Month: October 2024

Authored by Anders Corr via The Epoch Times,

The incoming defense commissioner of the European Union says that China sees the U.S. and EU responses to Russian aggression in Ukraine as weak. He’s right. Our show of weakness only invites further aggression by other rogue members of the “axis of evil,” including China, Iran, and North Korea.

As the world devolves into wars that strain U.S. and partner defense budgets—along with the borders that divide the democracies from authoritarian states like Russia, Iran, and North Korea—“the Chinese are watching,” according to the European Union’s first incoming defense commissioner, Andrius Kubilius.

In the case of Europe’s response to Russia, according to a Sept. 22 report, “The Chinese will make one simple conclusion,” noted Kubilius. “The West is quite weak.” He said that despite economies that are 25 times that of Russia, we are not winning. “What is the reason?” he asked. “It’s a question of political will.”

It’s also a question of risk avoidance, of course. Democracies are more risk averse than autocracies when it comes to war. This makes sense from one perspective, as democracies care more about people—both in their own societies and those of other states—than do dictators and terrorists. It could also make sense from a strategic perspective if modern war is a “wood chipper” for attacking armies, as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin rightly noted in 2022 regarding Ukraine.

The axis dictators are power-hungry to the point of a willingness to kill tens of millions in pursuit of their territorial and ideological ambitions. The number of Russian and Ukrainian dead from the current war has now reached approximately 1 million, according to a Sept. 17 report. Even more have been wounded. And Vladimir Putin is raising the stakes by frequently threatening nuclear strikes that could escalate to a direct war with the United States.

Iran is following the same strategy of feeding its proxies into the wood chipper, with its pursuit of nuclear weapons and support for terrorist proxies like Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah against Israel, giving just cause for a robust defense. On Sept. 22, the United States warned Israel against starting a full-scale war against the latter terrorist organization after Hezbollah refused to end its cross-border rocket attacks and let tens of thousands of internally displaced Israeli refugees return to their homes in northern Israel.

U.S. and allied ammunition reserves are running so low due to these wars—for which the United States has served as the “arsenal of democracy” since World War I—that Taiwan is now searching for new sources of ammunition necessary to defend itself in a war against the People’s Liberation Army, according to a Sept. 21 report.

Perhaps that is why Beijing tacitly approved of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies with Iran in its negotiations with the United States, thus encouraging its violence against Israel and Saudi Arabia. The CCP bankrolls all of the “axis of evil” companies through energy purchases from Russia and Iran and being the biggest trade partner of North Korea. The CCP has a motive for encouraging these far-flung wars and North Korea’s nuclear saber-rattling. It distracts the democracies, depletes our arsenals, and thus will make it harder to defend Taiwan if that day comes.

Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to be ready for a Taiwan war in 2027, and the chief of Naval Operations of the U.S. Navy, in turn, told her forces to be ready for a war with China by the same date. Meanwhile, the FBI continues to discover Beijing’s preparations for massive cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure that could disable us during a Taiwan war. Such preparations are destabilizing as the first to strike the other’s electricity grid and satellites, for example, will have a major advantage on the battlefield.

So the question of U.S. and European weakness that Kubilius and Beijing perceive matters. What we do to defend Ukraine matters to whether the CCP decides to launch a war against Taiwan in 2027. Defeating Russia in Ukraine by 2026 could avoid a war with China that year that blacks out the entire United States and destroys us as a global superpower, even if we win. In that case, we would not be very helpful in defending Europe.

Kubilius of Lithuania is one unlikely successor to former president Ronald Reagan and his doctrine of “peace through strength.” But this is his approach. He wants the European Union to borrow money to massively increase defense spending. He wants to require each country in the EU to stockpile enough ammunition for a war with Russia that could come within a few years, he said. Germany, according to a report in 2022, only had enough ammunition for two days of war. That explains its general willingness to give in to Russia, China, and Iran.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen likewise believes the European Union must spend far more on defense to deter war with Russia. She estimates that the EU must spend approximately $560 billion to account for low defense spending that stretches back to the wishful thinking of the 1990s when some in the United States thought we had achieved global “primacy.” In fact, the enemies of democracy were just regrouping for a future fight.

