Today’s News 9th October 2021

• A Message To Fauci: You Are In No Position To Dictate The "Greater Good"
  A Message To Fauci: You Are In No Position To Dictate The “Greater Good”

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  How does a fraud like Anthony Fauci find himself in the highest paid position in US bureaucracy? Well, Fauci’s career is a rather shocking testament to the reality of our government and our era – The more corrupt you are the more favors and promotions you will receive.

  

  Fauci is well known as a shameless opportunist among many within the medical research community. For example, the creator of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Test, Kary Mullis, had nothing but disdain for Fauci. Mullis was an interesting figure who valued scientific honesty above all else. He often warned that his PCR test could be exploited to inflate infection numbers by identifying remnants of a virus in person’s body without distinguishing whether or not they are actually “infected” (sick). Sadly, his test is no be used in this exact manner today to exaggerate infection rates of the covid-19 virus.

  In interviews Mullis has referred to Anthony Fauci as a “liar”, arguing that he is a bureaucrat that “doesn’t know anything about anything”. Mullis noted that people like Fauci have an agenda that is outside of the public good, and that they have no problem misrepresenting the science to the populace to achieve their goals. It should also be noted that YouTube has made it their mission to consistently erase any traces of the Mullis interviews mentioning Fauci from their website.

  It is also not surprising that Fauci’s rampant fear mongering over AIDS in the 1980’s has gone mostly unmentioned by the mainstream media. His claim that 1 in 5 heterosexual Americans would be dead from AIDS by 1990 has been summarily memory-holed and the guy is treated like a scientific genius by the journalistic community in 2021.

  If there is any justice in this world then Fauci should really go down in history as one of the primary initiators of the Covid pandemic, being that he was the head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that funded Gain of Function research on corona-viruses at the Wuhan Lab in China. This is the same research that Fauci blatantly lied about to congress on multiple occasions. And, the Wuhan lab is the same lab that evidence suggests was the ground zero source of the Covid-19 outbreak.

  It is important to note that it was Fauci and the NIH that LIFTED the ban on gain of function research on deadly viruses in 2017, and it was well known around this time that the Level 4 Wuhan lab in China was not secure.

  If anyone is responsible for global covid deaths, it is Fauci, the Chinese government and anyone else involved in that gain of function research which is primarily used to WEAPONIZE viruses under the guise of creating “therapeutics.” Gain of function research was originally banned under the Biological Weapons Convention which went into effect in 1975, unless it was being used for therapeutics. Now ALL gain of function research that is revealed publicly is labeled as therapeutics even if it is actually designed to produce biological weapons. This is sometimes referred to as “dual use research.”

  The prevailing narrative continues to be that even if the virus came from the Wuhan lab then it was surely an accident. I continue to believe according to the available evidence that Covid-19 was deliberately released in order to create a global crisis which could then be exploited by the establishment to introduce extreme controls over the populace to the point of medical totalitarianism. But of course, there is no smoking gun to prove this, only common sense.

  If we take the notorious Event 201 into account things get a little weird. Event 201 was a war game held by the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its claimed purpose was to simulate the effects of a deadly coronavirus pandemic “spread by animals” to humans and to develop the policies governments and their corporate partners should employ to deal with it. Interestingly, this simulation was held in October of 2019, only two months before the REAL THING happened. Nearly every policy suggested by the participants of Event 201 has now been adopted by most governments, including the social media censorship campaign against anyone that questions the origins of the virus and the safety of the experimental mRNA vaccines.

  

  Anthony Fauci and friends….

  WEF founder Klaus Schwab was quick to announce at the start of the pandemic that Covid-19 was the “perfect opportunity” to launch the “Great Reset”, which is a globalist plan to completely erase free market systems and replace them with a highly centralized socialist framework. The WEF envisions a world in which carbon related power is banned, all financial transactions become digital and are monitored and controlled by central authorities, and they have even suggested that one day people will “own nothing and be happy”. This is a reference to the so-called “shared economy” of the future, where the concept of personal property is abolished and all people will live in communal housing collectives where necessities are rationed or rented out to them by the government.

  Something must have went wrong with covid, however, because the Event 201 death estimates for such a virus were around 65 million within the first year of the outbreak. This of course never happened with Covid-19. So, the resistance to the mandates has been high, or much higher apparently than the globalists expected. They have been forced to engage in an endless fear campaign for the past 18 months over a virus with a mere 0.26% median death rate. It is a virus that well over 99.7% of all people will survive and it has an extremely low chance of long term effects on those who do actually end up hospitalized. In the majority of states the hospitalization rates are between 10-35 people for every 100,000 people infected.

  These numbers come from the CDC and the medical establishment at large, yet they are ignored by propagandists like Fauci, just as Fauci has continued to ignore natural immunity as a factor in covid mandates. It might seem bizarre to almost any scientist, doctor and virologist not paid by the government, but Fauci has argued that natural immunity should be ignored when compared to vaccination. Multiple studies from around the world now show that natural immunity is up to 27 times more effective at preventing covid infection than the vaccines, but those with natural immunity are considered a threat to others under the new mandates unless they are also vaxxed.

  This simply makes no sense from a scientific perspective until you realize that the mandates are not about science, they are about authoritarianism. Fauci is the US front man for a campaign of medical tyranny being imposed in every nation; this is why he does not care about natural immunity. The idea of it is inconvenient to his narrative, so he pretends it is inconsequential.

  It is perhaps ironic that Fauci himself is becoming inconsequential as he is slowly fading away from the media limelight. I have noticed that ever since the NIH gain of function information was released to the public Fauci has been in the media less prominently. A documentary produced by National Geographic and soon to be distributed by Disney+ portrays the conman as a misunderstood savior and is sure to be a trash fire. That said, it does represent a clear last-ditched effort to save the man’s false reputation.

  There is a good reason for all of this. Fauci’s distaste for personal freedom has been well documented and is making him extremely unpopular. He even recently argued on CNN in favor of vaccine mandates using this perverse position:

  “There comes a time when you do have to give up what you consider your individual right of making your own decision for the greater good of society.”

  Fauci and his globalist ilk can be distilled down to this single mantra: Do as you are told for the greater good. But who gets to determine what the “greater good” is? Isn’t it disturbing that it’s always the same elitists that end up in that position? I know that leftists in particular love the idea of the vaccine mandates and worship Fauci, and they say we skeptics should “listen to the science”, but Fauci is not a scientist, he’s a door-to-door salesman, and as I’ve noted above the REAL science does not support the arguments for forced vaccinations or lockdowns.

  Hell, I keep asking the same questions on the mandates in these articles and not a single leftists or pro-vax proponent has come up with a valid or logical response, but out of morbid curiosity I would love to see Fauci give his answers:

  1) Covid has a median death rate of only 0.26%, so why should we take ANY risk on an experimental mRNA vaccine with no long term testing to prove its safety?

  2) Why not give support to the 0.26% of people actually at risk from dying due to covid instead of spending billions of dollars on Big Pharma producing a rushed vaccine that you plan to force on the 99.7% of people who are not at risk?

  3) In majority vaccinated countries like Israel, over 60% of covid hospitalizations are fully vaccinated people. The exponential rise of fully vaccinated patients in multiple nations suggests that the vaccines do not work. Why should we take a vaccine that has been proven not to be effective?

  4) If you believe the vaccines actually do work despite all evidence to the contrary, then why should vaccinated people fear anything from unvaccinated people? How are we a threat to them?

  5) If the vaccines don’t work, then doesn’t this mean the mandates are pointless and the people that are most safe are the people with natural immunity? Shouldn’t we be applauding the naturally immune and encouraging treatment instead of useless vaccination?

  6) Since the vaccines actually don’t work according to the data, isn’t it time to stop blindly dismissing treatments like Ivermectin and focus on trials and studies that research these alternatives? Why the vitriolic propaganda campaign to label Ivermectin nothing more than “horse paste” when it is actually a long used Nobel Prize winning treatment for human ailments? Is it because the experimental covid vaccines would lose their emergency authorization status under the FDA if effective treatments exist?

  7) Why are government funded scientists so keen on defending Big Pharma to the point of ignoring all data that contradicts their claims? Are you just embarrassed of being wrong, or are you corrupt?

  8) Who decided you are qualified to determine what constitutes the “greater good?”

  Globalists and errand boys like Fauci will never be able to answer these questions without twisting the narrative. They will say “What about the 700,000 dead in the US?” to play on the idea that the freedom minded lack empathy for their fellow man. Of course, around 40% of those deaths are patients from nursing homes with preexisting conditions, so we have no idea if they died from covid or from their previous ailments. Also, millions of people die every year from a plethora of communicable diseases including the flu and pneumonia, and we never tried to lock down the entire country and crush people’s civil rights because of this.

  If we maintained a running tally of flu and pneumonia deaths year after year as we are doing with covid, then the ever increasing number of bodies would seem just as forbidding. Society cannot function when it is preoccupied with death.

  Yes, around 0.26% of people die from covid, but life goes on for everyone else. Our freedoms are more important than your irrational fears. Our freedoms are more important than globalist agendas for centralization. Our freedoms ARE the greater good. Without them our society dies, and as our society dies millions more people will die from the inevitable collapse and tyranny that will follow; far more than will ever die from covid.

  This is why nothing Fauci says has any relevance to us. He is so transparent in his corruption that he might as well be invisible. We will continue to ignore his declarations and admonitions and we will continue to fight back against the vaccine passports and restrictions. When all is said and done, if Fauci, Biden and other globalist puppets try to use force to impose their agenda upon us then there will come a day very soon when they will be held accountable for their crimes against humanity, and then they will wish they were invisible.

  *  *  *

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 23:40

• Chuck Schumer Urges President Biden To Crack Down On "Ghost Guns"
  Chuck Schumer Urges President Biden To Crack Down On “Ghost Guns”

  It comes as no surprise that the federal government is continuing its crusade against ghost guns, or ready-to-assemble gun kits, also known as 80% lowers. The latest is Sen. Chuck Schumer, who demanded that the Biden administration crackdown on these untraceable firearms. 

  “There is absolutely no doubt about it – ghost guns continue to haunt New York, and pose a serious threat to our public safety,” Schumer told reporters earlier this week.

  “We’re asking the administration to act: Close the ghost gun loophole as quickly as we can,” he added. “Stop ghost guns from coming into our city, our communities that are killing [people], particularly our kids.”

  Schumer said ghost guns are sold as separate components and don’t need a background check to purchase. He warned when these components are pieced together, they create a fully operational firearm that can end up in the wrong hands of “felons” and “spousal abusers.”

  The Senate majority leader said the ATF should define these “partially complete frames” as firearms and subject buyers to background checks. 

