Month: July 2024

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”  – William J. Casey, CIA Director (1981)

The always mysterious question when trying to figure out what is happening in this insane world and why it is happening is who are “they”? In the current chaotic atmosphere, “they” are in the process of throwing their senile child sniffing pedophile Trojan horse president overboard because his dementia ridden brain has been laid bare for all the world to see. It isn’t just the Democratic Party throwing him to the wolves.

When you witness the party, supposedly loyal politicians, the regime media, surveillance state spooks, Hollywood celebrities, and globalist billionaires all simultaneously turn on the person they installed in 2020 through a rigged election, you realize the voting public have no say in how this country is run. Whether you refer to “they” as the Deep State, invisible government, ruling elite, globalist oligarchs, or shadowy men in smoke filled backrooms, we are just bit players in this surreal horror movie.

It is no longer a conspiracy theory that we are ruled by unelected men using their wealth to pull the levers of society to benefit themselves and the apparatchiks who do their dirty work. At some level, this type of control has existed since the inception of our country. Andrew Jackson’s tirade in the 1830s revealed there were deceitful men operating in the shadows, with their greedy agendas prevailing over what was best for the people.

 “Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!”

The capture of our government, media and financial system accelerated during the last century as described by Edward Bernays in his 1928 book – Propaganda. Of course, he wrote this fifteen years after the capture of our financial system, with the Creature from Jekyll Island – the Federal Reserve being created by a cabal of bankers and politicians intent on lining their pockets.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons… who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”– Edward Bernays – Propaganda (1928) pp. 9–10

The traitorous president who signed the bill creating the Federal Reserve, in the same year he signed into existence the loathsome income tax, and later promised to keep the U.S. out of World War I, before taking us into that war, supposedly regretted handing over control of the government to a small cabal of dishonorable men. Politicians and Wall Street bankers have been using the debasement of our currency to enrich themselves at our expense, ever since.

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world — no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” – Woodrow Wilson – 1919

For decades the Deep State was able to remain hidden, working in the shadows behind the scenes, with the general population oblivious to their existence. But their existence was outed when they assassinated John F. Kennedy in front of the entire world and took out their CIA patsy on national TV. The CIA, along with their media mouthpieces, created the term “conspiracy theorist” as a derogatory term to keep the public sedated and onboard with whatever narrative they were selling.

The Church Committee in the mid-1970s further revealed the depth and breadth of the traitorous activities of the CIA and the surveillance state bureaucracy. Mike Lofgren defined the Deep State in his 2016 book, describing how the consent of the governed has been nothing more than a fantasy for many decades in this country.

“I have come to call this shadow government the Deep State…a hybrid association of key elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern the United States with only limited reference to the consent of the governed as normally expressed through elections” ― Mike Lofgren, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government

Still, anyone questioning the officially approved narrative, as propagated by the bought off politicians; captured propaganda spewing regime media; paid-off “experts” in academia, finance, the military and the sciences; globalist organizations; and billionaires with fake foundations, was ridiculed and censored as nutjob conspiracy theorists.

But, since Trump’s unlikely rise to power in 2016 and the subsequent traitorous acts by the Deep State and their lackeys in the government, media, and surveillance state bureaus, in attempting to destroy Trump through the fake Russiagate investigations, two impeachments based on nothing, creating a fake pandemic to rig the 2020 election, instigating a fake insurrection to keep him from running again, using the power of the DOJ to bring multiple fake charges against him, raiding his residence with orders to shoot if necessary, allowing millions of illegals to enter the country and encouraging them to vote illegally to throw the 2024 election, vilifying him as a threat worse than Hitler, and now being exposed using a patsy to try and assassinate him while his Secret Service detail pretended to protect him.

There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind a Deep State/Invisible government is running the show, and we are all nothing more than spectators who are brainwashed into doing what we are told by those who “have our best interests at heart”. After they failed by one inch in blowing Trump’s head off (ala JFK), the narrative being spun is that we all must unite and tone down the vitriol. It is too late, and they know it. This is all for show.