The CCP regime is indeed watching as Ukraine and Israel struggle to put down dictatorial and terrorist aggressions against them. Calls in the United States for them to moderate their responses, however popular among our voters, look weak to the CCP. Similar calls over the decades for Taiwan to moderate its response to the CCP also look weak. To keep the peace that is left in the world, we need to meet these aggressions not with fear and weakness but with strength and courage. That is the surest way to not only a lasting peace but to one with justice.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Authored by David Barnhizer via The Brownstone Institute,

There is no longer an American democracy, and the American Republic is disintegrating as those in control of what is generally referred to as “The Left” aggressively pursue the elimination of the Constitutionally-created Electoral College, a process created specifically to diffuse power and prevent a single group from gaining total and permanent control of America’s federal government. America was a vast, sprawling, diverse, and complex nation at the time of its creation. That scale, diversity, and complexity have been multiplied exponentially since that point.

As Aristotle warned, one of the flaws of democracy was that even though such systems began with a sense of shared community, eventually a majority would emerge that understood its voting power essentially provided full power to dictate rules. The flaw that undermined the system was that the members of the controlling majority would come to realize they could help themselves by extracting from the minority a growing share of social goods and benefits. This would allow the controlling majority to impose higher costs on the minority that often disproportionately created greater returns. I guess we could think of this as imposing a “Wealth Tax” or even more a tax on “Unrealized Income” under the rubric of “Fair Share.”

America is changing by the moment into a new political form, the “Post-Democracy Electronic State.” It has “morphed” into competing fragments seeking power operating within the physical territory defined as the United States while tenuously holding on to a watered-down minimal list of the basic creeds that represent what we long considered an exceptional political experiment. The Rule of Law is significantly weakened and the institutions of law are being used politically by those in power. Freedom of speech and the press are increasingly corrupted to the point that you can’t be certain of the truth or intent of what we are seeing and reading.

Our “leaders” have morphed into cartoon characters who unfortunately have no real understanding of the challenges we face and potential solutions that could preserve the integrity of America. We are beset by various crises—economic, the effects of Artificial Intelligence, immigration, and much more—that are weakening and distorting the nation and appear incapable of understanding or coping. Our educational systems in too many instances have become instruments of propaganda over critical matters over which our “educators” are taking one side of issues with complex elements rather than methods for educating an advanced population in ways that provide them the knowledge and focus needed to deal with the challenges we face.

The post-democracy political order now in power paradoxically consists of a combination of fragmented special interests eager to punish anyone who challenges their desires and a central government that is consolidating its power to monitor, control, and intimidate its citizens. This set of anti-democratic actors also includes an insatiable coterie of Big Data/Big Tech information gathering businesses that are functioning as “enablers” by amassing an inconceivable amount of data on Americans and everyone else for that matter. In some ways they have become a sort of “quasi-government” that subtly and surreptitiously operates almost invisibly but wields incredible influence.

A flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

– Alexis de Tocqueville

None of us can claim the quality of original insight achieved by Alexis de Tocqueville in his early 19th century classic Democracy in America when he observed that the “soft” repression of democracy was unlike that in any other political form. De Tocqueville explained:

[T]he supreme power [of government]…covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided…Such a power does not destroy…but it enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

The US, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe are far along in experiencing a “gentle” drift of the kind Tocqueville describes and are rapidly losing their integrity to the point they are becoming “pretend” democracies. The technological power of the Internet, and here I am using that term as shorthand for the host of information and communication capabilities that have developed over the past 15 to 25 years, has come into national and global society with such overwhelming speed that a “social tsunami” has swept through our society in ways that have devastated existing institutions and corrupted the traditional order.

