Month: August 2024

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The US has blocked export of Nvdia chips to China. But where there’s profit, there’s a way.

Sanctions Fail Again and Again

The Wall Street Journal reports China’s AI Engineers Are Secretly Accessing Banned Nvidia Chips

Chinese artificial-intelligence developers have found a way to use the most advanced American chips without bringing them to China.

One entrepreneur helping Chinese companies overcome the hurdles is Derek Aw, a former bitcoin miner. He persuaded investors in Dubai and the U.S. to fund the purchase of AI servers housing Nvidia’s powerful H100 chips.

In June, Aw’s company loaded more than 300 servers with the chips into a data center in Brisbane, Australia. Three weeks later, the servers began processing AI algorithms for a company in Beijing.

“There is demand. There is profit. Naturally someone will provide the supply,” Aw said.

Renting far away computing power is nothing new, and many global companies shuffle data around the world using U.S. companies’ services such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. However, those companies, like banks, have “Know Your Customer” policies that may make it difficult for some Chinese customers to obtain the most advanced computing power.

The buyers and sellers of computing power and the middlemen connecting them aren’t breaking any laws, lawyers familiar with U.S. sanctions say. Washington has targeted exports of advanced chips, equipment and technology, but cloud companies say the export rules don’t restrict Chinese companies or their foreign affiliates from accessing U.S. cloud services using Nvidia chips.

Buyers and sellers of computing power use a “smart contract” in which the terms are set in a publicly accessible digital record book. The parties to the contract are identified only by a series of letters and numbers and the buyer pays with cryptocurrency.

The process extends the anonymity of cryptocurrency to the contract itself, with both using the digital record-keeping technology known as blockchain. Aw said even he might not know the real identity of the buyer. As a further mask, he and others said Chinese AI companies often make transactions through subsidiaries in Singapore or elsewhere.

One decentralized GPU provider with more than 40,000 chips in its network, io.net, advertises in its user guide that it doesn’t impose know-your-customer restrictions. This “allows users to access GPU supply and deploy clusters in less than 90 seconds,” it says.

Meanwhile, Aw is raising more money from a group of investors in Saudi Arabia and South Korea. They plan to build a cluster of Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips for another Singapore company with a Chinese parent.

“No one is breaking the export controls,” Aw said. “Legally speaking, they are Singapore companies.”

Know Your Customer’s Customer’s Customer

China sets up an AI company in Singapore.

AI developers buy cloud time through a subsidiary that further masks the operation by paying in Bitcoin.

In turn, the subsidiary buys time from a company Dubai or Singapore that hosts the servers.

US politicians outraged. But some of us are amused knowing full well that sanctions don’t work.

And instead of cloud profits going to US corporations, the profits go to Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Dubai, and South Korea.

Only Amazon is forced to “know your customer”.

Flashback Lesson

Didn’t you declare victory on these sanctions?

Here’s the deal: China and India will always buy. And they should. It’s in their best interest.

— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) September 18, 2023

Massive Failure of Sanctions

• September 19, 2023: Lesson of the Day: Sanctions Don’t Work Because They Create New Markets

• December 29, 2023: How Russia Makes a Mockery of US Sanctions in One Picture

• February 19, 2024: US Impounds Thousands of German Vehicles Over One Tiny Part Made in China

• May 21, 2024: Another Sanction Failure: The US Blacklisted Xiaomi Three Years Ago Now it Makes EVs

• June 11, 2024: Russia to Export Coal to India Via Iran. It’s a 4 Alarm Bells Fire

Sanctions don’t work but they do drive up prices and/or create competition for US companies.

The beneficiary is either the sanctioned company, as in the case of China’s EV maker Xiaomi, or intermediaries as in today’s example.

Biden Eases Sanctions on Venezuela, Blocks Rare Earth Mining in Alaska

On April 21, 2024 I noted Biden Eases Sanctions on Venezuela, Blocks Rare Earth Mining in Alaska

What a hoot. How’s that great tradeoff working out?

