As tensions have continued to rise between the US and Iran, American officials continue to try to court allies to join a naval force to safeguard key shipping lanes off the coast of Iran. So far, they don’t have any takers.
The Trump Administration has been keen to have other nations pay for the defense of the Strait of Hormuz, and Trump has argued that the US shouldn’t have to cover the entire cost.
The US currently the aircraft carrier strike group in the Gulf region. Image source: AFP/BBC
The United States is struggling to win its allies’ support for an initiative to heighten surveillance of vital Middle East oil shipping lanes because of fears it will increase tension with Iran, six sources familiar with the matter said. — Reuters
US officials, however, are clear they will be in total control of this foreign fleet of ships they’re trying to recruit.
Some nations are okay with sending a few ships to escort their own tankers, but diplomats say that there is a lot of resistance to being seen as part of a US-formed fleet that would increase tensions even further.
“Nobody wants to be on that confrontational course and part of a US push against Iran,” an official was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Pentagon officials argue that the goal is not to encourage a confrontation, though everyone else seems to notice this is the end-result of US efforts in the area, and doesn’t want to be involved.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LwAdzL Tyler Durden
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, has arrived at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado to serve out a sentence of life plus 30 years handed down on Wednesday. He was also ordered to pay $12.6 billion in restitution.
For two days, the 62-year-old Guzmán’s whereabouts remained unknown – even to his lawyers, after federal authorities removed him from the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in lower Manhattan – described by the drug kingpin as “total torture” due to a lack of ‘fresh air, clean water and sunlight.’
Late Friday afternoon, however, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed that he had been transferred to the Colorado prison (ADX), where he will live in a 7′ x 12′ concrete cell with a television (for good behavior) and a 4-inch window to the world for 23 hours per day, according to the New York Times.
Illustration by RicHard-59 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
“It’s Supermax. He’s pretty much going to be in a box most of the time,” said one of Guzman’s attorneys, Mariel Colon Miro, adding that he will be allowed to go outside for one hour a day as long as it’s not raining.
Other famous inmates at ADX include Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the “Shoe Bomber” Richared Reid, Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols, and Robert P. Hanssen – an FBI agent who spent 22 years spying for Russia in “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.”
Guzmán, who escaped twice from Mexican prisons, is unlikely to find his way out of ADX.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by soldiers during a presentation in Mexico City, Jan. 8, 2016. On Jan. 19, 2017, Mexican government officials announced that El Chapo would be extradited to the United States.Tomas Bravo / Reuters
US Authorities had sought Guzmán’s extradition for at least two years before Mexican authorities delivered him to US authorities on charges of importing over 200 metric tons of cocaine into the United States, along with methamphetamines, heroin and marijuana.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LxjIDs Tyler Durden
Submitted by Cathy Buckle, who writes in to describe the rapidly deteriorating economic situation in Zimbabwe, and the nation’s second encounter with hyperinflation in under two decades; to receive her letters from Zimbabwe by email contact cbuckle.zim@gmail.com.
“Zimbabwe burns while the lights are out”
Dear Family and Friends,
A red light or high pitched alarm are the two most dreaded things in our lives in Zimbabwe today. They mean that the car has almost run out of fuel, the prepaid electricity meter is about to run out of money, the phone battery is almost flat, the internet connection has gone, the inverter battery is dying. And when the red lights go off completely we just grind to a halt.
After weeks of twelve to seventeen hour a day power cuts we are worn down to a frazzle. Getting up in the middle of the night, every night, to cook, charge batteries and electronic equipment, catch up on domestic chores, work on computers, meet deadlines and keep any sort of production going, is taking a heavy toll on all of us. People running businesses are forced to put prices up to cover costs of using generators. Others are cutting staff down to one or two days a week and others are just closing their doors altogether. We hear of farmers ploughing in winter wheat crops as they cannot irrigate without electricity and cannot afford the hundreds of litres of fuel needed every day to run generators and remain viable. In my home town and many others, the water situation is dire. As I write the whole town has had no water for over a week. Local authorities apportion blame to different departments and either say there is no money to buy chemicals, no electricity to run pumps or that they are doing refurbishments. Which one is true we mutter as we bend, stoop, fill and carry buckets and boil unsafe water on open fires outside.