Linked with the psychological effects of what is certain to be a multi-generational (if mislabeled) “War on Terror,” the changes generated by this incredible “event” involve phenomena we are still struggling to understand. The result is that we have changed seemingly overnight from a world in which government and communications media moved at relatively slow speeds with highly controlled access to political decision-makers, data sharing, and investigation, to one in which everyone is endowed with the unprecedented ability to present their views, establish relationships, and organize networks and action groups for both good and bad purposes.

On the Internet, we have billions of voices resounding in an uncontrolled cacophony where 95 percent represent ignorance and malice and perhaps five percent useful insights. This “new normal” includes the strange effects of X.com (formerly Twitter) as an “instant public opinion poll” for political hacks who will do anything to remain in office. It can be used to stir up rage and indignation, make absurd accusations, and create false impressions of a non-existent groundswell of support for the agendas of interest groups that have organized to use the Internet’s capabilities to push for what they want and punish those who deny or otherwise threaten their overtures.

The impact of this still-evolving system on governments and other traditional institutions is profound. One element of what is taking place is a change in the basic nature of society into the “surveillance state.” That newly created system is one in which powerful governmental and private actors increasingly keep track of everything we do in the name of national security, social cohesion, and consumer preference.

Nor is it solely the fading democracies of the West that are experiencing the angst of uncontrollable communication and all-penetrating surveillance. China, Russia, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern nations are all trying to cope with the fact that they are no longer in control of information and the levers of propaganda. The solution of course is to censor, deny access to specific sites, monitor the communications of citizens and others, and take “legal” steps to punish those defined by the governmental monitors as violators of communications defined as harmful or offensive such as “misinformation” or “disinformation” as defined by the state. China has recently arrested its most prominent blogger and enacted harsh criminal laws that impose multi-year prison sentences for spreading rumors through the Internet.

The upshot in the West is that there has been a shift in the nature of government from a reasonably representative hybrid form of complex democracy to a strange mixture of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm along with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Perhaps one of the most ironic features is that as Internet-based communications systems and applications have come into use over the past two decades they have greatly enhanced the ability for widespread communication among a nation’s citizens. For the first time in our history, we have overcome physical distance and separation to the degree that it is possible to achieve face-to-face interchanges of the kind we always assumed were central to true democracy.

Unfortunately, the ability to communicate has been overwhelmed by numerous competing factors. This includes the discovery that we are a somewhat less than admirable species when provided a “voice”. The Internet has revealed an embarrassing level of ignorance, an increase in cynicism and distrust that has further weakened our views of others, and the loss of any sense of “civic virtue” or community. We no longer seek or achieve compromise in the interests of the larger common community because there is none.

The anonymous nature of many of our Internet communications is both cause and effect of the disintegration of the American community. Too many people hide behind masks while spewing venom and unfounded claims in a sort of “Urban Legend” syndrome circulated as fact. The cowardice and/or cynicism of anonymity is made even worse by the malice underlying much of the commentary as well as the over-hyped sensationalism of our mainstream media, and the disturbing desire for “fifteen minutes of fame” that characterizes many of our individual messages.

Along with these go abuses of power, illicit and criminal uses of Internet technology to harm and intimidate, and the inability of governments to know how to draw limits on their desire for information. At this point, we do not have the slightest clue about how to deal with the interacting forces of the new and still evolving forms of government and accompanying social order.

One thing that seems clear, however, is that much of it is not a positive evolution. The paradox is that the emerging system is in the process of becoming increasingly repressive at the same time it has expanded into a profoundly fragmented society. Each piece, whether representing an economic interest or one of political activism, is committed to relentlessly pursuing its particular agenda. This paradox disappears when we realize that fragmentation works well for the most powerful central political and economic organizations because it implements a “divide and conquer” strategy in which fragmented groups can always be set against each other while the core “power brokers” continue to consolidate power and reap the rewards of their “game.”