Since we know the answer, here’s our real question of the day: Is robin Brooks finally ready to throw in the towel on the effectiveness of sanctions?

If he responds, I will add an addendum.

Los Angeles Realtor to the stars John Woodward says squatters have taken over a multi-million dollar mansion across the street from LeBron James.

Soon after listing the property at 1316 Beverly Grove Place in Beverly Hills, Woodward got a call from the pool boy letting him know that someone had shown up with a U-Haul to move in. Given that he hadn’t sold the house yet, he drove down to see what was going on – and ended up calling the police to report an active crime; these people were breaking into the house.

According to the Daily Caller, when the police showed up, the squatters produced a fake lease, which the cops of course accepted as proof, and told Woodword to pound sand – forcing him to pursue justice through the backlogged and ideologically biased LA court system.

“These guys are professional squatters,” he told the Caller. “They know what they’re doing, they know they’re going to eventually be kicked out of there, but they get a free place in a nice neighborhood before the legal system kicks in.”

And boy did the squatters enjoy their time. The quiet, affluent neighborhood turned into the biggest party street in Los Angeles. For months, the squatters hosted all-night raves filled with hundreds of people, illicit drug use and thumping dance music that lasted into the morning. They even allegedly sold entry to the parties, making thousands off the stolen property.

It was so brazen, you would think the police would shut it down after one night — especially in a ritzy neighborhood like Beverly Hills. That’s all we hear from the media these days; the police only care about helping rich white people. -Daily Caller

One neighbor, Fran Solomon, was forced to flee her dream home after police refused to do anything about the parties.

“They were loud, they were disruptive. The fire trucks would come in, the police would come in. The neighbors would be calling the police and nothing was able to be done about this,” Solomon explained to the Caller.

“We realized that they were squatters,” she continued, “and squatters, I guess, have rights.”

After months of media attention, the squatters were finally evicted.

One California handyman has found a way to get rid of squatters…

As the Epoch Times reports, Squatting is a widespread problem, says Flash Shelton, a handyman and anti-squatting activist from Northern California. But he says he’s found a solution.

Shelton said he successfully got his mother’s house back from a group of squatters in 2019. He has since turned his experience into a career, helping others facing similar situations.

Shelton said on a recent episode of EpochTV’s “California Insider” that in 2019 after his father passed away, he moved his mother into his home. However, when they tried to sell her house, he discovered that a group of people had broken in and taken over.

After contacting law enforcement, he quickly learned that since the squatters had moved in with furniture to make it appear they lived there, it was considered a civil matter rather than a criminal one, leaving the authorities unable to act.

Although squatting or trespassing on a vacant property is illegal in California, the situation becomes complicated when law enforcement are unable to determine whether people are trespassers or have a legitimate claim to the space.

The presence of furniture and personal belongings can create the appearance of a tenant-like situation, which may force the property owner to follow formal eviction procedures rather than having the squatters removed as trespassers.

Instead of enduring the lengthy eviction process, Shelton found a “backdoor” solution: becoming a squatter in his mother’s house to oust the squatters.

“I figured that if I could become their squatter and switch places with them, that I would assume those rights,” he told the show’s host, Siyamak Khorrami.

He asked his mother to sign a lease granting him legal rights to the property. He then returned to the house and set himself up as the new “tenant.”

“As soon as they left the driveway, I went into the house, secured the back door, put up cameras, set up an alarm system, and then when they arrived back, I told them I have possession of the house,” he said.

The squatters eventually left.

Vulnerable Seniors

His story later went viral online, leading other homeowners facing similar situations to reach out to him for help.

“I’m running into people that have been squatting for years, and elderly people that have been living with squatters for multiple years because they don’t have the resources or the family to help them,” Shelton said.

He said many seniors are vulnerable to squatters, because individuals can exploit the seniors’ need for live-in caregivers and move into a home legally.