This week the official inflation rate for June 2019 was announced; jumping from 97% in May to 175% in June. According to ZIMSTATS the “prices of basic goods from sugar to cooking oil to building materials soared during the month by as much as 200%.” In the month since the government banned trading in anything except Zimbabwe dollars, the new but mostly non-existent Zimbabwe dollar has lost 27.9% of its value. The ability to change US dollars cash into Zimbabwe dollars cash is all but impossible, despite being required by law. Going into a bank in my home town I asked if they could change US dollars to Zimbabwe dollars. Oh yes, they said and told me the rate of exchange for the day. Trying then and there to change US$10 cash into Z$ cash wasn’t going to happen however. “I can only do it if we’ve got the cash,” the teller said and advised me to come back every day to check if they had cash. “You never know when you’ll be lucky,” he said and went on to try and persuade me to open an account there; an account which attracts a minimum balance, administration and ledger fees, 2% mandatory government tax on transactions over $10, debit card fees etc, etc. Outside in the sun scores of people were just waiting to “be lucky,” either to be able to withdraw their meager monthly government pension of Z$80 in cash or to get the US dollars cash that had been sent to them by their relations outside the country via Western Union, Mukuru or other international currency remitters.
Absurdly, ironically, while getting Zimbabwe dollars out of the banks is almost impossible, the Reserve Bank Governor, John Mangudya said they were just about to revise upwards the weekly withdrawal limit of Z$300. Revising the limit upwards at a time when you can’t withdraw any Z$ at all; how does that work? Not to mention the fact that the existing weekly limit of Z$300 is the equivalent of less than US$5 a day.
Equally absurd is the claim made at every opportunity by the Minister of Finance that Zimbabwe has been recording a budget surplus since December 2018 and continues to do so. The Minister doesn’t mention the fact that it is us, the people, who have to pay 2% tax on every electronic transaction over $10 and we assume that’s where much of the budget surplus came from. We also assume the 2% tax is the reason why it’s almost impossible to get cash because if you pay in cash you don’t pay the 2% tax. The Minister also doesn’t explain why the budget surplus isn’t used to pay off electricity debts and resume power imports from South Africa and Mozambique.
Behind all of this absurdity are the countless numbers of people of all ages and races across the country who are simply falling through the cracks. A man told me about the mountain of medical bills waiting to be paid for his 83 year old Dad who had been in a car accident. Medical specialists, no longer allowed to charge in US dollars, have multiplied everything by ten or more. An anaesthetist’s charge, quoted at US$850 is now Z$9,000. Rural teachers who were earning US$438 a month now find their salary only worth the equivalent of US$49. In a petition to the Ministry of Finance they said “We have been robbed of our dignity. We have been reduced to paupers.”
An appeal from an Old Age Home in Harare, in operation for 50 years, who say they have reached a crossroads and do not know how to continue without urgent assistance. They are crippled by huge fuel prices needed to run generators during 17 hour a day power cuts. Generators for preserving food, cooking, lighting, heating water and providing oxygen to elderly residents with breathing difficulties. They say their food prices have quadrupled, that their staff are struggling to feed their families. The Chairman of the Home writes that they need a miracle to remain “standing strong in the winds of change.”
Heartbreaking stories are all around us from the young and old and everywhere you look, in every shop and supermarket people look dazed and bewildered, looking at prices of the most basic items and leaving without them. As I write this letter the late winter annual slash and burn environmental devastation is underway: unchecked, unstoppable: cut the trees, burn the grass, acquire a piece of wetland, or green belt and call it your own “self apportioned plot.” Zimbabwe burns while the lights are out. Until next time, thanks for reading this Letter from Zimbabwe, now in its 19th year, and my books about life in Zimbabwe, love cathy.
