Month: September 2024

Since Thursday and the deadly chaos of the two-day pager explosion attack, southern Lebanon has seen the most intense exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel since the conflict began after Oct.7.

On Saturday the expanded pace of fire has continued, with Hezbollah having launched at least 90 rockets on northern Israel, and the IDF saying it has mounted at least 80 raids on weapons installations belonging to Hezbollah.

The Israeli army described that it “dismantled approximately 180 targets and thousands of launcher barrels” in southern Lebanon over several hours of Saturday.

But it also confirmed that “approximately 90 projectile launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory.” The IDF added: “The [Israeli military] will continue operating to dismantle and degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and terror infrastructure.”

There are currently many warnings from both sides of the border that this marks a slide into all-out war, which both have avoided thus far, with the past year witnessing ‘limited’ and often short-lived attacks and rocket volleys.

The death toll from Friday’s Israeli airstrike which killed Hezbollah special forces commander Ibrahim Aqil has risen to 37, after a day-long rescue operation and workers picking through rubble of a residential building, according to the country’s Health Ministry. Reports say that a meeting of Hezbollah leaders was taking place in either a garage, or a tunnel underneath the building in south Beirut.

“According to source, the meeting was being held in a tunnel under a residential building, a location that was being used for the first time, which has raised Hezbollah’s concerns about the extent Israel has infiltrated its ranks,” Middle East Eye reports. 

Lebanon’s government says three children and seven women were among the victims. Over 60 others were injured. The White House has still called the Israeli strike “a good outcome”.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan described Aqil as having “American blood on his hands and has a rewards for justice price on his head.”

He has long been sought by the US for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, and well as kidnapping of Westerners in the the later 1980s. He had a $7 million bounty on his head issued by the Justice Department.

“He is somebody who the United States promised long ago we would do everything we could to see brought to justice,” Sullivan said. “You know, 1983 seems like a long time ago,” he added. “But for a lot of families and a lot of people, they’re still living with it every day.”

Some Middle East pundits and commentators expressed “shock” at the celebratory statements by the Biden administration, given the Israeli operation resulted in a high civilian death toll. Israel has claimed that Hezbollah was using those in the residential building above as ‘human shields’.

By Andrew Zatlin of Southbay Research

Summary

• Chinese money supply leads imports ~10 months
• M1 Supply y/y growth weakest/sharpest drop in decades
• Suggests 20% collapse in imports

Red Flag for Red China

The advantage of tracking container volumes is that we can bypass inflation and price distortions.

Simply put, on a container volume basis, Chinese imports are struggling: -7% y/y.  Container throughput has fallen 20% in the last 2 years.

The Chinese economic miracle is fading.  Unemployment is 5.3% in the cities and 17% among youth 17-24 years old (ex students).  Goldman, Citi, JP Morgan are all expecting growth of <5%.

The housing sector is the point of focus.  Housing asset values supported the consumer economy but prices have collapsed.  The latest month: -7% y/y.  The Chinese consumer won’t spend until housing prices stabilize. The housing bubble must be reinflated.

Meanwhile, China’s broadest monetary aggregate, M1, is falling at the fastest pace on record.

Deflationary Impulse

2025: a year of trade wars: Factories far and wide have excess capacity.  Chinese factories will export whatever they can at whatever price they can get.  We see that in commodities like steel, where prices are down 20% this year. 

Sluggish exports to China are affecting other countries.  Expect tariffs and other forms of trade wars to break out but the lag in restrictions means a lot of deflation is coming to the US.

China Stimulus is Coming

The only cards China can play are monetary: move the yuan to 7.5+ and stimulate the housing market.  A Trump Presidency will fight the yuan devaluation and export initiatives.  A Harris Presidency won’t (they haven’t under Biden).  More deflation under Harris, less under Trump.

How to trade it: buy gold, buy crypto, buy anything the Chinese will use to evade the Chinese capital account firewall and coming currency devaluation.

