even during a market downturn, the value of virtual properties could fall to zero if the world they are in goes out of fashion and people stop visiting it.

      Prices can also be slammed by the volatility of cryptocurrencies, said Zach Aarons, general partner of the real-estate-focused venture-capital firm MetaProp. “If I buy a building for 40 ETH, and then ethereum goes from $4,000 to $100, that’s a fundamental risk that I’m not really taking when I’m buying a piece of physical real estate,” he said.

      That hasn’t stopped the meta craze from reaching all the way to the very top: Sotheby’s created a virtual replica of its New Bond Street Galleries headquarters in London in Decentraland’s Voltaire Art District, where its Natively Digital NFT auction on Jun 3 was streamed. The structure features all five ground level gallery spaces as well as the figure of Sotheby’s London Commissionaire, Hans Lomulder, on hand to greet visitors.

      Michael Bouhanna, specialist and head of sales at Sotheby’s said that “we see spaces like Decentraland as the next frontier for digital art where artists, collectors and viewers alike can engage with one another from anywhere in the world and showcase art that is fundamentally scarce and unique, but accessible to anyone for viewing.”

      BofA’s take: “the metaverse consists of persistent virtual reality platforms, powered by blockchain technology, which allow users to interact through augmented reality (AR) headsets. Similar to the Gold Rush, investors and speculators are securing what they expect to be valuable assets within this new frontier. We expect the development of infrastructure (railroads) in the form of on-ramps and interoperability of digital assets. The Metaverse is worth paying attention to, given a potential market opportunity of $1tn.4 We expect development of this new frontier over the next decade, leading to interoperable environments that allow users to interact, play games, attend concerts and visit art galleries, as well as buy, sell and trade NFTs.”

      To be clear, “the metaverse has already arrived with ~$392 million spent this year on metaverse-related digital assets.”

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 22:00

    • CIA Chief: No Evidence Iran Is Seeking Nukes
      CIA Chief: No Evidence Iran Is Seeking Nukes

      Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

      Early this week, CIA Director William Burns said the US does not have evidence that Iran has decided to weaponize its nuclear program.

      The CIA “doesn’t see any evidence that Iran’s Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei] has made a decision to move to weaponize,” Burns told The Wall Street Journal’s annual CEO Council, The Times of Israel reported.

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      Burns’ admission comes a week after the US and Iran resumed indirect negotiations in Vienna to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA. The latest round of talks concluded Friday and are expected to resume this Thursday.

      On the ongoing talks, the CIA chief was quoted in the following:

      Burns said Monday that “the Iranians have not been taking the negotiation seriously at this point,” before adding, “we’ll see soon enough about how serious they are.”

      Israeli officials have been claiming that Iran is only trying to buy time with the negotiations as it secretly develops a nuclear bomb.

      For decades now, Israel has been making similar warnings, but Iran has always insisted it does not want nuclear weapons and Israel is currently the only nuclear-armed state in the region.

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      Burns’ comments counter the Israeli claims and could be a sign that the US might be breaking from Israel on the issue. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett demanded to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US must “immediately” halt negotiations with Iran.

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 21:40

    • Safeway Redesigns San Francisco Store To Prevent 'Flash Mob' Robberies 
      Safeway Redesigns San Francisco Store To Prevent ‘Flash Mob’ Robberies 

      A Safeway grocery store in San Francisco, California, has redesigned the front end of its store to mitigate shoplifting and smash and grab mobs. 

      “This Safeway is getting weirder and weirder,” one shopper told San Francisco Chronicle who walked through a newly installed electronic gate at the entrance of the store. The gates allow customers to enter the store but prevent looters from running out with a cart full of stolen items. 

      Barriers were added throughout the checkout area, directing customers leaving the store into a single file line. Unused checkout aisles were blocked with large physical barriers. The store’s side entrance was blocked by a new display of heavy plastic water bottles. 

      “Like other local businesses, we are working on ways to curtail escalating theft to ensure the wellbeing of our employees and to foster a welcoming environment for our customers. Their safety remains our top priority,” Wendy Gutshall, director of public and government affairs for Safeway’s Northern California Division, said in an emailed statement.

      “These long-planned security improvements were implemented with those goals in mind,” Gutshall said. 

      Safeway has yet to roll out the new security measures at other stores. The one on 2020 Market St appears to be a pilot test. It also reduced operating hours — now closing at 9 pm to prevent late-night thefts. 

      Other stores like Home Depot, CVS, Target, and Best Buy have been crushed by flash mobs across California in recent weeks. Readers may recall that a criminal gang raided a San Francisco-area Nordstrom at the end of November, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of items. There has also been a flash mob raid of a Louis Vuitton store in The Bay Area.

      We have routinely pointed out that progressive laws to downgrade retail theft of less than $950 worth of goods from a felony to a misdemeanor has led to an uncontrollable surge in looting, forcing some retailers to abandon the metro area. 

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 21:20

    • Maryland Man Charged After Allegedly Distributing Hundreds Of Fake Vaccine Cards
      Maryland Man Charged After Allegedly Distributing Hundreds Of Fake Vaccine Cards

      Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

      A Maryland man has been charged with mail fraud and obstruction of justice after allegedly ordering and selling hundreds of fake COVID-19 vaccination cards, according to the Department of Justice.

