- The March Of Wokeism Is An All-Pervasive New Oppression
The March Of Wokeism Is An All-Pervasive New Oppression
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 23:40Authored by Trevor Phillips, op-ed via The Times,
I was taking part in an online seminar with several hundred public servants recently when one of them started his question to me with an earnest apology: “I am a man of white privilege . . .”. I found it hard not to laugh out loud. Things have come to a pretty pass when people prostrate themselves in public for having a prostate gland, not to mention dumping on their parents for being the wrong colour.
I’d been introduced as someone who had spent more than 40 years trying to ensure people weren’t judged by their race or gender. My idealistic questioner seemed to have missed that bit. I assured him — maybe a little too brusquely — that I wouldn’t hold his colour or his sex against him. His question turned out to be a reasonable one about how to recruit more women but it sounded as though this thoughtful young man was too consumed with angst about his own ethnicity and gender, probably reinforced by some spectacularly bad diversity training, to apply much logic to the problem.
Personally I find the appeal of this brand of ethno-masochism hard to fathom, but then I’m not white. Yet increasingly, such “woke” thinking is flooding our workplaces, schools and universities. It is two centuries since this country abolished the Test Acts under which people were required to make a pledge of religious observance to qualify for public office or the civil service. But once again employees are being required to sign up to statements of belief or face denunciation, demotion and dismissal. Arcane arguments about white privilege and Pythonesque disputes about whether men can be women are no longer confined to warring left-wing sects or social media; they are eating away at the heart of leading institutions, corporations and government itself.
Much of this turmoil began with the best of intentions: a long overdue focus on ethical behaviour in corporate and public life. In 2018 more corporate chief executives lost their jobs for misconduct than were fired for poor performance; the #MeToo movement has left its mark. But the drive for decency is steadily being hijacked by extremists, bringing a dark edge of censoriousness to the quest for better workplace behaviour. JK Rowling, infamously, has been threatened with “cancellation” for sardonically pointing out that there is such a thing as a woman. Kevin Price, a Labour councillor, resigned from Cambridge city council and faced pressure to leave his post as a porter at the university because he refused to sign a statement that “trans women are women”.
The intolerant aspect of wokeism has become plainer than ever. Its strictures against “offensive” language brought some of its adherents close to apologising for the massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, suggesting that the journalists bore some responsibility for the Islamist attack by declining to censor themselves. The beheading last month of Samuel Paty, a French teacher who had shown Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of Muhammad to his class, left woke activists awkwardly trying to distance themselves from the killer while implying that Paty should have placed the right to free speech second to the sensitivities of some Muslim parents.
In Scotland, the SNP government plans to outlaw speech “stirring up hatred”, even in private homes; if I lived in Edinburgh I imagine that reading my own columns on race or religion out loud in my kitchen would provoke a visit from the police, ready with the handcuffs. Last week the BBC published new editorial guidelines on the use of “racist language”. The first question journalists are told to ask themselves is “Does the identity of the individual using the language make a difference to its acceptability?”, implying that George Alagiah or Clive Myrie might be permitted to use language that Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce are not, a kind of creeping speech apartheid, and a whole new chapter in censorship.
Sex — “the trans debate” — remains a hot issue but race was the principal battleground, even before the Black Lives Matter movement was reinvigorated this year.
According to Ibram X Kendi, the author of How to be an Antiracist, “the original sin is racism”. Bari Weiss, the New York Times writer who quit in July over its wokeism, says that “the beating heart of this new ideology is critical race theory”. This theory holds that whites are uniquely insulated from poverty and injustice, and that even poor whites would be worse off if they happened to be another ethnicity — confronted constantly by police brutality, discrimination and the legacy of transatlantic slavery. This view ignores the inconvenient truth that people of Indian origin in this country (and in the US) outsmart the white majority educationally, outshine them professionally and outearn them by more than 15 per cent. The notion of white privilege would be baffling to the families of white boys who have fallen to the bottom of education attainment league tables, and who are staring at a lifetime of sweeping the streets occupied by their affluent Indian-heritage classmates. But critical race theory is the ultimate guilt trip; it works on the liberal elite because it’s true of enough people, enough of the time.
Protesters demonstrate outside a former museum in east London, demanding the removal of a statue of Sir Robert Geffrye, a merchant, slave owner and former lord mayor of London RAY TANG/GETTY IMAGES
The advance of wokedom is made even more unsettling by the fact that the rules are a moving target, driven by a bewildering array of changing sensitivities and shifting language: should we talk about BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic — so yesterday), BIPOC (or Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, as they say in California) or people of colour (so whites are some kind of transparent creatures?). Confusion abounds. But for the past four years wokeists worldwide have at least been able to define themselves by asking a simple question: what would Donald Trump say? And whatever the answer, the reverse would be woke. But with the Great Orange Yardstick on his way out, the movement’s gurus are having to come up with new guidelines.
Ibram Kendi argues that the test of woke purity should be evidence of active antiracism, judged by an independent group of antiracists, presumably with equivalent commissars for gender, sexual orientation and so forth. However, for one group, Kendi is uncompromising: if you’re white, failure is certain because your hideous whiteness is in itself part of the problem and, with the best will in the world, there’s not much you can do about it.
Ibram X Kendi JASON MENDEZ/GETTY IMAGES
I suspect that the man who asked me that question in the seminar had been reading White Fragility, the magnum opus of sociologist Robin DiAngelo, darling of the white self-flagellators, whose bleak remedy for being born the wrong colour is to strive to be “less white”, which she says means “less racist”. She recently told TV viewers that “white privilege is the automatic, taken-for-granted advantage bestowed upon white people . . . it takes us literally seeing a man being murdered in front of our eyes to wake us up”. I’m not sure that the family of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of US police in May triggered protests around the world, will appreciate him being spoken of as a kind of moral alarm clock for white people.
In her excoriating resignation letter from the New York Times, Bari Weiss defined woke as “a mixture of postmodernism, postcolonialism, identity politics, neo-Marxism, critical race theory, intersectionality and the therapeutic mentality”. But it’s hard to pin down a movement which so far has no leader, or even a single cause, other than to condemn pretty much anything that somebody, somewhere, considers offensive.
Perhaps the easiest way to see the world as wokeists do is to imagine society as an elaborately wrought cage of history, language, laws and customs, whose bars are so tightly intertwined that it would be almost impossible for anyone to break free. According to the gurus of wokedom, only one caste holds the key to escape: white men. Even white women never truly shake off their disadvantages. To misquote Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “The white man is born free, but everyone else is in chains.”
I couldn’t care less if middle-class white men stopped saying sorry for having all the money, power and luck, as long as they did a little to redistribute their privilege to people who do not share their sex and race. But practical remedies don’t seem to be on the woke agenda. To a woke activist, victory is getting a white man to admit to his intrinsic awfulness. Sadly, it seems that an increasing number of them are willing to genuflect.
A senior Whitehall mandarin told me with great enthusiasm that his eyes had been opened to his own racism by a bestseller somewhat inaccurately entitled Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. It explains to white readers that anyone citing competence as a factor in giving a white person a job ahead of a person of colour must be “defending whiteness”. Actually, the recruitment firm I chair puts hundreds of people each year into top jobs. Last year a third of our board appointments were people of colour who made it on merit. Depressingly for anyone who has spent time trying to take racial preference out of recruitment, wokedom seems bent on restoring it.
Reni Eddo-Lodge DAVE BENETT/GETTY IMAGES
Serious people on both sides of the Atlantic are drinking deep at the well of racial self-abasement. A much-lauded course at the prestigious Duke University in the US teaches that there are 15 characteristics to white supremacy culture, including perfectionism, a sense of urgency, worship of the written word and, amazingly, objectivity, all of which, it is argued, need to be jettisoned. If this is the sort of thing our mid-level public service leaders are imbibing, it’s hardly surprising we’re having trouble getting a reliable test and trace system off the ground. Dismayingly, essays of this kind have become sacred texts for otherwise thoughtful white folk who seem to enjoy being told that they are irredeemably racist. Yet the epiphany has not led many converts to move over and let some not-white and not-male people have a go at the top jobs. The most recent appointments at the pinnacle of our civil service and top corporations have seen white men replaced by mostly more white men.
The one place in which wokedom seems to have made least progress is in non-black minority communities. Mr Trump’s strong showing among Hispanics, taking almost a third of their vote in the presidential election, prompted a senior black journalist at The New York Times to say: “We are surrounded by racists.” Another decreed that Latinos should be stripped of their minority status after Miami’s anti-communist Cubans voted heavily for Trump. Here, British Asian voters supported the Tories in huge numbers last year, yet Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel, and the equalities minister Kemi Badenoch provoke fury among the woke, who demand conformity to type when it comes to black and brown people.
Some woke taboos are risible. The head of a fee-paying girls’ school was forced to apologise for using the word “negro” during an assembly explaining the origins of Black History Month, which lay in Negro History Week a century ago. It seemed to matter little to her protesting students that, back then, the alternative to negro would have been a truly ugly epithet beginning with “n”, or that “negro” was the word Martin Luther King would have used.
But the woke crowd display little interest in the opinions of those they claim to be defending. In Bristol the statue of the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston was brought down without consulting the city’s mayor, the only black elected boss of a big British city. Marvin Rees wryly reflected last week that the woke protesters had a very different set of priorities to those of black Bristolians: “We can get caught up in events . . . but no one turned up to my office the next day with a memo telling me anything had changed on [the topic of] school exclusions, criminal justice, poverty, mental health, educational outcomes, unemployment levels — nothing.”
The march of the woke movement through our institutions is helped by a humiliating collapse of the British establishment’s authority in the face of its young accusers. At a recent meeting of cultural organisations, a number of senior leaders admitted that pressure to declare solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement did not come from black people, who are less likely than average to show up in their institutions, and rarer than hens’ teeth among their senior staff. Demands for the removal of statues and “decolonisation” of their displays came largely from their own staff, most of whom were young and white.