The U.S. population has seen significant demographic shifts over the last few decades, with notable increases in non-white populations, particularly among Hispanics and Asians.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, breaks down the American population by race and/or ethnicity between 1990 and 2023.

The data comes from the Census Bureau and USAFacts as of August 2024.

Growth Among Non-White Populations

The nation’s non-white population has nearly doubled, growing from about 24.4% in 1990 to 41.6% in 2023. The majority of this growth came from the Hispanic population, which expanded from 23 million in 1990 to 65 million in 2023.

Meanwhile, the share of Black Americans rose modestly from 11.8% in 1990 to 12.6% in 2023.

More recently, the Asian or Pacific Islander population has become one of the nation’s fastest-growing racial and ethnic groups. Between 2000 and 2023, this group doubled its share of the U.S. population.

Population identifying as Other has also grown, from 1% to 3%. Generally speaking, this category is comprised of various Indigenous groups and people of two or more races.

Future Demographic Shifts

In 2023, 58% of the population identified as non-Hispanic white, 20% as Hispanic, 13% as Black, 6% as Asian or Pacific Islander, and 3% as Other.

Between 2016 and 2060, the non-Hispanic white population is projected to decline by around 19 million, dropping from 198 million to 179 million, despite the overall growth of the U.S. population.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Hispanic children is expected to grow from one-quarter to nearly one-third, with the share of Asian children also seeing a notable increase during this period.

To learn more about racial diversity across the U.S., check out this map that shows which states have the most or least diversity.

By Julianne Geiger of OilPrice.com

Russia is accelerating its natural gas exports to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline, aiming to hit maximum capacity by the end of 2024—a full year ahead of schedule. Gazprom, Russia’s state-run energy giant, has agreed with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to boost December supplies, reaching the pipeline’s designed capacity of 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually.

This increase in gas flows reflects Russia’s pivot towards China, as Moscow seeks to replace lost European buyers following its invasion of Ukraine. Gazprom has already ramped up deliveries, shipping 20.8 bcm in the first eight months of 2024, according to Bloomberg calculations, closing in on last year’s total of 22.7 bcm.

In addition to the Power of Siberia pipeline, Russia is developing a second pipeline from its Far East, expected to add 10 bcm per year by 2027. However, negotiations for the proposed Power of Siberia 2, which could push total Russian gas exports to China to nearly 100 bcm annually, have stalled over pricing disagreements. A recent decision by Mongolia’s government not to include funding for Power of Siberia 2’s pipeline construction in its five-year economic plan has widely been understood to mean that China is rethinking the pipeline project.

While China has emerged as Russia’s top energy customer, Beijing is reassessing its dependence on Russian gas. Geopolitical concerns, the risk of over-reliance, and China’s interest in diversifying its energy sources are driving this reconsideration.

Despite this, Russia remains eager to grow its pipeline exports to China, as European markets continue to shrink under sanctions and alternative energy investments. The ongoing discussions and developments signal a significant shift in Russia’s energy strategy, with China playing a central role in its future plans.

NATO’s tiny Baltic states have continued to be among the most hawkish within the alliance when it comes to ‘confronting Russia’ and making war plans.

One Lithuanian official is making headlines for saying that eventual NATO war with Russia is inevitable, and that Europe must begin preparing now. Andrius Kubilius, a former Lithuanian prime minister and the EU’s new defense commissioner, has told Reuters that Europe must prepare to go to war with Russia withing the next six to eight years.

“Defense ministers and NATO generals agree that Vladimir Putin could be ready for confrontation with NATO and the EU in 6-8 years,” Kubilius said in his capacity as the European Union’s first-ever Defense Commissioner.

“If we take these assessments seriously, then that is the time for us to properly prepare, and it is a short one. This means we have to take quick decisions, and ambitious decisions,” he added.