      Amar Salim Shabazz, 23, of Owings Mills, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

      According to court documents obtained by The Epoch Times, Shabazz utilized a Chinese online marketplace to order more than 600 of the fake cards, some of which contained misspelled words such as “COVD” instead of COVID-19.

      Shabazz promoted the cards on his Instagram and Facebook accounts, asking $75 each and encouraging interested individuals to message him.

      Shabazz indicated the racket was going well. On Aug. 6, he posted on Facebook that he had just 17 cards left.

      “They’re going like hot cakes,” he wrote, adding four days later that he was out until the following week.

      “I’m gonna be rich,” Shabazz told a connection on Instagram.

      A fresh shipment authorities say was ordered by the Maryland man and originated in Hong Kong was seized by customs officers at a DHL shipping company facility in Kentucky. Officers found 503 fake vaccination cards and indicated online there was a hold on the package.

      Shabazz went online the same day and searched for “customs inspection packages VACCINATION cards” and watched videos about fake vaccination cards being found.

      “[Expletive] [expletive] u.s. customs yo,” he wrote on Facebook. “Hope my [expletive] make it thru man.”

      A caller authorities believe was Shabazz called DHL inquiring about the package.

      Law enforcement officers replaced the cards with boxes of masks and placed the package outside the front door of Shabazz’s residence. In a video posted to Instagram the next day, Shabazz filmed himself opening up the box, telling viewers, “Look yo, I got masks yo. No [expletive] cards.”

      Soon after, Shabazz is accused of going back to the Chinese marketplace and ordering more of the cards. He appeared to receive the package and started promoting their sale on his social media accounts.

      Authorities got in touch with a woman who bought a card from Shabazz by communicating with him over Instagram and paying him with CashApp. Records from the services provided evidence of the sale.

      A conversation between Amar Salim Shabazz and another individual is seen in this screenshot of a court document. (The Epoch Times via DOJ)

      Other customers were also interviewed.

      Search warrants were executed on Shabazz’s residence in late September and authorities found fake cards inside Shabazz’s Lexus and receipts for UPS shipping costs related to shipments to several individuals identified as having received the papers.

      “The feds kicked in my door on Friday I might be going to jail soon hopefully not,” Shabazz messaged an unnamed person on Instagram.

      Shabazz was charged on Dec. 3, arraigned, and released pending trial.

      A public defender representing him declined to comment.

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 21:00

    • Gentrification Tsunami Transforms Austin Into Least Affordable US City
      Gentrification Tsunami Transforms Austin Into Least Affordable US City

      Austin, Texas is one of the nation’s fastest-gentrifying cities as the rapid influx of affluent millennials pushes out low-income residents. Parts of Autin that were once lined with mobile home parks and industrial yards have become modern apartment buildings and trendy restaurants, according to NYTimes. 

      The working poor of Austin, many of which reside in Black and Latino neighborhoods, find themselves in a rapidly changing city impacted by gentrification. Younger generations have been pouring into Austin over the last decade, supercharged in the last few years as large technology companies expand operations in the metro area. 

      A decade ago, Austin was one of the most affordable places to live in the country and a liberal oasis. Now it’s become one of the least affordable areas. On average, 180 new people were moving to the city every day during the pandemic as housing inventory was historically low. This combination ignited home prices, hitting a record of $536,000 in October, up from about $441,250 a year ago. Prices are more than doubled since 2011. 

      Soaring home prices, rising property taxes, and redevelopment projects have unleashed gentrification in more than 35 neighborhoods, and another 23 are at risk, according to a 2018 study by the University of Texas. 

      “We knew it was coming,” said Francisco Nuñez, who lived in a Cactus Rose Mobile Home Park trailer for over two decades. He said the trailer park was sold to a developer to make way for new apartments that cost double his rent. This trend is happening all over the city and pushing the working poor further and further outside city limits.

      Working poor are not happy with gentrification. 

      Much of the gentrification has been due to an exodus of people from California and Northeast states, attracted by new jobs and the economic prosperity of a thriving city due to Apple, Amazon, IBM, AT&T, Tesla, and Samsung opening new campuses or expanding operations. 

      The flurry of high-paying tech jobs in the city has unleashed inflationary forces on the metro area, boosting the cost of living from one of the cheapest in the US to the most expensive in under a decade. Rob Gordon, the manager and real estate agent with the realty company, JBGoodwin, said the city expanded by 160,000 people in the last decade. 

      Gordon said that the neighborhood of Northwest Hills, about 20 minutes from downtown, saw a large buying wave this spring, with 18 of the 19 homes bought over the list price. He said one home was listed for $975k and sold for $1.395 million. 

      For as liberal as Austin is, one would suspect an uproar from local politicians amid the gentrification crisis in the city. 

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 20:40

    • New Zealand Prime Minister Admits "There's Not Going To Be An End Point To This Vaccination Program"
      New Zealand Prime Minister Admits “There’s Not Going To Be An End Point To This Vaccination Program”

      Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

      New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has candidly revealed that “there’s not going to be an end point to this vaccination program.”

      Yes, really.

      “So long as there’s people who are eligible who haven’t been vaccinated, we’ve got work to do,” said Ardern.

      “Do you know, I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied so long as there’s someone who is eligible and hasn’t been (vaccinated),” she added.