  

  In May, the Department of Justice proposed a rule that would require gun shops and online retailers to conduct background checks on those who wanted to purchase 80% lowers. The proposed rule also wanted manufacturers to add serial numbers to the frames. He predicted that if the federal government passed such a law, it would prevent ghost guns from ending up in the wrong hands. 

  But not so fast, says Baltimore-based gunshop and gun policy advocacy group The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN), who warned that more regulation of the firearms industry would only push criminals to print 3D weapons.

  “Nowadays, all someone needs is a 3D printer off Amazon, a few spindles of pla filament, and a CAD file to print a weapon at home. There’s simply no way for the government to continue a regulation spree on the industry and for any successful outcomes to materialize. It’s a losing war, just like the war on drugs.

  “What will the Feds ban next? 3D Printers?” TMGN opined. 

  During the last year and a half of panic gun buying, mostly due to the virus pandemic and social unrest of 2020, Americans also hoarded ghost gun kits in anticipation the government would crack down on these unserialized frames. 

  If there’s one thing the government likes doing, it’s the art of control, and the best way to do that is to continue regulating the gun industry into non-existence. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 23:20

• Singapore Drops AI Chatbot After Giving Inappropriate Advice About COVID
  Singapore Drops AI Chatbot After Giving Inappropriate Advice About COVID

  Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) removed an AI chatbot from its website after it went ‘haywire’ and provided people with inappropriate answers to COVID-related questions, according to Singapore newspaper Today. 

  Dubbed “Jamie,” the AI chatbot uses Natural Language Processing engine to figure out questions asked by the public. 

  Things recently took a turn for the worse when the chatbot left some residents in disbelief by its answers about family planning advice when asked about the virus. 

  An example of one of the conversations posted on Reddit shows one user asking the AI chatbot, “My son tested covid positive what should I do?”

  The chatbot responded: 

  “You should practice safe sex through the correct and consistent use of condoms, or abstinence, for at least the whole duration of your female partner’s pregnancy.”

  

  Another conversation posted online shows a resident asking, “Where can I get an ART?” ART refers to rapid antigen tests. However, the chatbot was far from helpful and offered the “polio vaccine” instead. 

  

  MOH was quick to remove the chatbot from its website after what it calls “misaligned” replies. Local media reports Ask Jamie is functional on dozens of other government websites and appears to be working fine. It remains a mystery why the chatbot gave terrible advice when residents asked COVID questions. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 22:40

• 15 Common Dynamics Of SHTF Collapses
  15 Common Dynamics Of SHTF Collapses

  Authored by Fabian Ommar via The Organic Prepper blog,

  When it comes to how we see and prepare for SHTF, thinking in terms of real and probable rather than fictional and possible can make a big difference. Even though SHTF has many forms and levels and is in essence complex, random, diverse and unsystematic, some patterns and principles are common to the way things unfold when it hits the fan.

  With Toby and Selco’s Seven Pillars of Urban Preparedness as inspiration, I came up with a different list of the 15 dynamics and realities of collapses.

  

  #1 SHTF is nuanced and happens in stages

  Thinking about SHTF as an ON/OFF, all-or-nothing endgame is a common mistake that can lead to severe misjudgments and failures in critical areas of preparedness. Part (or parts) of the system crash, freeze, fail, or become impaired. This is how SHTF happens in the real world. And when it does, people run for safety first, i.e., resort to more familiar behaviors, expecting things to “go back to normal soon.” 

  By “normal behaviors,” I mean everything from hoarding stuff (toilet paper?) to rioting, looting, and crime, and yes, using cash – as these happen all the time, even when things are normal. But no one becomes a barterer, a peddler, a precious metals specialist in a week. Society adapts as time passes (and the situation requires). That’s why preppers who are also SHTF survivors (and thus talk from personal experience) insist that abandoning fantasies and caring for basics first is crucial. This is not a coincidence. It is how things happen in the real world. 

  Recently I wrote about black markets and the role of cash in SHTFs, emphasizing these things take precedence except in a full-blown apocalypse – which no one can say if, when, or how will happen (because it never has?). Now, I don’t pretend to be the owner of the truth, but those insisting changes in society happen radically or abruptly should check this article about the fallout in Myanmar.

  #2 Everything crawls until everything runs

  Number two is a corollary to #1. SHTF happens in stair-steps, but most people failing to prepare and getting caught off-guard is evidence of the difficulty of the human brain to fully grasp the concept of exponential growth. It bears telling the analogy of the stadium being filled with water drops to illustrate this.

  Let’s say we add one drop into a watertight baseball stadium. The deposited volume doubles every minute (i.e., one minute later, we add two more drops, then four in the next minute, eight in the next, then sixteen, and so on). How long would it take to fill the entire stadium? Sitting at the top row, we’d watch for 45 minutes as the water covered the field. Then at the 48-minute mark, 50% of the stadium would be filled. Yes, that’s only 3 minutes from practically empty to half full. At this point, we have just 60 seconds to get out: the water will be spilling before the clock hits 49 minutes.

  This is an important dynamic to understand and keep in mind because it applies to most things. Another example: it took over 2 million years of human prehistory and history for the world’s population to reach 1 billion, and less than 250 years more to grow to almost 8 billion. 

  #3 The system doesn’t vanish or change suddenly

  Based on history, the Mad Max-like scenario some so feverishly advocate is not in our near future.  

  The Roman Empire unraveled over 500 years. We may not be at the tipping point of our collapse or the last minute of the flooding stadium, as illustrated in #2 above. But time is relative, and those 60 seconds can last five, ten, fifteen years. Things are accelerating, but there’s no way to tell at which point in the curve we are.

  That doesn’t mean things will be normal in that period. A lot has happened to people and places all over the Roman empire during those five-plus centuries: wars, plagues, invasions, droughts, shortages, all hell broke loose. Our civilization has already hit the iceberg, and the current order is crumbling. There will be shocks along the way, some small and some big. But SHTF is a process, not an event.

  #4 History repeats, but always with a twist

  That’s because nature works in cycles, and humans react to scarcity and abundance predictably and in the same ways. Also, we’re helpless in the face of the most significant and recurring events. But things are never the same. Technology improves, social rules change, humankind advances, the population grows. This (and lots more) adds a variability factor to the magnitude, gravity, and reach of outcomes.

  What better proof than the COVID-19 pandemic just surpassing the 1918 Spanish Flu death toll in the US? It’ll probably do so everywhere else, too. Even if we don’t believe the official data (then or now), we’re not yet out of this new coronavirus situation. 

  #5 SHTF is about scarcity

  A shrink in resources invariably leads to changes in the individual’s standard of living or entire society (depending on the circumstances, depth, and reach of the disaster or collapse). Then it starts affecting life itself (i.e., people dying).

  Essentially, when things really hit the fan, abundance vanishes, and pretty much everything reverts to the mean: food becomes replenishment, drinking becomes hydration, sleeping becomes rest, home becomes shelter, and so on. Surviving is accepting and adapting to that. 

  #6 The consequences matter more than the type of event

  I’ll admit to being guilty of debating probable causes of SHTF more often than I should, mainly when it comes to the economy and finance going bust. That’s from living in a third-world country, with all the crap that comes with it. 

  It’s what I have to talk, warn, and give advice about. I still find it essential to be aware and thoughtful of the causes. But it’s for the consequences that we must prepare for: instability, corruption, bureaucracy, criminality, inflation, social unrest, divisiveness, wars, and all sorts of conflicts and disruptions that affect us directly.

  #7 Life goes on 

  Humankind advances through hardship but thrives in routine. We crave normalcy and peace, and over the long term, pursue them. Contrary to what many think, life goes on even during SHTF. And things tend to return to normal after the immediate threats cease or get contained. 

  At least some level of normal, considering the circumstances. For example, in occupied France, the bistros and cafés continued serving and entertaining the population and even the invaders (the Nazi army). It was hard, as is always the case anywhere there’s war, poverty, tyranny – but that doesn’t mean the world has ended. 

  #8 SHTF pileup

  Disasters and collapses add instability, volatility, and fragility to the system, which can compound and cause further disruptions. Sometimes, unfavorable cycles on various fronts (nature and civilization) can also converge and generate a perfect storm.

  It’s crucial to consider that and try to prepare as best we can for multiple disasters happening at once or in sequence, on various levels, collective and individual – even if psychologically and mentally. And if the signs are any indication, we’re entering such a period of simultaneous challenges.

  #9 Snowball effect

  Daisy based her excellent article on the 10 most likely ways to die when SHTF on the principle of large-scale die-off caused by a major disaster, like an EMP or other. This theory is controversial and the object of endless discussions. Some say it’s an exaggeration. But in my opinion, that’s leaving a critical factor out of the equation.

  Consider the following: according to WPR and the CDC, before COVID-19, the mortality rate in the US was well below 1% (2.850.000 per year, or about 8.100 per day). If the mortality rate increases to just 5%, this alone would spark other SHTFs, potentially more serious and harmful than the first.

  That five-fold jump in mortality would result in more than 16 million dead per year or 44.000 per day. That’s 5% we’re talking about, not 20 or 30. If there’s even a protocol to deal with something like that, I’m not aware. It would be catastrophic on many levels over a shorter period (say, a few months).

  Early in the CV19 pandemic, some cities had trouble burying the dead, and the death rate was still below 1%. Sure, other factors were playing. But the point is, things can snowball: consequences and implications are too complex and potentially far-reaching. Think about the effects on the system.

  #10 SHTF is a situation, but it’s also a place 

  Things are hitting the fan somewhere right now. Not in the overblowing media but the physical world: the Texas border, third-world prisons, gang-ruled Haiti, in Taliban-raided Afghanistan, in the crackhouse just a few blocks from an affluent neighborhood, under the bridges of many big cities worldwide, in volcano-hit islands. 

  There are thousands of places where people are bugging out, suffering, or dying of all causes at this very moment. If you’re not in any SHTF, consider yourself lucky. Be grateful, too: being able to prepare is a luxury. 

  #11 Choosing one way or another has a price

  Being unprepared and wrong has a price. However, so does being prepared and wrong. Though some benefits exist regardless of what happens, the investment in terms of time, finance, and emotion to be prepared could be applied elsewhere or used for other finalities (career, a business, relationships, etc.) rather than some far-out collapse.

  Since so much in SHTF is unknown and open, and resources are limited even when things are normal, survival and preparedness are essentially trade-offs. We must read the signals, weigh the options, consider the probabilities, make an option, and face the consequences. That’s why striving for balance is so important.

  #12 SHTF is dirty, smelly, ugly

  This is undoubtedly one of the most striking characteristics of SHTF: how bad some places and situations can be. Most people have no idea, and they don’t want to know about this. Those who fantasize about being in SHTF should think twice. Abject misery and despair have a distinct smell of excrement, sewage, death, rotting material, pollution, trash, burned stuff, and all kinds of dirt imaginable. And insects. The movies don’t show these things. But bad smells and insects infest everything and everywhere, and it can be maddening. 