Shelton highlighted the case of an 88-year-old woman in Culver City who initially thought a caregiver was moving into her home, but the woman did not provide any caregiving.

The elderly woman contacted the caregiver’s employer to have her removed but was told they had fired the caregiver and could not help remove her from the house.

Shelton said these cases often leave homeowners with no choice but to seek legal assistance, which can be both daunting and expensive.

He cited another case where a family returned from a two-week vacation to find their home occupied by a squatter. They spent $138,000 and endured a year-long legal battle to reclaim their property, all while continuing to pay their mortgage.

“There’s a misconception that if you own a home, you have money,” Shelton said. “But people that own a home will argue that just because you own a home, you own a mortgage, you don’t own a bank account.”

Shelton also noted other types of squatters, including those who sign a lease and pay only the first month’s rent before stopping payments, and individuals who turn Airbnb units into party venues, charging admission or offering rentals on properties they do not own.

Calling himself the “Squatter Hunter,” Shelton now owns a business that helps homeowners nationwide remove squatters in a legal and safe way.

According to his website, Shelton first consults with the clients via Zoom. Then his team signs a month-to-month lease with the homeowner and moves in with the squatters, similar to his approach in his mother’s case. He also coordinates with law enforcement beforehand to ensure safety during the process.

Don’t Turn Off the Lights

He advises property owners not to turn off utilities, as this can lead to legal issues. In California, shutting off utilities as a “self-help” eviction tactic is illegal.

“Not only is it against the law, but if you turn off the utilities on a squatter, it gives them the option to turn the utilities on in their name,” he said. “If they have the utilities, they will have more proof that they live there.”

He also recommends homeowners install cameras and alarm system to document break-ins or trespassing, allowing them to report incidents to law enforcement promptly.

Additionally, he advises using locking mailboxes to prevent squatters from accessing any mail sent to the property.

“It could be as easy as them starting to send mail to the address and then finding one time that you’re not home and they get to the mail first,” he said. “They pull out things with their name on the mail and keep it with them.”

“Now they break into your home when you’re on vacation. All they needed was a [piece of] mail to show law enforcement that they live there.”

Solving the Root Problem

Most importantly, Shelton said, laws must be changed to protect homeowners.

“The lines between tenants and squatters are blurred. Right now, squatters are taking advantage of the fact that California is a very tenant-friendly state,” he said.

The rise in squatting is due to a lack of consequences, according to Shelton. He said that introducing jail time or penalties would greatly deter people from squatting.

“If we can change the laws so that squatting is actually a criminal offense instead of a civil one, it’s going to prevent squatting,” Shelton said. “[We can] make a clear distinction between squatters and tenants, giving tenants all the rights they deserve, but making that threshold higher.”

He added that his goal is not to evict needy individuals but to hold accountable those who exploit legal loopholes.

“Homeless people have more pride than squatters,” Shelton said. “I have a heart for the homeless. My family and I were homeless when I was a kid.

“It’s the career squatter … that intentionally harms others. Those are the ones that are not safe. I’m going to do everything I can to get your home back and get those squatters out where they belong.”

Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times,

Special counsel Jack Smith has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse Judge Aileen Cannon’s order dismissing the Justice Department’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump over his handling of classified documents.

“The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded,” the special counsel said in a brief to the appellate court on Aug. 26.

“In ruling otherwise, the district court deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent, misconstrued the statutes that authorized the Special Counsel’s appointment, and took inadequate account of the longstanding history of Attorney General appointments of special counsels.”

Cannon ruled in July that Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the U.S. Constitution, specifically the appointments and appropriations clauses.

In a 93-page ruling, Cannon wrote that Smith’s prosecution of the former president “breaches two structural cornerstones of our constitutional scheme—the role of Congress in the appointment of constitutional officers, and the role of Congress in authorizing expenditures by law.”

The ruling raised questions about the Justice Department’s use of special counsels.

The judge ruled that Smith was an inferior officer, which requires Congress to authorize the attorney general to appoint him as special counsel, which didn’t happen.