We are now at war with the Deep State, and anyone associated with their criminal deeds. Their need to retain power grows more desperate by the day. They have concluded they must win the upcoming election at all costs, or their unlawful acts over the last eight years will be revealed and retribution doled out to the perpetrators. Their failure in assassinating Trump, does not mean they will not try again.

Their biggest hurdle is their ballot rigging operation only works in the swing states when the vote is reasonably close. The presidential debate and subsequent embarrassing press conferences have revealed Biden to be dementia ridden husk, who can’t even read a teleprompter at this point. Only the most brain-dead liberal kooks will vote for this walking dead candidate.

After Trump’s triumphant post assassination attempt photo-op, with fist raised in victory, his odds of winning the election went through the roof. The potential replacement candidates for Biden are a motley crew of idiocy, failure and low IQ diversity options. When the Deep State was blindsided in 2016 with the Trump victory, they proceeded to derail his presidency by convincing him to hire their Deep State operatives into key roles, while keeping the Congress, DOJ, DOD, FBI, and CIA at war with everything Trump tried to accomplish. If he wins this time, he won’t make the same miscalculations again. And they know it.

We have less than four months until the election. These being the waning years of this Fourth Turning, whatever happens from here on out will only be intensified. There will be no unity. There will be no compromise. Fourth Turnings do not wind down. They accelerate towards a bloody crescendo, with clear winners and losers. The potential for civil and global war rises on a daily basis.

Most of the ignorant, I-gadget distracted, narrative believing masses, have no clue how close the world is to erupting in violent no-holds barred death and destruction. Virtually no one is alive who remembers the horrors of WWII. That is why Fourth Turnings re-occur every eighty years or so. We forget the past and are condemned to relive it. There are several scenarios that could play out.

The Deep State may have provided Trump with a stark reminder about who really runs the show. Will he heed their warning? If so, they may let him win and then continue their control behind the scenes, letting him know they can take him out at a time of their choosing. Trump’s cooperation in this scenario is possible, but after the last eight years of unbridled attacks on him, this may be unlikely.

They could try another assassination attempt, but the world is now aware of their hatred for Trump, and would likely react negatively towards all parties involved in the murder of the past and future president of the U.S. The question is how desperate are these godless authoritarians? How many innocent people are they willing to sacrifice at the altar of mammon and power, to continue their stranglehold on the political, financial, social, and economic structures of the U.S. and western world.

Knowing they will do anything to win and remain in control of the levers of our society, what may seem unthinkable to you and me, wouldn’t make these sociopaths pause for a second. They’ve already killed tens of millions with their fake pandemic and their toxic antidote gene therapy. All done to rig an election, enrich themselves, and cull the herd. We already know the neo-con branch of the Deep State has been saber rattling towards both Russia and China.

We also know false flags are one of their favorite tools to initiate conflict and fill their coffers with blood money. Our blood and their money. We’ve already seen a possible scenario with their puppet Zelensky in the Ukraine. If you can create a national emergency through either a civil or foreign war, you can cancel the election until the emergency is over.

A successful assassination of Trump this past weekend would have initiated some form of chaos in the streets, with the political powder keg poised to be lit by one side or the other. The Deep State is certainly capable of creating a false flag that kills hundreds or thousands of innocents, blaming white nationalist Trumpers for the tragedy. Another George Floyd incident could be cooked up, with Soros unleashing his Antifa and BLM terrorist hordes on cities across the land.

The normal citizens supporting Trump will only be pushed so far, and if they begin to fight back, all hell could break loose. This is what the Deep State wants. Chaos and violence in the streets would be their excuse to “delay” the elections. That would even cause more violence and upheaval. The Deep State thrives on violence, chaos, war, and a fearful populace, begging to be saved.

The Deep State is conducting the war against Russia. The Ukrainian soldiers are being chewed up by the Russian army, but the high-tech aspects of the war are being carried out by Americans, who are the only ones capable of operating the drones and advanced missiles being used against Russia. They know Putin’s red lines. If they choose to start World War III, they will initiate an attack guaranteed to force Putin into a drastic response, attempting to ignite a conflagration across Europe, into the Middle East.