This perfectly sums up the gap between the woke self-image and reality. The woke affect to care for the excluded, yet cannot find room for talented people of colour in their own ranks. They present themselves as passionate campaigners for justice, yet they are ready to yield to the whims of the mob and dole out summary retribution to anyone deemed a heretic. They claim to be the allies of the oppressed, yet have no time to listen to their real priorities. They purport to seek greater diversity, yet require all women or all ethnic minorities to share their view or be branded quislings.
The greatest tragedy in all of this is that the gurus of wokedom have persuaded thousands of idealistic young people who rightly want to change the world into supporting what is actually a deeply reactionary movement. The trans activists can only realise their aim of being able to enter spaces reserved for women by erasing the female sex. Critical race theory remains credible only so long as black and brown people continue to fail. In the end, the woke movement is turning into an echo of the very oppressors it claims to be combating. After all the statues come down, and women’s prisons are opened to all and sundry, the celebrities and social media warriors will move on to the next fashionable cause — and minorities will still be less likely to win the top jobs, and women will still be the victims of violence. The only thing that will have changed is the bitterness of a generation whose idealism was betrayed.
- Australia On Edge Over "Deeply Troubling" Reports China Placed Import Bans On 7 Commodities
Australia On Edge Over "Deeply Troubling" Reports China Placed Import Bans On 7 Commodities
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 23:15Australia says it’s continuing to monitor what top officials have said are “deeply troubling” signs that China is actively initiating trade disruptions as retaliation amid downward spiraling relations between the two major trade partners.
Since last week regional reports have said Chinese buyers were warned by Beijing not to purchase seven categories of Australian goods, which has set Canberra and firms across the continent on edge given China is recipient of nearly one-third of all Australian exports.
Via Reuters Australia’s Trade Ministry last month began protesting the delays and significant rumors of further import bans, with Trade Minister Simon Birmingham last Monday charging that Chinese authorities were implementing targeted “discriminatory actions”.
Starting Friday Australian media reported the following commodities will be subject to increased inspections upon reaching port in China:
- copper ore
- barley
- sugar
- timber
- lobster
- coal
- wine
This after last month a ban was placed on some timber and barely shipments, commonly used in animal fodder and beer production. Beijing subsequently vehemently denied the charge of discriminatory actions. As Reuters summarizes of where things stand, there’s little that can be “confirmed” of the rumors and allegations:
Trade minister Simon Birmingham said Chinese officials had publicly and privately denied any coordinated effort was being taken against Australia, and said he hoped Beijing “is true to its word”.
“They deny any discriminatory actions that are being taken. But that doesn’t seem to be what industry is seeing and hearing at present,” he said on radio station 5AA.
A Chinese source briefed on the matter said that trade in the goods was effectively halted for now, and other products such as beef could be affected in future.
“It was not an absolute order, but a suggestion,” the person said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
It appears for now that China is leveraging the ability to blame nebulous ‘delays’ on mere bureaucratic inspections procedures.
The Morrison government has urged China to “play by the rules” as billions of dollars are on the line. However, Beijing is clearly in the driver’s seat.
Australia calls for China to ‘play by the rules’ after reports of multibillion-dollar trade bans https://t.co/cNVS0Y9DH2
— The Guardian (@guardian) November 4, 2020
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For example over a week ago Australian media documented at least one instance of tons of premium shellfish apparently left on a Chinese airport tarmac to spoil.
And in another more recent example:
A Beijing-based wine importer and distributor told Reuters his customs agent in Shanghai was called to a meeting last week and warned that Australian wine would no longer be processed by customs after Nov. 6.
An employee at the company was also called to a meeting in Beijing on Monday and told that Australian wine would not be processed “until other issues were addressed,” he said.
It remains unclear as to what the “other issues” were, according to the report.
Via Trading Economics: Australia exports to China was US$103 Billion during 2019, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has recently slammed Australia’s biggest trading partner as practicing blatant “economic coercion” with regard to an increasing array of its exports.
Things took a more intense turn when Beijing recently began discouraging tourists and students from visiting Australia, also as China detained some high profile Aussie media figures working in the country.
Prior to the pandemic, Chinese travelers made up by far the largest source of tourism for Australia, according to one industry report accounting for $12.4 billion of the $45.4 billion tourism brought into to the country each year.
- This Election Is Not Over… And The Media Knows It
This Election Is Not Over… And The Media Knows It
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 22:50Authored by Jay Valentine via AmericanThinker.com,
Like many, I spent the last few nights waking up at 2:03 A.M., no reason, then looking at my phone for news, any news, that might be positive for President Trump. I survived on Rush, Bongino, Mark Levin. When the news continued to be ugly, I even checked in on ridiculous bloggers promising that ballots were watermarked and D.J. (our household name for a president we love) was actually launching a sting on the Deep State.
Enough already. Stop the madness.
Hey, I have a degree in statistics, and I have some level of critical thought. If there is such pessimism in my tribe, I am not going along.
So today, I started to dig into the numbers, and as I did, I fought my confirmation bias at every step.
I realized that I, like millions of others, had been numbed into despondency by the overwhelming press, media, social media push to certify President-Elect Biden. (I put that in there so you can see how repellent it is.)
Hey guys, this thing is not only not over; it is scary for Biden. I mean really scary, and most of all, the media know it. Thus, the rush to get everyone in line with the narrative that a 78-year-old, early-dementia former V.P., who could not draw a crowd larger than a dozen, just beat D.J. in a fair election.
Process that for a moment.
Start with Pennsylvania. Biden, as of this writing, is at 290 electoral votes. Pennsylvania is 20.
I read the Justice Alito opinion, and it is pretty clear that he wants the after election night at 8:00 P.M. votes separated for a reason. Biden is going to lose at the Supreme Court, and they know it. Four justices already said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court cannot adjust voting rules. A new arrival, Justice Barrett, says she is there to apply the rules in the Constitution. OK, wanna bet she does?
Remove the after 8:00 P.M. ballots, and Biden loses Pennsylvania. Biden 270.
Let’s visit Nevada. I have lots of friends in California who have condos in Nevada to evade state taxes. There are not a couple of people doing this; there are tens of thousands. Everyone knows it, and California seeks them out.
Our old pal Harry Reid knows it as well, and he apparently has them voting in droves in this election. Probably not a big D.J. constituency. Within 72 hours of the election, the Trump team found, validated over 3,500 of them. I do not suspect that Trump’s people stopped counting.
Every one of these is a ballot reduction for Biden
Nevada, as of now, is well within reach for DJ and the Trump team — particularly when the California crowd is reduced. And a few of them may testify since a false vote is a very bad thing, with jail time if convicted. Maybe a bigger story here.
Remember where we are, people. Biden is at 270 after a highly probable Supreme Court decision (read Alito and concurring opinions).
Lose Nevada, lose the election.
But wait: it gets better.
Let’s visit Wisconsin. Right now, it is 20,000 votes in Uncle Joe’s direction. Lots of stories out there, well below the Google fold, that there are way more Wisconsin votes than there are registered voters. OK, maybe the dead can vote up there — probably a Midwest thing.
Well, last night, we found that Wisconsin election clerks were told, and followed the direction, to modify mail-in ballots and fill in the blanks where witnesses left out critical info.
I am sure it was just a good customer service thing and they meant no harm. The problem is every such ballot is now toast.
There were “thousands” of such prima facie wrongful votes. Oops. Biden up 20,000 — now that number is in question. No more truckloads of votes coming in, so every ballot D.J.’s team eliminates gets President-Elect Biden on step closer to former V.P. Biden who lives in a basement. Not good here.
North Carolina. That one pretty much looks like as though it is over and D.J. won it. Fox News is rumored to call it for Trump around April 2021.
Remember where we are here. Biden is probably going to lose Pennsylvania, so if he loses even one state, even one Electoral College vote, ouch!
Either D.J. wins outright, or it goes to the House, which means that D.J. has four more years.
We’re not done yet.
Michigan. Oh, yes, the land of the “glitches” in the voting machines. Six thousand votes for Trump given to Biden in one of 47 counties where that software is used. About 150,000 votes in Biden’s favor right now.
Google the 130,000 Biden votes that showed up in the middle of the night, and you can see how the wonderful people at Google are fact-checking this “debunked” story. In fact, for fun, Google “Michigan voter fraud,” and you get literally three pages of “this was fact checked and proven to be false.” Why would Google be so assiduous?
They too see that if Amy votes with the four, Biden is one vote away from the basement.
Lawsuits in Michigan and the other states are being launched, and discovery will take place. Google will not be there.
Voter fraud is kind of like larceny. A little is OK. It is even kind of entertaining.
Dead people have been voting for a hundred years in Democratic cities. It is such a constant that one would think the Republican Party would consider a Dead Voter Outreach program to get their share.
But voter fraud on this scale is just not sustainable. It does not pass the common sense test.
We have bloggers with lots of time on their hands going through voter rolls and showing that person after person who voted in a swing state also fought in the Civil War or maybe the War of 1812. It was funny at first, but the overwhelming number now goes beyond humor and rubs our faces in it.
I think D.J. has to swing one state. Actually, one electoral vote. Not only is this thing not over, but the Biden team must be sweating bullets.
Voter fraud at scale seemed like a really cool idea until D.J. went to the mattresses. Now that he is fighting it out one voter at a time, with the Supreme Court likely to create the starting point at Biden 270, Biden has everything to lose.
Perk up!
- Man Banned From Yellowstone After Cooking Chicken In Hot Spring
Man Banned From Yellowstone After Cooking Chicken In Hot Spring
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 22:25Living on the west coast of the US, or better yet- the Pacific Northwest, hot springs are abundant, similar to the ones found in the country of Iceland.