For information on my new books “FINDING OUR VOICES,” and “WHEN WINNERS ARE LOSERS,” and other eye witness books about life in Zimbabwe: “SLEEPING LIKE A HARE,” “MILLIONS, BILLIONS, TRILLIONS,” “CAN YOU HEAR THE DRUMS,” “INNOCENT VICTIMS” “AFRICAN TEARS”, “BEYOND TEARS” ”RUNDI,” and “IMIRE,” please go towww.lulu.com/spotlight/CathyBuckle2018 or to subscribe/unsubscribe to this letter, contact cbuckle.zim@gmail.com
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2GlhFhN Tyler Durden
The deployment of hundreds of US troops to Saudi Arabia as part of a build-up to counter Iran in the region amid soaring tensions and a dangerously ratcheting “tanker war” has begun,TheWall Street Journalreported Friday night.
The Pentagon first revealed on Wednesday that 500 of the 1000 total troops announced by the White House last month to bolster US presence in the Middle East would be heading to the Prince Sultan Air Base, situated in the desert east of Riyadh.
Crucially, Prince Sultan Air Base has been closed to American troopssince the rapid fall of Baghdad and overthrow of Saddam at the start of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
Illustrative file image
The WSJ report confirms the new deployment is en route within 24 hours after Iran’s elite IRGC seized two British tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. One tanker has already released, but the other – British-flagged Stena Impero and its crew – is still being detained.
The military already has begun to deploy more than 500 U.S. service members to Prince Sultan Air Base, about 150 kilometers southwest of Riyadh, officials said. Saudi officials didn’t respond to requests for comment. Officials from U.S. Central Command, which overseas the Middle East, declined to comment.
It’s the latest sign that the Trump Administration is continuing its military buildup in the region, which has so far included fighter jets, B-52 bombers, an aircraft carrier strike force, Navy destroyers and – of course – more troops.
Citing two senior defense officials, CNN had previously reported that a small number of troops were already in the area, and initial preparations were being made for a Patriot missile defense battery as well as improvements to a runway and airfield. US security assessments have determined that the area would be ideal for US troop deployment because it would be difficult for Iran to target with missiles.
Satellite images obtained by CNN revealed the initial deployment to the air base in mid-June. Other images showed more preparations were made at the site earlier this month.
The deployment will strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia, which had been temporarily strained in the wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi as some lawmakers tried to prevent the US from selling arms to the kingdom, which has historically been one of the biggest purchasers of American arms. However, the Trump Administration is taking steps to expedite arms sales to the US’s Middle East allies, including Saudi Arabia.
However, the Pentagon has apparently dramatically scaled back plans to deploy 10,000 troops to the region to “monitor Iran”. Ultimately, the US hopes to be able to fly stealth, fifth-generation F-22 jets from the base, according to reports.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LYHDv7 Tyler Durden
Does pageant “advocate for the punishment of women who refuse to wear a hijab”?
Beauty pageant officials wanted this outspoken winner to be quiet and submissive. Nevertheless, she persisted.
University of Michigan student Kathy Zhu is savaging the Miss World America competition for revoking her Miss Michigan title just a day after crowning her, the Detroit News reports.
Zhu, also a College Republicans leader, tweeted an email from Michigan Director Laurie DeJack that blamed her social media posts for the decision to revoke her title.
They are “offensive, insensitive and inappropriate,” violating the competition’s boilerplate rules about bringing MWA “into disrepute” through a contestant’s “background,” DeJack wrote, copying National Director Michael Galanes and Chief Operating Officer Robert Gandara on the email.
The posts in question came from the past two years. While she was still a University of Central Florida student, Zhu (second from right above) criticized a “Muslim Student Association event that invited students to try on a hijab” in 2018, the News reports:
“So you’re telling me that it’s now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing?” Zhu had tweeted. “Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?”
Her comments prompted a Twitter fight and at least one call for expulsion, but officials ultimately concluded that none of the involved students’ actions violated the university’s rules of conduct.
In a text exchange posted online, a beauty pageant organizer also raised concerns with an October 2017 tweet by Zhu, who wrote: “Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others.”
Zhu wrote back a fiery email to the “gullible” competition officials, explaining the context of her posts:
What’s “insensitive” is that women in the middle east are getting STONED TO DEATH for refusing to obey their husband’s orders to wear hijabs.
A muslim woman tried to FORCIBLY put a hijab on my head without my permission. […] Are the people in MWA implying that they advocate for the punishment of women who refuse to wear a hijab?