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

      “There’s not going to be an end point to this vaccination program,” the Prime Minister revealed, while calling on people who got jabbed six months ago to come back for another shot.

      Ardern delivered the message while adopting her familiar passive-aggressive smiley mannerism, as seen many times before when she casually revealed the next step in COVID authoritarianism.

      People who fail to continually get vaccinated will face the same fate as those who have continued to resist compulsory shots, they’ll be out of work, face social ostracization and God only knows what else in the future.

      Enjoy your lifetime booster shots and enjoy not being able to travel, visit a restaurant or eventually go in a shop if you miss out on just one.

      Remember, if you don’t take the Pfizer jab for life, you’ll never be “fully vaccinated”.

      It truly never ends.

      *  *  *

      Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

      In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Get early access, exclusive content and behinds the scenes stuff by following me on Locals.

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 20:20

    • "The Problem Is Getting Worse" – China Sees New Marriages Fall To Lowest Level In 13 Years
      “The Problem Is Getting Worse” – China Sees New Marriages Fall To Lowest Level In 13 Years

      Back in April, we reported that the Chinese government had just documented its first decline in its massive population since the Communists seized power in 1949, raising fears about systemic deflation. Could China, lauded as the world’s rising super power, fall victim to “Japanification” before the 100th anniversary of the CCP seizing power in 2049?

      The possibility is clearly a cause for consternation among the most senior CCP officials, including President Xi himself.

      Beijing has only recently eased its restrictions on family size, allowing couples to have up to three kids. But it will likely take decades for these changes to make a difference. In the mean time, Chinese couples are facing some of the same obstacles to marriage and starting a family that young people in the US are also complaining about.

      According to the FT, efforts to lower the cost of marriage and child birth have largely failed to encourage more marriages in the rapidly-aging Asian society. Back in April, the Ministry of Civil Affairs launched an “education drive” to try and make marriage more affordable in 29 cities, as the cost of the ceremony has risen beyond the reach of average families. Instead of boosting the marriage rate, the rate of Chinese weddings fell to a 13-year low, according to the rate of new marriage licenses. Issuance of new licenses fell to 5.9MM during the first three quarters of 2021, marking the lowest level in 13 years. Rates of marriage license issuance has fallen for the past 8 years now.

      And authorities aren’t ignorant of what the demographic impact will be since out-of-wedlock childbirth in China is much less common than it is in the US.

      “A drop in marriage will affect birth rates and in turn economic and social development,” said Yang Zongtao, a senior official at the MCA last year. “We are hoping to…actively create favourable conditions for more people of suitable ages to walk into marriage.”

      One study carried out by researchers at Chengdu-based Southwest Jiatong University in five provinces found the average cost of a dowry and engagement gifts, including the bribe’s dowry (items given range from cash to housing) had exploded over the past 7 years by between 50% to 100% to at least 300K RMB ($47K). That’s more than 6x the annual household income.

      “The problem is getting worse and worse,” said Wang Xiangyang, an author of the Southwest Jiaotong study.

      In many ways, the CCP created this problem with decades of its one-child policy. The policy has led to major imbalances in the population of men vs. the population of women. The imbalance has barely improved since the 2010 census, despite the fact that Beijing first abolished the policy more than 5 years ago. Right now, there are 2.2M single men aged 25-34 and only 1.2MM single women in the same age group, according to official data.

      But there’s little Beijing can do now, aside from “importing” women from poorer nations en masse. Men are effectively encouraged to find wives abroad since there simply aren’t enough age-appropriate women at home.

      “The space for new policy is limited when you have more young men than women,” said a Beijing-based government adviser. “It is inevitable that a lot of men will remain single in their lifetime.”

      […]

      “We are not going to see a recovery in marriage when gender imbalance is so big,” the adviser added.

      In addition to the “education drive” we noted above, the central government has also ordered the creation of hundreds of marriage councils involving local officials, dignitaries and matchmakers to persuade couples to marry and follow the official line.

      As for the expectations surrounding dowries, one anonymous CCP official told the FT that “we keep telling young women and their parents that happiness has nothing to do with how many engagement gifts they receive.”

      But at least one young, recently-married man told the FT that the propaganda encouraging marriage likely won’t be accepted by the Chinese people.

      “No woman will marry me if I take the official propaganda for granted,” said a 28-year-old man surnamed Wang, who paid his in-laws Rmb99,999 in cash and Rmb50,000 worth of gold jewellery before his August wedding.

      “I am happy to have a wife, but not so about my parents having to empty their savings to help me achieve that goal.”

      Ultimately, the biggest hurdle for Beijing is similar to the hurdles facing the US: fewer women see marriage as a necessity, and a growing share of those who do want to settle down are waiting longer, leaving them less time to build a family. One survey conducted in May of young adults in Lishui, a rural county in eastern China, found that 60% of female respondents considered marriage necessary, compared with 82% for men.

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 20:00

    • Judge Grants Project Veritas Request To Insert Special Master After FBI Raids
      Judge Grants Project Veritas Request To Insert Special Master After FBI Raids

      Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

      A federal judge on Wednesday agreed to appoint a special master to shield certain materials from the bureau and prosecutors that the FBI seized from Project Veritas.

      A special master, typically a retired judge, is appointed in a small number of cases to sift through seized materials and separate out documents that are privileged, or legally protected from authorities.