  During my street survival training, I get to visit some really awful places and witness horrible things. The folks eventually going out with me invariably get shocked, sometimes even sickened, when they see decadence up and close for the first time. Even ones used to dealing with the nasties – it’s hard not to get affected. 

  For instance, drug consumption hotspots are so smelly and nasty that someone really must have to be on crack just to stand being there. It’s hell on earth, and I can’t think of another way to describe these and other places like third-world prisons, trash deposits, and many others. Early on, being in these places would make me question why I do this. It never becomes “normal.” We just adapt. But seeing these realities changes our life and the way we see things.

  #13 The Grid is fragile

  It’s baffling how this escapes so many. Most people I know are in constant marvel with modern civilization. They look around, pointing and saying, “Are you crazy? Too big to fail! There’s no way this can go away! Nothing has ever happened!“. 

  We have someone to take our trash, slaughter, process our food, treat our sick, purify our water, treat our sewage, protect us from wrongdoers and evil people (and keep them locked), control the traffic, and defend our rights. 

  Peeking behind the curtains is a red pill moment. What keeps The Grid up and running is not something small, but it’s fragile. The natural state of things is not an insipid, artificially controlled environment. On the positive side, it makes us feel more grateful, humble, and also more responsible.  

  #14 The frog in the boiling water

  That’s you and me and everyone around us. There’s no other way around it. We’re the suckers who get squeezed and pay the bill whenever something happens, anywhere and everywhere. It’s always our freedom, rights, money, and privacy that gets attacked, threatened, stolen.  

  Not only because the 1% screws us at the top, but because we’re the big numbers, the masses. And only those who work and produce something can bear the brunt of whatever bad happens to society and civilization. 

  Make no mistake: whenever the brown stuff hits the fan, it will fall on us. It’s no reason to revolt but to acknowledge that, ultimately, we’re responsible for ourselves. 

  #15 People can make things worse

  Just have a look around and see what’s happening. Selco himself will tell you that the most dangerous thing about the SHTF is other people.

  Conclusion

  Sometimes, the mechanics, brutality, and harshness of SHTF end up in the background of personal narratives and emotional accounts. Being more knowledgeable and cognizant of some general aspects of collapses may allow flexibility, creativity, improvisation, adaptation, resiliency, and other broad and effective strategies.

  Or, simply provide material for reflection and debate, really. 

  Either way, even those who haven’t been through collapse can still learn from history, from others’ experiences, from human behavior, from the facts. Just be sure to see the world for what it is and not from what you think. Because it will go its own way, and reality will assert itself all the same.

  What are your thoughts about the dynamics of an SHTF scenario? Are there any you want to add? Does this match up with your personal expectations? Let’s discuss it in the comments.

  *  *  *

  Fabian Ommar is the author of The ULTIMATE Survival Gear Handbook and  Street Survivalism

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 22:20

• Aussie Freedom Blogger Arrested At Home For Alleged 'Breach Of Public Health Act'
  Aussie Freedom Blogger Arrested At Home For Alleged ‘Breach Of Public Health Act’

  Australian blogger Simeon Boikov – known as the “Aussie Cossack” – has been arrested a home for reportedly violating lockdown rules.

  Boikov, a citizen journalist whose YouTube channel covers police brutality and lockdown measures, livestreamed as three NSW cops entered his home and arrested him for “an alleged breach of the Public Health Act” on Oct. 4.

  As of this writing, it’s unclear what Boikov was charged over, however it comes days after he posted a video mocking the arresting officer, Seargeant Kingston. In a longer video (below), Kingston calls Boikov an “absolute menace” who was suspected of committing an offense by parking his car and getting out of it – which Boikov says he did ‘to exercise.’

  More:

  In Australia, police aren’t even allowing citizens to do exercise outside without mask. pic.twitter.com/ZMFIZ5BAKW

  — 🧢מאק (@beingrealmac) October 6, 2021

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

  Following the arrest, Boikov’s wife posted a clip where she says officials are discussing bail, but has no more information on what’s going on.

  Several commenters slammed the arrest in the comments section:

  

  In several videos on his YouTube channel, Boikov can be seen spotlighting police brutality and intimidation tactics against the public, walking into public places without a mask to challenge local mandates, instructing people on how to legally protest. In short, he’s a huge thorn in the side of the NSW government.

  In 2015, Boikov was questioned by NSW joint counterterrorism police after traveling to eastern Ukraine to meet with pro-Russia separatists who were the subject of Australian sanctions following the downing of flight MH17.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 22:00

• US Debates Promising 'No First Use' Of Nuclear Weapons
  US Debates Promising ‘No First Use’ Of Nuclear Weapons

  Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

  For the handful of nations armed with nuclear weapons, the circumstances under which they’d be used are always an important consideration. This is particularly true of the United States, which has one of the world’s largest arsenals, and is the only nation that has used nuclear arms offensively during a war.

  Often debated, but as yet never confirmed, is the possibility of “no first use,” a promise to the world that the US won’t attack anybody with nuclear arms. At present, China is the only nuclear power with a no first use policy, while India has a somewhat more limited promise not to nuke non-nuclear states. The US has so far refused calls to take such a position.

  

  President Biden is in the process of debating a new nuclear posture like finally making a “no first use” pledge. The Obama Administration was reportedly close to such a move, but ultimately changed its mind.

  The upshot would be that nuclear first strikes are morally unconscionable, and that the “no first use” policy is really a bare minimum of decency, even if it is a level of decency above and beyond not having actively started a nuclear holocaust yet.

  The debate is likely to be a high-profile one, as despite the straightforward ethical decision there are some outspoken proponents who favor the US remaining ambiguous on who it will nuke, and when. Biden is believed to be at least considering “no first use,” and Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) is positioning himself as the primary opponent, claiming US allies are “very, very upset” with the prospect of changing posture.

  Sen. Risch, the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, suggested that such a pledge would give comfort to the enemy, adding that “there are scenarios where you can imagine a first strike.”

  “A legally-binding no-first-use commitment—through congressional legislation or a multilateral treaty—would make a nuclear first-strike order illegal, drawing a clear line for US military officers.” @jmsleight in @BulletinAtomic https://t.co/8FweByyONe

  — Global Zero (@globalzero) October 6, 2021

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  Advocates say a proper policy change would reduce the chances of getting into a civilization-ending nuclear war with China or Russia by reducing the risk that either of them comes to the mistaken belief that the US is about to nuke them. Throughout the Cold War, such confusion happened, and nearly resulted in devastating exchanges.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 21:40

• One US State Already Has A De Facto 'Vaccine Passport' Requirement Just To Enter
  One US State Already Has A De Facto ‘Vaccine Passport’ Requirement Just To Enter

  Much of the American public might be surprised to find out that for months there’s already been a de facto ‘vaccine passport’ policy in effect to enter one US state. And already there’s been a handful of people busted at the “state border” (legal questions of Constitutionality aside) attempting to enter the islands with a fake vaccine proof card. 

  “People are pressing their luck entering Hawaii with fake vaccination cards or test results, an offense that can carry jail time,” The Hill reports. It’s the vacation paradise destination that the Chicago woman with the “Maderna” card got caught this summer trying to enter. Also initially a father and son from California marked the first case that gained national attention. 

  

  In the latest incident, a couple in their 30’s flew from Los Angeles with what’s being described as faking a negative Covid test. The Guardian reports that “According to a police statement last week, they uploaded false results into the state’s system, which flagged the documents and prompted an investigation.”

  The travelers were subsequently arrested and sent back to California and are now awaiting a court date. The attempts to get around Covid testing and vaccine mandates are apparently geared toward avoiding a lengthy hotel quarantine stay at personal cost upon entering Hawaii. 

  As The Hill details, some people were caught falsifying vaccine cards even for their children – despite the underage children being ineligible to receive the vaccine in the first place – but now face stiff legal penalties, including the possibility of jail time: 

  According to Hawaii News Now, fake cards hold a penalty of up to $5,000 or a prison term of up to a year, however, Newsweek reports that a 24-year old man from New York could face seven years in prison for allegedly submitting a fake card.

  The trend has been observed nationally. So far the most sophisticated fake vax record bust has come out of New York and Jersey, given in that prior instance one of the schemers had access to state computer records.

  As we detailed in early September, a woman in New Jersey who was known to clients as “AntiVaxMomma” – which she goes by on Instagram – had been charged by police with offering false documents, criminal possession of a forged instrument and conspiracy. Police said she was known to have sold some 250 fake COVID-19 vaccine cards over the previous months for about $200 each in the New York City area.

  Woman Arrested Trying to Enter Hawaii With ‘Maderna’ Covid-19 Vaccine Card https://t.co/SckoI6vA4g pic.twitter.com/V121PNCNHz

  — Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) September 1, 2021

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  The scheme was among the more elaborate ones uncovered of late, given that customers could offer $250 more for someone she was working with to enter the card buyer’s name into a New York state vaccination database, according to ABC News. This would then grant the ‘fake’ card verification status if checked against state health systems.

  Meanwhile, within Hawaii the state has already rolled out a COVID vaccine passport for residents to access gyms, bars, and restaurants – akin to large US cities like New York and San Francisco. “The state calls it a digital smart health card and says it would work the same way as the Safe Travels vaccine exception, where people would have to upload a copy of the vaccination card to a secure website,” local media detailed. However, at this early phase it’s not yet fully mandated, but businesses are being encouraged to enforce it on their premises.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 21:20

• Is Gunvor Getting Flushed? How NatGas 'Netbacks' Are Crushing The Secretive Commodity Trader
  Is Gunvor Getting Flushed? How NatGas ‘Netbacks’ Are Crushing The Secretive Commodity Trader

  Earlier this week, we noted that some of the world’s largest commodity traders were facing massive margin calls from wrong-way spread trades in the natural gas markets.

  According to reports, it appears the trading shops have all been hammered by a spread (or arbitrage trade) gone wrong.

  For years, the prices of European (red) and US natural gas (green) have traded within a well-defined range. When the spread between the two reaches one extreme or the other, you buy one and sell the other – easy, right ?

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  So as European NatGas prices surged in Q2, it reached a notable extreme relative to US NatGas, prompting traders to instigate the strategy of selling European Gas and Buying US Gas in the hopes the spread compresses.

  The strategy backfired last month when European gas prices soared due to a variety of factors including low inventories, high demand for gas in Asia, low Russian and LNG supply to Europe, and outages.