With the US/EU sanction war having pushed Russia, China and the rest of the BRIC countries closer together, China and possibly India would side with Russia in a global conflict. The use of nuclear arms becomes more and more likely as the warring countries become more desperate and pushed into a corner.

The Deep State has no qualms about killing millions to attain their goals and retain their wealth, power and control over the masses. I do believe the next four months will mark a turning point in the history of the world. I fear there will be much bloodshed, but will continue to try and decipher the path of this Fourth Turning and guide my family and anyone choosing to listen towards the light and away from the darkness. I do believe Strauss & Howe’s possible outcomes for this Fourth Turning are an accurate portrayal of what awaits us within the next decade. 

1.  This Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal Armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly. For this Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection and bad luck.

2. The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rythm – which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance – could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. Such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.

3. The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation. It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify. The nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, the Soviet Union only one. Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival. Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a thread in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most lethal war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.

4. Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum. Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere. Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same.

The odds are stacked against us, but if we give up the fight, we will surely lose. Our choices and actions in the coming days will surely matter. We must fight, fight, fight!! Godspeed and good luck.

Hedge fund managers have ramped up their bearish bets on US corn futures to record levels, driven by elevated grain supplies and the best early crop ratings in years. These factors have pressured corn prices lower.

Bloomberg data reveals that money managers have boosted their short-only positions in Chicago corn futures and options to 507,901 contracts, exceeding the previous record of 506,000 contracts in 2019. The net position, which accounts for the difference in long and short holdings, was bearish by 353,983 contracts, the largest since 2006.  

Last month, Reuters reported that an above-average volume of corn remains unsold, and if these grain inventories are not depleted, then supplies could reach six-year highs by late summer 2025.

“Farmers risk waiting too long to sell as a flood of newly harvested grain is likely to drag down prices this October and November. Buyers, aware the harvest is coming, still need enough supplies to keep processing plants running and exports flowing this summer,” Reuters said. 

Elevated supplies have pressured prices in Chicago to under the $4 a bushel level, the lowest level since early 2020.

Bloomberg noted last week that US farmers are now holding the largest stockpiles of corn since 1988:

“The US farmers, who are the world’s largest corn producers, have been holding off selling early in the season as prices of the key grain slide toward $4 a bushel for the first time since 2020.” 

The USDA’s latest monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report revealed that demand for corn moved slightly higher. The report, released last Friday, has so far put a floor under prices. 

The USDA’s WASDE report was “enough to halt, at least temporarily, the bear market in corn prices,” Sal Gilbertie, chief investment officer at Teucrium Trading, told MarketWatch. 

“It looks like short sellers began to actively cover their positions upon the release of today’s WASDE, which occurs just as corn in the US begins to enter the critical pollination stage of development,” Gilbertie added.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone noted grain deflation while broader commodity markets remained positively diverged: 

“Volatility in the grains (corn, soybeans and wheat) is higher than broad commodities: It’s the most elastic sector and prices are accelerating downward, with deflationary macroeconomic implications. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a good test of the propensity for commodities to go down, because they went up and the trajectory at the start of 2H may prove autocorrelation forces are more powerful than ever. Our graphic shows the tendency for the Bloomberg Grains Spot Index to lead broad commodities and potential for the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index to drop about another 30%, to simply catch up to the grains.” 

While falling grain prices may signal lower food costs for consumers, the combination of sliding prices and high production costs spells trouble for farmers’ incomes.

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

Just days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, theories are flying from all directions. Many who ridiculed the “conspiracy theories” of conservatives are now suggesting the whole event was a set-up to boost Trump in the polls ahead of the election. Others suggest it was the “deep state” or even foreign actors who organized it.

Former US Navy Seal and founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, claims that “The fact that [the Secret Service] allowed a rifle armed shooter within 150 yds to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence.” He went on to observe that, “unaccountable bloated bureaucracies continue to fail us as Americans,” adding that “unserious and unworthy people in positions of authority got us to this near disaster. Merit and execution must be the only deciding factors in hiring and leadership, not the social engineering priority of the day.”