      While a government filter team could adequately go through the materials, a special master is being appointed to “ensure ‘the perception of fairness,’” U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, an Obama nominee, wrote in the 5-page order.

      “In light of the potential First Amendment concerns that may be implicated by the review of the materials seized from petitioners, the court finds that the appointment of a special master will ‘help[] to protect the public’s confidence in the administration of justice,’” she added.

      Retired Judge Barbara Jones, a Clinton nominee, was appointed as special master.

      The government was ordered to finish extracting materials from the devices owned by James O’Keefe, Project Veritas’ founder, and two former Project Veritas employees and hand over the materials to Jones to go through.

      Jones will set aside any material not responsive to search warrants approved by a different judge last month, which allowed the FBI to raid the residences of O’Keefe, Eric Cochran, and Spencer Meads. She will hand over any materials responsive to the warrants to the filter team, which will then review the documents to determine if any should be withheld from the separate investigative team for reasons such as attorney-client privilege.

      Project Veritas lawyers can object to any materials cleared to go to the investigative team and Jones will rule on each objection.

      Torres denied another request from petitioners. They had asked the judge to order the government to search for the source of leaked information given to the New York Times related to the raids and the materials seized. She declined, asserting they did not provide a legal basis for their request or allege that the government violated any rule, law, or policy.

      FBI agents raided the homes searching for evidence of a conspiracy involving a diary said to belong to President Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley Biden.

      Project Veritas lawyers said most of the seized materials were privileged and unrelated to the Ashley Biden diary, emphasizing a need for a special master. The government opposed appointing a special master, arguing a filter team would be adequate.

      The ruling came one day after Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave rejected a second attempt to force the unsealing of records that convinced the judge to approve the warrants.

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 19:40

    • Russia's Second-Richest Man Faces $7 Billion Claim In Divorce Court
      Russia’s Second-Richest Man Faces $7 Billion Claim In Divorce Court

      Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, pretty much every prominent hedge fund managers in the past 5 years, and now Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s second-richest man, confirm that the best investment someone – presumably a woman, but in these gender fluid times anything goes – can make in this bizarro world is a stinking rich (soon to be ex) husband.

      According to Bloomberg, Potanin is facing one of the world’s biggest divorce claims after Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates: his ex-wife, Natalia Potanina, is seeking 50% of the value of his stake in MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC, outlining the maximum amount at a London court hearing Tuesday. That amount could exceed $7 billion, given that Potanin owns around one-third of the shares in the metal producer.

      Vladimir Putin, left, and Vladimir Potanin at an ice hockey friendly match in Red Square

      Potanin is fighting the case after Potanina overturned a lower court that accused her of “divorce tourism” a term loosely popularized by the 2003 George Clooney movie Intolerable Cruelty. Potanin is still waiting to hear whether the U.K. Supreme Court will consider an appeal, Judge Nicholas Francis said.

      Potanina made London her permanent home in 2017

      Senior judges recently gave Natalia Potanina, his ex-wife, the green light to pursue the 60-year-old through the English courts – despite the fact the Russian courts divorced them seven years ago.

      According to Bloomberg, London’s divorce courts have been a popular destination for high-value legal fights, with judges typically prepared to order a more equal share of a couple’s assets. In the U.K., the largest publicly known payout in a divorce is currently 450 million pounds ($631 million) to the wife of billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov – though the two settled with a payment of less than one-third of that amount.

      Potanina said that in addition to the Norilsk stock, she would be prepared to accept 50% of all dividends on the shares from 2014. Her former husband has collected some 487.3 billion rubles ($6.6 billion) in dividends since then and has a net worth of $29.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Potanina is also seeking half of the value of an expensive Russian property known as the Autumn House.

      Potanina said she received around $40 million following Russian divorce proceedings while Potanin said she ended up with $84 million — a sum that by English standards is a “paltry award” given his wealth and the length of their 31-year-marriage, a judge said in a previous decision.

      Another Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev, was the subject of a high-profile divorce that unfolded over six jurisdictions and resulted in years of acrimony. In 2014, a Swiss judge awarded his ex-wife, Elena Rybolovleva, $4.5 billion, though a subsequent ruling slashed the amount to just over $600 million.

      However, nobody struck ex-husband gold quite like MacKenzie Scott – the former Mrs Jeff Bezos had a net worth of $62.2 billion, thanks to her 4% stake in Amazon, which she received as part of her divorce settlement. Scott is the third-wealthiest woman in the United States, and the 21st-wealthiest individual in the world.

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 19:20

    • China Could Cause The Next Massive Crash In Oil Prices
      China Could Cause The Next Massive Crash In Oil Prices

      Authored by Simon Watkins via OilPrice.com,

      • China has been one of the main drivers of the 2000-2014 commodities supercycle

      • Slower economic growth and a huge debt bubble pose a tremendous risk to oil markets

      • China’s Evergrande crisis shows the fragility of the Chinese debt market

      Given the extreme disconnect between China’s huge economy-driven oil and gas needs and its minimal level of domestic oil and gas reserves, the country’s influence over oil prices has long been profound. As a result of this imbalance, China almost alone created the 2000-2014 commodities ‘supercycle’, characterized by consistently rising price trends for all commodities that are used in a booming manufacturing and infrastructure environment. This was a product largely of the 8 percent-plus annual GDP growth recorded by China over that period, with many spikes well above 10 percent and only a relatively short move down in economic growth at the onset of the Great Financial Crisis. Aside from huge quantities of imported oil and gas, this massive economic growth was fuelled by enormous debt piled up but then hidden away in various financial mechanisms that China believed it could simply pay off eventually through its rapid economic growth. Developments in the last week or so hint that both of these bubbles may be set to burst, taking the big bid in oil out of the market.