If this was a catholic rosary that someone forced me to try on and I refused, people would not have even bat [sic] an eye.
I suggest you all fully review what you stand for and what you condemn. Statistics and facts are not always pleasant. [This apparently refers to the “black deaths” tweet]
Zhu said the revocation was based on “ONE PERSON’S COMPLAINT” about “photoshopped tweets.” She identified that person as Scotland Calhoun Perez, whose Twitter account was marked protected sometime after July 7.
Miss World America’s State/National/Chief Director accused me of being racist, Islamaphobic, and insensitive.
They stripped me of my Miss Michigan title due to my refusal to try on a hijab in 2018, my tweet about black on black gun violence, and “insensitive” statistical tweets. pic.twitter.com/K1Btho0Pgq
Zhu also posted a text thread with DeJack, where the state director asks her to confirm that her Twitter handle is “Political Kathy” and then warned her not to publicly associate herself with Michigan World America.
DeJack implied that Zhu was required to run social media posts by her before posting them, specifically those that identify her with Miss Michigan. Zhu said DeJack gave her explicit permission to post them.
“Kathy, we have a huge issue now,” DeJack wrote, without answering Zhu about the issue. She said someone accused Zhu of misrepresenting herself in the competition by presenting her Chinese name. DeJack also asked Zhu why she left the University of Central Florida, and said the MWA national office was on her case.
Muslim students at Zhu’s college began a campaign to have her expelled. A female student who was manning the hijab booth said, “I invited you to try one on and you said ‘no thank you’…You didn’t take the time to even ask questions or try to understand what Hijab is. That’s ignorant of you. You literally sprinted after taking the photos. That’s pathetic.”
When the state director cited her “black deaths” tweet, Zhu deadpanned that she didn’t know “statistics were racist.” DeJack said it was a “comment with no statistics to back it up,” but the political science major retorted that she had read it in an “educational journal.” (FBI statistics confirm this.) Zhu also mentioned Calhoun Perez as trying to get her in trouble with previous organizations.
Zhu told the News she went to DeJack’s house following the exchange to drop off her crown and sash. Zhu won’t be able to compete in the Las Vegas competition for a chance to make it to the international stage.
Miss Indiana and Michigan World America removed its Facebook page Friday, sometime after the News linked to its revised announcement, which reportedly omitted Zhu from the list of winners.
Zhu told the News she didn’t care about losing the title, but that “it was more of how unfair it was for the whole process to have taken place”:
[S]he had posted that tweet [about “black deaths”] in response to social media claims that “all cops are bad cops, all cops were killing blacks,” an explanation she was not able to provide pageant organizers.
“It wasn’t anything about blaming blacks specifically for violence,” said Zhu, who was born in China and raised in Florida. “I mean, every community has problems within it. I just shined light on that particular issue because of a subtweet of someone else.”
She thanked her supporters in a video Friday afternoon:
This is so much bigger than pageantry. This is about an organization discriminating against people with different opinions, calling people racist even when they’re not. Just little attacks like those really, really diminishes the value and the truth of the word “racism.”
Zhu encouraged other pageant organizations to value diversity of thought and political affiliation, not just “skin color,” and told her fans: “Don’t worry – I’ll still stand firm.” She’s not taking legal action against MWA, however, because it has “suffered enough negative publicity.”
Cornell professor, and long-time Zero Hedge friend, David Collum recently appeared on an episode of the Quoth the Raven podcast to talk all things conspiracy. Collum is an economic commentator, chemist, Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University and is known for writing his “Year in Review”, which appears here on Zerohedge at the end of every year.
On the episode, host Chris Irons notes that Collum’s appearance was prompted by a recent Tweet he put out, in defense of being a conspiracy theorist which sparked a massive social media response and outpouring of reactions, both pro and con.
I am a “conspiracy theorist”. I believe men and women of wealth and power conspire. If you don’t think so, then you are what is called “an idiot”. If you believe stuff but fear the label, you are what is called “a coward”.
On the podcast, Collum and host Chris Irons tap into every major conspiracy theory over the last couple of decades, as well as several current events and the world of finance.