Video has emerged showing that for at least two minutes law enforcement knew someone with a gun was on a roof aiming at the former President and no one communicated the need to pull Trump from the stage. You can clearly hear the crowd warning law enforcement that someone was on the roof. Yet he was unhindered until the first shots rang out.

Considering this fact, Erik Prince has a point.

If this is like any previous governmental foul-ups, we can expect hearings, investigations, and commissions that will actually serve to hide the official errors or even malicious intent by some in the government.

That’s what government does no matter who is in office: protect itself from actual scrutiny and resist being exposed as incompetent or worse.

But what if there was a genuine investigation that actually revealed the truth about what happened at the Trump rally over the weekend?

Could we rely on the mainstream media to even report it?

This is the same media that, after Trump was clearly shot on live television, reported “Trump escorted away after loud noises at PA rally.” (Washington Post). And “Secret Service rushes Trump offstage after he falls at rally.” (CNN).

This is the same mainstream media that has been comparing Donald Trump to Hitler for years, and now pretends to be shocked that their vile rhetoric ended up in violence.

There is a good reason why the mainstream media is regarded by the American public with record levels of contempt.

The current Director of the Secret Service has been interviewed expressing her dedication to “diversity” in hiring agents.

What if her dedication to DEI goals led to an agency that is more “diverse” but fails at its core mission? Can we rely on the media to inform us of this? Or will they, as usual, just blame it all on the Second Amendment?

What if the problem with the Secret Service is that it was moved into the bloated, incompetent, and menacing Department  of Homeland Security, the creation of which I strongly opposed when I was in Congress?

We shouldn’t count on hearing the truth about the attempted assassination from the mainstream media.

No wonder the elites remain determined to censor social media sites like Twitter/X and TikTok.

We live in an empire of lies, propped up by the mainstream media. And seeking the truth in this empire of lies is the greatest challenge for us in the moral bankruptcy in which we live.

Formed in 1975, the G7 is a group of seven advanced economies (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan) that cooperates on economic policy and promotes global stability. At the time of the group’s inception, these countries were leading nations in the post-World War II economic order, and shared similar political and economic systems.

While much of this is still true today, the G7’s collective economic influence has fallen significantly as emerging nations in other parts of the world have grown.

To learn more about this trend, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualized the G7’s share of global GDP beside the G20’s, from 1990 to 2022. Numbers come from the World Bank, accessed via the Council on Foreign Relations.

Data and Key Takeaway

The G20 is an expanded group that was established with the goal of bringing together advanced and emerging economies to promote international cooperation. Major economies that are in the G20, but not in the G7, include China, India, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.

The data we used to create this graphic can be found in the table below.

Year	G7 share of GDP (%)	G20 share of GDP (%)
1990	66	80
1991	66	81
1992	67	81
1993	67	82
1994	67	82
1995	66	81
1996	65	80
1997	64	81
1998	65	80
1999	66	81
2000	65	81
2001	65	81
2002	65	80
2003	64	80
2004	62	79
2005	60	78
2006	58	78
2007	55	77
2008	52	76
2009	53	76
2010	50	77
2011	48	77
2012	47	77
2013	46	77
2014	46	77
2015	46	78
2016	47	78
2017	46	78
2018	45	78
2019	45	78
2020	46	78
2021	44	78
2022	44	78

From this dataset we can see that the G7’s share of global GDP has shrunk from 67% in 1994, to 44% in 2022.

Over this same time period, the G20’s share of global GDP has remained relatively steady near 80%. In short, this means that emerging markets are accounting for a relatively greater share of the world’s economy.

What Does This Mean for the G7?

Here are some possible consequences of the G7’s declining share of global GDP:

• Reduced Global Influence: Diminished ability to shape global economic policies and standards.

• Changes in Trade Dynamics: Potential shifts in trade relationships and alliances as other countries gain economic prominence.