  Since then, the situation appears to have grown more grim, as Bloomberg reports that major energy traders including Gunvor Group. and Mercuria Energy Group. have reduced the size of their trading positions and increased borrowing from lenders to cover large margin calls stemming from the unprecedented surge in European gas prices, according to people familiar with the matter.

  Specifically, Bloomberg reports that both Gunvor, the biggest independent trader of liquefied natural gas, and Mercuria, a major power and gas trader, asked banks for additional credit to fund margin calls arising from their hedging positions, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private. 

  

  But, as ‘Structurer’, Jacques Simon, details in the following report, the situation could be far more grave for Gunvor…

  TL;DR…

  • Two weeks ago Gunvor was in the debt market for the 1st time since 2013 according to BBG. We note that Gunvor is the world largest LNG independent trader and also the biggest by % share among the houses with this exposure.

  • The trader is a net buyer of netbacks (a type of contract under which it receives the Henry hub index and pays the TTF or Platts JKM index to the producers).

  • Recently it has changed its LNG head in Singapore and we are also aware that Gunvor Singapore uses a strategy called “the box” whereas the trader locks the arbitrage spread at predetermined levels by swap hedges.

  • U.S website Zerohedge reports that Gunvor is facing massive margin calls as the global natural gas arb explodes.

  • Among the injured will be ABN amro, Credit Agricole, Rabobank, SG, Natixis, ING and Unicredit.

  • The margin calls are between $3.6B and $6.1B in the coming months for a company with a $2.5B net equity.

  • We will explain what is “the box” and then show our calculations for the margin calls and summarize our assumptions below.

  • The banks have offloaded $300M worth of their credit-risk on Gunvor last September to the bond market but since then the Dutch TTF-Henry spread has gone parabolic and the group’s financial position has significantly deteriorated.

  • The trader’s future is purely and simply in the hands of Goldman Sachs, Citi and the long swap dealers at TTF.

  *  *  *

  GUNVOR FINANCIAL POSITION

  Gunvor is very secretive on their financial positions, only releasing partial and selective information.

  Gunvor’s debt is unrated.

  The trader turnover is 94 million mt/year and the rule of thumb is that each 1$ in sale is backed by 5$ of debt. With the turnover growth we believe Gunvor debt is minimum $20B.

  If the House capital is $2.5B in H1-2021 then we derive that Debt/Capital ratio is 8X.

  

  THE NETBACKS

  Netbacks are based on the premise that the spread between two global LNG markets are underpinned by the transportation costs.

  The arbitrage flows is from the low price market towards the higher price market putting a downward pressure on the overpriced market, and has the effect of reimposing a netback-based parity between the markets. Netbacks assume an access to financing, prompt cargoes in the cheap market, and shipping capacity.

  • DUTCH TTF-HH-Transportation costs-Tolling fee= NETBACK TTF

  • JKM-HH-Transportation costs-Tolling fee= NETBACK JKM

  IF NETBACK TTF >= NETBACK JKM, the trader will ship the LNG to TTF until the equation parity is restored again.

  The caveat: It is another mean-reversion trade based on moderate volatility.

  

  See, Druz, T., Capra Energy Group, “When will European LNG Imports Recover ?” (2021)

  THE “BOX”

  1. Gunvor Singapore buys TTF netbacks which are defined as the Dutch TTF minus Henry Hub minus the Freight U.S Gulf Coast to Europe minus a $2.45-2.55 tolling fee. Gunvor is now long the TTF and that it must pay to the producer in exchange for the gas.

  2. To protect its margin the trader sells the TTF and buys the HH times the number of cargoes per month.

  3. Based on the current TTF/HH spread and the hedged level the trade becomes a “box” if Gunvor is long freight.

  Typically when the spread goes over the pre-hedge level, the freight cost rises => and Gunvor (long) absorbs the risk because it leases a 10-year fleet. In this situation Gunvor still makes a profit despite a $2-3 margin call on the hedge because it can resell the physical cargo or resell the freight voyage (relet).

  However this is not the behavior observed during Q3 and in Q4-21… As the TTF-HH goes above the 90th percentile value (blue line) while the freight (purple) has not converged with the arbitrage.

  Gunvor has not captured the arbitrage with the freight.

  What a trader employee at Gunvor did was underwriting a gigantic amount of risk (CALLs like optionssellers.com…) analogous to multiple times the trading-firm capital.

  

  The difference between the generic netback 2010-2020 and the 90th percentile TTF-HH spread represents the profitable trading hedgeable area for the trader “in the box” and where we presume a merchant trader would put some price risk covers against the TTF to pay the producers.

  As you can see the netback is now trading above the 90%P TTF-HH spread for Q4 and CAL22 leaving Gunvor with major curve losses.

  Most of the people out there think the physical trader can settle at a profit if it delivers the cargoes.

  This is not as simple given the financial exposure and box strategy employed by Gunvor in natural gas.

  The severity, timeline length combined force us to make further determinations regarding the risk of major default.

  If you are in the media/commodity headhunters/by-standers or even a Gunvor employee it’s time to pay attention right now.

  GUNVOR PHYSICAL LNG/GAS EXPOSURE

  The first step in our model is to determine the physical exposure by Gunvor in LNG/GAS.

  -Gunvor has ~42% of its total exposure linked to LNG/GAS according to the 2019 Gunvor Group Summary.

  The annual physical exposure of 20.32 million metric ton of LNG is factored by @ 0.80 for the proportion of netbacks SP&As in the portfolio and by 0.75 for the proportion marketed from November to March. This gives us 12.192 million ton of LNG equivalent.

  In the absence of any disclosure by Gunvor Group and based on 2020 volume we believe it forms a conservative assessment of how the trading house sources and markets its LNG.

  The conversion in mmbtu is 645.09 millions mmbtu or ~64,509 contracts equivalent.

  Thus at the present moment we determine that Gunvor has +64,509 long exposure on the TTF-HH spread falling in line with what Gunvor is (or was until last year) as the largest independent LNG trader in the world.

  GUNVOR MARGIN CALL MODEL

  With the physical exposure we use two hedging models to imply the current margin calls under the TTF-HH curve.

  As we stated earlier in “the box” we assume that the trader has hedged the physical netbacks at the 90th percentile TTF-HH spread. If it’s not the case we would be underestimating Gunvor’s actual margin call losses.

  STACK HEDGE VS ROLL HEDGE

  Assumption 1:

  Gunvor uses a strip hedge and the 64,509 exposure is evenly spreaded across the curve.

  

  With a $3.6 billion margin call it is the less severe of the two cases for Gunvor but still the TTF-HH netback doesn’t make even or below the 90P TTF/TTF line until next July which speaks for the fact that Gunvor Group is consumed by the $3.6B financial loss.

  

  Assumption 2:

  If Gunvor has elected to use a stack hedge, the Geneva-based trader hedges its price exposure on netback contracts by selling 64,509 nearby expiring month contracts.

  Since the curve has inverted, and increased, the stack and roll position generates enormous negative cash-flows. Under these conditions the current margin call is $6.1B.

  This is 2.5x the trader capital and Gunvor has to settle the swaps in cash at the TTF, the maths and market work effectively at wiping out the trader.

  

   

  To conclude there is a catch-22 moment for the banks who have extended credit lines to a Gunvor’s model relying on cheap bank financing.

   

  *  *  *

  Gunvor was in fact in the debt market to finance a mega margin call on TTF/HH, JKM/HH 3 weeks ago. The verdict is that Gunvor is now boxed. We are totally unapologetic about this.

  In our median estimate Gunvor faces a 5B$ capital shortfall: the trader is on a slippery slope, not capitalized at all while its margin calls will roll across several months.

  Our quantitative models lend credit to the argument that TTF no longer represents the supply & demand fundamentals.

  Gunvor is getting flushed. The market has a job to perform but is not done yet. For us as an analyst it has explained the extreme-volatility in the TTF gas market.

  

  The FT can officially start to write an obituary. 

  Something big is coming, watch your email inbox. We have calculated the implied margin call. (If you know someone at Gunvor they’ve to take their bonus now rather than wait for 31th December coming).

  “While there have been margin calls associated with the European natural gas price rally, Gunvor maintains a healthy liquidity position and instruments to manage any further volatility,”

  – Gunvor Spokesman.

  To the contrary our credible sources indicate that Gunvor Group trading activity in Geneva is effectively frozen with its remaining gunpowder serving to manage its decay. The bonuses in arrears won’t get paid.

  The trader’s future is purely and simply in the hands of Goldman Sachs, Citi and the long swap dealers at TTF.

  By December 31th, we call for 80-84 Rue du Rhone to be already gone.

  

  Bon voyage Gunvor.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 21:00

• "Catastrophic" Property Sales Mean China's Worst Case Scenario Is Now In Play
  “Catastrophic” Property Sales Mean China’s Worst Case Scenario Is Now In Play

  No matter how the Evergrande drama plays out – whether it culminates with an uncontrolled, chaotic default and/or distressed asset sale liquidation, a controlled restructuring where bondholders get some compensation, or with Beijing blinking and bailing out the core pillar of China’s housing market – remember that Evergrande is just a symptom of the trends that have whipsawed China’s property market in the past year, which has seen significant contraction as a result of Beijing policies seeking to tighten financial conditions as part of Xi’s new “common prosperity” drive which among other things, seeks to make housing much more affordable to everyone, not just the richest.

  As such, any contagion from the ongoing turmoil sweeping China’s heavily indebted property sector will impact not the banks, which are all state-owned entities and whose exposure to insolvent developers can easily be patched up by the state, but the property sector itself, which as Goldman recently calculated is worth $62 trillion making it the world’s largest asset class, contributes a mind-boggling 29% of Chinese GDP (compared to 6.2% in the US) and represents 62% of household wealth.

  

  It’s also why we said that for Beijing the focus is not so much about Evegrande, but about preserving confidence in the property sector.

  Remember: for China this is not about Evergrande, it’s about preserving confidence in the property sector

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 22, 2021

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  But first, a quick update on Evergrande, which – to nobody’s surprise – we learned today is expected to default on its offshore bond payment obligations imminently according to investment bank Moelis, which is advising a group of the cash-strapped developer’s bondholders. Evergrande, which is facing one of the country’s largest defaults as it wrestles with more than $300 billion of debt, has already missed coupon payments on dollar bonds twice last month.

  The missed payments, worth a combined $131 million, have left global investors wondering if they will have to swallow large losses when 30-day grace periods end for coupons that were due on Sept. 23 and Sept. 29. A separate group of creditors to Jumbo Fortune Enterprises who are advised by White & Case, are also waiting for a $260 million bond principal repayment, after a bond guaranteed by Evergrande matured last Friday, and unlike the offshore bonds, does not have a 30 day grace period (although five business days ‘would be allowed’ if the failure to pay were due to administrative or technical error).