Some highlights:
Collum Thinks Jeffrey Epstein Could Have Been Working For “Powerful People” And “Setting People Up”
The discussion starts with analysis of the current Jeffrey Epstein fiasco and Collum ponders what “can of worms” could open for Bill Clinton and Donald Trump as a result of Epstein going to trial and documents relating to his indictment coming to light.
“It’s going to be bi-partisan,” Collum says about the Epstein allegations. “Epstein was working for powerful people, to get dirt on powerful people. Epstein wasn’t just a dirtball, he was setting people up,” he continues.
Collum comments:
“Nowadays getting photographed on a boat with a blonde sitting on your lap doesn’t even cause you to lose a vote. Now they gotta get you with something much dirtier. I think that’s where the underage kids come in. I think Epstein has been building a portfolio of dirt, like J. Edgar Hoover.”
“What if that crazy ass pizzagate conspiracy turns out to be true?” he asks.
* * *
Collum Doesn’t Buy The 9/11 Narrative – “Physics Tells Me There’s Problems”
Collum then discusses why he doesn’t believe the mainstream narrative behind the 9/11 attacks. He cites physics, Building 7 and the lack of video footage of the plane crashing into the Pentagon as two of the big reasons that he questions the official story.
“I think there’s problems with 9/11, but no one wants to say that because they’re embarrassed to say that. But the laws of physics tell me there’s problems. I don’t give a shit about the squibs or Larry Silverstein saying they decided to pull the building. When I watch two towers come down perfectly and I go ‘chaos theory alone says they should have gone asymmetric and stopped tumbling’…”
Collum continues:
“”I can’t believe Building 7 should have fallen. There’s really not a shred of footage of the plane hitting the pentagon. Not one frame. The official frame isn’t a frame. If someone’s got the footage, let me see it.”
* * *
Collum Doesn’t Believe the Las Vegas Shooter Story – “There Were People Saying ‘You’re All Going To Die'”
Dave also weighs in at length on the Las Vegas shooting, questioning with the host why a motive was never found, how somebody could get rich playing video poker as the shooter was alleged to have, whether or not there were character actors on the news after the event and what happened to the security guard who was involved and only gave one quick interview on the Ellen show before “relocating” to Mexico.
“There’s about 150 things that just don’t add up,” Collum says about the Steven Paddock Las Vegas narrative.
He speaks about the security guard from the day of the shooting:
“You got Jesus the security guard. He gets shot in the f*cking leg then all of a sudden goes off the radar. Then he disappears and the word is that he’s gone to Mexico. The explanation is that he had a vacation planned. Then he comes back with a cane and comes back – and does one interview with Ellen Degeneres.”
Collum also talks about other mysterious occurrences from the day of the shooting:
“There were people saying there was a couple walking around the infield saying ‘You’re all going to die in 45 minutes’ – and then they got escorted out. And then, ‘boom boom boom’, a lot of them died!”
Collum and the host also take a little bit of time talking about JFK, the moon landings, negative interest rates and the effect of Central Bank policy on the global economy.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2M4vWCT Tyler Durden
A pronounced and growing hostility to free markets has turned the academic humanities into an ideological echo chamber. Over the past 20 years, faculty in English, history, foreign languages, and philosophy have shifted sharply to the political left, resulting in a nearly complete exclusion of dissenting perspectives from these fields.
My previous investigation of this trend found that the most biased majors on campus are now struggling to attract new students, whereas disciplines with greater balance are seeing their majors increase. Ideological homogeneity may comfort faculty and students who already share in a common set of beliefs, but it’s also off-putting to the nearly two-thirds of incoming college freshmen who do not hail from the political left.
A new study of student attitudes about socialism and capitalism provides strong confirmation of the echo chamber effect taking hold of these same disciplines.
College students as a whole have a roughly even divide in their political beliefs, with a clear plurality classifying themselves as moderates and smaller groups identifying on both the left and right of center. In the humanities, however, the political left overwhelmingly dominates the student landscape as well as the faculty.
According to a recent survey by College Pulse, 78 percent of philosophy majors, 64 percent of anthropology majors, and 58 percent of English majors state that they hold the economic and political system of socialism in a favorable light. Unfavorable opinions of socialism account for only 21 percent of philosophy, 20 percent of anthropology, and 24 percent of English majors, with the remainder undecided.