Did you know researchers at MIT and the University of Alcala in Spain, released a study in September, indicating strong evidence of ancient hominids using geothermal hot spring pools for cooking whole animals?
Well, you see where this is going… An Idaho man, usually stories like these start with “Florida man,” was banned from Yellowstone National Park for attempting to cook chicken in a hot spring.
Yellowstone park rangers found the man on Aug. 7 near Shoshone Geyser Basin with cooking pots, attempting to cook two whole chickens in a burlap sack sitting in a hot spring, reported East Idaho News.
Rangers cited the Idaho Falls man and two others for trespassing in a thermal area.
On Sept. 10, the man pleaded guilty to the citation and was ordered to pay $600 fine and will serve two years of unsupervised probation. He was also banned from the park for two years.
Over the years, park ranges have slapped people with fines for cooking or at least attempting to cook food in the thermal spring areas. Yellowstone is super strict about its thermal areas because people have been injured and or killed.
For some more insight on geothermal hot spring cooking, Zac Efron’s new web documentary series on Netflix, Down to Earth, shows how eggs can be boiled in a hot spring.
- The Democratic Facade
The Democratic Facade
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 22:00On election day, countless progressive and liberal commentators throughout the entire mainstream media were foolish enough to admit that the battle at stake wasn’t really about ‘Trump or Biden’ but about the ‘American way,’ the future, so to say, of the public discourse and public life in the USA. Progressives and liberals were confident enough to believe that with nearly 100 million ballots given in before election day, Americans had already cast an unprecedented spectacle of rejection of everything that may even mildly resemble ‘conservative values.’
They were convinced that America had made its choice already. For them, I must assume, the election was just an act of formality. The battle was basically won already.
But then just a few hours later, it became clear that the pollsters failed them completely once again. The ‘Trumpsters’ refused to evaporate. They grew substantially and even expanded demographically into some ‘unexpected’ electoral territories traditionally associated with Democratic politics.
The clear meaning of the election is that America, like most other Western states, is divided in the middle into two opposing societies that have very little in common. Far more worrying is the clear fact that the two sides of the divide cannot tolerate each other.
As much as the Left, Progressives and Liberals are convinced by the absolute validity of their way of thinking, to the point that they insist to dictate them by authoritarian and tyrannical measures, at least as many people do not buy, follow and even reject those values. Many Americans do not accept the identiterian shift. Many Americans are not convinced at all that gender isn’t binary.
I assume that most disappointing and worrying for the DNC is the fact that members of ‘diverse minorities’ as the Democrats call them, have switched sides.
They became vocal Trump supporters.
Watch a Cuban fusion band sings “I will Vote for Donald Trump”
This is very easy to explain.
The Democratic Party offers Blacks, Gays, Latinos and so called ‘diverse minorities’ to be marginalized forever in an amalgam of ‘Others United’. The GOP is offering those people an immediate integration as ordinary people into the American realm. All you need to do is get yourself a red Trump baseball cap and join your next local Trump rally. It is this most basic existential togetherness that was so vivid within the Left revolutionary discourse, but only materialized into a populist sustained tsunami of political resistance within the contexts of right-wing populist politics.
In the upside-down world in which we live, the Republican party has become the party of the American working-class people. People who are defined by their adherence to family values, the church, hard work and see themselves as the ‘Americans.’ The Democratic party that claimed to be the voice of those working people, has gradually morphed into an urban identiatrian conglomerate. A collective of ‘as a’ people: humans who insist to identify with their biology: ‘as a Woman,’ ‘as a Gay,’ ‘as a Trans,’ ‘as a Black,’ ‘as a Jew.’
In the upside down world in which we live, the Left ended up adopting the most embarrassing and problematic Hitlerian ideological aspect: Unlike Italian fascism that adhered to the concept of ‘socialism of the Italian people,’ or early Nazism that pushed for the idea of ‘equality of German speaking people,’ Hitler insisted upon ‘socialism of one race.’ Hitler believed that people’s politics is intrinsic to their biology. As opposed to traditional inclusive Left thinking that was class oriented, the contemporary Left pushes people to identify politically on biological terms: ‘as a woman,’ ‘as a black,’ ‘as a gay,’ ‘as a trans’ etc. The GOP on the other hand, is coming closer and closer to universal class politics.
On the morning of the 3rd of November, the liberal press was ready to announce that the ‘as a’ philosophy had won. But as things stand right now, this battle between the ‘as a’ people and the ‘Americans’ may escalate into a real violent conflict as there is no one in America or anywhere else who knows how to unite the people into a simple concept of peoplehood. Again, this is hardly an American phenomenon. The exact same division and the lack of a political unifying prospect is currently apparent in every Western State.
On Thursday, Wall Street rose substantially. Naturally, many commentators believed that our oligarchs and financial tycoons were excited by Biden’s likeliness to win the American election. But it may also be possible that Wall Street was way more thrilled by the prospect of a possible civil war. When people fight each other, capitalism, mammonism and usury can be celebrated mercilessly and boundlessly. This is exactly what Wall Street is after.
It may as well be possible that in the global universe in which we live, in a world where all existential concerns reintroduced themselves as ‘global threats’ to do with: global warming, global financial turmoil, global pandemics etc., a state of bitter civil war is exactly where global capitalism wants us the people to be. Democracy and the fantasy of political choice, as such, are just a camouflage. It is there to convey the image that the current chaos is merely our own choice or fault.
To understand ID politics and its disastrous impact on contemporary society read Being in Time
- Outgoing US Secretary Of State Holds One Last Twitter War With Iran's Ayatollah
Outgoing US Secretary Of State Holds One Last Twitter War With Iran's Ayatollah
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 21:35Outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this weekend apparently thought it time to engage in one last Twitter battle with Iranian officials. Over the past year both Pompeo and his Iranian counterpart Foreign Minister Javad Zarif have been very active on Twitter, sometimes hurling insults and competing claims at each other.
But on Saturday Pompeo directly engaged Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei just hours after major US networks in unison declared Joe Biden winner of the presidential election, which Trump is contesting. Khamenei declared the “decline of the US regime” in a tweet.
The situation in the US & what they themselves say about their elections is a spectacle! This is an example of the ugly face of liberal democracy in the US. Regardless of the outcome, one thing is absolutely clear, the definite political, civil, & moral decline of the US regime.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 7, 2020
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Perhaps Iran’s continued public mockery and gloating in the Trump loss finally got under Pompeo’s skin. Here’s what Ayatollah Khamenei put out Saturday just as results were called by the media: “The situation in the US & what they themselves say about their elections is a spectacle!” he wrote.
“This is an example of the ugly face of liberal democracy in the US. Regardless of the outcome, one thing is absolutely clear, the definite political, civil, & moral decline of the US regime.” And Pompeo was quick to lash out:
.@khamenei_ir – You’ve personally stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from your people. Your elections are a joke, with hundreds of candidates disqualified from even running. Today, your people starve because you spend billions on proxy wars to protect your kleptocracy. pic.twitter.com/4pCD6ilguC
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 7, 2020
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An angry Pompeo – who has been seen as a key Trump administration architect behind the most far-reaching sanctions on Iran in history – called Iranian elections “a joke” and charged the Supreme Leader with personally stealing “hundreds of millions of dollars from your people” while they “starve because you spend billions on proxy wars to protect your kleptocracy”.
Not only is Iran gloating at this point because a Biden presidency opens up the likelihood of the softening of sanctions, but tensions are still high after the White House ordered the assassination of IRGC Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani.
Pompeo followed his initial response to Khamenei with the following:
America is and shall remain the greatest nation in all of human history. We welcome the day when the Iranian people get their wish – and you know what that is. That is all.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 7, 2020
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Likely this will be the last big ‘twitter battle’ between the Trump White House and officials of the Islamic Republic.
It’s also likely that Biden White House officials will be much less active in such belligerent Twitter ‘engagements’.
It’s expected that US-Iranian tensions will be greatly subdued under a Biden presidency, given he’s indicated he’ll restore America’s participation in the 2015 Obama-brokered Iranian nuclear deal so long as Tehran returns to its agreed upon uranium enrichment caps.
- "There's Lots Of Shenanigans" – Lindsey Graham Urges Trump, Republicans Not To Concede To Biden
"There's Lots Of Shenanigans" – Lindsey Graham Urges Trump, Republicans Not To Concede To Biden
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 21:10Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on President Donald Trump not to concede and to “fight hard” in the current legal battles that ensued as Democrat nominee Joe Biden declared victory.
While a number of news organizations called the presidential race for Biden, the Epoch Times will not declare a winner of the election until all results are certified and any legal challenges are resolved. State legislatures and the Electoral College are the bodies that certify presidential elections.
“We will work with Biden if he wins, but Trump has not lost,” Graham told Fox Business on Sunday.
“Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard.”
The Trump campaign has not conceded and has launched legal challenges in several states over allegations of voter fraud and software glitches. Both Trump and his campaign have remained defiant, with the backing of a number of other Republicans.
Graham, who recently won his reelection campaign, called on GOP colleges to “fight back, or we will accept our fate.”
“I want Pennsylvania to explain to the American people how six people, after they die, can register and vote in Pennsylvania. I want the computer systems in Michigan that flip votes from Republicans to Democrats to be looked at, and the software was used all over the country,” Graham said.
“There’s a lot of shenanigans going on here, and if I were President Trump, I would take all this to court, I’d fight back, and from a Republican point of view, mail-in balloting is a nightmare for us.”
President Donald Trump (L) visits his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 3, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images); Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden (R) speaks in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 5, 2020. (Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo)
Graham also said that John James, a GOP Senate candidate, should not concede in Michigan.