• Altered Investment Flows: Redirection of global investment towards faster-growing economies outside the G7.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this infographic that visualizes the top six countries share of global GDP over time.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday filed an appeal after a judge dismissed his lawsuit to shut down the nonprofit organization Annunciation House for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration.

District Court Judge Francisco Dominguez blocked the lawsuit in March, saying that Mr. Paxton “acted without regard to due process and fair play” in trying to revoke the registration of the nonprofit organization.

The judge ruled Mr. Paxton’s agency must use the state court system if it wants to investigate the Catholic nonprofit, which has been operating in El Paso, Texas, since the 1970s, offering shelter and other services to illegal immigrants.

Mr. Paxton said Monday he filed an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court against the judge’s decision.

“For too long, Annunciation House has flouted the law and contributed to the worsening illegal immigration crisis at Texas’s border with Mexico,” the Republican attorney general said in a statement.

He said the Office of the Attorney General has been investigating nonprofit organizations in Texas for their involvement in facilitating illegal immigration following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request.

The investigation found Annunciation House was “openly operating in violation of the law without any pretense of trying to comply with the law,” Mr. Paxton’s office said. “According to Annunciation House’s in-court admissions, its employees enter Mexico to retrieve aliens, including aliens who have been denied entry by Border Patrol, to bring them into the United States.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Annunciation House for comment but has not heard back as of publication time.

Annunciation House describes itself on its website as “a volunteer organization that offers hospitality to migrants, immigrants, and refugees in El Paso,” which is “rooted in Catholic social teaching.”

The Office of the Attorney General issued a Feb. 7 “request to examine” the nonprofit’s records, including documents detailing what services it provides to immigrants who are in the country legally or illegally.

According to Mr. Paxton, Annunciation House refused to turn over documents and sued his office soon after, seeking to halt his efforts to obtain their records. On Feb. 20, Mr. Paxton announced he was asserting a counterclaim, seeking to shut down Annunciation House’s operations within the state entirely.

In his legal filings, Mr. Paxton states his initial request to inspect Annunciation House’s records “was not made in a vacuum.” Rather, he alleged state investigators had been monitoring the “unusually covert way” Annunciation House operates.

Annunciation House’s Previous Response

Annunciation House said on Feb. 23 that Mr. Paxton’s attempt to shut down the organization was “unfounded” and said that it was asking the court to decide which documents the Attorney General is allowed to access.

“There is nothing illegal about asking a Court to decide a person’s rights. The AG has now made explicit that its real goal is not records but to shut down the organization,” it said in a statement.

The organization said it has provided hospitality to “hundreds of thousands of refugees for over 46 years” and that its work was listed in the National Catholic Directory.

“Annunciation House’s work is central to the City of El Paso. El Paso has made it a point of pride to provide humane support for people coming through our community in need,” the organization stated.

“The work helps serve our local businesses, our City, and immigration officials to keep people off the streets and give them a shelter while they come through our community,” it added.

Jane J. Pruet and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.

One of the more interesting aspects in the flood of analysis on the attempted Trump assassination is the commentary by former military and SWAT snipers experienced in providing security details for political figures.  Nearly all of them confirm that the Secret Service surveillance planning during the Butler, PA rally was perhaps the worst they have ever seen.  It was so bad, in fact, that it almost appears as if the massive holes in the perimeter were deliberate.

So far it is not clear who specifically was in charge of the security plans for that event.  However, many former snipers agree that it’s a miracle Donald Trump is still alive.  In fact, they agree almost entirely with our own analysis published on July 15th.

In an interview with KJRH in Oklahoma, former SWAT sniper Maj. Nate Norton of the Sapulpa Police Department lays out the scary reality:

“I’m glad they’re calling him a shooter because he ain’t a sniper,” Norton said. “If he was a sniper, President Trump would be dead on the very first shot. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about this. This is somebody that has some weird, sick agenda and did at best mediocre train(ing) in my opinion. Because at 130 yards, 190 yards, that is piece of cake gravy range for somebody that shoots.”