When measured as a whole, 51 percent of humanities majors have a positive opinion of socialism while only 27 percent view it critically. On the flip side, 54 percent of students in the same humanities majors have a negative view of capitalism compared to only 32 percent in support.
Source: College Pulse Student Survey, 2019
The leftward skew of students in the humanities stands in sharp contrast with other academic disciplines, and particularly those with actual competency in economic matters. Only 26 percent of economics majors view socialism favorably, while 61 percent have a negative outlook. The further one strays from actually studying and specializing in the analysis of economic behavior, the more positive their outlook on centrally planned economic systems becomes.
Perhaps not surprising, socialist sympathizers among the student body also appear to have an extremely superficial and often muddled understanding of the concept. Although they are remiss to concede the point, such confusion likely extends to socialism’s faculty sympathizers as well. Scholars in these disciplines tend to form their opinions of socialism from an intellectual affinity for its abstract idealization as found in Marxism, critical theory, and other like-minded schools of philosophical thought on the far left. Social scientific analysis of economic behavior, and specifically socialism’s abysmal track record, seldom enters into the equation.
Philosopher Jason Brennan has made this point at length, noting that academic advocates of socialism usually present the system in its abstract ideal. They then deploy that unrealistic standard to critique “failings” of capitalism as it actually exists in the real-world, while neglecting the dismal parallel real-world track record of socialism. When one ideal form is compared the other, or alternatively their non-ideal performances are considered, capitalism consistently outperforms the socialist alternative on both economic and ethical grounds. Standard reference material on socialism from the academic humanities nonetheless remains curiously neglectful of the vast literature on its abysmal performance in practice, and particularly critiques from social scientists who work in this area.
An economist who studies prices, scarcity, and trade-offs has a direct professional awareness of economic policy making, and with it the untenable nature of socialist economic planning. A political scientist who studies comparative government would similarly know the immiserating and often deadly history of socialist economic systems in the countries that have attempted to implement them.
But what training does a literature professor have that permits him or her to competently opine on economic regulation, on tax policy, on public finance and budgeting, or on centrally planned resource allocation by the state? How about the creative-writing professor? Or the fine arts professor? The Spanish or German professor?
Far too often, faculty in these and other humanistic disciplines venture well beyond their own training and expertise to offer highly ideological pronouncements on social scientific matters that they are ill-equipped to even address. As each of these disciplines drifts deeper into a politically homogeneous echo chamber, such opinions are increasingly isolated from both internal and external scrutiny by scholars who do possess the requisite expertise.
While hostility to free markets and capitalism has clearly taken root among both the faculty and students who work in the humanistic sectors of the academy, there is some hope for an eventual course correction that either restores some balance or sees these fields wither and decline. Ideological echo chambers may be comforting to those within them, but they are also a self-defeating strategy for attracting new customers from beyond that echo chamber’s walls.
By only catering to students on the far left of the political spectrum, the humanities have adopted an exclusionary attitude toward other political viewpoints — including those that still comprise a clear majority of the student body. That almost assuredly means an increased concentration of socialist sympathizers among the majors that they do attract, but it also means the much larger and excluded remainder will vote with their feet and head over to the STEM fields, to the business school, and to pre-professional degrees that offer both greater ideological balance and less of an emphasis upon politicizing their course content.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2GlEcuN Tyler Durden
With 20 states considering Right to Repair bills this legislative cycle, the fight over who can fix the stuff consumers buy and own has become a national policy debate, bringing together an eclectic mix of advocates from across the tech, medical, and farming industries. Even presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) has addressed the issue, indicating that she would support a national right-to-repair law that applies to farm equipment.
On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held a workshop, “Nixing the Fix: A Workshop on Repair Restrictions,“ which focused on testimony from experts on how manufacturers limit repairs by consumers and independent repair shops. The event highlighted the growing momentum—and potential for more federal involvement—behind the issue.