The threat from massive government surveillance of its citizens is psychological. The apprehension about what they “could” be doing and who might be looking at our profiles intimidate and “dumb us down.” We “think” without knowing that the National Security Agency (NSA), Department of Homeland Security, or FBI are building up something like our High School Permanent Record or our “social credit” record. Former Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper eventually was forced to admit he misstated (or lied) to Congress during testimony concerning the extent of his Agency’s illegal monitoring of US citizens’ telephonic communications.

Our “virtual” NSA Records could contain potentially bad things about us that we are not allowed to see or rebut, including the opinions of people who may have reasons to criticize us fairly or unfairly. Whether NSA or other actors we experience the fear of exposure of things we would prefer to remain hidden.

The fear exists even though we can never be certain of what “They” actually “know.” It is as if J. Edgar Hoover and his secret files have suddenly been brought back to life. Hoover was long thought to retain his enormous power over politicians in Washington due to possession of secret files detailing the “sins” of our leaders. Now the ability to control all of us by our “sins” if we “get out of line” has been moved to the corridors of the National Security Agency, Homeland Security, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.

Republished from the author’s Substack

“The disastrous border policies of the Biden-Harris Administration are only one dimension of the US Federal government’s complicity in the mass trafficking of children. The entire migration pipeline from South America up to the US Southern border is controlled by networks of human traffickers who funnel tens of thousands of alien children into the United States every year. For many alien children, crossing the US Southern border is only the beginning of their problems,” Muckraker’s Anthony Rubin said in a bombshell report titled “Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA.”

Rubin conducted a three-month investigation to give readers a glimpse of the exploding child trafficking industry in the United States, all of which was facilitated by the globalists in the Biden-Harris administration. 

Here’s a breakdown of what Rubin and his team found after tracking down some of the 320,000 illegal alien children lost by the Biden-Harris administration:

• The federal government is sending children to strangers.

• A CIA contractor is moving children across America.

• Children are being sent to labor trafficking rings.

• Traffickers use deportation as a threat to exact “debt” payments from sponsored children.

We Found the Biden-Harris Administration’s Missing Children | FIRST-HAND TESTIMONIES FROM CHILDREN WHO WERE TRAFFICKED IN AMERICA

We tracked down some of the 320,000 illegal alien children lost by the Biden-Harris administration.

During the course of our investigation, we… pic.twitter.com/VO3XaOIe0o

— Muckraker.com (@realmuckraker) September 25, 2024

“This report reveals the cold, hard truth about the reality of the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border policies, which have resulted in the trafficking of untold numbers of children,” Rubin noted. 

*   *   * 

Here’s the full report:

Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA

On August 19th, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they had lost track of over 300,000 children. But what exactly does this mean?

Since 2021, an average of 400 unaccompanied children have been smuggled into the United States every day.

These children, who cross into the United States without parents, are subsequently detained, processed by the federal government’s unaccompanied children program and eventually released into the country.

Per the DHS’ August 19th announcement, 291,000 of the 300,000 unaccounted-for children were released into the United States without a scheduled court date, while another 32,000, who were given court dates, never showed up for their scheduled court appearance.

In June of 2024, an insider from the department of Health and Human Services provided Muckraker with a list detailing the names of over 8,000 alien children, and their last known addresses. So, we began an operation to find the missing children ourselves.

Over the course of our investigation, we discovered the dangerous places where children have been delivered, confronted a CIA contractor who moves these children, heard shocking stories from children who the federal government has lost track of, and exposed a child trafficking network in Florida.

Children and minors who enter the United States illegally and without parents are subsequently detained and placed in holding camps while the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR for short) works to find the child a permanent home through their Unaccompanied Children or UC Program.

The goal of the UC Program is to place alien children with vetted sponsors who are typically relatives or close family friends. However, it is well documented that this program has placed children in the hands of criminal organizations such as MS13, as well as labor and sex trafficking rings.

We began our investigation by door-knocking the addresses of the most vulnerable children on our list, focusing on the youngest who were at the highest risk of trafficking.

One of our first finds was an abandoned house where two boys aged 7 and 10 had allegedly been delivered. It is unclear what happened to the boys who were delivered to the sponsor at this address, we were ultimately unable to locate them.