      “Despite some easing in the energy market, downside risks to growth persist, and we continue to expect GDP growth to ease to 5.2 percent in 2022 from an estimated 8.2 percent growth in 2021,” Eugenia Fabon Victorino, head of Asia Strategy for SEB, in Singapore, told OilPrice.com last week.

      “Easing in financial conditions will not spare the property sector from further pains, and bond defaults will continue to test investors’ nerves,” she said.

      The country’s Manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers’ index) for November unexpectedly surprised to the upside, coming in at 50.1 (anything above 50 indicates an expansion) for November (compared to 49.2 in October), while its Non-Manufacturing PMI for November registered 52.3 (compared to 52.4 in October) but official figures from China relating to its economy should be taken with a dose of skepticism. Looking ahead, highlighted Victorino:

      “The uncertainty surrounding the omicron variant will likely strengthen the resolve of the authorities to stick to its zero-tolerance policy towards COVID-19, even if it remains a dampener on private spending.”

      Meanwhile, she added:

      “Investment continues to deteriorate, [and] although fiscal policy turned marginally supportive as Beijing urged local governments to speed up mature projects, the impact on infrastructure activity is unlikely to become evident until the first quarter of 2022, in our view.” 

      Added to this macroeconomic uncertainty is increasing unease that China’s long-disguised bubble of debt will finally explode. Originally brought to light by the then-Fitch analyst, Charlene Chu, China had long been hiding vast quantities of debt that it had accrued through a multitude of state-related businesses through a range of difficult-to-examine schemes, most notably back then ‘wealth management products’ (WMPs). Typically, these offered a high rate of return and were up until recently effectively unregulated and were mainly sold to the public. More latterly they were also sold increasingly to banks and other financial institutions. In practical terms, they were an amalgam of layers and layers of liabilities built upon the same underlying assets, much as was seen with subprime asset-backed securities that the Western banks had in 2007/08 in the lead up to the onset of the Great Financial Crisis.

      Combined with the corollary bubbles in China’s housing and other asset markets that have been inflating over the past few years, as analysed in depth in my new book on the global oil markets, the situation in China right now is very similar to the one in the West in 2007/08 to which nobody paid attention until there started to be bankruptcies, which then snowballed into the full-blown Great Financial Crisis.  Although officially China’s debt-to-GDP ratio is currently just under 70 percent, in reality, it is much higher. Even according to the People’s Bank of China’s own data, outstanding ‘total social financing’ (which measures overall credit supply to the economy) stood at CNY284.83 trillion (USD44.1 trillion) at the end of December 2020, up 13.3 percent from a year earlier, with an increasing share of this being used to pay debt servicing costs. 

      Even back when China’s economy was growing at an average of 8 percent-plus per year, year in year out, it was mathematically not possible for it to grow its way out of this debt burden, and with GDP set to fall to around 5 percent or lower next year and likely beyond that, the concerns over China’s mountainous debt position have only increased with recent news of debt-related troubles at Evergrande. Originally a real estate developer – therefore, at the center of the Chinese government’s previous initiatives to fuel economic growth by huge infrastructure building projects, including new towns and cities – Evergrande took on even more debt (including through extensive bond issues) expanding its business portfolio. Overall, at a minimum – and these are just the known figures – Evergrande’s expansion in real estate (it owns more than 1,300 projects in more than 280 cities across China) and into wealth management, electric car production, and food and drink manufacturing, among others, cost it over US$300 billion in borrowing. Unsurprisingly, it is struggling to pay this debt and to service its bond payments, just like those who have known about China’s hidden debt pile for years were warning.

      “Although concerns of contagion beyond the property sector have pulled back, risk appetite for China’s offshore bond markets remains weak,” Victorino told OilPrice.com last week. “The real estate sector accounts for only 2.2 percent of the incoming bond maturities in the onshore market in 2022, but the share of real estate bonds maturities in the offshore bond market is substantially higher at almost 18 percent,” she said. “In the coming year, refinancing needs of the real estate sector in the offshore market will rise by around US$10 billion to almost US$57 billion, and total offshore maturities are expected to peak in March and April,” she underlined. “Considering that hawkish policy on the real estate sector will remain, defaults will continue to test investors’ nerves in 2022,” she concluded. 

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 19:00

    • 'David Burge' Goes Ballistic Over Civil Asset Forfeiture After Dallas Cops Snatch $100K From Innocent Woman
      ‘David Burge’ Goes Ballistic Over Civil Asset Forfeiture After Dallas Cops Snatch $100K From Innocent Woman

      On Tuesday, CBS Dallas glorified an incident at Dallas Love Field Airport in which a 25-year-old woman traveling with $100,000 in cash had it seized by the cops in what’s known as civil asset forfeiture. If you need a primer, see our previous reporting here and here.