“The Nixing the Fix workshop was a big day for Right to Repair,” says Nathan Proctor, the director of the Right to Repair Campaign for US PIRG, a consumer rights organization. “Perhaps manufacturers thought they could wait out our side—that eventually people would just become used to manufacturers deciding for people when they can fix devices that we own. But instead of petering out, calls for action are growing, drawing interest from more states, now the FTC. I wouldn’t be surprised if Congress took note of the campaign next.”
Repair advocates are pushing for state measures that wouldrequire manufacturers to make tools, parts, and information more accessible to consumers and independent third-party repair shops. But major manufacturers like Apple and John Deere have pushed back aggressively against such legislation, often using copyright law to preserve their monopoly over the post-purchase repair market. As a result, consumers have fewer options to fix their own products when they break—for a period of time Apple was disabling iPhone 6s when the company detected work had been done at independent repair shops, and John Deere continues to force many tractor owners to travel hundreds of miles to authorized retailers for simple fixes to farm equipment.
“The basic question is why is repair being monopolized?” says Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association, a trade association representing independent repair workers. “It is just money. If you dig in any one of these corners you will find a pot of money.”
According to Repair.org, there are over 3 million repair and reuse professionals operating in the U.S. Those independent operators help people save money and prevent the pileup of electronic waste. But tech firms like Apple are quick to argue that passing right-to-repair legislation would put consumers and manufacturers at risk. George Kirchner, who attended the panel on behalf of the Rechargeable Battery Association, argued that customers could hurt themselves if they were allowed to replace their own cellphone batteries, and that manufacturers could be held liable for “mishandled” equipment.
“The cure for unsafe products is more repair. The cure for getting rid of faulty parts is more repair, not less,” responded Gordon-Byrne.
Last year, Reasonhighlighted the case of Eric Lundgren, an e-waste entrepreneur, who was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for copying and selling CDs for restoring the Windows operating system on broken PCs—discs that Microsoft gives away for free.
“I’ve been telling these manufacturers: Right to Repair is happening,” states Proctor. “It’s time they got in front of it, instead of trying to stop it.”
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With 20 states considering Right to Repair bills this legislative cycle, the fight over who can fix the stuff consumers buy and own has become a national policy debate, bringing together an eclectic mix of advocates from across the tech, medical, and farming industries. Even presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) has addressed the issue, indicating that she would support a national right-to-repair law that applies to farm equipment.
On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held a workshop, “Nixing the Fix: A Workshop on Repair Restrictions,“ which focused on testimony from experts on how manufacturers limit repairs by consumers and independent repair shops. The event highlighted the growing momentum—and potential for more federal involvement—behind the issue.
“The Nixing the Fix workshop was a big day for Right to Repair,” says Nathan Proctor, the director of the Right to Repair Campaign for US PIRG, a consumer rights organization. “Perhaps manufacturers thought they could wait out our side—that eventually people would just become used to manufacturers deciding for people when they can fix devices that we own. But instead of petering out, calls for action are growing, drawing interest from more states, now the FTC. I wouldn’t be surprised if Congress took note of the campaign next.”
Repair advocates are pushing for state measures that wouldrequire manufacturers to make tools, parts, and information more accessible to consumers and independent third-party repair shops. But major manufacturers like Apple and John Deere have pushed back aggressively against such legislation, often using copyright law to preserve their monopoly over the post-purchase repair market. As a result, consumers have fewer options to fix their own products when they break—for a period of time Apple was disabling iPhone 6s when the company detected work had been done at independent repair shops, and John Deere continues to force many tractor owners to travel hundreds of miles to authorized retailers for simple fixes to farm equipment.
“The basic question is why is repair being monopolized?” says Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association, a trade association representing independent repair workers. “It is just money. If you dig in any one of these corners you will find a pot of money.”
According to Repair.org, there are over 3 million repair and reuse professionals operating in the U.S. Those independent operators help people save money and prevent the pileup of electronic waste. But tech firms like Apple are quick to argue that passing right-to-repair legislation would put consumers and manufacturers at risk. George Kirchner, who attended the panel on behalf of the Rechargeable Battery Association, argued that customers could hurt themselves if they were allowed to replace their own cellphone batteries, and that manufacturers could be held liable for “mishandled” equipment.
“The cure for unsafe products is more repair. The cure for getting rid of faulty parts is more repair, not less,” responded Gordon-Byrne.