He added:
“The post office is now the new election center. It’s the Wild Wild West when it comes to mail-in balloting. Everything we worried about has come true, so if we don’t fight back in 2020, we’re never going to win again presidentially. A lot is at stake here.”
The longtime lawmaker remarked that mainstream news outlets are not the ones who determine an election, urging Americans to “fight back” against their hegemony.
“Do not accept the media’s declaration of Biden. Fight back,” Graham said.
Georgia officials stated that a recount will be carried out in the state, while the Trump campaign told news outlets over the weekend that it will push Wisconsin for a recount.
On Saturday, Trump’s team filed a lawsuit in Arizona, alleging Maricopa County of rejecting in-person voters on Election Day.
Biden on Saturday declared victory and said he would try to unite Americans.
- Iran Unveils New Ballistic Missile 'Magazines' For Rapid Underground Launches
Iran Unveils New Ballistic Missile 'Magazines' For Rapid Underground Launches
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 20:45More evidence has emerged from Iran that its ballistic missile capabilities as well as concealment methods have grown immensely in the past years. In a new report The Drive details that ‘ready-fire’ ballistic missiles have been filmed in an underground bunker that are capable of being moved from various underground locations into succession fire position quickly via large sophisticated missile launch “magazines”. The report describes:
Video and photos have emerged showing for the first time an underground Iranian ballistic missile facility in which groups of missiles ready to fire are moved around massive tunnels using an automated railway-type system. The vertically-stowed missile “magazine” appears to bring groups of missiles into position for rapid, consecutive launching from the cavernous subterranean bunker.
Screenshot from the semi-official “Iran’s Military Achievements Media” State-linked media touted that “Wagons carrying ballistic and long-range missiles can create continuous shooting conditions in this platform.”
It described further “the quantity and continuity of the missile fire will increase impressively in a safe atmosphere” protected from above-ground attack.
The ready-to-launch ballistic missiles are placed on a railway-type system which acts as a rapid rotating magazine, seen starting at the 1:20 mark below:
Iran had earlier this year showcased the successful firing of ballistic missiles fully hidden in camouflage deep under the ground, dubbed in Western media reports as “missile cities”.
It’s believed that the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) established the network of underground silos and weapons transport passageways, which stretch for miles, to repel any sudden air assault by Israel, the United States or allies.
The Drive report explained of the newly revealed bunker launch magazines:
The thinking behind the system seems to be to allow launches of ballistic missiles in quick succession. Since the missiles on their individual platforms are ready to fire, there is no need to reload individual launchers using a crane or trans-loader. The magazine method would potentially allow many more missiles to be fired from a single bunker while increasing the chances of the outbound missile strike overwhelming anti-ballistic missile defenses.
Close up on Iranian multi-missile movable underground launch platform. The dividers probably houses umbilicals and pre-launch test equipment. pic.twitter.com/yBYSPAqNzw
— Tal Inbar (@inbarspace) November 4, 2020
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This along with Iran’s recently unveiled long range anti-air missile defense system called the Bavar-373, which is said to rival Russia’s S-300 system, would make any external attack a potentially very difficult one, even with the superior aerial and radar evading technology possessed by the US and Israel.
- Morgan Stanley: With Little Or No Stimulus Coming, Pandemic Developments Become Critical For Markets
Morgan Stanley: With Little Or No Stimulus Coming, Pandemic Developments Become Critical For Markets
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 20:20By Andrew Sheets, chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley
It’s been a year of dramatic swings, and the 2020 US election was no exception. Prediction markets put former Vice President Joe Biden’s chances at about 70% on Tuesday afternoon, 25% at 10pm Eastern Time, 50% by midnight, 35% by 3am Wednesday and 80% by 10am. It was a roller-coaster night (and week) to cap a roller-coaster year, and the election may yet provide a final twist.
For markets, the irony is that this roller-coaster of an election has meant relative tranquillity. Implied volatility has dropped sharply, and equities and credit have rallied back near local highs. Part of the reason may be that markets were already braced for uncertainty (the VIX ended October near 40), making it easier for them to follow the ‘usual’ pattern of struggling ahead of an election and improving afterwards. We saw the same in 2016.
A second key development is that ‘tail’ outcomes did not materialize. Before Tuesday, scenarios of a large sweep by Democrats seemed plausible. So did a surprise upset, given what happened in 2016. Either tail could have catalysed a large (and probably painful) adjustment to consensus positioning, but neither came to pass. Markets were left with a scenario that suggests fewer legislative changes and thus fewer portfolio changes, with one very important caveat I’ll address at the end.
With it looking likely that Democrats will control the White House, but congressional power will remain divided, the chances of a larger and more proactive fiscal stimulus have fallen. ‘Proactive’ is the operative word here, as our US public policy team sees divided power leading to increased risk that more fiscal help wouldn’t arrive until economic problems worsen.
It could mean that foreign policy sees more action than fiscal policy. We think that a Biden administration would be less open to a US-UK trade deal and more committed to the Good Friday Agreement than the current administration. Both factors would tilt the balance towards closer UK alignment with Europe and increase the chances of a ‘deal’ on Brexit. This is bullish GBP.
Reactive fiscal stimulus (or none at all) also means that developments relating to the pandemic become more critical for markets. We’ll be closely watching COVID-19 case numbers, which are rising again in the US and Europe, and announcements on a vaccine, which our biotechnology team expects later this month. While we’re hopeful on the latter, mounting case numbers and no new fiscal relief have created some downside risk to the economic data in the near term.
For US equities, this is one reason why my colleague Mike Wilson believes that the S&P 500 will stay in a 3100-3550 range as markets digest these overlapping narratives. We were at the low end a week ago and closer to the high end recently, but think that more time is needed before a ‘breakout’. This election doesn’t change our story of a sustainable economic recovery and an ongoing bull market for global equities and credit. We think that both remain intact in a divided government scenario.
What about other markets? At the moment, our bullish cross-asset exposures are concentrated in owning global credit and selling equity volatility. We think that both remain attractive, even if major fiscal support isn’t forthcoming. In emerging markets, our strategists are more constructive on EMFX and credit than equities. We remain cautious on oil, given weak fundamentals, but have turned more constructive on several large EU energy majors.
And we may see one final twist. Senate control is currently split 48-50 between Democrats and Republicans, but two Senate seats in Georgia, a state with a razor-thin margin in the presidential contest, are set for a run-off on January 5. These run-offs will determine whether we have a united or divided government, with enormous implications for policy outcomes. What we’ve just said about the election and the markets may need to be revised based on these results. We will let political experts opine on the probabilities, but expect these races to get an outsized amount of market attention. Stay tuned.
The 2020 election isn’t quite done, but as the vote count has worn on slowly, one result looks clear. The United States of America looks set to get a new president, with important implications for foreign and fiscal policy. But it’s also important to step back and pause. Markets, like politics, are fickle. The winds change, and much conventional wisdom regarding a change of government in 2000, 2008 and 2016 turned out to be decidedly wrong.
This election isn’t a ‘game changer’ but simply one more step on America’s journey. Keep an open mind, and wish it the best.
- Bill Gates-Funded 'Child Labor Is Good' Article Triggers Internet Outrage
Bill Gates-Funded 'Child Labor Is Good' Article Triggers Internet Outrage
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 19:55While the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has routinely strived to support people in extreme poverty by improving their health and economic mobility through various programs, the foundation may have gone off the deep end by bizarrely sponsoring an article that promotes child labor.
The article in question was published in The Guardian’s “Global Development” section on Friday is titled “Child labour doesn’t have to be exploitation – it gave me life skills.” Underneath the header, a logo of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is visible with text that says, “Global development is supported by” the foundation.
Written by Elizabeth Sibale, the deputy chief of party at global impact firm Palladium, praises her childhood experience in Malawi, doing hard work for her family – such as food prepping, carrying water, and babysitting her siblings – as an example of the hard work she did to mold her into the women she is today.
“However, where do you draw the line between what has internationally deemed a crime and a natural process of transferring skills? Is international concern on child rights relevant to Africa?” Sibale said.
She said, “contrary to popular belief, most child labourers are employed by their parents rather than in manufacturing or the formal economy.”
Adding that “in Africa, where many areas have no social security or social services to support the vulnerable, families are responsible for educating and training the next generation to become capable adults.”
RT News points out that her opinion piece “was apparently built on discussions at a seminar held last month by Palladium. The point that cultures have different norms on what work should be considered appropriate for a child is hardly debatable.”
RT, quoting the International Labor Organization, says child work that impeeds education or is hazardous is a form of child labor.
“The crux of the issue is how to treat dirt-poor parents, who keep their kids out of classrooms because they are needed to support the household. Sibale and her colleagues argue that westerners should mind their cultural biases when looking at domestic chores,” RT said.
Apparently, some on Twitter were not pleased with the article, saying: “billionaire-funded ‘child labor is good’ takes has to be a new stage of capitalist dystopia.”
billionaire-funded ‘child labor is good’ takes has to be a new stage of capitalist dystopia pic.twitter.com/yfXOe6A1gJ
— Paul Gottinger (@PaulGottinger) November 6, 2020
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Someone tweeted: “Bill Gates is one of the good billionaires”.
“Bill Gates is one of the good billionaires”
— Will 💚 (@heIIbiIly) November 7, 2020
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Another person said, “Being a child soldier doesn’t have to be a negative experience. I learned a lot about discipline and psychological manipulation.”
Being a child soldier doesn’t have to be a negative experience. I learned a lot about discipline and psychological manipulation.
— Nightmare on Baker Street (@RealXanderCrews) November 7, 2020
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This Twitter handle makes a good point.
Tell that to the young people in China where they want to go to college & instead are forced to work in the family farms. China is where Gates takes his models & standards for our life in the West.