Kubilius’ appointment is seen as an indicator that the EU is getting more serious about war-spending as a bloc, though EU leadership has no decision-making capacity when it comes to NATO.

Apparently he’s unconcerned with the dangers of nuclear-armed confrontation. Russia has said it would deploy nuclear weapons if its territory and population faces existential threat of annihilation. 

Kubilius described further in his statement, “The European Union won’t have defense plans or military leadership, like NATO does — but the European Union has instruments to get larger financing, which NATO doesn’t.”

He has called for a total investment of a gargantuan sum: 500 billion euros in the coming years in order to ramp-up the readiness of European militaries.

European Parliament has recently passed a largely symbolic resolution approving the Zelensky government’s use of long-range weapons to attack insdie Russia.

The head of Russia’s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, has responded by saying “What the European Parliament is calling for leads to a world war using nuclear weapons.”

Thinks looking bleak: A newly-created EU leadership position and the very first directive issued relates to future war with Russia…

The European Union has created a new post of defense commissioner, but the task facing former Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius, the man named for the job, is formidable. https://t.co/XrOpHh0ziG

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) September 20, 2024

Clearly peace is on the minds of few. The only way to avoid escalation leading to nuclear-armed showdown in the heart of Europe is the negotiating table, but both Moscow and Kiev have of late issued statements denying that they are even close to sitting down together to seek settlement or ceasefire.

Authored by Vivek Sun via BitcoinMagazine.com,

The closure of a Bitcoin mining facility in the Norwegian town of Hadsel has led to a 20% increase in electricity bills for residents.

The mine was shut down after the municipality declined to renew its permit due to noise complaints.

Kryptovault operated the mining facility for 20% of local power company Noranett’s revenue.

With the loss of its largest customer, Noranett is raising prices for households to compensate.

Locals had complained for years about noise from the mine’s cooling fans. However, due to the closure, residents are now faced with paying several hundred dollars more per year for electricity.

“When such a large individual customer switches off overnight, it has an impact,” said a Noranett manager.

The company estimates bills could rise by up to $300 monthly.

While unhappy about the price hikes, Hadsel’s mayor said the municipality must deal with the consequences of losing a major power consumer under the regulations. He said the town will now seek new projects to utilize the excess energy capacity.

The situation highlights how Bitcoin mining can help reduce electricity costs by distributing grid expenses to a larger customer base. Bitcoin mine’s continued operation would have prevented the rate spike for citizens.

The incident has fueled debate in Norway about imposing restrictions on energy-intensive mining.

This could force miners to relocate operations abroad and can further lead to an increase in prices for residents. 

Capella Bangkok in Thailand has been named the best hotel in the world by William Reed Business Media’s The World’s 50 Best Hotels list.

The roundup of luxurious hotels was announced at an awards ceremony in London this week, marking only the second-ever edition of the list.

As Statista’s Anna Fleck details below, the ranking was based on the answers of 600 anonymous voters from across the globe, including travel journalists, hoteliers and seasoned luxury travelers.

Capella Bangkok, located on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, is a fairly new hotel, having opened its doors in 2020.

It is complete with a Michelin-starred restaurant, a spa and seven villas, each with their own jacuzzi plunge pool.

The hotel jumped up 10 spots from 2023, overtaking last year’s winner, the Passalacqua on Italy’s Lake Como, which now places second.

Passalacqua is set in an 18th-century villa with terraced gardens and just 24 rooms.

In third place comes the 65-storey Rosewood Hong Kong, with harbor views, a modern style and 11 restaurants.

Asia dominates this year’s edition of the 50 Best, with 19 hotels making an appearance in total, four of which are in Thailand’s Bangkok.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Europe has 13 hotels on the list, with four properties in each of France, the United Kingdom and Italy, while North America has nine properties featured.

The top performing U.S. hotel is The Carlyle (rank 30), which is located on New York’s Upper East Side and known for its Art Deco aesthetic. Its bar, Bemelmans, is famed for jazz and martinis.