      CBS reported:

      High praise for a K-9 officer at Dallas Love Field Airport after more than $100,000 was found in a passenger’s luggage.

      On December 2 the canine — named ‘Ballentine’ — alerted on an individual checked suitcase. It turns out the bag, that belonged to 25-year-old woman from Chicago who was on a layover at the airport, contained blankets and two large bubble envelopes filled with $106,829 in cash.

      The woman who owned the bag was not arrested, but the money was seized and police say it will be subject to the civil asset forfeiture process.

      In short, the network spun an egregious theft from an innocent, uncharged citizen by making it about a ‘cute’ police K-9.

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      The report infuriated many, maybe none more so than Twitter user ‘David Burge’ (@iowahawkblog), an opinionator perhaps best known for his amazing knowledge of all things vintage automotive (seriously, he’s an encyclopedia).

      Continued…

      true story, I once sold a very nice car to a guy who drove from TX to Chicago to get it. Paid in cash, and it was… a shit ton of money. Gave me phone # of his bank in TX, and they verified that he had made the cash withdrawal 2 days earlier, so not counterfeit. I asked him if he was nervous driving 1200 miles with that much cash on him, and he sorta laughed and said, “nah, I always travel with my friend,” and showed me the .45 he kept under the seat of his truck. Never asked him why he wanted to pay cash, cuz none of my business.

      I thought he was nuts. Not because of the threat of robbers, but because of the threat of asset forfeiture cops. At that point his .45 would be useless, or get him thrown in jail. Or killed. And I’m pretty sure telling the cop “I’m using it to buy a car” wouldn’t wash. Anyway, he was an older white guy in a pickup with a trailer, so maybe he really didn’t have much to worry about. Now imagine two younger black or Hispanic guys, traveling to buy a cheap old car for $7000, and they get pulled over. Now it’s asset forfeiture open season.

      Fact is it’s at the discretion of the cop. If you can’t explain to the cop’s satisfaction why you have that much money, they can conclude it was acquired illegally, and Fuck You buddy, hire a lawyer to prove it wasn’t. Which will cost you more that the cash itself. And where does that confiscated money go? It stays right there with the cops, natch, so they can spend it on surplus armored MRAPs and such, a reward for keeping us citizens safe from the danger of people driving around with cash.

      real Sheriff of Nottingham bullshit.

      How this abomination against due process is allowed to continue in this country simply boggles my mind. I have to believe it’s an issue that should unite people across the political spectrum. Who the fuck could possibly defend it as policy? Are you going to charge the suspect with committing a crime? No? The it doesn’t matter how he came by the cash, it’s none of your fucking business. Good day, Officer O’Greedy. And even if you are, say, like a speeding ticket, it’s still none of you fucking business.

      Take for example the two young black or Hispanic dudes driving to buy a beater car, with $7k cash and oops, 2 grams of weed in the glovebox. When O’Greedy pulls ’em over for speeding that 2g of weed better not be probable cause to conclude they’re carrying Cartel cash.

      On Wednesday, Burge continued after someone accused him of a ‘bad take.’

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      Continued…

      I know lots of people who make their living in antique cars, buying/selling cars, and car parts, at swap meets and auctions and such. The majority of those transactions are done in cash. “Oooh, nice old Guide headlights, how much?” “$300, cash only.”

      I know plenty of people who bring a trailer full of parts, rolling projects, etc., to big swap meets. At the end of a good weekend, they might have $10k, $20k or more in cash, heading home. You are crazy if you don’t think they’re gonna conceal it.

      Now imagine a state trooper pulls them over for a busted taillight, and they make the mistake of letting the trooper search their vehicle. Because of CAF you can bet the trooper is walking away with their cash. And >0% chance he might just impound their vehicle, too.

      You see, the mere fact that he had a $20k wad of cash hidden in his truck is evidence that he’s a mule for the Mexican cartels and stuff. “Old car swap meet”? Yeah likely story pal, here’s your receipt, tell it to the judge.

      Oh, hey, no problem. All he has to do now is hire a lawyer, spend a few months convincing a kindly judge how it was all just a big misunderstanding, after which the cops and will cheerfully return all his cash, and everyone will share a laugh about the wacky mixup, freeze frame.

      sorry, I was hallucinating there for a minute. There are people who buy cars at salvage auctions, or conduct estate sales, sell at farmers markets or art fairs, on and on. All have legitimate reasons for carrying large amounts of cash.

      But there’s no legitimate reason they should have to explain that to a cop so he won’t just take it away from them. The crazy thing is that CAF has no *floor* on what might be considered “sketchy” amounts of cash. There are case of $200 or less being taken.

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      But sure, let’s have heroic Sniffy the Drug Doggie pose with the uncharged woman’s confiscated cash that he found, because it, like 90% of bills in circulation, has trace amounts of cocaine residue on it. Rrrrufff! Help take a bite of cash!

      The legal theory, as I understand it, is that the young woman might not be guilty of anything but her money was guilty of looking suspicious. And since 4A rights only apply to people and not green pieces of paper, she has the burden of proof to show her money was innocent.

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      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 18:40

    • Can Any Nation-State Survive The Era Of Inequality And Scarcity?
      Can Any Nation-State Survive The Era Of Inequality And Scarcity?