Our investigation eventually led us to the projects of the Bronx, where we found a girl who told us a horror story from inside the facility she was detained in at Pomona, California.

The girl pictured above, who we will call Alexa, was ultimately placed with a safe sponsor. However, she told us that while in a holding facility in Pomona, California, she encountered children who would cry because they were being sent to a sponsor who they did not know.

Alexa explained how children are woken up at 3 o’clock in the morning taken from the holding facility to their sponsors without the opportunity to say goodbye to their friends.

Alexa also told us about a friend of hers who was with her at the Pomona, California facility. Alexa and her friend had agreed to contact each other on Facebook once they were placed safely with their sponsors. Unfortunately, Alexa never heard from her friend again. It is unclear what the fate of her friend ultimately was.

The federal government uses contractors to move the children from detention centers, like the one Alexa was held at, into the hands of their sponsors. One of these contractors is MVM, a private security contractor with ties to the CIA, NSA, FBI, and Homeland Security.

MVM’s work has included providing security at Guantanamo Bay, guarding CIA stations in Iraq, and conducting research for the FBI’s High Value Detainee Research Group which is responsible for conducting interrogations of terrorists.

Over the past few years, MVM has secured contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to escort detained alien children to their sponsors across America.

The three states which have received the most unaccompanied children since 2021 are Texas, California, and Florida, with each state taking in over 10,000 per year.

We learned that two illegal aliens from Guatemala named Baltazar and Juana had requested to sponsor 13 children across 5 different addresses in Bonita Springs, Florida. Even more concerning, was that these same addresses were also being used by other illegal aliens who were attempting to sponsor children.

At one particular two bedroom house, 13 children were being sponsored by 4 different adults.

We were told that this trafficking case had been reported to HSI, the FBI, and HHS, but after sitting on the case for years, none of these agencies made any progress.

We managed to track down a brother and sister from Guatemala who had been delivered to the suspected trafficking ring in Bonita Springs, Florida, a few years earlier.

They claimed to have a trafficking debt hanging over them and described a labor trafficking system that targets unaccompanied alien children.

Watch: Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA

*   *   * 

If we want to get to the bottom of who the federal government hired to facilitate the greatest migrant invasion this nation has ever seen, more specifically, which companies are profiting, well, look no further than private security contractor MVM. 

A quick glance at their website reveals their ‘Mission Solutions,’ which include “Transportation and care for vulnerable populations.” 

Want to know how MVM made its money? … well, profiting off the endless wars in the Middle East…

Read this story here…

MVM has shifted its business model from staffing solutions in the Middle East wars to catering to open-border solutions.

Read this story here…

Running migrant trafficking networks is big business for the globalists in the DC Swamp. 

By John Kemp, energy analyst

U.S. oil production growth continues to slow in response to the fall in prices, as the initial shock from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed in response more than two years ago fades.

Crude and condensates output from the Lower 48 states excluding federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico averaged 11.0 million barrels per day (b/d) in July 2024, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Production had increased by less than 0.4 million b/d compared with the same month a year earlier, the smallest increment for the time of year since the first waves of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020/21.

Following the invasion, oil prices peaked in June 2022 but have since retreated, and production growth has decelerated with a delay of around twelve months, typical for the lag between a change in prices and output.

Inflation-adjusted front-month U.S. futures prices fell to an average of $79 per barrel in July 2023 (48th percentile for all months since 2000) from $124 (82nd percentile) in June 2022.

Twelve months later, production growth had halved to 0.4 million b/d in July 2024 from 0.8 million b/d in June 2023.

By July 2024, there had been no net growth for eight months since November 2023, as the sector’s expansion ground to a halt.

Since then, prices have fallen even further to an average of just $69 (38th percentile) in September 2024, which is likely to ensure production remains fairly flat through the middle of 2025.

If prices stay around current levels, production growth from the Lower 48 will probably fall close to zero by late 2024 or early 2025.