  The Jumbo Fortune payment is being closely watched because of the risks of cross-default for the real estate giant’s other dollar bonds; it would also be the firm’s first major miss on maturing notes instead of just coupon payments since regulators urged the developer to avoid a near-term default. And with the five business days up as of today, and with a payment yet to be made, it appears that this weekend we will get news of a declaration of involuntary default from the creditor group which will set in motion the Evegrande default dominoes.

  With that background in mind, let’s move on to the truly chilling latest developments: it now appears that China does not need Evergrande to officially default to unleash a property crisis – one has already arrived.

  Recall that in September, sketched out Goldman’s three scenarios on China’s housing sector – a base case, a severe scenario and a third “hard landing.”

  

  While readers can find the full details here, we focus on the worst case, “Scenario 3”, which Goldman summarized as follows:

  In the third and most bearish scenario, land sales and housing starts fall 30% and property sales, house prices and completions drop 10% from 2021 to 2022. The tightening in financial conditions doubles that in the second scenario. Note that in this scenario, the tightening is of the same magnitude as the tightening in Goldman’s China Financial Conditions Index (FCI) from November 2017 to June 2018 when domestic credit tightening and the US-China trade war rattled the financial market significantly.

  Quantifying this dire scenario, Goldman envisions a China where new property starts tumble 30%, completions drop 10% alongside sales volumes and ASPs. If this scenario comes to pass it would also wipe out at least 4% of China’s 2022 GDP, potentially resulting in full-year contraction at the second largest economy in the world, an outcome that would have catastrophic implications for the rest of the world. And with Goldman’s warning that such a scenario would lead to a tightening in financial conditions similar to what happened “from November 2017 to June 2018 when domestic credit tightening and the US-China trade war rattled the financial market significantly” and one can therefore see that while contagion from an Evergrande default may skip China’s banks, it would have no less dire consequences for global markets and economies.

  With that preamble in mind, we bring readers’ attention to a little noticed report in Shanghai Securities News, citing China Real Estate Information Corp. research (link), which revealed that more than 90% of China’s top 100 property developers’ sales declined in September by an average of 36% from the same period last year. According to the report:

  • Sept. sales totaled 759.6b yuan ($118BN), down 36.2% from September 2020 and 17.7% lower from the same period in 2019, deepening a downward spiral that started in July
  • Among companies, 60% of developers saw sales decrease by more than 30% y/y in Sept.
  • Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou saw transaction volume of residential properties decline 30% y/y, while Shanghai fell 45%

  We had to do a double take when we saw this because these are absolutely terrifying numbers and are, to put it bluntly, scarier than Goldman’s “worst case scenario“; what’s worse this sudden collapse in China’s property market is taking place before Evergrande has even defaulted, an event which would lead to a glacial freeze in the property market as potential buyers hold off expecting liquidation firesales from the property giant in hopes of getting bargains. The problem is that in addition to being the world’s largest asset, China’s property market is also the world’s largest ponzi scheme, and without constant inflow of new capital it would implode, especially when factoring in the 90 million vacant apartment which just sit inert and which would promptly be dumped by anxious owners, flooding the market with excess inventory and sending prices crashing.

  It didn’t take long for the market to notice what is going on and otherwise healthy property developers, which are in far better financial health than Evergrande, promptly collapsed: China Jinmao Holdings plunged as much as 10%, China Overseas Grand Oceans Group tumbled -7.9%, Sunac -3.7%, Country Garden Holdings -3%, Agile Group -2.8%, and so on.

  

  But keep in mind that all of the above presupposes just one major default, that of Evergrande. Alas, it’s going to be far, far worse because in a reflexive toxic spiral, one property values fall, the entire property sector will collapse, leading to an epic bursting of a housing bubble that is order of magnitude greater than the US housing market was in 2007/2008.

  As Bloomberg writes, Chinese property firms “may face a wave of defaults” next year if China Evergrande Group’s deepening debt crisis shuts access to a key source of funding and conditions don’t ease for heavily indebted borrowers. As we have documented extensively in the past month, there’s growing alarm that the liquidity crisis at Evergrande will spill over to other developers as President Xi maintains measures to cool the property market while maintaining China’s “three red lines” rules on property sector leverage (a new report from the FT today found that no less than half of China’s 30 top developers were in breach of at least one of said lines).

  

  Fears of contagion risks intensified this week after a surprise default by Fantasia Holdings Group spurred a dramatic selloff in the offshore market.

  

  That sent yields on China dollar junk bonds to 17.5%, the highest in about a decade, while Evergrande’s dollar bond prices sank to a record low. After plunging 80%, Evergrande’s HK-traded stock remains halted.

  

  Distressed debt veteran Michel Lowy said in a Bloomberg TV interview that the nation’s developers are facing a “triple whammy” with dwindling access to offshore financing, “catastrophic” September pre-sales and a limited onshore banking market. Translation: both organic (i.e., operation) and external sources of cash have dried up.

  That could spark a “large wave of defaults” if the offshore market remains shut for riskier borrowers going into next year, said Lowy, chief executive officer of his alternative asset manager SC Lowy. For dollar bonds – which in the coming Evegrande default will be at the very bottom of the pre-petition claims waterfall leaving them with negligible recoveries at best – the risk is that the increase in yields becomes indiscriminate and makes it impossible for developers to refinance maturing debt, triggering a succession of missed payments across the industry.

  If they end up being locked out from the market and unable to rollover coming maturities, and with operating cash flow drying up, the only recourse is the dreaded liquidation firesale which would be the pin that bursts China’s housing bubble.

  “Ultimately it’s a liquidity game,” said Lowy. “How many months can you survive until at some point the central government will relent and start releasing liquidity pressures on developers?”

  And while much has been written about the turmoil in China’s dollar, or offshore bond market, the distress is starting to spread to the onshore bond market too. As Bloomberg notes, signs of strain in China’s $12 trillion domestic credit market after months of resilience may add to borrowers’ refinancing pressures. Stress levels rose in both the local and offshore bond markets in September, Bloomberg’s China Credit Tracker showed.

  Take yuan-denominated bonds sold by Xiamen Yuzhou Grand Future Real Estate Development Co., Yango Group Co. and Aoyuan Corp. Group all of which plunged to record lows Friday while two local bonds from a Fantasia Holdings Group unit were briefly halted following sharp declines. Yango denied social media reports that one of its housing projects had been halted indefinitely, and said that it had sufficient cash to repay debt.

  And while Bloomberg still has its onshore credit stress indicator at a positively bubbly level 3 (vs 2 in August), expect this to get much, much worse as the property sector implosion accelerates. As for the offshore bond credit stress indicator, well at least it can’t get any worse.

  

  Needless to say, once the “stress level” in China’s far bigger, $12 trillion onshore bond market approaches levels currently at the offshore, property-dominated market, all bets are off.

  Yet what makes the situation especially dire is that while Beijing would eagerly step in to bailout every insolvent bank and corporations until a few years ago, the one time when China’s economy desperately needs a bailout from the state is when Xi decided to be silent. Authorities have been allowing defaults to rise in recent years in order to curb moral hazard and encourage better pricing of risk in its debt markets. Property firms’ missed payments made up 36% of the record 175 billion yuan in onshore corporate bond defaults this year.

  Yet if Xi allows the entire $62 trillion Chinese property sector to sink, the outcome will be orders of magnitude more dire than Lehman.

  “It’s very difficult to see a solution right now,” said Hao Hong, head of research and chief strategist at BoCom International, who agrees that the Evergrande crisis could drag on. China’s Evergrande strategy would be to “let as many people bear the cost as possible,” to lessen the pain for any one individual, Hong said. However, if the broader population loses faith in what is China’s biggest asset while the market waits for a resolution – something the latest sales data confirm is already taking place – then the consequences will be catastrophic.

  So while some observers have compared Evergrande’s woes to the epic collapse of Lehman, the truth is that the coming default is just the trigger event whose downstream effects would pull down the entire Chinese bubble house of apartments cards, something the latest housing data show is already in play. Because at the end of the day, no Ponzi scheme can continue if the participants lose faith in a favorable outcome, and at $62 trillion China’s housing sector is the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme. Which is why other experts have said this isn’t a Lehman Brothers moment— it could be far worse, if one views China’s gargantuan real estate sector as rotten to the core.

  Which it is.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 20:46

• Stunning Video Show "Supposedly Retired," F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighters In Action
  Stunning Video Show “Supposedly Retired,” F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighters In Action

  For the last year, we’ve noted a series of reports (read: here & here) of (supposedly retired) Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft conducting combat training missions over the skies of California.  

  The latest sighting of the world’s first stealth aircraft, which first debuted in the early 1980s and retired in 2008, after the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighter aircraft was first fielded, was in mid-September at the Fresno Air National Guard Base, California. 

  The US Air Force released a statement at the time stating “two F-117 Nighthawk aircraft” would be conducting “air combat training missions.” 

  

  This is the first time that F-117s have landed in Fresno. Their presence immediately received attention from aviation geeks who captured the planes operating in Fresno in never before seen 4k resolution video, according to The Aviationist. 

  The Pentagon appears to be bringing some of these legacy stealth aircraft back to active duty as tensions between the US and China continue to soar with Taiwan in focus. 

  Four decommissioned F-117s were secretly deployed to the Middle East in 2017 to launch surgical strikes. The reason for the deployment was simple; Russia and Syria had shut down Syrian airspace by mid-2016. The U.S.-led coalition was unwilling to lose a fifth-generation aircraft to Russia’s S-400 missile systems in Syria. 

  As of January 2021, there were 48 F-117s in Type 1000 storage, meaning the planes could swiftly return to active service. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 20:40

• Key Witness In Assange Case Jailed After Allegedly Fabricating Statement In Court, Going On Crime Spree: Report
  Key Witness In Assange Case Jailed After Allegedly Fabricating Statement In Court, Going On Crime Spree: Report

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

  A leading witness in the United States Justice Department’s case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been jailed in Iceland, Stundin reported.

  Sigurdur Thordarson, a hacker and convicted pedophile, was remanded in custody in Iceland’s highest security prison, Litla Hraun, on Sept. 24 after being arrested when he arrived back in Iceland from a trip to Spain.

  

  Officials requested he be detained indefinitely to halt an “ongoing crime spree,” claiming he posed a “clear and present” threat to the public and was at high-risk of re-offending and violating the law. The judge agreed.

  His lawyer, Hunbogi J. Andersen, confirmed the news to Stundin, a well-known Icelandic biweekly.

  The Epoch Times has contacted Thordarson’s lawyer for comment.

  U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 18 criminal charges of breaking an espionage law and conspiring to hack government computers.

  WikiLeaks published a U.S. military video in 2010 showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. It then released thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables, which included critical appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family.