The 140 yard shot gift-wrapped and handed to alleged shooter Thomas Crooks was so easy, even for an amateur, that Trump should not be alive today.  The bullet, reportedly fired from an AR15 running 5.56 (or .223 ammunition), would have left a deadly and expansive impact wound had it been less than an inch to the shooter’s right.  Here is test footage of .223 rounds impacting a realistic ballistic gel head for a visual reference:

Multiple experts in the sniping arena have noted that the miss might have been some kind of divine intervention.  In the below interview, Republican representative and former sniper Cory Mills outlines his take on the attack on the assumption that the shooter’s range was 230 yards.  Crooks was actually much closer.

The explanation for Thomas Crooks miraculous miss might be found in reports that Crooks was, in fact, a verified terrible shot.  Investigations into his school history indicate that Crooks tried to join his High School Shooting Club in Bethel Park, but he failed to make the shooting team and was asked to leave the club because he was incredibly unsafe with his rifle.

In other words, Trump lucked out with the worst assassin possible.  This does not take away from the fact that Crooks was somehow allowed to casually approach the AGR building and climb to the roof with a rifle only 140 yards away from the rally stage without any intervention from Secret Service.  Crooks had every card stacked in his favor. Why was there no security on that roof?  We are still waiting for answers. 

Authored by Sophie Li via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Drought-free since earlier this year, California has now recorded its first dry spot in Northern California on the Oregon border.

Siskiyou County reported moderate drought in its northern region, according to the latest drought monitor map released on July 11 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Climate Prediction Center.

“It was a hot and dry week over the region with only some spotty precipitation in areas of California,” a drought map summary states. “Abnormally dry conditions were expanded over a large area of northern California, western Nevada, and Oregon as well as in central Idaho.”

The update showed that about 20 percent of the county is in “moderate drought” and nearly 78 percent is considered “abnormally dry.”

The last time Siskiyou County reported any level of drought was in May 2023. It had previously recorded drought conditions since February 2020.

Statewide, the last time any sizable drought was reported was last summer. In 2022, California was almost in 100 percent moderate-to-exceptional drought.

Much of the state was also currently reported to be about 12 degrees to 15 degrees above normal temperatures, according to the climate prediction center.

Wildfires

Drought conditions have further complicated efforts to battle the four wildfires that have erupted in Siskiyou County since the start of July.

The largest, the Shelly Fire, has grown to 14,309 acres and is only 6 percent contained since it started on July 3 in the Marble Mountain Wilderness near Shelly Lake and the Pacific Crest Trail.

“Due to hot dry weather and difficult access, the fire has grown and now threatens communities, private timberlands, cultural resources and wilderness areas,” Cal Fire said in a statement on July 15.

The cause of the fire remains unknown.

Elon Musk on Tuesday announced that SpaceX headquarters will be moving from California to Texas, after California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed a law which bans schools from notifying parents if their child identifies as transgender.

“This is the final straw,” Musk posted on X. “Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”

Musk later added that he made it clear to Newsom that “laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.”

I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024

Newsom passed AB1955 on Monday, which bars schools from informing parents when their child decides to change their gender, effectively stripping parents’ rights to know about gender transitions.

According to an official summary of the law:

This bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law, as provided. The bill would prohibit employees or contractors of those educational entities from being required to make such a disclosure unless otherwise required by law, as provided. The bill would prohibit employees or contractors of school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, or the state special schools, or members of the governing boards or bodies of those educational entities, from retaliating or taking adverse action against an employee on the basis that the employee supported a pupil in the exercise of specified rights, work activities, or providing certain instruction, as provided.

When asked last year by Breitbart why parents shouldn’t have the right to know about their children’s gender transitions, Newsom said it wasn’t worth discussing – suggesting instead that transgender ‘kids” lives were in danger.

“The kids just want to live,” he said, without elaborating.