William Reed is widely known for their prestigious 50 Best Restaurants list and 50 Best Bars list.

Via Remix News,

Despite being offered €31,000 to remigrate by the Swedish government, polling shows that very few migrants would accept the offer.

As Remix News previously reported, the Swedish government is making a significant monetary offer of 350,000 Swedish kroner to foreigners living in Sweden to voluntarily return home. It is also important to note that this amount would be paid out per person, which means a family of four could receive €124,000.

Still, these foreigners are so desperate to live in Sweden, a majority White country, that the vast majority of them said they would reject the offer, according to a poll conducted by the website Alkompis.

The poll showed that 77 percent of those questioned in the survey said that they were not even interested in the increased amount, and only 15 percent said that they would be interested in the offer. The others are uncertain.

However, of those 15 percent who said they were interested in the offer, it is possible that very few of them would actually go ahead and accept the offer. Despite these low numbers, even a small percentage of foreigners accepting the offer could result in tens of thousands of people remigrating.

The poll also revealed that 90 percent of the more than 2,700 respondents had already heard about the increased repatriation subsidy.

The poll also asked the respondents if they would be open to accepting an even higher amount, and it is important to note a strong majority said they would never accept any offer. Theoretically, even if they were offered millions of euros to return to their homelands, they would still not take the offer.

The poll showed that among the 77 percent who said no to the €31,000, they were also asked whether they would accept a higher amount. Sixty-six percent of them answered that they would never return to their country, while 25 percent would consider going home for more money.

Twenty-three percent of the respondents would consider returning for an amount of 1 million Swedish kronor, which is the equivalent of €88,000.

In many of the countries these immigrants are from, such a sum is an incredible fortune. For instance, in Afghanistan, the average annual salary is €1,000.

However, Swedish benefits for migrants and illegal migrants are also extremely generous, and unlike Middle Eastern and African countries, Sweden features efficient and highly organized hospitals, sanitation systems, schools and universities, and modern infrastructure.

To get something done or even move freely, nobody needs to bribe officials or police officers. In some of the countries these migrants are from, there is no guarantee that the money they receive from the Swedish government would even be secure.

Under the current plan, the offer will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, with tens of millions of euros already slated in the budget for the remigration effort.

In order to ensure that the recipients of repatriation support do not travel to Sweden again with a different identity, which has happened with many who have been deported, emigrants will have to record biometric data.

Read more here…

By Tsvetana Paraskova of Oilprice

Over the past weeks, Russia has been using a growing number of oil tankers sanctioned by the West to export its oil, in a move suggesting that Moscow has become more successful in defying U.S. and EU restrictions.

A total of six oil tankers sanctioned by the U.S., the EU, or the UK loaded oil cargoes from Russia in August, and at least another six have done the same so far in September, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

The data showed that at least 17 sanctioned tankers have left Russian ports loaded with oil since the end of April. The trend now appears to be accelerating, with mostly tankers owned by Russian state tanker fleet operator Sovcomflot loading cargoes.

At the end of last year, the U.S. started to ramp up sanctions on entities carrying Russian oil, aiming to stifle Putin’s revenues and address the violations of the price cap mechanism under which Russian oil can be transported on Western-owned, insured, or financed tankers only if the price is crude is $60 per barrel or below.

In February 2024, the U.S. Treasury and State targeted Sovcomflot and more than a dozen tankers linked to the Russian state-owned fleet operator.

The EU has also designated vessels of the so-called ‘dark fleet’ that Russia has amassed. The UK has explicitly targeted vessels in Putin’s shadow fleet, used by Russia to circumvent UK and G7 sanctions, in its first sanctions directly aimed at the dark fleet, which is estimated to have grown to more than 600 tankers known to have shipped sanctioned oil at least once.