— Angélique (@ange1914) November 8, 2020
- Ilargi Meijer: Biden 'Is' The Swamp
Ilargi Meijer: Biden 'Is' The Swamp
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 19:30Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
Since the US has no official institution to call an election soon after the polls have closed, and people want a result fast, it has befallen on the media to make the announcement. And by and large, this hasn’t been that big a deal. But when those same media have for 4 years relentlessly hounded one of the two candidates, it should be obvious that this “system” should not be applied. If only because it has no legal status whatsoever.
However, people both in the US and abroad don’t appear to be aware of this. So when the New York Times et al declare a winner, this is seen as an “official” announcement. It is not. That won’t come until the Electoral College gathers in December (8-14th?!). And at least until then, Trump will have every right to contest the election in court. Still, “world leaders” are congratulating the “next president”. Do they really not know how this works?
The idea behind it all is obvious, of course: to make Trump look like a sore loser, and Biden the president-elect, a title the media claim they can bestow upon him. Do remember that both Biden’s and Kamala’s campaign were considered dead in the water at one point, before they were magically resurrected by the party machine, which ensured that =two people very unpopular in their own party now lead the ticket. Be careful what you wish for.
In that light. I found this intriguing. Twitter adds a warning to this Trump tweet: “Official sources may not have called the race when this was Tweeted”. I haven’t seen one instance where they attached the same warning to tweets about Biden winning and being President Elect. But wouldn’t that be the same thing?
I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
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No, I don’t particularly mind Biden winning, Washington is a shit hole whoever occupies the White House and other posts, but this is not about Biden. It’s about the people behind him. About the people who elected him to be a candidate, and that’s not his voters; it’s the DNC, the FBI and media that made him possible.
Everyone in the MSM is talking about Trump’s alleged lies, as they have for 5 screeching years, main news networks on Thursday even cut off/short a speech by the President of the United States -that must be a first-, but nobody reflects on the 5-year neverending constant lies they have all told ABOUT Trump, on the entire Russiagate episode, the Mueller report based on only lies, the whole shebang.
The DNC that paid for the Steele dossier without which there would never have been a Mueller special counsel, commissioned by Rod Rosenstein when he was Deputy Attorney General, which was based on lies, exclusively, the FBI that used the Dossier to falsify FISA applications, people like Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler and Nancy Pelosi who kept on lying about having evidence of Russian collusion.
And still these are the people accusing Trump of lying. And they feel they can get away with it, because their media also incessantly repeated their lies, and is still doing that. Forget for a moment about what you think about Donald Trump, and tell me how you feel about an attempt to unseat an elected American president with nothing but lies.
Do you think that will be a one-off? If so, you’re blind. If Joe Biden and his handlers ever get into the White House, respect for the Office of the Presidency will still be gone, and it will be for a long time, decades. That’s the price the American people pay for the attempt to unseat Trump based on lies only. Do you really feel that’s a price worth paying? I suggest you give that some serious thought.
With Biden you don’t just get Biden, you get the entire cabal that went after Trump: the Democratic Party, the media, the intelligence agencies. And yes, Biden was and is very much part of that cabal.
How people do not find that a whole lot scarier than Donald Trump is beyond me.
If -and no that is not when- Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20 2021, that cabal will take over the country. And we’ve seen plenty indications that they intend to make it impossible for the Republicans to ever get one of their own elected as president again. Moreover they will not be investigated for what they concocted over the past 4-5 years.
How the Hillary campaign and the DNC leaked things to the FBI, and the FBI to the MSM, how they lied in courtrooms to get FISA applications on Trump campaign people like Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. How they set up Lt.-Gen. Michael Flynn so he wouldn’t be Trump’s National Security Adviser, because Flynn knew too much.
It’s a scheme so full of illegal actions that it will be devastating for the entire American political system if it is never investigated, or even if it isn’t investigated very very thoroughly, by an impartial party. And it won’t be if Biden becomes president.
The cabal wants you to think this is about Trump, and any given way to get rid of him is justifiable no matter what, but that is a very dangerous way of thinking. If crimes have been committed, they must be brought into daylight and before a court.
Problem is, of course, that at least half the nation has no idea of what’s been going on. Because they get their news and information from those media that are in on the whole deal. They won’t know that the DNC paid for the Steele Dossier, or that is was just a bunch of lies, or that the FBI knew this even before Rosenstein appointed Mueller as Special Counsel. All that has been kept away from them.
And yes, 4 years ago Trump said he would fight the swamp, but landed right in the middle of it. Early in his presidency he found himself surrounded by the likes of McMaster, John Kelly, Tillerson, and many other swamp creatures, and today he still has people like Mike Pompeo. But at least Trump is an outsider, and if anything can ever be done to drain the swamp, it will have to come from an outsider. That it may take more than 4 years is something we have to take for granted.
The swamp has fought back, and they may yet win. Joe Biden is the face of that. But people who celebrate that victory should think again, whether they like Trump or not. The swamp is not good for you, and it’s not good for your country, your rights, your freedoms. Its entire MO is to take all these away from you. This is not a partisan thing; the fat ass of the swamp easily fits and sits across the divide.
Joe Biden is not Joe Biden, the man doesn’t stand for anything other than holding on to power while getting richer off that power. He’s done it for 47 years. Term limits are desperately needed in Washington, but the only people who can make that decision are those who profit most from not having term limits. If there’s one area where McConnell and Schumer and Pelosi and Lindsey Graham agree, it’s that.
And meanwhile, Trump, unlike Joe Biden, is just Trump. He doesn’t represent a cabal, or a swamp. Even if he’s surrounded by them. Trump is not the biggest threat to America, that’s just something they’ve been wanting you to think for the past 4 years. Successfully, too, for millions of Americans.
The swamp is the biggest threat, whether their handpuppets come in a Democratic or Republican disguise. But to recognize that, you would have to be able to think for yourself, and if you read or watch the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, you simply can’t do that. You just think you can.
* * *
- US Futures Are Soaring, JPM Says 'Nasdaq Whale' Is Back
US Futures Are Soaring, JPM Says 'Nasdaq Whale' Is Back
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 19:19After the best post-election week since FDR, US equity futures are extending gains in the early Asia trading session…
Nasdaq is now up over 10% from the close the previous Friday…
The driver? A media-announced Biden win? Or is it simpler than that?
As JPMorgan notes, the big vol player in TMT is back in the market…
But, as the chart shows above, JPMorgan warns that the last time this pushed Tech lower after activity died down, underperforming RTY & SPX in September.
Given the move in NDX spot, JPMorgan says that a lot of the call spread buyers in early Oct are not back in play. It matters for price as the gamma produced is meaningful. Additionally, JPMorgan’s desk has seen upside buyers of IWM/RTY…
While stocks are storming higher, bonds are unchanged and the dollar is marginally lower.
- NY Bar Association Recommends Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine With No Exemptions
NY Bar Association Recommends Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine With No Exemptions
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 19:05The New York State Bar Association is urging the state to adopt mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations once they become available – if ‘voluntary measures fail to protect public health’ – and has recommended following ‘current New York law‘ – including exemptions for “religious, philosophical or personal reasons,” according to the New York Law Journal.
“The authority of the state to respond to a public health crisis is well-established in constitutional law,” said Mary Beth Morrisey NY Bar association Health Law Section Task Force chair, in a Saturday statement.
“In balancing the protection of the public’s health and civil liberties, the Public Health Law recognizes that a person’s health can and does affect others,” she continued. “It may become necessary to require that certain individuals or communities be vaccinated, such as healthcare workers and students, to protect the public’s health.”
According to the Bar Association’s recommendation, “To protect the public’s health, it would be useful to provide guidance, consistent with existing law or a state emergency health powers act as proposed in Resolution #1, to assist state officials and state and local public health authorities should it be necessary for the state to consider the possibility of enacting a vaccine mandate.“
They also recognize that the public needs to believe that the vaccine is safe and that it works.
“A vaccine must not only be safe and efficacious; it must be publicly perceived as safe and efficacious.”
- Pulling A Rosie Ruiz: The Risky Business Of Calling American Presidential Elections
Pulling A Rosie Ruiz: The Risky Business Of Calling American Presidential Elections
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 18:40Being a legal analyst often makes you a killjoy at a party. As millions broke out in celebration over the calling of the election for Joe Biden (including most of my immediate family), I watched with a mix of shared excitement and silent apprehension. It does appear that Biden won this election and his speech last night was the perfect pitch and message for a divided nation. However, there are still legal challenges being filed in a half dozen, new affidavits containing troubling sworn allegations, and relatively close state contests. As someone who has covered presidential elections for networks going back to 2000, those challenges are like live torpedoes in the water – you do not know if one could actually hit below the water line. The issue for legal analysts is that, with the tabulations still occurring, there is little ability to judge allegations of voting irregularities.
We still do not know if there is evidence of systemic fraud or irregularities. Indeed, I am getting the feeling that the Trump campaign does not know. Thus far, the Trump legal team has not submitted hard evidence as opposed to heated allegations.
However, as millions celebrate at what they believe is the finish line, the greatest danger is a Rosie Ruiz election.
Forty years ago, Ruiz became an infamous figure when she was declared the winner of the 84th Boston Marathon in 1980 as the fastest woman. After all, she was seen crossing the finish line before any other woman. The problem was that eight days later, she was found to have crossed the finish line by way of the subway.
The difference between the Boston Marathon and the presidential election is that the latter is designed to avoid a short-cut president-elect. First there is tabulating of ballots, followed by the canvassing of ballots, and then certification of the results. Challenges can continue through the certification stage that should end on December 8th.
There is a certain Rosie Ruiz strategy that is used in elections, particularly in orchestrating a splashy finish and a victorious celebration.