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

“RFK, Jr. Murders Whale With Chainsaw!”

“Our society is now a strange hybrid of the Middle Ages, the Third Reich, and Brave New World. We have two classes – lords and peasants; we are in the midst of a very profitable genocide; and it’s all infused with surveillance technology, mind-altering drugs, and wall-to-wall propaganda.”

– Dr. Toby Rogers

The alliance between Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Donald Trump is many things. But first it’s an all-clear signal to a large class of less-than-fully brain-damaged Americans that it’s okay to quit being insane.

As you know, this election is no longer a battle between the political Left and Right. It’s an epic struggle-session between the sane and the insane.

You just witnessed the Democratic Convention nominating an empty pantsuit whose only record as a high government official is failure to protect and defend the nation and to support its constitution. All arranged without any real votes cast. Pretty neat trick, pulled off under the banner of Saving Our Democracy. Please understand that it was the result of hypnotizing so many vulnerable personalities into a mass formation psychosis. They were vulnerable because they are scared stiff by propaganda specifically targeting their deepest archetypal fears — in this case, fear of Daddy, meaning fear of behavioral boundaries, in short, of being civilized.

Thus, the advocacy for Hamas terrorists (Israel = Old Testament = moral boundaries), abortion (no more babies = die-off of cultural line), drag-queens (“mother” = demonic imposter), open border (border = nation’s boundary), the Ukraine War (“Let’s You and Him Fight”), censorship (hatred of fairness), mandates and lockdowns (destroy purposeful, meaningful, productive life), and so on. The propaganda engineered to produce this madness surely comes from our intel blob. They have devoted all the years since the founding of the CIA in 1947 to developing and refining their methods of mindfuckery. They have unleashed it lately at full force because they fear that Mr. Trump will deconstruct their intel blob and possibly prosecute some of its current and former officials for serious crimes such as treason, misprision of felonies, and murder.

The final ingredient in all that is submission of the populace to these programmatic suggestions.

Simply put, they yield to the fears induced in them. Try to enter the mind of a committed Democratic voter. You’ll discover that you are locked out. Sharing of thoughts is impossible because there is no thought in there, only disordered emotion.

Ask a Democrat what they think Donald Trump actually did as president for four years. I guarantee you they will say only one thing: he cancelled abortion.

Which is actually not true. He nominated several Supreme Court Justices who ruled that abortion properly belonged under the jurisdiction of the fifty states. (It was the act of ruling that drove them nuts because rules = boundaries.)  Of course, all the single batshit crazy cat-ladies of Boston, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Denver, and Los Angeles now raging over the issue are free to abort themselves to their hearts’ content.

So, Kamala Harris emerges from this Cluster-B personality disorder exercise in hypnosis (the convention) as the avatar of . . . “joy” . . . in the absence of any ideas about actually running the government of a country which, for the moment, is run by nobody because the current president (“Joe Biden”) is both mentally unfit and on permanent vacation. None of this is very promising. The raptures of “joy” tend to obscure the idea that there is a future to be concerned about.

Enter Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

He explained his view of the situation and his role in it with unsurpassed clarity last Friday in a powerful and moving speech outlining a decision that must have been very painful for him. As I averred he would do last Friday morning, he denounced the party of his ancestors in unequivocal terms for coming to militate against its own traditional principles — opposing war, fighting for free speech, helping poor working people, and against weaponizing government agencies. He threw his support to Mr. Trump because it’s become obvious that Mr. Trump’s aims and ideas are more in-tune with those forsaken principles of Mr. Kennedy’s father and his uncle, JFK.

And now he’ll campaign on behalf of Mr. Trump, with the expectation that he will play an important, well-defined role in the next Trump administration — in charge of a range of public health issues that he is deeply familiar with from decades of litigation and researching the books about pharmaceutical racketeering actually written by himself.