In response to Bloomberg’s queries, Sovcomflot, also known as SCF, has said that since it doesn’t have connections to Western countries, it cannot be viewed as a subject to these sanctions.

“Hence, SCF cannot be regarded as an ‘offender’ nor as a tool to undermine sanctions,” Sovcomflot told Bloomberg.

Authored by Donald Jefferies,

Don’t burn your popcorn…

I’ve been an observer of national politics since I was eleven years old. I cried when they killed Robert F. Kennedy. I was a die hard Democrat. I thought they were the good guys. Then I became an independent, and have grown more radical as I age. I know the process is rigged, and yet I continue to follow it, like a heroin addict.

Donald Trump was recently the victim of yet another assassination attempt. Apparently. The same people who believe the first attempt, in Butler Pennsylvania two months ago, was staged, naturally believe this one was fake, too. And they both might very well have been. After all, everything they do is seemingly scripted. No improvisation allowed. But the response is what really grabs my attention. As I’ve noted, those on the Left who are skeptical of the Trump assassination attempts aren’t skeptical about anything else. They believe in Russian collusion. They think “Climate Change” is a tremendous threat to us all. They accept the transgender lunacy. And despite the vast majority being White themselves, they are fully on board with the anti-White agenda. So they’re certainly predisposed to accept things at face value.

The alleged would-be assassin is supposedly one Ryan Wesley Routh. Another three namer- who could have predicted that? As you can see from the photo above, when Routh was apprehended, his shirt was oddly pulled up, revealing his A-cup man boobs, and his pants were pulled down lewdly, in big hair, rock star fashion. Did he do this himself? I don’t know, maybe that’s the latest fashion trend for potential patsies? It certainly is an attention grabber. Or did law enforcement pull his shirt up, and his pants down? That takes us into more bizarre territory. Perhaps their resistance got weak, and they absolutely had to see if this fifty eight year old had six pack abs. It’s a suppressed homosexuality thing, you wouldn’t understand. However you look at it, I don’t believe we’ve seen another arrest photo like it.

But Ryan Wesley Routh is far more than man boobs and almost exposed crotch. We are told that the FBI and Interpol were “warned” about him. We are told this, after the fact, about most of the accused perpetrators of high profile crimes. We understand how corrupt and incompetent the FBI has always been, so it makes sense that they would ignore “warnings” about any potentially dangerous individual. I suppose Interpol is no better. Maybe they can hire more people, with better lone nut detectors. The brave Secret Service detail was evidently denied the opportunity to stand down at Trump’s own golf course in Palm Beach, Florida. I feel confident they would have been exemplary once again, in not doing their job, if the patsy wearing the makeshift tank top had been able to get close enough to fire at Trump.

Routh is also an author. Just like me, and many others who have never fired shots at any politician. Or pulled our shirts up and pants down so provocatively in public. Routh’s self-published book Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity, is an impassioned plea for World War III. Wow- nobody ever tell me that the subtitles for my books are too wordy. He is documented as a fervent leftist, having formerly supported Bernie Sanders, and having contributed financially many times to ActBlue. He tried to recruit foreign soldiers to help Ukraine defeat Russia. You’d think that, with all this information, it would be obvious that Routh was motivated by the same kind of irrational hatred for Donald Trump that has infected millions of formerly rational Americans with TDS.

But instead of acknowledging this, and perhaps issuing one of their standard lectures to the insane “Woke” Left, the mainstream media, and high profile Democrats themselves, are telling Trump to “tone down” his rhetoric. If you just stop saying “hateful” things, no one will try to assassinate you! What is most remarkable about Routh is the fact that he was inexplicably interviewed by Newsweek in 2022. His only claim to fame was his self-published book, touting the official state controlled media line on Ukraine. People who write self-published books don’t usually get to be interviewed by huge media outlets like that. I have legitimate publishers, and I couldn’t get Newsweek to notice me, even if I walked into their headquarters with a “9/11 Wasn’t an Inside Job” tee shirt pulled up past my nipples. So the FBI not only knew about Routh, but Newsweek thought he was worth an interview, two years ago?