Attorney Harmeet Dhillon said of the bill:

AB 1955 is an outrageous attempt to keep parents in the dark while schools indoctrinate kids with radical gender ideology. In school districts across California, parents fought back against parental secrecy policies by running for school boards and passing policies that ensure parents are informed about their kids’ education and wellbeing. By signing the bill, Gov. Newsom is transferring power away from our local communities and centralizing it in Sacramento, blatantly undermining our democratic values. AB 1955 is a cowardly response to legal battles over parental notification policies adopted by the Chino Valley Unified School District and other districts that require schools to inform parents when their children request a name or gender change at schools. Our brave clients, Jessica Konen and Aurora Regino, along with Chloe Cole and Layla Jane, have all been harmed by the ideology driving these policies. It’s crucial that we uphold local voices and the integrity of the democratic process in shaping the education of our children.

Breitbart also notes that a recent Rasmussen poll found that an overwhelming majority of California voters support parental notification policies.

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

In the past three years China has accelerated export agreements and industrial operations in Africa, becoming the continent’s largest bilateral trade partner. Given Africa’s complete lack of development and GDP, the Asian rush to cement economic ties might seem strange. However, I would argue that China is adapting to events that haven’t quite happened yet.

I’m referring to a major global shift away from interdependent markets (i.e. traditional globalism) into a chaotic period of trade “protectionism”. I’m talking about the end of the current model of export-based nations supplying goods to the west in exchange for advantageous trade deficits and access to dollars. This will be the era of what I call the “Great Resource Grab.”

I believe China is positioning itself for this era, perhaps out of desperation due to the disastrous economic decline they are currently trying to hide from the rest of the world, or maybe the CCP has been given a warning from globalist interests (China’s government has been exceedingly supportive of the IMF’s one-world digital currency push, and it makes sense that globalists would give them vital information on future disasters in exchange).

Why Africa? Because of the lack of modern development, Africa is a vast land mass loaded with untapped natural resources. China is importing billions in raw materials including vital metals from Africa and they are trying to establish infrastructure to increase the extraction of these commodities. If you’re familiar with China’s rotting domestic conditions, then you understand what is happening here – China has hollowed out their own country and they must spread into other regions to survive.

To be sure, Africa is not the only place in which the Chinese are quietly setting up camp. There are diplomatic agreements with Russia that have given them access to farm land in the north, and the Chinese have even been buying up farmland in the US (nearly 400,000 acres according to official reports). In America, anyone that questions this trend is immediately accused of “conspiracy theory” and I would argue this tells us A LOT about what is really happening.

Yes, other nations besides China are buying up farmland in the US (over 43 million acres of farmland to be precise), and frankly, no one in the establishment media is talking about it. The Chinese purchases make the news because communist nations buying resource rich land in the US makes Americans nervous; but the overall problem is being ignored. Foreign land holdings in the US dwarf those recently purchased by Bill Gates, and no one is addressing the issue.

There is a change happening on a global scale; it’s a silent race to secure as many raw resources as possible.

Those who know are stacking land assets, mining assets, energy assets, fresh water sources and circling undeveloped nations like hungry piranha.

Some will claim that the Great Resource Grab is about climate change and governments positioning for impending weather calamity. This is incorrect. If that was the case then China would not be coveting Africa, a continent that would be devastated should global warming predictions ever come true (they won’t). Instead, I believe the change is about impending war, both economic and kinetic.

Global war will be the catalyst for massive trade protectionism and disruption of existing supply chains. Economic sanctions and trade embargoes will shrink exports between East and West down to nothing. And, sadly, western nations with their paper markets will be most injured by this. Our economies are mainly abstract, rooted in currencies with abstract values, equities with abstract values, and debt instruments with abstract values. All of this comes crashing down when nations start desiring physical resources over the false promises of market speculation.

In other words, what we have in the US in terms of raw commodities will be ALL we have for many years to come should the Great Resource Grab come to fruition. Buying from other countries may not be possible, simply because we will be in conflict with them, or because we won’t have anything they want. Meaning, America will have to return to production again on a level surpassing that of the 1960s and early 1970s.

To be sure, this era will be short, maybe lasting around a decade. Eventually, globalists will try to use the worldwide division and subsequent crisis as a vehicle for total centralization. They’ll say “this is why nation states are a bad idea.” They’ll argue that a one-world digital currency system and global economic governance is the only solution. During this debate the average person will face a much different consumer environment than they are used to – One of scarcity instead of plenty.