      Authored by Charles Hugh Mith via OfTwoMinds blog,

      We have an extraordinary opportunity to transform our unsustainable “waste is growth” economy and toxic inequality to sustainable systems that optimize well-being rather than collapse.

      The possibility that the United States could fragment is no longer a marginalized topic. Maps displaying various post-U.S. regional configurations accompany essays exploring how and why a break-up of the U.S. would be a solution to regional and ideological polarization, for example, Max Borders’ recent article, Dear America: It’s Time to Break Up.

      But two forces larger than political polarization may fragment nation-states across the globe, including the U.S.: inequality and scarcity. Inequality and corruption go hand in hand, of course, as the wealthiest few influence the state to protect their monopolies and backstop their speculative gains.

      Inequality also goes hand in hand with the collapse of nation-states, as this seminal paper explains: Human and nature dynamics (HANDY): Modeling inequality and use of resources in the collapse or sustainability of societies.

      The parasitic elite can accumulate the majority of income, wealth, political power and resources in eras of expanding abundance, as what’s left is enough to support an expanding populace that consumes more per capita every year, i.e. broad-based prosperity.

      But once abundance transitions to scarcity, the economy and society can no longer sustain the dead weight of its outsized parasitic elite. The parasitic elite believes its bloated share of resources, wealth and power is not only sustainable but can be expanded without consequence, and so it deploys all its formidable power to keep the status quo unchanged even as scarcity lowers the living standards of the bottom 90% and hollows out the economy.

      In effect, the modern central state, regardless of ideological label, optimizes inequality and growth. Once growth falters while inequality continues increasing, the only possible outcome is fragmentation and/or collapse.

      Put another way: the status quo is no longer the solution to inequality and scarcity, it is the problem. Private-sector and political elites are incapable of recognizing they are now the problem, and so the rapid unraveling of the status quo will come as a great shock to their magical-thinking confidence in their power.

      The elite’s delusional “solution” is a seamless, painless transition to a new era of abundance via “green energy.” Unfortunately, this vision is 100% magical thinking, as all these projections ignore the physical realities of building out a global energy system that generates energy on the same scale as existing hydrocarbon energy sources. Read these three reports for reality-based assessments:

      The “New Energy Economy”: An Exercise in Magical Thinking (manhattan-institute.org)

      The Delusion of Infinite Economic Growth: Even “sustainable” technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines face unbreachable physical limits and exact grave environmental costs. (scientificamerican.com)

      Assessment of the Extra Capacity Required of Alternative Energy Electrical Power Systems to Completely Replace Fossil Fuels (PDF, Simon P. Michaux, Geological Survey of Finland) Read the 3-page abstract.

      As explained in the first paper, inequality generates collapse and so does a decline in resources, i.e. scarcity. Put the two together and the only possible outcome is collapse of all centralized nation-states that optimize inequality and endless expansion of consumption.

      The issue isn’t ideological labels or principles, it’s whether the state solves problems or covers them up with fake fixes that accelerate collapse.

      Nations which want to not just survive but emerge stronger have one path: a revolutionary transformation from “waste is growth” to degrowth, from an economy and state dominated by a parasitic elite to a strictly limited parasitic elite and from abject dependence on fragile supply chains originating in other nations to decentralized, localized independence for essentials.

      I’ve written a book that is a template for this transformation. This book is the culmination of a lifetime of study, observation, experience and analysis: Global Crisis, National Renewal: A (Revolutionary) Grand Strategy for the United States.

      Though I devote some analysis specifically to the U.S., the book is a template for any nation to not just survive scarcity but emerge stronger by evolving a degrowth economy and a decentralized political order.

      We have an extraordinary opportunity to transform our unsustainable “waste is growth” economy and toxic inequality to sustainable systems that optimize well-being rather than collapse.

      *  *  *

      My new book is now available at a 20% discount this month: Global Crisis, National Renewal: A (Revolutionary) Grand Strategy for the United States (Kindle $8.95, print $20). If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.
       

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 18:20

    • Canada Forced To Tap Its "Emergency" Maple Syrup Reserves
      Canada Forced To Tap Its “Emergency” Maple Syrup Reserves

      You’ve heard of the strategic petroleum reserve – but have you heard of Canada’s emergency strategic maple syrup reserve?

      The country has been forced to tap into its “emergency” reserves, according to BBC, amidst a historic global supply shortage. 

      The Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP), which the BBC article actually refers to as “the so-called OPEC of maple syrup”, has released about 22 million kg of “reserve” syrup from its emergency larder, the report says.

      This amounts to about half the total it holds in reserve. It marks the first time in three years that the reserve has been used. 

      Helene Normandin of QMSP told US public radio: “That’s why the reserve is made, to never miss maple syrup. And we won’t miss maple syrup!”

      83 million kg of maple syrup was produced worldwide and 60m kg came from Quebec in 2021, the report says. 

      “Maple sap is tapped directly from sugar maple trees and boiled to concentrate it into maple syrup,” it continues. “It’s painstaking work and is highly dependent on the weather.”

      Quebec produces about 33% of the world’s maple syrup.

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 18:00

    • Where Is China Going?
      Where Is China Going?

      Authored by Bill Blain via MorningPorridge.com,

      “When the winds of change blow, some build walls while others build windmills..”

      Evergrande will default, but the Chinese economy will probably avoid a property contagion crisis as the government becomes increasingly interventionist. Longer term, how will China evolve to cope with Covid, Growth and Demographics?