It’s Monday after the convention. What’s on the candidates’ campaign schedule today. CNNs “Campaign Latest” page says that Mr. Trump will give a speech in Detroit today to the National Guard Association where he is expected to greet the endorsement of former Rep. (and Lt. Col. In the National Guard, Tulsi Gabbard). Kamala Harris has no public appearances scheduled, but CNN reports that she has raised a fabulous $540-million since her launch a few weeks ago. Isn’t that nice? Boolah boolah, lotsa moolah. On Wednesday, Ms. Harris and her veep sidekick, Tim Walz, embark on a bus tour around Georgia. Bus tours will be the signature of their campaign.

Let me tell you what that means: instead of flying expeditiously between campaign stops where they might have to state some positions on public issues, Harris & Walz will eat up many hours on long bus rides from Point-A to Point-B, hiding from the public and the press.

Bobby Kennedy, meanwhile, is cramming as many media appearances as possible into his schedule, submitting to questions about everything, including the latest barrage of accusations about his fully-disclosed personal history.

Fox has had him on several programs, though the other cable news stations are ignoring him, as are The New York Times and the WashPo, except to publish scurrilous stories from his mindfucked siblings and cousins – the latest being that he cut the head off a dead whale on the beach at Cape Cod with a chainsaw.

Readers are supposed to construe that to mean he murdered a whale with a chainsaw.

*  *  *

Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack

Amid the doldrums of summer liquidity, today saw some give back from Friday’s euphoric response to Jay Powell’s latest flip-flop.

Rate-cut expectations declined (most notably focused on a shift from 2024 to 2025)…

Source: Bloomberg

Stocks – broadly-speaking – did not love it and gave some back with the Nasdaq the biggest loser (and S&P dragged down by Tech). The Dow managed to reach a new all-time high before purging most of it back.

It’s been an interesting couple of days for Mag7 stocks…

Source: Bloomberg

…as the world readies for NVDA’s earnings…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar rallied modestly, erasing some of the dovish decline…

Source: Bloomberg

Despite the dollar gains, gold rallied…

Source: Bloomberg

Treasury yields rose modestly (just 1-2bps), but remain down from pre-Friday panic. The short-end continues to outperform…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices also continued to rebound, with WTI back above $77…

Source: Bloomberg

After surging above $65,000 twice over the weekend, Bitcoin was sold (ubiquitously) during the US day session

Source: Bloomberg

…and ETH is now at its weakest relative to BTC since the start of the DeFi boom…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, while the seasonals are holding up for now, the worst period of the year looms (September H2)…

BTFD to all-time high, then STFR and rest for post-election surge?

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been a serial bubble blower, only to later deflate bubbles through interest rate hikes and restrictive monetary policies. In this note, we’ll examine the recreational vehicle industry’s boom and bust and the current multi-year downturn. 

In early 2020, a combination of factors sparked the RV boom, including Fed Powell’s reduction of interest rates to the zero lower bound and Democratic cities that imposed tyrannical government-enforced lockdowns that caused folks to flee to rural America. To some extent, Starlink space internet made remote working from RVs possible in some of the most remote areas in the nation. However, as soon as Powell began to hike rates in response to inflationary forces in early 2022, the boom turned into a bust as the affordability of these homes on wheels collapsed. 

The RV bust has now persisted beyond the two-year mark, and to understand the industry’s current environment, look no further than Lazydays, an RV dealership with over two dozen locations nationwide, which bills itself as the world’s largest. The company recently reported significant revenue declines and sluggish sales, with no immediate recovery.

Powell slays the RV bubble with interest rate hikes. Notice how Lazydays’ revenue began to slide shortly after the hikes started. 

“Our best view is that the second quarter sales trajectory continued in July, and most industry experts are pointing to 2025 as the likely inflection for a meaningful industry recovery,” Lazydays CEO John North told analysts in a recent call discussing second-quarter results. 

North said, “So, facing that backdrop, we have continued to focus on the things we can control, maintaining healthy vehicle inventory, improving F&I per unit and achieving substantial total gross margin improvement sequentially from the first quarter.”