That was the case in 1960 with the election of John F. Kennedy. Many historians believe that Kennedy actually lost the race to Richard Nixon. Instead he was declared the winner with 49.80% of the popular vote. Widespread voting fraud was reported in Illinois and Texas that put Kennedy over the top.
Much of those allegations were hashed out after the media declared Kennedy the winner and the campaign set the narrative with celebrations and transition announcements.
After Bush led in Florida by only 1,784, his campaign rushed him out for a victory lap to create the image of the presumptive president elect. Thus, when the Democrats challenged the results and filed a flurry of lawsuits demanding recounts, they were viewed as fighting to reverse the will of the voters in seeking to strike ballots. The recount led to a change of only roughly 900 votes before, 41 days later, the election was effectively ended by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore.
What happened next is often overlooked. Multiple studies found that Gore likely won Florida. However, by that time, George Bush was already sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States. The point is clear. The important thing is not whether you were in fact victorious but whether you were victorious when you passed the line of certification.
Nevertheless, Mayor Kenney was demanding a concession “just as Al Gore did.” In reality, Gore did challenge that election and forced a recount that lasted 41 days. It turned out that the recount may not have identified the true vote count.
To the credit of Joe Biden, he showed admirable restraint in claiming victory. The question is whether he will now show even greater leadership in supporting a full and open review of key state races.
For its part, the Trump legal team will have to ramp up its game. Thus far, there has been a lack of focus and discipline . . . and a notable lack of real evidence. On Friday, a challenge in federal court in Las Vegas fizzled out for lack of such evidence in front of a clearly exasperated federal judge.
In fairness to the Trump campaign, it is difficult to produce evidence if you have not been allowed access to balloting or key records. Moreover, there is some skepticism over claims that this election was effectively flawless, even in cities with long and checkered histories with voting irregularities. We have never had an election based on such massive numbers of mail-in balloting and there are obvious concerns over authentication of ballots. The primary concern is not that tabulation workers are filling out ballots or burning ballots. Rather the concern is how mail-in ballots were sent out, authenticated, and processed. There are many accounts of people receiving multiple ballots, groups filling out ballots on behalf of voters, and even some cases of votes filed for deceased individuals.
In truth, the current allegations are more difficult to track than those in 2000. The Florida recount was largely mechanical and obvious. You had a bizarre “Butterfly ballot” and hanging chads on punch voting cards. The 2020 election involves questions of the authentication of ballots and calibration of tabulation equipment. If such standards are set too low, there would be virtually no instances of irregularity because the threshold standards are too low. We simply do not know and would not know until there is greater access to information.
All elections have such problems even without the use of tens of millions of mail-in ballots. The question is whether such irregularities are systemic or merely episodic. The current margins in states like Pennsylvania are not likely to be overcome by aggregating small pockets of challenged ballots.
The Democrats have sought to ignore recounts or judicial review, the opposite position taken in 2000. The concern is that we still have had no meaningful access to the underlying evidence and, while the odds are not high, it is still possible that challenges could find traction in the courts. If there proves to be a real problem in a key state, the massive celebrations could change in character dramatically.
Again, there is currently no evidence of systemic fraud in the election but there is ample reason to conduct reviews. Biden himself should tell the Democratic Party to support such scrutiny and transparency now that the initial tabulations are being completed. That is not easy for any politician, but it would be the ultimate presidential act by the presumptive president-elect. Biden is no Rosie Ruiz. Biden has shown a respect for the process and this was a hard fought victory. He can cross the line without mass transportive assistance. This is the way to show it.
- Kerry For Climate Chief, Buttigieg For Veterans, Yates For DOJ: An Early Look At The Biden Cabinet
Kerry For Climate Chief, Buttigieg For Veterans, Yates For DOJ: An Early Look At The Biden Cabinet
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 18:30While Trump is still far from conceding the election, whose outcome is called not by the media, but by the Electoral College on Dec 14…
… Joe Biden is already busy forming his cabinet, where he need to draw a fine line between the hard-left progressive in the Democratic party (AOC has already been quite vocal in her criticism of how the Squad has been ignored) and centrist elements. Also, in addition to rolling out such new policies as fighting climate change and aggressively promoting women and minorities, Biden will focus on an economic team that will confront the surging unemployment and business slowdown touched off by the coronavirus pandemic. In total, as he builds out his economic team Biden will need to fill out the nearly two dozen cabinet-level positions in his administration.
Starting at the very top, Bloomberg reports that Biden will look for a Treasury secretary and other key officials “to negotiate with Congress on more stimulus, roll back some of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and mend relations with U.S. trading partners.” Among the contenders that have emerged to fill the top economic-policy job are Fed Governor Lael Brainard for Treasury and economist Heather Boushey as director of the National Economic Council.
Other crucial jobs include naming the secretaries of Defense, State and Homeland Security, together responsible for carrying out administration policy and overseeing a federal bureaucracy with more than 2 million civilian employees.
While Biden will be mindful of the possibility that a Republican-controlled Senate would almost certainly scuttle nominees for top posts who belong to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, liberal groups will be policing Biden’s choices closely, fearful that he won’t reach into their ranks for top positions but will instead choose “moderate” Democrats in his own mold. Biden may try to tamp down that sentiment by putting a liberals in jobs that don’t require Senate confirmation.
Most importantly, this means that “the swamp” which Trump vowed to fight – and lost – is back, because in forming his cabinet, Biden will rely on an inner circle of longtime veterans from the Obama administration as well as Wall Streeters.
Finally, while Biden could make history by naming the first women to lead the Defense and Treasury departments, his key White House advisers are likely to be White men.
* * *
With that in mind, here are some of the names being mentioned for the top jobs in a Biden administration according to Bloomberg:
Treasury Department
Lael Brainard, a member of the Fed board since 2014, is the clear favorite to become Treasury secretary. She has resisted loosening bank regulations at the Fed board, dissenting on several measures. On monetary policy, she has been a team player, going along with the majority in every vote. Her experience serving on the Fed board has given her a relationship with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who plays an important role in orchestrating with Treasury on the response to a faltering economy in the pandemic.
Lael Brainard Brainard was undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs during the Obama administration. The Harvard-educated economist said in a speech last month that the biggest downside risk to her outlook would be “the failure of additional fiscal support to materialize,” which she said risks longer-term scarring to the economy’s growth potential. The Harvard-educated economist has highlighted some more progressive policies recently, such as the Community Reinvestment Act. In January, she gave a speech highlighting reform efforts necessary to encourage more lending in low- and moderate-income markets.
The Biden team is also said to be looking at Jeff Zients, who was director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama. He was widely praised for his work to salvage the website associated with the Affordable Care Act, healthcare.gov, after a disastrous initial rollout, and was then dubbed “Mr. Fix-it” in the administration. Also on the list are Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who was secretary of Health and Human Services under Obama, as well as Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Fed governor and Treasury official.
Jeff Zients Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, one of Biden’s progressive rivals for the Democratic nomination, is said to want the job, but she would be a tough sell for confirmation if Republicans control the Senate and is deeply distrusted on Wall Street and in the business community.
Fed Chairman
While Biden is reportedly also working with ex-Fed official Roger Ferguson and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, both Black men, for the Treasury position, Bloomberg writes that Bostic is also being considered as a replacement for Powell, whose term is up in 2022. Ferguson was widely praised for his role coordinating the Fed’s response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when then central bank injected billions of dollars into the economy.
Rafael Bostic Council of Economic Advisers
According to Bloomberg, Jared Bernstein, Biden’s chief economic adviser when he was vice president, has seen his name in contention. A labor economist, Bernstein helped draft a rule almost doubling the salary threshold for overtime pay. Now a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, he is considered left of center and could be a bridge to the progressive wing of the party. He also was an informal adviser to the campaign.
Jared Bernstein Boushey is also a possibility. She is the president and chief executive officer of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a think tank launched in 2013 that focuses on inequality. She has focused on promoting policies such as paid sick days and child care.
National Economic Council
Boushey is also being considered for NEC director. She served as chief economist for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential transition team and was widely expected to have a prominent economic policy role had Clinton been elected.
State Department
Biden has two top candidates for secretary of state: longtime aide Antony Blinken, who served as Biden’s national security adviser. Blinken is a veteran Washington foreign policy hand. He worked as the Democratic staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was deputy secretary of state from 2015-2017, when he helped implement the Obama administration’s policy pivot to Asia.
Antony Blinken He also worked in the Obama White House as special assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser. Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser who was on Biden’s short list for vice president, is also being mentioned but Rice would likely not be confirmed by a Republican-controlled Senate.
Defense Department
The odds-on favorite is Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense who was seen as Clinton’s pick for the job if she’d won in 2016. Flournoy was the highest-ranking woman in Pentagon history when she was the top adviser to then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2009, and would be the first woman to run the Pentagon.
Michele Flournoy Another potential candidate is Jeh Johnson, who led the Department of Homeland Security under Obama and would be the first Black Defense secretary. Another name being mentioned is Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. She served in the Army Illinois National Guard in Iraq, where she lost both of her legs in combat.
Justice Department
Sally Yates, a career federal prosecutor who was named deputy attorney general by Obama is among those being chatted about. She served as acting attorney general for 10 days at the beginning of the Trump administration until Trump fired her for insubordination after she refused to defend the ban on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries.d
Sally Yates Others under consideration are Senator Doug Jones of Alabama, who lost his re-election bid, and Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who was fired by Trump.
Homeland Security
The top candidate is Lisa Monaco, who served as Obama’s homeland security adviser. He reportedly gave her the nickname “Dr. Doom” because of her dark assessments of the terrorism threat. She worked for the Biden campaign running what it called a “network” of teams vetting potential vice-presidential candidates. She also served on the committee advising Biden on a response to the coronavirus.