By curbing U.S. shale producers’ willingness to boost drilling, and forcing Saudi Arabia and its OPEC⁺ partners to postpone plans to increase output, lower prices are heading off an incipient surplus later in 2024 and 2025.

U.S. GAS PRODUCTION

Dry gas production averaged 104.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in July 2024, up from 103.3 bcf/d a year earlier, but the seasonal increment was the smallest since the pandemic in 2020.

Output growth has slowed as prices have slumped from post-invasion highs reached in the third quarter of 2022 to record lows by the early months of 2024.

Between February and April 2024, front-month futures tumbled to around $1.80 per million British thermal units, the lowest for over three decades, after adjusting for inflation.

Fewer than 100 rigs have drilled for gas on average in the third quarter of 2024 down from an average of nearly 160 in the third quarter of 2022.

Even more than oil, gas has been hit by over-production, and unlike crude there has been no equivalent of OPEC⁺ to limit the accumulation of excess inventories by coordinating output cuts.

Exceptionally mild temperatures slashed heating and power generation in the winter of 2023/24, leaving the industry carrying near-record stocks at the end of the heating season and intensifying the crisis.

By February 2024, the price slump had become so severe that several major U.S. producers announced plans to curb drilling and production.

Since then, however, ultra-low prices have encouraged record gas consumption by power generators throughout the summer and gradually returned stocks to more normal levels.

By late September 2024, working gas inventories were within ±1 standard deviations of the prior ten-year seasonal average.

In response, front-month prices climbed to an average of $2.40 last month, still only in the 3rd percentile for all months since 2000, but a significant bounce from the multi-decade lows six months earlier.

If gas production remains subdued, the remaining surplus is likely to be eliminated over the course of winter 2024/25.

Once the surplus is gone, prices and production will have to increase significantly in 2025 to satisfy the growing demand from generators and exporters.

Individuals and corporations send money abroad for various reasons, including seeking better investment opportunities, minimizing tax burdens, and protecting their wealth in low-tax or no-tax jurisdictions.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, shows the top 10 countries that owned the most offshore financial wealth in 2022, according to data from the Atlas of the Offshore World.

Chinese Hold Over $2 Trillion Abroad

Chinese mainland businesses and individuals hold over $2 trillion abroad, nearly matching Mexico’s GDP. Hong Kong is a top destination for Chinese corporations and individuals conducting offshore operations.

Meanwhile, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and Singapore are common destinations for U.S. offshore operations. American hold almost $1.6 trillion abroad.

Together, individuals and companies from the UK, France, and Germany hold $2.1 trillion abroad.

What Is a Tax Haven?

A tax haven offers foreign businesses and individuals minimal or no tax liability. They also have politically and economically stable environments.

Entities may legally use tax havens to stash money earned abroad while avoiding higher taxes in the U.S. and other nations.

For this kind of operation, companies often establish a shell corporation, which is a corporation without active business operations or significant assets in the country they are located.

To learn more about topics like offshore wealth and tax havens, check out this graphic that shows the top 10 countries hosting the most offshore financial wealth.

Many conservatives remember back in May of this year when the announcement hit the news feeds that Donald Trump was found guilty by a New York court of 34 “felony” charges related to the Stormy Daniels hush money case.  The charges claimed that this was approximate to “election interference” and NY prosecutors used legal wrangling in what would have been a misdemeanor case to create a felony case from thin air.  

“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” Trump told reporters after leaving the courtroom. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5th by the people. They know what happened, and everyone knows what happened here.” 

The conviction could be considered the peak of a long and unprecedented agenda of “lawfare” waged by the Democratic Party in an effort to remove Trump from the 2024 election race before voters ever get a chance to cast a ballot.  The leftist cheers were resounding; they thought they had the White House in the bag.