With discounts of up to 55% on RVs listed on the Lazydays website, North’s remark about “maintaining healthy vehicle inventory” might hint at a different reality: way too much inventory…

Across the industry, seasonal data from the RV Industry Association shows shipments are below a 16-year average for this time of year. 

With Powell likely to embark on an interest rate-cutting cycle on Sept. 18, the question becomes if North’s prediction of a bottom in the RV industry will be realized at some point in 2025. If so, Lazydays’ shares are down 75% on the year, and it might be worth throwing this ticker on the bottoming watchlist. 

Via SchiffSovereign.com,

It almost sounded like an apology. Almost…

On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stood in front of reporters and explained how we got here… and how inflation took hold.

To be fair, he rightly diagnosed the root causes: extreme government spending and money printing during the pandemic. And then, when the economy reopened after the lockdowns, there was a sudden surge in inflation.

The Fed and its army of experts assumed this inflation would be a temporary phenomenon—what they called “transitory.” They said that, due to the pandemic lockdowns being lifted, prices would rise suddenly, then fall back down.

This turned out to be one of the worst calls in the history of central banking. As we now know, inflation wasn’t transitory. Prices rose and continued to rise higher and higher, and they haven’t come back down.

To his credit, the chairman acknowledged this mistake on Friday.

But he was in quite a jovial mood about it, even joking with reporters about how in late 2021 they all set sail on, “The good ship transitory,” essentially making light of their enormous error that turned a lot of people’s lives upside down.

His joke got a lot of laughs from the room, and it’s nice to see there can be so much levity about a mistake that has cost Americans so dearly.

Adding to the sting is that this press briefing took place at the Federal Reserve’s annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming—one of the most exclusive and expensive resort towns in the world. And there he was, in fancy Jackson Hole, cracking jokes about blowing the inflation call—a mistake that has wreaked havoc on so many people’s lives.

To be honest it was a bit offensive… sort of like how many generals during World War I drank champagne as their men were being starved and slaughtered on the battlefield.

But again, it was at least an acknowledgment that they got it wrong. And this shouldn’t be an earth-shattering revelation. The Fed is not some all-knowing, all-powerful institution; it’s comprised of flawed human beings. Everyone makes mistakes— you, me, and the Fed Chairman too.

(Although ideally Fed officials would make fewer, smaller mistakes than the rest of us…)

Part of the reason the Fed was wrong is because they claim their decisions are data-driven. But the data they rely on is itself deeply flawed; just look at the most recent revision from the Labor Department, which is a major data source the Fed looks at  when crafting policy decisions.

The Labor Department said last week that they were revising down the number of jobs created in 2023 by over 800,000. That’s a huge miss, and it proves that the data the Fed relies on to make decisions is also fundamentally flawed.

So basically our monetary system is run by flawed human beings who make far-reaching, life-altering decisions based on flawed data. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot, obviously. And that’s why it’s worth briefly examining where else the Fed could get it wrong.

And we see two clear items on the horizon:

One is the presidential election.

A couple of weeks ago, the Fed chairman almost bragged about how the outcome of the Presidential and Congressional elections are irrelevant to them and do not factor into their economic forecasts at all.

This is completely absurd.

On the one hand, you have Kamala Harris, who wants to impose price controls, pass tax hikes, enforce arduous business regulations, push energy prices higher, and more.

On the other hand, Trump wants to reduce the independence of the Fed.

You couldn’t have more diametrically opposed policy outcomes.

Yet the Fed is willfully ignoring the massive consequences of what could transpire in November. They’re not thinking about it or planning for it. And that is insane.

The second issue is the national debt.

The Fed isn’t sounding the alarm bells. And in the past, it has actually supported the government spending even more money.

And it’s not like “the data” is suddenly absent here. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated an additional $22 trillion in new debt over the next decade. And generally, the CBO is conservative— meaning the debt will likely grow even quicker than that.