Intelligence
The leading contender to head either the CIA or be Director of National Intelligence is Avril Haines. She served as deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration. She was also deputy director of the CIA under Obama, the first woman to hold the position. In a top intelligence role, she would take the lead on rebuilding the intelligence community, aka the “deep state”, which has been at odds with Trump.
Coronavirus Czar
Biden has proposed creating a special position to oversee the response to the pandemic. Members of the coronavirus task force Biden assembled during the campaign could be considered, including Vivek Murthy, a former surgeon general under Obama, and David Kessler, who led the Food and Drug Administration in the Obama administration.
Vivek Murthy Biden has also said he wants Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases who has become a contrary voice to Trump about managing the pandemic, to have a role in his administration.
Climate Chief
Biden is considering establishing a new climate czar to coordinate efforts to fight global warming. Top candidates include former Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped broker the landmark Paris climate accord. During his more than a quarter-century representing Massachusetts in the Senate, Kerry led an unsuccessful push for a carbon cap-and-trade program. Another potential pick is Jay Inslee, the newly re-elected governor of Washington and self-styled “climate candidate” for the Democratic presidential nomination who has argued for a “full mobilization of the United States” to fight global warming. Inslee, who spent two terms in the U.S. House, also left an imprint on Biden’s climate plans, including the president-elect’s marquee plan to make U.S. electricity carbon-free by 2035. John Podesta, former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, has also been mentioned.
John Kerry Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA administrator post will be crucial to advancing Biden’s aggressive plans for fighting climate change. The top candidates are California air regulator Mary Nichols and Mississippi’s Heather McTeer Toney, a regional EPA administrator for several Southern states under Obama. For more than 50 years, Nichols has been at the vanguard of American environmentalism, pushing clean air and climate policies in California that are a model for the nation and the 13 states that specifically adhere to them. But the so-called “queen of green” could face opposition in a Republican-controlled Senate because of her high-profile status as an environmental leader and chief foe of Trump’s climate policy rollbacks. Toney was the first Black, female, and, having been elected at age 27, the youngest person ever to serve as mayor of Greenville, Mississippi. Now, she’s the national field director for the Mom’s Clean Air Force, a grassroots group dedicated to fighting air pollution. Also under consideration are former Delaware regulator and National Wildlife Federation Chief Executive Officer Collin O’Mara; former Connecticut regulator Dan Esty; former Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire; and Inslee.
Mary Nichols Health and Human Services
The leading contenders are two women who Biden also considered for vice president: Representative Karen Bass of California, head of the Congressional Black Caucus, and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Bass, who was a physician assistant before coming to Congress, has made health care a focus of her career. Her support Medicare-for-All legislation, which Biden has rejected, could make her a tough sell for confirmation to lead the agency that administers the health care system.
Michelle Lujan Grisham Before becoming governor, Grisham was New Mexico’s secretary of health and helped build up the state’s public health system. She was the first Democratic Hispanic elected governor of a U.S. state and the first female Democratic governor of New Mexico. She has led her state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic since the outbreak worsened in the spring.
Housing and Urban Development
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was also on the short list as a vice-presidential candidate, is under consideration. As a Black woman and the mayor of a majority Black city, she was praised for her response to the civil unrest last summer.
Keisha Lance Bottoms Transportation
Phillip Washington, the head of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is under consideration, as is Sarah Feinberg, the interim president of the New York City Transit Authority and former administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration.
Phillip Washington Veterans Affairs
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who ran against Biden in the primary is a distinct possibility. He was on Biden’s transition team and was a prominent surrogate for the nominee on the campaign trail. Buttigieg served as in the Navy Reserves in Afghanistan. He would be the first openly gay head of the agency.
Pete Buttigieg Duckworth was head of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. She was the first female double amputee elected to the Senate and first senator to give birth while in office. A Thai-American, she would be another Asian-American woman at the top of the Biden administration, along with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, whose mother was born in India. Duckworth, who was a lieutenant colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard, has ancestors who have served in every major U.S. conflict since the Revolutionary War.
UN Ambassador
Buttigieg has also been one of the names circulating for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Serving in this post, which has been a cabinet-level job in some administrations, would serve several purposes for Buttigieg. It would allow him to practice the seven languages he says he speaks –Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Maltese, Arabic, Dari and French — and would burnish his foreign policy credentials should the 38-year-old decide to run for the presidency again.
National Security Adviser
Blinken, who is also being considered for the State Department, has worked with Biden since he was in the Senate. He said recently that the next administration’s foreign policy would aim to reverse the U.S.’s withdrawal from global affairs under Trump. “We’d actually show up again, day-in, day-out,” he told Axios in October. Rice is also a possibility for this job, which doesn’t require Senate confirmation. But she may not want it, since she had the same job in the Obama administration.
Another strong candidate for a senior foreign policy position is Jake Sullivan, who served as Biden’s national security adviser when he was vice president and and was an adviser to Clinton when she was secretary of state.
Jake Sullivan Colin Kahl, who also served as Biden’s national security adviser when he was vice president, has also been considered.
Agriculture Department
Former Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota is most frequently mentioned. She has led a Democratic rural outreach group, the One Country Project, and has been active as a surrogate for Biden in rural areas.
Heidi Heitkamp Other candidates include Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; California Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross, a former chief of staff to Obama Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Krysta Harden, a former Obama deputy agriculture secretary who now works with Vilsack as chief operating officer at the Dairy Export Council, are also often mentioned.
Interior Department
Retiring Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico is the top contender to be secretary of Interior. His father, Stewart Udall, was Interior secretary from 1961 to 1969 and is credited with a major expansion in federal land protection, including the creation of dozens of wildlife refuges, national parks and recreation areas. Udall, who says conservation is in his DNA, has laid out plans to enlist federal lands in the fight against climate change and has driven efforts to block drilling near the sandstone mesas and ruins of northwest New Mexico’s Greater Chaco region. Representative Deb Haaland, another Democrat from New Mexico, and Representative Raul Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona who leads the House Natural Resources Committee, also have won praise from environmental groups and been recommended to head the Interior Department.
Chief of Staff
The leading candidate is Ron Klain, who was Biden’s vice presidential chief of staff and led the Obama administration’s economic recovery and Ebola crisis response. Those experiences would be particularly relevant, given that Biden would be tackling coronavirus and the resulting economic downturn upon taking office.
Ron Klain Steve Ricchetti is also a former Biden vice-presidential chief of staff, and was chairman of Biden’s 2020 campaign. Also being mentioned is Zients, a co-chair of Biden’s transition team and a former director of the National Economic Council under Obama. Close associates such as Ted Kaufman, Biden’s longtime chief of staff in the Senate who led the transition team, and Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, could also play big roles in the inner circle.
Other candidates:
According to Politico, Meg Whitman is a likely frontrunner for the Commerce position, Ernest Moniz is seen as the most likely head of the Department of Energy.
What about Republicans?
According to Bloomberg, the close and bitter end to his fight with Trump will increase pressure on Biden to pick a Republican for his cabinet in a nod at bipartisanship, as Obama did with his first Defense secretary. Possible contenders include two Republicans who spoke at the Democratic convention: former Ohio Governor John Kasich and Meg Whitman, a tech executive who ran for California governor. He is also said to be considering the late Senator John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, for a role, along with Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, former Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona and former Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.
John Kasich - Exodus Coming? Four Trump Officials Left Posts As Ballots Were Counted
Exodus Coming? Four Trump Officials Left Posts As Ballots Were Counted
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 18:15Since election day on November 3rd three top officials have departed the Trump administration, and one other was demoted. All resignations were described as ‘sudden’ and unexpected, suggesting there could be more to come.
While there’s no significant evidence they were directly related to the election, it caused some media outlets to begin speculating that “a last-minute shake up” was on the immediate horizon, also as rumors persisted last week that Trump was set to fire CIA Director Gina Haspel as well as Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
Either some didn’t want to serve in what was a possible four more years of the Trump administration, or alternately knowing that Trump was not going to concede in the event of defeat perhaps didn’t want to stick around for the spectacle of Trump digging in for the legal fight.
Via AP Below is a quick rundown of the latest administration departures in order of their exit.
* * *
James Jeffrey, US Special Envoy for Syria Engagement and the Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS
On Saturday a top State Department official appointed directly by the White House who oversees engagement with Middle East countries in the Levant announced that he is retiring. James Jeffrey, who for the past two years has been US Special Envoy for Syria Engagement and the Special Envoy to the Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS, is stepping down.
The 74-year old career diplomat took over the post after the resignation of Brett McGurk. Jeffrey has been criticized as being too pro-Turkish and is seen as a Syria hawk, being among past foremost voices desiring regime change in Syria. Pro-Kurdish lobbying groups further see him as too much in Erdogan’s pocket.
Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
On Friday, Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, the official who oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile unexpectedly resigned, or as Bloomberg White House correspondent Jenifer Jacobs reported, it appears she was pushed out.
Lisa Gordon-Hagerty was been head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) since 2018, the first woman to ever serve in that position, which is a semi-autonomous arm of Department of Energy (DOE) charged with overseeing the safety and security of America’s nuclear weapons.
Few details were confirmed by DOE as to the reasons behind the sudden resignation, though as Bloomberg’s Jacobs noted it remains that “some admin officials are unhappy politics are being played with semi-autonomous arm of Energy Dept.”
* * *
Bonnie Glick, Deputy Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development
Getty Images And further deputy administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bonnie Glick was pushed out Friday. Her post is the second highest at USAID which she held from 2019 through 2020.
CNN noted that “Glick’s removal from the deputy administrator post came the same day that John Barsa’s term as acting administrator of the agency expires under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, and sources believe that she was fired so he could remain at the helm.”
The administration subsequently confirmed that USAID has named Barsa to her now-vacant post. “[The] President has designated Mr. Barsa as the Acting Deputy Administrator of USAID, and he will begin those duties this evening and continue to lead the Agency in this new capacity,” USAID indicated Friday.