Now I am fully aware that many are dubious about this attempt, just as they are about the incident in Pennsylvania. I am, too. Why would we believe anything that is reported, by a media that is simply regurgitating talking points from “authorities” that lie to us about everything? How did Routh know Trump was going to be at the golf course, the skeptics are asking. Good question. Initially, the New York Post went with a story that claimed two men had fired shots at each other, and it was all totally unrelated to Trump. Well, that sounds plausible. I used to golf regularly, very badly, back in the misty days of America 1.0. I guess I was lucky not to have encountered two men shooting at each other on any of the courses I played. Where else would you hold a gun battle, other than a golf course? Regardless, as in the Steve Scalise shooting, the victim’s motives are never political if he’s a leftist, only if he’s a right-wing extremist.

However real either or both Trump assassination attempts were, the response to them is even more telling. Trump has to be the only politician that survived at attempt on his life, and actually went down in the fake public opinion polls afterwards. You’d imagine that the second attempt would ensure his victory. But I think we can predict that he’ll plunge even further after the failed efforts of Ryan Wesley Routh. I’m sure the Republicuck leaders will leave no stone unturned in finding out the truth here. Sure, they haven’t managed to call a single one of the Secret Service agents who stood down completely in Butler, but these things take time. They’re still searching for photos of Thomas Matthew Crooks taken after he graduated from the eighth grade. That makes sense; few of us have our pictures taken after middle school. It’s all downhill from there.

And their task won’t be made easier by the fact that the Secret Service is unwilling to cooperate in any investigation. Well, to be fair, any real investigation would make the Secret Service look really bad. The Biden administration, Homeland Security, all of them, are urging the Secret Service not to comply with Congress. What is Congress going to do if they don’t? Remember Hunter Biden’s taunting press conference? Maybe if Peter Navarro was one of the Secret Service agents in question. And, in keeping with their appearance of upright honesty, the Secret Service is also rejecting Freedom of Information Act requests about the Butler incident. Nothing evokes innocence better than that. So we’ll never find anything out. If it was real, who was actually behind it? Or if it was staged, as millions believe, why it was staged, and by who? Was Trump in on it? Why stage a shooting, and then stop reporting on it?

Melania Trump, one of the least visible of modern political wives, recently put out a heartfelt video where she talked about the first assassination attempt, and supported the “conspiracy theorists” who feel there is more to it than a loner walking around for thirty minutes carrying a rifle, and then scaling the wall of a building, while witnesses tried in vain to get the attention of law enforcement. If only Crooks would have committed an illegal U-Turn; those cops would have apprehended him before he could U-Turn again. At any rate, Don Lemon, the gay White hater who is married to a White man, played Melania’s emotional video and ridiculed it. Made fun of it like a sixth grade bully. A gay, racist bully. Lemon can freely mock Mrs. Trumpenstein, and millions of Americans believe the Giant Orange Man is orchestrating the whole thing. I think it is all orchestrated, but Trump isn’t doing the orchestrating.

We used to have a saying, back in the smoke-filled 1970s, that bullets, not ballots, shouldn’t effect the outcome of elections. JFK’s death certainly effected the 1964 election, as did RFK’s in 1968. Then there was the George Wallace nonfatal shooting, which ended his campaign in 1972. In 1980, while Reagan was elected, his nonfatal shooting a few months later certainly seems to have impacted the way he governed. But until this year, we hadn’t seen any more bullets changing the outcome of our elections. Lots of character assassination, and false promotion of preferred establishment puppets, but no actual gunfire. As I keep saying, what makes the Trump assassination attempts so extraordinary is how quickly they are forgotten. Tossed down the memory hole. This would apply even if they were staged. They should be the big story of the 2024 presidential race. No investigation, move on to the next act.