Who’s going to lend that money to the Treasury Department?

The Fed should know they will play a major role in funding government debt and deficits— triggering a massive money printing operation with major impacts. Yet they don’t say a word about it. They don’t seem to be thinking about it.

We’ve been clear about our assessment of this situation: $22 trillion in new debt will almost certainly be highly inflationary. And a Kamala Harris presidency is extremely likely to knock the US dollar off its throne as the world’s dominant reserve currency.

There’s a very narrow path to avoid that outcome, but it’s looking more and more likely every day.

You’d think the Fed would be planning for it. But they don’t say a word about it, and insist these factors don’t matter to them at all.

To us, this is why it makes so much sense to own real assets—scarce critical resources such as food, energy, key minerals, and productive technology.

If the Fed proves unable to tame inflation, critical commodities like these will grow in value.

And if by some miracle we avoid major inflation, there’s little downside to owning profitable businesses which produce some of the most vital resources on the planet.

Fresh controversy has broken out over the Sept. 10 debate on ABC between Donald Trump and VP Kamala Harris, after the Harris campaign insisted that both candidates’ microphones be live throughout the full broadcast.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has insisted that mics be muted when candidates aren’t speaking – which worked out swimmingly for Trump during his June debate with President Biden. [We suspect muted mics will allow Trump to throw Harris off by talking massive shit when nobody else can hear, and her handlers know this.]

“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” said Harris campaign senior adviser, Brian Fallon, telling Politico

“Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own. We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.”

According to another person familiar with the negotiations, “She’s more than happy to have exchanges with him if he tries to interrupt her,” adding “And given how shook he seems by her, he’s very prone to having intemperate outbursts and … I think the campaign would want viewers to hear [that].”

Trump camp responds

The former president’s team has characterized this as a bait-and-switch, and wants the ABC debate governed by the same rules as the Biden debate.

“Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate. The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements. We said no changes to the agreed upon rules,” senior adviser Jason Miller told the outlet. “If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messaging points her handlers want her to memorize, that’s their problem. This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign. They won’t allow Harris to do interviews, they won’t allow her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat-sheet for the debate. My guess is that they’re looking for a way to get out of any debate with President Trump.”.

More via Politico:

There are a few points here worth noting:

1. The rules for the CNN debate were never agreed to by Harris’ campaign; they happened when Biden was still the candidate.

2. Trump himself has sought additional debates with rules different from the CNN standard, including proposing a Fox News-hosted debate on Sept. 4 with “a full arena audience,” as Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this month. (The CNN debate had no in-person audience.)

3. In 2020, the Trump campaign wanted mics to remain on during the whole debate. “It is our understanding … that you will soon be holding an internal meeting to discuss other possible rule changes, such as granting an unnamed person the ability to shut off a candidate’s microphone,” Trump’s then-campaign manager, BILL STEPIEN, wrote to the Commission on Presidential Debates on Oct. 19, 2020. “It is completely unacceptable for anyone to wield such power. … This is reminiscent of the first debate in 2016, when the President’s microphone was oscillated, and it is not acceptable.”

4. As for Miller’s assertion that Harris wanted a seated debate with notes, Fallon pushed back vigorously. “All three parties (Trump, Harris and ABC) have agreed to standing and no notes, and we never sought otherwise,” he said. Another source familiar with the negotiations laughed when we asked if Harris ever asked to be seated, saying it wasn’t true.

On Sunday night, Trump slammed ABC, writing on Truth Social; “I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?“

Harris’ campaign. meanwhile, says that when they accepted ABC’s invitation, ‘the rules themselves were up for debate.’ 

Let’s see how this goes.

Authored by Ken Silva via HeadlineUSA.com,

Blaze Media has published possibly groundbreaking footage that shows the suspected J6 pipe bomber seemingly interacting with Capitol Police the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising.