Neil Chatterjee, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Also Thursday Trump demoted the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Neil Chatterjee.
According to MSN Chatterjee “may have been demoted because of his support for clean energy”:
“I knew when I embarked on this path that there could be blowback,” he told CNN on Friday. “I’m speculating, but if in fact this demotion is the result of blowback, I’m completely at peace with it. I did the right thing. I’m proud of it. I slept great last night.”
But the biggest departures could come soon this week, given the past rocky relationship between Trump and key defense and intelligence chiefs, namely Haspel and Esper.
- COVID-19 Is Not As Deadly As We Were Told… But Now What?
COVID-19 Is Not As Deadly As We Were Told… But Now What?
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 17:50Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,
In some ways, much of the election became about the handling of Covid-19. One thing we have learned since this monster out of China has spread across the world is that Covid-19 is not nearly as deadly as we once thought. Because of how things were handled in China fear exploded. This resulted in many people getting the image of Covid-19 hitting on the level of the black plague. We were presented with the idea trucks might roll down our streets with loudspeakers blaring, “Bring out your Dead!”.
On March first of this year, I published my fifth article on Covid-19. It seems I was early to the table claiming it had the potential to be a big deal. At the time some of those reading my articles criticized me for writing about a disease that didn’t exist. Like many people, I never would have predicted much of what has unfolded since. Whether it is because Covid-19 has become so politicized or because those in the scientific and medical community simply cannot agree as to the answers, so far many questions about Covid-19 have not been fully addressed.
Back in March, I put forth the following questions stating,” What we really need to know about the corona-virus is how it will affect us as individuals. At the time, the picture presented by governments was sketchy at best. Driven by agendas such as preventing panic and spinning the ramifications to lessen their toll on financial markets made what we were told unreliable. The big issue facing those interested at the time was what to expect and how to prepare. Below is a list of what I saw as the five most five crucial issues before us.
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Just how deadly is this thing and what are the odds you will get it?
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Are we looking at citywide lock-downs such as those that have been instituted in other countries?
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Is it expected to return time and time again and how long before we know?
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If I or someone I know appears to start showing symptoms, what is the best course forward?
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What are the long and short-term economic consequences of this outbreak?
Covid-19 Is Not As Deadly As Thought
In the minds of the public several concerns and issues remain unresolved. Whether it is because Covid-19 has become so politicized or because those in the scientific and medical community simply cannot agree on the answers the fact is many of these questions have not been fully addressed. Today, with it clear Covid-19 is not the “get it you die” killer we thought, the questions above have been replaced with several others. Most of us are not panicked but slowly becoming resolved to the fact we are living in a world that will never be the same. Our lifestyles have undergone some rapid social adjustments as the concerns of being stalked by such a virus have unsettled in.
The public has good reason to be skeptical of what we are being told when the so-called experts can’t agree on how long a person should be quarantined and continue changing how long the virus can live on different surfaces. In truth, we have no idea how far this virus has spread. Remember, not everyone that has been infected has been tested. Many countries have few health care facilities and still suffer from a shortage of test kits. While this virus is particularly dangerous because many carriers of the infection show no symptoms the big question is whether it merits such stringent measures as to locking down the movement of people in large areas to stop its spread.
Other issues revolve around when and how a vaccine will be received. Most vaccines have very long study periods that most likely won’t be done before a vaccine is hastily rushed through development. This has led to growing questions and fear about whether it will be safe or how it effective it will be mean many Americans are not enthusiastically ready to be vaccinated. Talk about it being required or mandated does not sit well with a large part of the population. Of course, the bill for all of this will be massive and we the taxpayers will get stuck with all of it. All of this is truly an incoherent mess in which both social media and a bias media with an agenda have worked extremely hard to spin and politicize.
The mainstream narrative is that Covid-19 remains a quite deadly and novel disease and there are no effective treatments. This means that society must do all it can to help the brave health authorities that care about saving lives including surrendering our liberties and shutting down the economy. with a second and possibly third wave ramping up across the U.S. and Europe and there’s nothing we can do to limit it except shut down businesses and halt the ability to travel and gather. Much of this narrative and hype is based on the idea every life is precious and equal. It discounts the fact quality of life matters. Keeping a ninety-five-year-old person with Covid-19 alive could be seen as not saving a life but merely extending it at great cost.
Deaths Did Meet Predictions
Some covid skeptics might go as far as to argue this has become just as much about money as health, and we are talking trillions of dollars. Slow-moving incompetent overpaid bureaucrats within governments with strong agendas generate and control both the data and the narrative. Whether the goal of a government is to limit panic, deflect criticism from its failings, or simply generate the impression they have control of the situation we pay the price. When we step back and look at what has so far occurred we find that perhaps locking down societies doesn’t do much to combat the disease while it does do a lot to ruin people’s lives and livelihoods?
The alternative narrative is very different. it is based on the idea that while covid-19 is a dangerous disease, it is not novel. Some people argue a combination of mostly OTC supplements could reasonably be expected to drop the severity of illness and the already low mortality rate by 90% or more. Common sense an assortment of very effective, inexpensive widely-available methods of preventatives exist that lessening its impact. Still, we are told health authorities have shown either zero interest in the results of such studies mainly conducted in poorer nations or they have actively run studies indicating these cheap, effective therapies could be dismissed.
It appears someone is bending the truth when we hear or are told that in Sweden, where virtually nobody outside hospital settings uses masks, the 7-days rolling deaths per capita has been lower than in the U.S. for months. It is also lower than in the U.K. which is in a mask-wielding and lockdown craze. Even Germany is said to have more people dying with Covid-19 than Sweden does. Infection rates and spread trends since the height of summer now are beginning to look similar if you’re a massively mask-wearing country or not. In many ways, the ramifications of the media, big tech, and Orwellian governments using this virus to increase their control over a docile populace is even more threatening than the pandemic itself.
Today, just like months ago the long and short-term economic consequences of Covid-19 remain uncertain. Certain sectors of the economy are destined to continue taking it squarely on the chin. Businesses involved in things where people gather or move about remains in peril. The disruption of production and deliveries will continue to have a massive effect on business. Many small businesses without the financial resources to absorb losses and weather this storm have already failed and as this rolls on jobs will be lost and inequality will grow. Expect companies to continue shortening and reducing the weakest links in their supply chains. It is impossible to deny these long-term consequences will stay with as the threat of Covid-20 and 21 linger in the shadows just out of sight.
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- Yang Slams Democrats As Party Of 'Coastal Urban Elites'
Yang Slams Democrats As Party Of 'Coastal Urban Elites'
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 17:25Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang says his party needs to do some serious soul searching if they want to connect with working-class Americans, even if Joe Biden is elected president.
During a discussion panel on CNN this week, Yang said that Democrats are out of touch
“You have to ask yourself, what has the Democratic Party been standing for in their minds?” said Yang, adding “And in their minds, the Democratic Party, unfortunately, has taken on this role of the coastal urban elites who are more concerned about policing various cultural issues than improving their way of life that has been declining for years.”
Earlier in the discussion, Yang said that while campaigning “I would say, ‘Hey! I’m running for president!’ to a truck driver, retail worker, waitress in a diner, and they would say, ‘What party?’ And I’d say ‘Democrat’ and they would flinch like I said something really negative or I had just turned another color or something like that.”
Andrew Yang says Democrats need to improve their appeal to the working class: “In there minds the Democratic party unfortunately has taken on this role of the coastal urban elites who are more concerned about policing various cultural issues than improving their way of life.” pic.twitter.com/UljmEH0sEn
— The Matt Skidmore Show (@ZachandMattShow) November 6, 2020
As the New York Post notes, Yang cautioned Democrats not to underestimate the size of Trump’s base in a Thursday tweet.
If 68 million people do something it’s vital that we understand it.
— Andrew Yang🧢🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) November 5, 2020
- Watch Live: Trump Campaign Press Conference After Giuliani Warns Of Election-Changing Evidence In PA
Watch Live: Trump Campaign Press Conference After Giuliani Warns Of Election-Changing Evidence In PA
Tyler Durden
Sun, 11/08/2020 – 17:24Following earlier comments by Rudy Giuliani that the Trump campaign has evidence that may change the results of the presidential electoral map, the Trump campaign is holding a press conference from the Clark County Elections Department in Nevada.
Here’s another look at the crowd. They are chanting “stop the steal.” Important to note: @NVSOS says there is NO evidence of widespread voter fraud in #Nevada, & @ClarkCountyNV Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria told us he has heard no reports of illegitimate ballots. @8NewsNow #8NN pic.twitter.com/HlEkIP7ZCg
— Orko Manna (@orko_manna) November 8, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Those in attendance include former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and Chairman of the American Conservative Union Matt Schlapp.
Trump supporters are holding a prayer vigil.
The campaign press conference is due to start at 1430ET:
As PJMedia’s Matt Margolis reports, in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business, Giuliani said as many as 900,000 invalid ballots were cast in Pennsylvania, and that the Trump campaign will reveal this evidence in court.
“These are facts of fraud,” Giuliani told Bartiromo.
Bartiromo asked Giuliani if the Trump campaign believes it has enough evidence that it could alter the apparent results of the election.
“Well, I think we have enough to change Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania election was a disaster,” Giuliani replied.
“We have people that observed people being pushed out of the polling place. We have people who were suggested to vote the other way and shown how to do it. I’m giving you the big picture.”
President Trump has insisted that the media has called the race for Biden prematurely.
“Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor,” President Trump said in a statement on Saturday.
Additionally, Trump tweeted this afternoon:
Watch @marklevinshow at 8:00 P.M. Will discuss the Mail-In Ballot Hoax!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2020
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