The fact that Trump wasn’t asked a single question about the alleged attempt on his life, during the ridiculous debate with Harris, should tell us all we need to know. They don’t want any of these big events looked at honestly, whether they were fake or not. 9/11 or Sandy Hook- don’t ask questions! Why didn’t Trump’s Secret Service do their jobs? Mere incompetence cannot explain that. A volunteer group of elementary school safety patrols would have responded better. So, if you believe it really happened or not, that is what should be investigated first. Like JFK’s Secret Service detail in 1963, who failed to react at all to the sound of gunfire, Trumpenstein’s Secret Service detail failed to notice someone walking around openly brandishing a rifle, and then scaling the side of a building. Even when witnesses alerted them to it. No one is acting like these events were real, even in much of the alt media and the Trump campaign itself.

And while Trump dodges real or fake bullets, Kamala Harris keeps cackling her way to a lead in the fake public opinion polls. Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance continues to be depicted as “weird,” despite never having ingested horse semen, or driven drunk while going nearly 100 mph. Both he and Trump have been blasted by the state controlled media for objecting to Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs. That’s not the “hate” that PETA represents! Vance continues to be haunted by his “childless cat lady” comments. Never have childless women been so proud. They’ve gone beyond the programming and firmly committed themselves to not reproducing. Don’t be fruitful or multiply! Trump hates dogs and cats because he says Haitians are eating them. That’s racist! And he keeps claiming that he’s been shot at. If they frame a Black three-namer patsy for one of these real or fake shootings, that will be racist, too.

While J.D. Vance’s “weirdness” comes primarily from an anecdote invented by his political opponents, about “humping” some sofa pillows, Tim Walz and his wife seem to fit much better into the “weird” category. At a recent Wisconsin rally, Walz gesticulated wildly, in the manner of the immortal Howard Dean, and even lifted his leg at one point. Maybe he was thinking of all those dogs in Ohio who definitely aren’t being eaten by Haitians. Gwen Walz is his perfect soul mate; her wild eyed, sometimes incomprehensible speech is the stuff most political trophy wives never master. She kept saying “bye-bye” for some reason. Gwen notably said, regarding the 2020 BLM riots, that she kept her windows open so she could keep smelling the burning tires. Well, who doesn’t like the scent of a burning tire? Both Walz and his wife were Minnesota public school teachers, so you know where they’re coming from.

A new rumor revolves around Donald Trump having an affair with 31 year old conservative personality Laura Loomer. Loomer has threatened to sue odious “comedian” Bill Maher for insinuating such a thing. Those with TDS accept this without reservations. As I’ve tried to point out to them, this kind of destroys their carefully crafted image of Trump, as a clown with a really, really small penis. Can’t emphasize that enough, because it’s so important to them. And he is 78 years old. Wouldn’t this mean he’s a stud, having an affair with someone young enough to be his granddaughter? I know what you’re saying; Laura Loomer is a worthless apologist for Israel. She’s really ugly; she ought to sue her plastic surgeon. She’s actually a man, Larry Loomer. Whatever, as the young girls say. I hate to see anyone ridiculed for their looks, so this brings out my chivalry. And I can’t stand Maher.

And there is the matter of the anonymous ABC whistleblower, who released an affidavit claiming that he had recordings proving that ABC agreed to “fact check” Donald Trump in advance, as well as not ask certain questions in the debate, as requested by the Harris campaign. Whether she really had an “audio earring” that was feeding her answers, Harris undeniably was given preferential treatment by the laughable moderators. One of them, Linsey Davis, was Harris’s college sorority sister, after all. Girlfriends have to stick together. There have been reports that the ABC whistleblower went on to die in a car crash, reminding us of the precarious shelf life of whistleblowers. This has been debunked, by the state controlled “fact checkers.” Since we don’t know the identity of the whistleblower, how can we know if he’s alive? Trust the Stupid Party in Congress to get to the bottom of it. They always do.