Globalists will make promises of plenty that they do not intend to keep as western populations struggle to return to domestic production.

By extension, investment in vital commodities used for production and wealth protection would be a good move. Look at what certain foreign entities, central banks and globalist companies are buying up right now and ask yourself “why?” Look at past world wars and what kinds of resources were in short supply; there is a way to protect yourself financially even in the midst of international calamity.  You just have to know some history and accept the fact that the world we live in today is not any safer than it was in the days of international conflict and government rationing.

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There continues to be a very clear factor footprint across the market, with rotational pressures driving Small over Big / Low Momentum over High Momentum / Growth into Cyclicals / Popular shorts over Longs.

On the day, Small Caps literally exploded higher (+3.5%) with Nasdaq unchanged…

Today also saw a continuation of yesterday’s “Trump Trade” with Bitcoin (+370bps) and Infrastructure (+240bps) leading the market higher.

Since ‘soft’ CPI struck last week, the Russell 2000 has exploded over 10% higher… and the Nasdaq 100 has slumped…

Yes, The Dow has followed Small Caps higher (mostly due to Energy and Financials), but a glimpse at the S&P 500’s lackluster performance destroys the hope-filled narrative that this is just a “healthy rebalance into a broadening rally.” With the concentration and positioning in mega-cap tech so high, the majors will suffer no matter what and passively drag the ‘broader’ names down too.

Source: Bloomberg

For more clarification, this is just a massive short-squeeze on all the ‘short alpha’ that has been laid as mega-cap tech took over the world. ‘Most Shorted’ stocks are up for 10 straight days… (April 2015 was the last time we saw 11 straight days of gains for this basket). This is one of the biggest periodic squeezes in the last four years…

Source: Bloomberg

For context, this four-day reversal is the great shift in the Small-Cap/Big-Tech pair since the collapse of the DotCom bubble…

Source: Bloomberg

For more excitement, this is the largest five-day outperformance of Small Caps over the S&P 500 since Oct 1987…

Source: Bloomberg

As a reminder, before the 2000 bubble burst, the three “dullest” S&P 500 sectors (Consumer Staples, Healthcare and Utilities) had performed badly in the months leading up to the tech peak in late March that year. But as tech rolled over, these sectors turned round and rallied +25-35% in the final 9 months of the year when the overall market struggled and tech slumped.

Goldman’s trading desk noted that volumes elevated vs the trailing 20days and ETFs capturing 28% of the broader tape.

• We are slightly better to buy with LOs leading the way skewed +6% better to buy though on small notional. Demand is concentrated in Fins and Hcare, vs supply in Tech + Discretionary names.

• HFs better buyers of tech and cons discretionary, but overall skewed slightly better for sale led by supply in Hcare and fins.

Mag7 stocks ended lower…

Source: Bloomberg

Treasury yields were down across the curve today, despite spiking on the stronger than expected Retail Sales print briefly. The long-end outperformed (2Y -3bps, 30Y -8bps)…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar continues to drift nowhere fast , unable to bounce notably off the CPI slump lows…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices continue to leak lower with WTI back to $80 handle, hovering near one-month lows…

Source: Bloomberg

On a side-note, oil volatility has dropped to its lowest level since 2018 as a low conviction in large price changes has reduced interest from speculative investors while systematic investors have sold volatility…

Source: Bloomberg

Cryptos continue to see ETF inflows dominating any govt supply overhangs…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin Rallied back up to $65,000…

Source: Bloomberg

Ether also rallied, hitting $3500 on reports that ETH ETF approval is imminent…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold surged higher again, breaking out to new all-time record highs today…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, it does make us wonder, just what kind of crisis Gold is seeing that means a massive swing to negative real rates…

Source: Bloomberg

Stocks are hoping for re-liquification too…

Source: Bloomberg

Thata  $12 trillion ‘gap’ in central bank liquidity priced into stocks – what would that kind of liquidity jolt do to gold and crypto?