      I’m going to go off on something of a tangent on China today. It can hardly come as much of a surprise to markets that S&P says Evergrande’s default is “inevitable”. (One of my highly coveted No Sh*t Sherlock awards is on its way to the US debt rating firm for stating the downright bleeding obvious).

      Evergrande’s quietus will be a step towards China’s managed deflation of its property bubble, and it’s got massive implications for current and future investors in the economy. Let me stress I don’t believe China’s economy is about to vanish in a cloud of evaporating property dreams, or that a social revolution is around the corner on deflating consumer expectations. But, change will occur.

      I expect China will successfully avoid Evergrande contagion destabilising the economy, and manage a soft-landing, but there is fundamental shift underway – a slowing economy, lethargic growth, and a shift away from capitalism towards a more interventionist state-controlled economy is underway.

      Growth expectations are now around 5% – far below numbers we assumed were deemed necessary by the party just a few years ago. Even that number could be under pressure as the scale of the property effect on the economy comes into play, while China’s isolationist response to Covid means the fast spreading Omicron variant could play havoc with reopening the economy.

      The Thoughts of Chairman Xi now absolutely dominate and set the internal debate – begging the question: just how will China emerge from the immediate uncertainties of a Property Wobble, Covid and Geopolitical Tension, and the long-term question of how China fits into an evolving global economy?

      And, all the time, hiding in the background is the demographic reality:

      Can China get rich before its aging demographic leaves it struggling?

      It’s increasingly difficult to say where China is headed. There is an article in the WSJ: “China Increasingly Obscures True State of Its Economy to Outsiders” summing up how the economy is being shut to outsiders, and the lack of real intelligence available to anyone trying to figure out what’s rea going on. The best we can do is listen to comments around issues like “disorderly expansion” and “stability” – and figure what it means for investment opportunities in China. (Making barely educated guesses with little real information is stock in trade for any market strategist… )

      What is clear is the CCP sees danger and has now embarked on economic stimulus to reinvigorate activity – easing policy in terms of lower Minimum Lending Requirements for banks, and lowering rates even as the global trend is towards tightening. Meanwhile, the economy is being reconstructed to away from free-enterprise towards greater state control and intervention, with regional governments given responsibility for sorting the property mess.

      It all sounds fine in principal, but the history of China includes a critical sub-thread of pernicious regional corruption. That’s a sweeping charge to make, but the Chinese are remarkable traders and entreprenuers – give them space (as happened under Deng Xiaoping) and they thrive pursuing wealth, culminating in the success of China’s many billionaires. Close that door, and the road to riches is more likely to be perceived to be via the state bureaucracy.

      There are close parallels between what’s happening in China and Soviet Russia’s economic history last century – after the revolution a period of chaos and civil war, near economic collapse, before a period of economic reform and liberation of free markets (the New Economic Policy period), before authoritarian figures seized back control of the economy to pre-empt political reform that might have seen them replaced. (In China, as I’ve written about before, it also a case of factions: What’s the Driving Force in China.)

      The CCP is now trying to engineer a soft landing – a survivable property crash-landing, which will have internal and external effects.

      • Domestically, housing costs are unsustainably high, but a crash would devastate China’s middle classes.

      • Internationally, its going to be fascinating to see how defaulting property firms deal with offshore investors – do they ensure they are well treated in default to secure future engagement, or is China willing to risk long-term offshore disappointment by leaving foreign bond holders with the bulk of losses?

      (Trading defaulted China property debt is going to be a fascinating market – how to play it when the rules are changing?)

      However, the real issues aren’t just the tactical questions of how many other Chinese property developers will tumble, how it may impact local banks, or what local governments do, but the strategic issues determining what direction the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) takes next.

      There are a number of key themes emerging:

      How does the CCP replace Property as the core driver of the remarkable growth of China over the last decades? Property accounted for 33% of GDP growth – a massively distorting share. Growth was achieved by persuading Chinese consumers to leverage themselves into property – effectively their wealth is aligned with the success of Government avoiding a messy collapse. Call it Stockholm syndrome if you want – but its little wonder the Chinese middle classes are willing to go do the increasingly strident “patriotic” line pushed by the CCP on issues like Taiwan or the coming Winter Olympics.

      I’ve read much about China becoming the world’s renewable energy builder – but frankly, solar panels and wind turbines are the easy options. China can do them, but hasn’t developed the more difficult technologies we need to diversify renewable energy – that really would be value added.

      The past 30 years of spectacular China growth was not achieved on the back of home-grown technology innovation, productivity gains across Chinese industry, or a financial revolution propelling Chinese banks to the forefront of the global economy and financial system.

      China remains a follower rather than leader in key technologies and industries. It has tried to address its perceived weakness with strategies like the Belt & Road project and debt-diplomacy – enthusiastically lending on infrastructure projects to promote growth likely to boost Chinese exports. These are perceived badly in the West – which is equally keen to protect markets it sees as theirs.

      As the government flexes its increasing control of the economy you have to wonder where China’s private sector fits in – and thus its investibility. The big billionaire names have been “disciplined” and the stock prices of the big firms have suffered in line. The jury is out on how to invest in an increasingly closed China economy.

      Tyler Durden
      Wed, 12/08/2021 – 17:40

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