In 1976, I was as excited as a present day illegal immigrant to cast my first vote. I studied all the Democratic Party presidential candidates, and there were plenty of them. Only Senator Fred Harris publicly supported a new investigation into the assassination of JFK, which was of course my primary political issue at that point. Jimmy Carter, the obscure peanut farmer from Georgia, was my least favorite candidate. I noticed how the media chose Carter to focus on, and incessantly promote him as the “front runner” before a single primary vote had been cast. Needless to say, they have used this tactic repeatedly over the years, to marginalize good people like Dennis Kucinich and my friend Cynthia McKinney. While Jimmy’s sister Ruth Carter Stapleton openly questioned the official JFK narrative, the Trilateral Commission’s favorite candidate remained silent on the issue.

So, this is what I’m relegated to now. Analyzing distasteful reactions to what may have been fake assassination attempts. Determining which of the corrupt, incompetent, and insane candidates are the worst in each category. As far back as the 1980s, I was involved in Third Party politics. We obviously didn’t make any inroads, as we don’t have a single viable Third Party today. I fell in love with lots of renegade candidates. Ross Perot. Pat Buchanan. Ralph Nader, Ron Paul. I even had a fling with Lyndon Larouche. Perot got 19 percent of the vote in 1992, and 8 percent in 1996. I don’t think anyone else I liked ever made it over 1 percent. My political candidates are kind of like my sports teams; they never win. So when I voted for Trump in 2016, he became my second winner, alongside Jimmy Carter, for whom I less than enthusiastically cast my first vote as a starry-eyed radical with an ACLU membership card.

As I was writing this, rumors abound that there has been yet another attempt- the third- on Trump’s life. Alex Jones and others are reporting that some attendees who sat behind the stage at a recent Trump rally in Arizona reported experiencing eye pain. Were they collateral damage from a chemical attack directed at Trump? Or were they peddling “wild conspiracy theories,” as one of the few news outlets to report the story called it? A senior Trump campaign advisor released a public statement saying they were “collecting information” about the incident. Can this be real? As real as the other two acknowledged attempts, doubted by millions? Is Trump now just going to be the continuous, designated victim of attempted assassination, yet always surviving? If he really were assassinated, would that be fake, too? Would millions cheer?

I can hear some of you saying; why another piece on this fake presidential race? It’s all rigged, the candidates are selected, not elected. And you are right. It is all scripted. A completely rigged process. I’ve known for a long time that my vote isn’t being honestly counted. But I trudged to the polls, especially when my kids were little, to set a good example of civic duty. I didn’t think they would understand, or should know, how rotten everything was at such tender ages. But I’m still doing it. I’ll probably vote again. I do it for the same reason I still play fantasy football, despite knowing how corrupt and fixed all sports are, and how they discriminate against Whites just like every other part of America 2.0. I’m addicted. If I was a different sort of person, I’d start virtue signaling. It’s not my fault I pay so much attention to your phony bread and circuses- I’m the victim here! You sucked me in a young age, just like the tobacco companies. I quit cigarettes in 1989. I can’t seem to quit politics. Or sports.

I call it the Trumpenstein Project for a reason. I don’t take anything he says seriously. But the side he purports to oppose is unquestionably, indisputably evil. And utterly mad. As always, there is no one to vote for. It is much like betting on the Super Bowl, while knowing that it’s fixed. You still get a thrill out of “your” team winning. There will be no thrills in a Trump victory, should that be the way the script is written. But it will be must see TV, to watch all those deranged leftist “journalists” react. Maybe one or more of them will lose all control, unleashing a stream of ugly profanity, or perhaps they might assault each other. Rachel Maddow vs. Joy Reid. You might see an on air suicide. How could they go on with Orange Man Bad back in the White House? As I’ve noted, that may be the best any of us can expect from this tarnished, prostituted process. It certainly is the best that I can hope for.