The footage reportedly comes from Capitol Police CCTV files recently made public by the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight. The specific finding was made by the social media user “Armitas,” according to Blaze.

“The alleged bomber emerged onto First Street Southeast from an alley between the Capitol Hill Club and the Republican National Committee at 8:14 p.m. Jan. 5. The suspect walked north past the Capitol Hill Club. As the individual passed under the restaurant’s green awning at 8:14:30 p.m., a Capitol Police SUV turned the corner onto First Street. The alleged bomber waved at the squad car and then pointed — it appeared — at the driver as the vehicle passed by,” Blaze reported.

“…The officer turned on the vehicle’s red and blue emergency lights at 8:15:44 p.m., just as the bomber turned and walked south down the Rumsey alley and disappeared from view,” Blaze added.

“The suspect was hidden from camera view for nearly three minutes behind the blinding strobe headlights and emergency beams of the squad cars. At 8:22:53 p.m., the apparent suspect emerged from the spread of light and crossed the street again. The individual was last seen on the security video at 8:23:08 p.m. as he or she walked down the alley a second time.”

The next day, a civilian purportedly discovered one pipe bomb near the Republican National Committee headquarters at 12:43 p.m., and a plainsclothes Capitol Police officer found another one outside the Democrat National Committee HQ at 1:05 p.m.—just as violence was picking up at the Capitol. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and other prominent conservatives have suggested that the pipe bombs were meant to divert law enforcement from Capitol Hill to respond to the bomb threats.

Blaze’s findings come on the heels of footage released earlier this month from investigative reporter Julie Kelly, showing that the DNC pipe bomb might have actually been placed on the day of Jan. 6—after the RNC one was found.

The footage from Kelly showed an apparent law enforcement officer from Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s security detail exiting a DC Metro Police SUV at 12:51 p.m., and walking towards the area where the pipe bomb was found—with a bag in hand. Minutes later, the same officer walked back to the police vehicle with bag still in hand.

“What exactly was he doing? Did he set the device? And if he was acting on the up-and-up, how in the world did he not see a pipe bomb sitting right there?” Kelly asked.

For Revolver News’s Darren Beattie, who’s broken numerous stories on the pipe bomb case, Kelly’s footage makes it overwhelmingly likely that the FBI surveillance footage is fake and the bombs were actually planted not the evening before, but day of Jan. 6. Beattie has previously analyzed surveillance footage of the J5/6 pipe bomber, showing that the FBI has failed to release footage that would have shown the bomber planting the device.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) fined Uber Technologies Inc. a record 290 million euros ($324 million) for transferring the personal data of European taxi drivers to US data centers. 

AP said the transfer of European taxi drivers’ personal data to the US is a “serious violation” of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

The sensitive information collected from drivers included account details and taxi licenses, location data, photos, payment details, IDs, and even criminal data and medical records.  

“In Europe, the GDPR protects people’s fundamental rights by requiring companies and governments to handle personal data with care,” AP President Aleid Wolfsen wrote in a statement, adding, “But unfortunately, this is not self-evident outside Europe. Think of governments that can tap data on a large scale.”

Wolfsen continued, “That is why companies are usually required to take additional measures when storing personal data of Europeans outside the European Union. Uber has not ensured the level of protection for drivers required by the GDPR for data transfers to the US. This is very serious.”

AP said the ride-hailing service sent the personal data over to US servers for more than two years without using data transfer tools that protect privacy.

The Dutch watchdog noted, “The investigation into Uber began after more than 170 French drivers filed a complaint with the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH), a French human rights advocacy group. LDH then filed a complaint with the French privacy regulator.” 

A spokesperson for the watchdog group told Bloomberg that this is the largest penalty AP has ever issued against any company.

This is also the largest fine Uber has received anywhere in the world. 

Caspar Nixon, a spokesperson for Uber, called the fine “completely unjustified” and said the ride-hailing company will appeal against the decision. 

In markets, Uber shares in New York in premarket trading ignored the news out of Europe about a record fine.