  Assange sought refuge inside Ecuador’s London embassy for seven years from 2012 until he was arrested in April 2019 for skipping bail during a separate legal battle.

  He is now in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison but the United States is currently seeking his extradition from the UK. If it succeeds, he could face up to 175 years in jail. Assange has argued he won’t get a fair trial in the United States.

  Thordarson was given immunity by the FBI in exchange for testimony against Assange, but later admitted to Stundin that he had fabricated statements to implicate the WikiLeaks founder and contradicted what he was quoted as saying in U.S. court documents, casting doubt on the indictment against Assange.

  

  Thordarson told U.S. courts that he was asked by Assange to “commit computer intrusion and steal additional information, including audio recordings of phone conversations between officials in NATO Country-1, including members of parliament.”

  However, he told Stundin that this was in fact a lie, explaining that Assange, “never asked him to hack or access phone recordings of MPs” and that such recordings were provided to them by a third party. He added that Assange was not involved but that he later offered to show the recordings to the WikiLeaks founder, without knowing what they contained.

  Thordarson also told U.S. courts that he and Assange had attempted but failed to decrypt a file stolen from an Icelandic bank. However Thordarson admitted to Stundin that these were actually files that were widely circulated online in 2010 and believed to be related to the collapse of Icelandic Landsbanki in the 2008 financial crisis, which does not support his initial claims that they were “stolen,” as it was assumed they were distributed by whistleblowers from inside the bank.

  Thordarson admitted to a host of other misleading and fabricated comments he made against Assange that can be found in the indictment.

  He also told Stundin that he had continued with a “crime spree” after it was discovered that he had used money raised for WikiLeaks through merchandise sales in 2010 to embezzle more than $50,000 from the organization.

  Thordarson said: “The idea behind all the companies [that I run in Iceland] is to squeeze out every last penny, knowing it will inevitably lead to bankruptcy by request of the tax authorities and the bill would end with them. Is it illegal? No, it’s just very immoral, that much I would agree with. But I have not heard of anyone being convicted for this sort of thing.”

  Stundin also claims that Thordarson allegedly forged his own lawyer’s signature in order to “fraudulently inflate the net worth of his company’s assets.”

  It is not known whether his recent admissions to Stundin played a role in his recent arrest.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 20:20

• Over 1,000 Crew Members Are Stranded On 'Abandoned' Cargo Ships Globally Without Pay Or Food
  Over 1,000 Crew Members Are Stranded On ‘Abandoned’ Cargo Ships Globally Without Pay Or Food

  Pandemic-driven global trade disruptions and an increasing number of shipping companies abandoning their own vessels over mounting debts including older vessels deemed too costly to repair has led to the rise in the phenomenon of crewmembers simply being abandoned at sea, often left to fend for themselves as they await pay which sometimes never comes. 

  A Friday investigative report in The Wall Street Journal has detailed some of the shocking stories of tanker crew members left adrift after companies abandoned vessels or sold or transferred them, or couldn’t pay mounting debts, while trying to survive oftentimes on little food even while moored close to resort locations in places like Dubai – or in other cases floating off the Suez Canal or at Black Sea ports.

  “The $14 trillion shipping industry, responsible for 90% of world trade, has left in its wake what appears to be a record number of cargo-ship castaways,” the report begins. “Abandonment cases are counted when shipowners fail to pay crews two or more months in wages or don’t cover the cost to send crew members home, according to the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency.”

  

  The UN agency recorded a doubling in the number of abandonment cases for 2020, with the number expected to grow once again for 2021 particularly after a noticeable surge in cases now getting media attention.

  WSJ cites the industry labor union, International Transport Workers’ Federation, to detail that over 1,000 international crew members are currently abandoned. But the report assures the true number of those left aboard container ships and bulk carriers whose transport operations have been halted is likely way higher, given individual crew members’ reluctance to come forward for fear of not getting hired by other freight companies. 

  Though most of those who effectively overnight became “castaways” choose to stay aboard abandoned ships until they get paid, in many cases they legally cannot disembark even if they wanted to due to complex local laws dictating policies of many ports. The Wall Street Journal explains: 

  Some governments require sailors to remain aboard as guarantors until shipowners pay port authorities for berth fees and other charges. More often, sailors refuse to disembark, convinced they will never recoup months or years of lost wages if they leave. Seafarers stuck on board generally borrow money from friends and family to feed themselves and crewmates.

  Many say they will stay put until the ship is sold for scrap, which can take years, rather than go home empty-handed.

  Some survive for up to a year on rice and water, or perhaps the goodwill and care packages of nearby ships and people on land, and others might stay put for literally years. The report noted that one engineer aboard a stranded tanker on the Black Sea has been there for four years. 

  This is a stunning story about the ugly realities in shipping. The numbers of seafarers abandoned is growing, exacting a terrible human toll. “We cannot survive here.” https://t.co/jOLtH8OwRa via @WSJ

  — Paul Page (@PaulPage) October 8, 2021

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

  Abandoned seafarers have described the ships as turning into a “prison” and a “slave ship”. One ongoing saga off Romania in the Black Sea involves four crewmembers awaiting the resolution of a high level Romanian court case to determine who is responsible for payment of debts involving the ship’s owner. Legally they simply aren’t allowed off the vessel. In some instances the WSJ documented stories of unpaid workers contemplating suicide. Some of them literally face starvation, and in these instances sometimes attract the help of local charities.

  Moored ships hit by storms with crew aboard – yet not able to disembark – is another example of some of the more dramatic and immediate threats to safety these workers face. And then there’s this instance noted in the WSJ report: “Off the coast of Yemen, one of the world’s largest oil supertankers, laden with 1.1 million barrels of crude, sits decaying in a war zone. An errant rocket or the ship’s corroding steel hull could trigger an explosion and massive spill.”

  Currently, there are efforts underway among a handful of large nations – namely China, Indonesia and the Philippines – whose ships make up the bulk of international sea freight traffic, to establish an ‘abandonment fund’ to help with emergency assistance for stranded crew. However, it could encourage companies to continue shrugging off responsibility, as is still continually happening according to the report. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 20:00

• Buchanan: Are China's Threats To Taiwan A Bluff?
  Buchanan: Are China’s Threats To Taiwan A Bluff?

  Authored by Pat Buchanan,

  Monday, four dozen Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s air defense zone, climaxing a weekend of provocations that saw nearly 150 sorties of China-based fighters and bombers.

  The U.S. State Department countered by issuing a stern statement warning Beijing about the adverse effect on regional “stability” of such “provocative military activity.”

  Yet even as the waves of Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense zone, President Joe Biden was reassuring Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that the U.S. would defend the Senkakus from any Chinese attack.

  Controlled by Japan but claimed by China, the Senkakus are uninhabited rocks in the East China Sea.

  Our alliances in the Pacific dating to the 1950s have put us in an odd position. The Biden administration says it will fight to defend the Senkakus and fight if the Philippines attempt a military retrieval of atolls and reefs in the South China Sea that China has seized, occupied and fortified.

  For Taiwan, however, a democratic island of 14,000 square miles and 23 million people, and for Hong Kong, a formerly free city of 7 million, we will not commit to fight — though human rights and democracy are said to be central to the Biden foreign policy.

  We will fight for Japan’s right to hold the Senkakus and Manila’s right to retrieve Mischief Reef, but not to ensure the rights of the 30 million people of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

  

  What is China, dispatching bombers and fighters around the southern and eastern coasts of Taiwan, up to?

  This is an unmistakable message to America that, about Taiwan, Beijing is serious. China is warning the U.S. and its allied and associated powers — Australia, Japan, India — that it will, in the last analysis, fight to prevent an independent Taiwan.

  Taiwan is a red line for China. Is it for us?

  This latest challenge comes after the public humiliation of the United States in Afghanistan, about which China has been crowing since August.

  Yet, these four days of Chinese intrusions into the air defense zone of Taiwan do not necessarily portend an imminent invasion or attack.

  For such an attack would risk a U.S. response in East Asia and a political and diplomatic confrontation if not a military one. The impact on the world economy of a collision between the world’s largest militaries and the world’s largest economies would be devastating.

  The stakes involved here are huge, but who would benefit from such a war?

  If after the fall of Afghanistan and the humiliation of the U.S. defeat and departure, the U.S. abandoned Taiwan, U.S. credibility would be shot in Asia. Asia and the world would conclude that China owned the future.

  As for credibility, China has a well-established record.

  China started and finished the recent war in the Himalayas with India. It warned Hong Kong to stifle the democracy protests that went violent in 2019. When Hong Kong failed to do so, Beijing acted and is now completing the full absorption of the city into the mainland.

  On its warnings and threats, China tends to follow through.

  Of all the islets and reefs in the South China Sea it has taken from Vietnam, the Philippines and other neighbors, China has surrendered not a one. Though charged with “genocide” against the Uyghurs, it has persisted in its persecution, as it has in its suppression of Tibetans and Christians.

  Chinese President Xi Jinping and his party are unapologetic about their Communist values and Marxist beliefs.

  Still, China has its problems, none of which would be solved and all of which would be exacerbated by any major clash with the United States.

  China is facing energy shortages and blackouts from a lack of fuel for its coal-fired power plants, its primary source of energy.

  After decades of a “one couple, one child” policy, China is facing a demographic crisis. In parts of the country, deaths now exceed births. China’s women have a fertility rate below replacement levels. China is aging and shrinking, and declining populations correspond with declining powers.

  But if it is hard to see any benefit to China to come out of war with the United States, it is equally hard to see any benefit for the USA.

  China will never relinquish its claim to Taiwan, whose independence is recognized today by only a handful of nations.

  China is a nation many fear and respect, but whose regime few see as a friend. For Beijing has historic claims in every direction — on lands held by Russia and India, and to islands and reefs claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines and Japan. It has a claim on Taiwan and on all the islands Taiwan claims in the East and South China Seas.

  Yet, though facing the world’s most menacing power 100 miles away, Taiwan, as of 2019, was still spending less than 2% of GDP on defense.

  Refusing to invest in your own defense, and relying on America to come and fight your wars, seems to be a tradition with America’s allies.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 19:40

• Nobel Peace Prize Goes To Journalists Who Stood Up To "Authoritarian" Governments
  Nobel Peace Prize Goes To Journalists Who Stood Up To “Authoritarian” Governments

  Russian dissident Alexei Navalny can add his name to the growing list of candidates who have been shafted by the Nobel Committee this year (many grumbled when the creators of the mRNA COVID jabs didn’t win the medicine Nobel).