Last year, Reasonhighlighted the case of Eric Lundgren, an e-waste entrepreneur, who was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for copying and selling CDs for restoring the Windows operating system on broken PCs—discs that Microsoft gives away for free.
“I’ve been telling these manufacturers: Right to Repair is happening,” states Proctor. “It’s time they got in front of it, instead of trying to stop it.”
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Back in April, we reported on the story of Tesla being granted a temporary restraining order against one of its critics, Randeep Hothi, who posted on Twitter under the name @skabooshska. Since then, Hothi’s legal defense GoFundMe has raised more than $118,000, allowing him to retain capable counsel, which has paid off for him.
Yesterday, it was reported that Tesla dropped its pursuit of a restraining order against Hothi after the court asked the company to provide audio and video recordings related to the two “incidents” the company cited as reason for the TRO to begin with.
In other words: the court asked for evidence of Tesla’s allegations against Hothi, and Tesla instead decided to just drop the issue.
Why might that be?
In a court filing from April, Tesla alleged that Hothi “had a history of trespassing at its facilities, taking photos and video to post to his Twitter account, before he recently started menacing its employees.”
The order claims that in February, Hothi struck a security guard with his vehicle when he was approached in Tesla’s Fremont parking lot. The incident was so devastating that it caused a “minor knee injury”, according to Tesla. The company also says it contacted Fremont police, but that officers were unable to deliver a no-trespassing order to Hothi (we wonder why). Hothi lives about 3 miles from Tesla’s Fremont factory.
Updates on the restraining order hearing had been coming in routinely from fellow Tesla short seller Lawrence Fossi (Montana Skeptic) in blog postings and podcasts. Montana Skeptic was, himself, also once targeted by Elon Musk and his merry band of brothers for daring to publicly criticize Tesla.
The lawsuit of Tesla v. Hothi, which began with a series of Tesla lies, has ended with a series of Tesla lies, told by Tesla’s latest legal counsel in dismissing the lawsuit late yesterday to avoid complying with a Court order that Tesla turn over the audio, video, and photographic recordings that supposedly show the dangerous conduct of Mr. Hothi.
…
So, here is how it all went down:
Smear Mr. Hothi with reckless and false allegations in TRO application of which Hothi receives no notice and no chance to offer his side of the story.
Stir up the loyal, cultish Tesla fans to attack him as dangerous, criminal, and worse.
Attempt to destroy his academic ambitions and employment prospects.
Then, refuse to produce the evidence, and instead lie to the Court and to the public about what happened.
This is what Tesla under Elon Musk has become. This is Musk’s stamp on the Tesla corporate culture. This is who they are.
Attorney Sperlein has sent Tesla’s counsel a letter warning that Hothi may well pursue a malicious prosecution claim or similar claim, and that Tesla should take care that none of the evidence is tampered with or destroyed.
This thread, in its entirety, also gives a wonderful recap of the events of the TRO as they took place from the start.
In addition, it looks as though Mr. Hothi is now going to be filing an action of his own against the company.
Fin Twit had a field day with the news, calling out the company for a hearing that many believed they were certain to lose, had the “evidence” been made public.
Unsurprisingly, $TSLA drops the lawsuit against @skabooshka because all of the company’s claims were lies.
Why withdraw if video footage bears out your version of events?? I trust this whole exercise wasn’t an attempt to intimidate a critic https://t.co/O914wA0aW0
In addition to calling him a terrorist, Tesla fans reported Skabooshka to immigration and wrote to his university department trying to get him kicked out… and encouraged others to do the same. Tesla didn’t have to present a single fact to make this happen. Shameful. pic.twitter.com/PXkSSyiEz6
Tesla claims that they dropped the suit to keep their employee’s conversations/biz private (and the same was mindlessly parroted by the PR lackey @etherington in the Tech Crunch PR stunt).
Surprise, surprise. Having hidden behind the “judicial privilege” that protects pleadings from defamation lawsuits, $TSLA and its lying, craven, cowardly, sociopath CEO feed a favored propaganda outlet with a final smear of @skabooshka before crawling away from their lawsuit. https://t.co/XkuVzOFaB7