  

  The Nobel Committee announced Friday that the winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize are a pair of journalists who challenged “authoritarian” regimes with their fearless reporting, the Committee said. The prize ultimately went to Maria Ressa, the editor and founder of the Rappler, an independent Philippines digital-media outlet that has persisted with critical coverage of ‘strongman’ President Rodrigo Duterte and his use of death squads to extrajudiciallly purge drug dealers and other criminals.

  “Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda,” the committee said in a statement.

  “Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time,” it added.

  She will share the prize with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, founding editor of the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, what the committee said was one of the few remaining “independent” news sources in Russia. The newspaper was founded in the 1990s, and was helped by an initial investment in former Soviet Leader (and fellow Peace Prize recipient) Mikhail Gorbachev.

  Ressa, who cut her death reporting from conflict zones, said even this didn’t prepare her from the backlash she would face from Duterte and his supporters since founding the Rappler in 2011.

  “There were so many hate messages … Ninety hate messages an hour, 90 rape threats per minute,” the first Nobel laureate from the Philippines told Reuters in 2017.

  As a result of her reporting, Ressa is currently free on bail as she appeals a six-year prison sentence handed down last year for a libel conviction, Ressa expressed “shock and disbelief” on Friday after sharing the prize. She says she has had to post bail ten times after being arrested as a result of her reporting.

  The Nobel committee said their award was an endorsement of free speech rights, which it said are under threat worldwide. The Rappler remains embroiled in a legal tussle with the government to have its license revoked, allegedly for violating laws on foreign ownership, even as Ressa attests that the outlet is “100% Filipino-owned”.

  Back in Russia, Novaya Gazeta has published investigative stories that have been at times critical of the Russian government’s conduct in the war in Chechnya, and investigations into the wealth controlled by oligarchs. Navalny, though his documentaries, has done similar types of investigations. But unlike Navalny, at least six of Novaya Gazeta’s journalists have been killed since the start of its existence (Navalny claims to have been poisoned by the Kremlin twice).

  

  Source: Statista

  Globally, the number of journalists killed peaked in 2012, and has since declined. But while the Nobel Committee focused on journalists who bravely held “authoritarian” regimes accountable (Duterte, the Filipino strongman, has just declared his retirement from politics), it’s perhaps overlooking the fact that in the US, the home of “the free press”, public trust in the media remains at rock-bottom levels.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 19:20

• The Assault On Merit Continues: MIT Cancels University Of Chicago Professor
  The Assault On Merit Continues: MIT Cancels University Of Chicago Professor

  By Mark Glennon of Wirepoints

  America’s plunge into insanity, particularly in higher education, apparently hasn’t bottomed yet.

  

  Dorian Abbot is a professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. He was invited to give the annual Carlson Lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which apparently is a major honor in Abbot’s field. Abbot’s topic was to be climate habitability and the potential for life on other planets.

  But a Twitter mob, as Abbot describes it, composed of a group of MIT students, postdocs, and recent alumni, demanded that he be uninvited. Sure enough, just six days later, MIT called Abbot to say the lecture was cancelled because they didn’t want the controversy.

  The particular viewpoint at issue here is especially noteworthy: Abbot wants universities to hire and promote based on what he calls MFE — Merit, Fairness, and Equality, “whereby university applicants are treated as individuals and evaluated through a rigorous and unbiased process based on their merit and qualifications alone.”

  Merit? Heaven forbid that.

  The assault on merit was initially a subtext lurking behind the woke movement. Now, however, the mob is open about it.

  Some examples in Illinois:

  • A bill is pending in the Illinois General Assembly that would ban discrimination based on any characteristic that disadvantages somebody, the implications of which are absurd, as explained here. The bill already passed the House and two Senate committees.

  • Mayor Lori Lightfoot sponsored a resolution at the US Conference of mayors equating “meritocracy” with racism.

  • Cook County’s Racial Equity Policy statement defines “equity” as full inclusion regardless of “ability.”

  For the MIT lecture, Abbot’s political views had no relation to the the topic he was to speak about. That doesn’t matter to the mob, which wants its enemies silenced on everything.

  One who wrote about the Abbot/MIT affair is Chicago native and University of Chicago alum Jonathan Turley. “What occurred at MIT this month is a chilling reminder that even a premier institution will yield to anti-free speech campaigns,” Turley wrote. “The result is cringing obedience to a rising orthodoxy on our campuses.”

  But the most important point was made by Abbot himself, who described the whole episode in Substack. Here’s his conclusion:

  • It’s time to say no to the mob, no to the cancellations. And it’s time to be forthright about your true opinions. 

  • This is not a partisan issue. Anyone who is interested in the pursuit of truth and in promoting a healthy and functioning society has a stake in this debate. Speaking out now may seem risky. But the cost of remaining silent is far steeper.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 19:00

• Manhattan Apartment Purchases Hit Three Decade High Amid 'Buying Frenzy'
  Manhattan Apartment Purchases Hit Three Decade High Amid ‘Buying Frenzy’

  The latest housing data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate signals “confidence” has returned to the Manhattan housing market, according to Bloomberg.

  Third-quarter data shows apartment sales in the borough totaled 4,523, the most in any quarter, dating back to 1989. The median price for homes that sold rose 1.4% from a year earlier to $1.12 million.

  

  “There’s more optimism and a sense of safety in the market,” said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel. “And there’s a sense that Covid discounts are evaporating quickly. They’re not going to have a lot of life left in them.”

  Buyers quickly moved in to buy the dip as bidding wars broke out, and the share of deals above the listing prices was 8.3%, the highest in three years. Also, the average time an apartment spent on the market was 152 days, 10% less than the prior quarter. 

  “People learned a decade ago that when you get a buying opportunity like this, you want to take advantage of it,” said Greg Heym, chief economist at brokerage Brown Harris Stevens, which released a separate report on the state of the Manhattan real estate market. 

  The buying frenzy helped diminish Manhattan’s massive pile of apartment inventories. Real estate firm the Corcoran Group noted there were 6,850 apartments for sale as of mid-September, 28% fewer than a year ago. However, inventories remain stubbornly high. “Buyers still have a significant amount of control over the transactions,” Miller said.

  Employers have been slow to bring back workers to the office this fall, but a separate report by Cushman & Wakefield predicts the return-to-office trend may accelerate in the first quarter of 2022.

  Kastle Systems, which aggregates data from its swipe-card access systems, shows only 29% of office workers in the city are back at their desks. That number is expected to pick up early next year. 

  

  However, commercial real estate remains in a terrible glut that may not be resolved until 2025. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 18:40

• Florida State Board Sanctions Eight School Districts For Defying Ban On Mask Mandates
  Florida State Board Sanctions Eight School Districts For Defying Ban On Mask Mandates

  Authored by Jannis Falkenstern via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  PUNTA GORDA, Fla.–The Florida Department of Education on Thursday sanctioned eight Florida school districts for defying the state’s ban on school mask mandates.

  School districts in Brevard, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties now face financial penalties.

  Commissioner Richard Corcoran reported to the board that none of the eight counties had provided any information proving that they were in compliance with state law before Thursday’s meeting.

  “They can’t pick and choose which parts of the law they want to follow,” Corcoran said as he was handing out the penalties to the school districts.  He also gave the districts 48 hours to amend their policies before the penalties went into effect.

  The state law the commissioner was referring to is an emergency rule adopted last month by the Florida Department of Health, that props up the Parent’s Bill of Rights. The rule requires that parents can opt-out their children from wearing mask mandates imposed by schools. The rule states that opting out of mask requirements is “at the parent or legal guardian’s sole discretion.”

  The commissioner recommended that sanctions in the amount of one-twelfth of each school board member’s annual salary be withheld. In addition, the commissioner recommended withholding funding in the amount equal to any federal grant the districts receive, namely the Project Safe Grant.

  The Biden administration has dedicated taxpayer money from the Project Safe Grant to repaying school districts the funding lost due to defying state bans on school mask mandates.

  These grants according to Corcoran serve to “backfill” what was withheld from Broward and Alachua districts for not complying with state law regarding mask mandates. Last month the U.S. Department of Education chose to award COVID-19 aid funds to cover salaries of board members in Broward and Alachua Counties.  Corcoran said they were the only two districts in the country to apply for and receive this type of grant funding.

  Corcoran reported during the meeting that Alachua had received a total of $147,710 in grants from Project Safe Grant and Broward has received approximately $420,000. The state began withholding Alachua’s funding on Aug. 28 which so far totals $13,429. The six remaining counties were also penalized but their funding totals were not readily available by press time.

  The state commissioner said the federal grants served to “buy off school districts” and said the federal government was interfering with the state board’s responsibility to govern its educational system, which is in violation of the tenth amendment of the constitution.

  “Every Floridian should be offended by the federal government’s interference in state education issue,” he said. “We will not be strong-armed by the federal government.”

  Superintendents from each county were allowed five minutes to defend their policies.  All eight superintendents argued their policies were in compliance and should not have sanctions imposed as they were following the law and serving students in the name of safety.

  Orange County Superintendent Barbara Jenkins read her defending statement to the state board during the meeting and said, “the action was legal” and “the action was necessary” given the “alarming rise” of school-related COVID-19 cases during the August surge fueled by the contagious delta variant.”

  Public comments were taken before the meeting began.  A majority of the callers were from Brevard County saying the district was not in compliance and the parents complained they were removed from a board meeting earlier in the week, which they contend was a violation of Florida Sunshine Law and asked the board to investigate.  Most asked for salaries to be withheld while one parent wanted them to take the consequences a step further.

  “I would like to see the board remove the superintendent and the board members,” Catherine Delaney a parent of a Brevard County student said. “I want them held accountable; we don’t want lawbreakers on our school boards.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 18:20

• China Demanding Answers Over US Nuclear Sub "Underwater Collision" In Indo-Pacific Waters
  China Demanding Answers Over US Nuclear Sub “Underwater Collision” In Indo-Pacific Waters

  China is demanding to know answers and says it’s deeply “concerned” over the incident with the US nuclear submarine in international waters in the Indo-Pacific which was revealed for the first time Thursday. A Navy-affiliated news outlet reported that a US nuclear attack submarine had been damaged in the Western Pacific after suffering an “underwater collision” – although it’s not clear what the sub collided with. The collision took place on Oct. 2.

  “China is seriously concerned over this incident,” China’s foreign ministry’s spokesman Zhao Lijian said Friday. He urged immediate transparency over the incident, “including the exact location of the incident, the purpose of this trip, and details of what the submarine encountered,” according to the statement. 

  

  However, no other follow-up details were issued since the initial US Navy report, only that the vessel is in a “safe and stable” condition. Presumably China and other regional countries could be suspicious or concerned that the incident is bigger than what the US is letting on – for example there’s the question, albeit unlikely, of nuclear material leakage. Reports are indicating it happened somewhere in the South China Sea.

  The Seawolf-class nuclear submarine the USS Connecticut is now returning to port in the US 7th Fleet in Guam, where it’s expected to arrive within the next day. The Navy says the safety of the crew remains its top priority. A Navy official said 11 sailors were injured during the incident, suffering moderate to minor injuries.

  As BBC notes, “the last known incident where a submerged US submarine struck another underwater object was in 2005, when the USS San Francisco hit an underwater mountain at full speed near Guam. One sailor died in the incident.”

  And further an analysts interviewed in BBC said whatever the submarine struck had to be “something big” to cause nearly a dozen injuries to crew: 

  Alexander Neill, a Singapore-based defence and security expert, told the BBC the number of injuries caused by the collision suggested the submarine probably “hit something big” and was “going really fast”.

  The incident, he said, was “uncommon but not unheard of” and had exposed how busy the area was with military activities.

  The USS Connecticut is in a “safe and stable condition” after the incident on 2 October, said a statement by the US Pacific Fleet https://t.co/aRzqWCWSQQ

  — Sky News (@SkyNews) October 8, 2021

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

  Neill added of the growing and crowded ship traffic situation in the region: “The South China Sea has been increasingly saturated with naval vessels from a number of different countries. While there’s been a lot of show of force by surface vessels you don’t see the level of activity under the surface.”

  Without doubt if the situation were reversed – for example if a Chinese or Russian nuclear submarine had an accident in the Atlantic Ocean or somewhere off the US coast, Washington would be insistent on answers. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 18:00

• Taibbi: The Cult Of The Vaccine
  Taibbi: The Cult Of The Vaccine

  Authored by Matt Taibbi via TK News,

  Yesterday, I ran a story that had nothing to do with vaccines, about the seeming delay of the development of a drug called molnupiravir (see the above segment with the gracious hosts of The Hill: Rising for more). In the time it took to report and write that piece, conventional wisdom turned against the drug, which is now suspected of ivermectinism and other deviationist, anti-vax tendencies, in the latest iteration of our most recent collective national mania — the Cult of the Vaccine.

  The speed of the change was incredible. Just a week ago, on October 1st, the pharmaceutical giant Merck issued a terse announcement that quickly became big news. Molnupiravir, an experimental antiviral drug, “reduced the risk of hospitalization or death” of Covid-19 patients by as much as 50%, according to a study.

  The stories that rushed out in the ensuing minutes and hours were almost uniformly positive. AP called the news a “potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic,” while National Geographic quoted a Yale specialist saying, “Having a pill that would be easy for people to take at home would be terrific.” Another interesting early reaction came from Time:

  Vaccines will be the way out of the pandemic, but not everyone around the world is immunized yet, and the shots aren’t 100% effective in protecting people from getting infected with the COVID-19 virus. So antiviral drug treatments will be key to making sure that people who do get infected don’t get severely ill.

  This is what news looks like before propagandists get their hands on it. Time writer Alice Park’s lede was sensible and clear. If molnupiravir works — a big if, incidentally — it’s good news for everyone, since not everyone is immunized, and the vaccines aren’t 100% effective anyway. As even Vox put it initially, molnupiravir could “help compensate for persistent gaps in Covid-19 vaccination coverage.”

  Within a day, though, the tone of coverage turned. Writers began stressing a Yeah, but approach, as in, “Any new treatment is of course good, but get your fucking shot.” A CNN lede read, “A pill that could potentially treat Covid-19 is a ‘game-changer,’ but experts are emphasizing that it’s not an alternative to vaccinations.” The New York Times went with, “Health officials said the drug could provide an effective way to treat Covid-19, but stressed that vaccines remained the best tool.”

  If you’re thinking it was only a matter of time before the mere fact of molnupiravir’s existence would be pitched in headlines as actual bad news, you’re not wrong: Marketwatch came out with “‘It’s not a magic pill’: What Merck’s antiviral pill could mean for vaccine hesitancy” the same day Merck issued its release. The piece came out before we knew much of anything concrete about the drug’s effectiveness, let alone whether it was “magic.”

  Bloomberg’s morose “No, the Merck pill won’t end the pandemic” was released on October 2nd, i.e. one whole day after the first encouraging news of a possible auxiliary treatment whose most ardent supporters never claimed would end the pandemic. This article said the pill might be cause to celebrate, but warned its emergence “shouldn’t be cause for complacency when it comes to the most effective tool to end this pandemic: vaccines.” Bloomberg randomly went on to remind readers that the unrelated drug ivermectin is a “horse de-worming agent,” before adding that if molnupiravir ends up “being viewed as a solution for those who refuse to vaccinate,” the “Covid virus will continue to persist.”

  In other words, it took less than 24 hours for the drug — barely tested, let alone released yet — to be accused of prolonging the pandemic. By the third day, mentions of molnupiravir in news reports nearly all came affixed to stern reminders of its place beneath vaccines in the medical hierarchy, as in the New York Times explaining that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who initially told reporters the new drug was “impressive,” now “warned that Americans should not wait to be vaccinated because they believe they can take the pill.”

  Since the start of the Trump years, we’ve been introduced to a new kind of news story, which assumes adults can’t handle multiple ideas at once, and has reporters frantically wrapping facts deemed dangerous, unorthodox, or even just insufficiently obvious in layers of disclaimers. The fear of uncontrolled audience brain-drift is now so great that even offhand references must come swaddled in these journalistic Surgeon General’s warnings, which is why whenever we read anything now, we almost always end up fighting through nests of phrases like “the debunked conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was created in a lab” in order to get to whatever the author’s main point might be.

  This lunacy started with the Great Lie Debate of 2016, when reporters and editors spent months publicly anguishing over whether to use “lie” in headlines of Donald Trump stories, then loudly congratulated themselves once they decided to do it. The most histrionic offender was the New York Times, previously famous for teaching readers to digest news in code (“he claimed” for years was Times-ese for “full of shit”) but now reasoned a “more muscular terminology,” connoting “a certain moral opprobrium,” was needed to distinguish the “dissembling” of a politician like Bill Clinton from Trump’s whoppers. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” could be mere falsehood, but “I will build a great great wall” required language that “stands apart.”

  The key term was moral opprobrium. Moralizing was exactly what journalists were once trained not to do, at least outside the op-ed page, but it soon became a central part of the job. When they used they word “lie,” the Times explained, they wanted us to know that was because “from the childhood schoolyard to the grave, this is a word neither used nor taken lightly.” Put another way, the Times didn’t want people reading about something Donald Trump said, grasping that it was a lie, and, say, chuckling about how ridiculous it was. If the New York Times sent the word “lie” up the flagpole, they now expected an appropriately solemn salute.

  This was the beginning of an era in which editors became convinced that all earth’s problems derived from populations failing to accept reports as Talmudic law. It couldn’t be people were just tuning out papers for a hundred different reasons, including sheer boredom. It had to be that their traditional work product was just too damned subtle. The only way to avoid the certain evil of audiences engaging in unsupervised pondering over information was to eliminate all possibility of subtext, through a new communication style that was 100% literal and didactic. Everyone would get the same news and also be instructed, often mid-sentence, on how to respond.

  At first this expressed itself via regurgitation of Approved Unambiguous Phraseology™ handed down from official or law enforcement sources, like “Russia’s election interference activities,” e.g. “Page’s alleged coordination with Russia’s election interference activities.” However, it wasn’t long before the stage-direction factor in coverage went berserk, as I noted last year after this question by Anderson Cooper in a presidential debate:

  COOPER: Mr. Vice President, President Trump has falsely accused your son of doing something wrong while serving on a company board in Ukraine. I want to point out there’s no evidence of wrongdoing by either one of you.

  The phrase, “no evidence of wrongdoing,” was a mandatory add last year in all coverage involving Ukraine, Joe Biden, and Hunter Biden, from the Guardian (“No evidence the younger Biden did anything illegal”) to CNBC (“There is no evidence that Trump or Giuliani has produced which shows that Hunter Biden was engaged in wrongdoing”) to Newsweek (“Although there is no evidence of illegal wrongdoing by the Bidens in those dealings”) to NBC (“No evidence of wrongdoing on the part of either Biden”) to AP (“There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the vice president or his son”) to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Axios, and countless others.

  The language was absurd on multiple levels, beginning with its incorrectness — unless they were talking purely about a legal definition, the issue of whether or not there was “wrongdoing” in Hunter Biden accepting a no-show $50,000-a-month job from a crooked Ukrainian energy firm was a matter for readers to decide, not an issue of fact. Still, a lot of people not only swallowed it, but vomited these and other terms back up again, over and over, on social media, or to their friends and family, or to anyone at all, in what became a new way for a certain kind of person to relate to the world.

  As a student in the Soviet Union I noticed subscribers to what Russians called the sovok mindset talked in interminable strings of pogovorki, i.e goofball proverbs or aphorisms you’d heard a million times before (“He who takes no risk, drinks no champagne,” or “Work isn’t a wolf, it won’t run off into the woods,” etc). This was a learned defense mechanism, adopted by a people who’d found out the hard way that anyone caught not speaking nonstop nonsense could be suspected of harboring original thoughts. Voluble stupidity is a great disguise in a society where silence is suspect.

  We’re similarly becoming a nation of totalitarian nitwits, speaking in a borrowed lexicon of mandatory phrases and smelling heresy in anyone who doesn’t. This cult reflex was bad during the Russiagate years, but it’s gone into overdrive since the arrival of COVID. The CNN writer who thinks it’s necessary to put a disclaimer in the lede of a story about molnupiravir, of all things, is basically claiming he or she is afraid a theoretical unvaccinated person might otherwise read the story and be encouraged to not take the vaccine.

  Except, if that theoretical unvaccinated person could be convinced by anything CNN said or did, they’d have already gotten the shot, because the network runs ten million stories a day directly imploring people to get vaccinated or die. News flash: the instinct to armor-plate even unrelated news subjects with layer after layer of insistent vaccine dogma is not for the non-immunized, who mostly don’t watch outlets like CNN or read the New York Times. Outlets apply that neurotic messaging for their own target audiences, who’ve been trained to live in terror of un-contextualized content, which everyone knows leads to Trump, fascism, and death.

  I’d be the last person to claim there aren’t dumb people out there in America, but at least the audiences of channels like Fox and OAN know that content has been designed for them. The people gobbling down these pieces by Bloomberg and the Times that have the journalistic equivalent of child-proof caps on every paragraph that even parenthetically mentions COVID really believe that content has been dumbed down for some other person. They think it’s someone else who can’t handle news that vaccines work and that there also might be a pill that treats the disease, without freaking out or coming to politically unsafe conclusions. So they put up with being talked to like children — demand it, even. Which is nuts. Right? It is nuts, isn’t it?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/08/2021 – 17:40

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