The deranged left are celebrating Trump’s guilty verdict, want to ‘kiII him next’pic.twitter.com/l9n75ghYEL

— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) May 30, 2024

At the time, numerous progressive journalists published article’s listing all the ways in which the conviction would end Trump’s political career.  None of them questioned the validity of the charges and how they were brought, nor did any of them question the obvious political motives behind turning a misdemeanor charge into a felony charge.  What they did admit to was the intent to use the label “convicted felon” as much as possible during the campaign cycle. 

Of course, the Supreme Court poured ice water on the DNC party when they determined Trump’s presidential immunity precluded him from the charges in question.  It is unlikely that any of the cases brought by Democrats against Trump in the past few years will have any bearing on the election.  Hypocritically, the media is now warning that Trump might use the Department of Justice as a weapon against his Democrat opponents should he win the Oval Office in November. 

Politico writes in a recent article titled ‘The Coming Trump Revenge Tour’:

“Trump has campaigned on a wave of retaliatory criminal prosecutions. It’s not the first time he’s promised to lock up his rivals — but a second term would be different…”

“Trump has been through the legal wringer in the last year-and-a-half and will want payback. He’s a convicted criminal and still faces trials that could send him to prison, and he’s not likely to forget all about that even if his legal troubles essentially disappear once he reaches the White House. He could easily wreak havoc with many of his political opponents’ lives simply by subjecting them to long, costly and highly disruptive criminal investigations and prosecutions…”

“…Even if the effort failed to produce any real convictions, the process itself would be a form of punishment for the targets. It could also seriously erode public faith in the federal criminal justice system while chilling political opposition to Trump.”

The Washington Post in a recent Op-Ed titled ‘Trump’s Promise To Exact Revenge Won’t Be Hindered By Mere Laws’, they argue that Trump will go beyond lawfare and enact a full -blown police state:

“The idea of justice as being blind never seems to have appealed to Trump, any more than does the idea of an independent federal bureaucracy. In each case, he’d rather have the apparatus of power deployed in the way he wishes without constraint…”

“This is the entire point of the justice system: to work slowly in an effort to avoid mistakes before then bringing the weight of government power to bear. Trump, seemingly like many Americans, appears to believe that it is somehow weak. That removing prejudices in an effort to effect justice evenly means that too many criminals go unpunished…”

The disconnect leftists have from their own behavior is alarming. These are the same people that rushed to judgement on the Russian collusion allegations and the Steele Dossier, declaring Trump a traitor and foreign agent.  The dossier was debunked and the allegations found fraudulent.  They are also the same people that spent over two years trying to enforce unconstitutional mandates and economic lockdowns on the American public during the covid pandemic.  Nearly all of those mandates were found to be useless.

Are Democrats suddenly realizing that after years of encouraging race riots, encouraging leftist mobs to target conservative politicians and Supreme Court judges, subverting individual liberties in the name of public health, colluding with Big Tech companies to censor millions of Americans in violation of their 1st Amendment rights, using the legal apparatus as a weapon against their primary political adversary and promoting the idea of assassination which led to two separate attempts on Donald Trump’s life, they might be due for some payback?

Perhaps the great fear that leftists seem to harbor over the return of Donald Trump is not due to his supposed “racism” or “fascism.”  Maybe they are afraid of Trump because they fear Karma. 

Via SchiffGold.com,

Tech companies have revolutionized the modern age, allowing for transcontinental communication, instant access to information, and unprecedented connectivity between people worldwide. But this revolution has come at a cost; these companies have undue influence over our lives, possessing the capability to shape public discourse, consumer behavior, and even political outcomes.

The scale of Big Tech’s market dominance is staggering. Google controls 81% of all general searches and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp collectively boast 3.27 billion daily active users. Amazon commands almost 50% of all U.S. e-commerce. These figures demonstrate how a handful of companies can wield unprecedented power over our digital lives.

This concentration of power allows Big Tech firms to design markets in ways that benefit themselves and stifle competition. It can result in higher prices for consumers and reduced innovation as smaller competitors are squeezed out.

The impact of this monopolistic control extends beyond economic concerns to the sanctity of our democratic discourse. As these platforms have become the de facto public squares of the digital age, their content moderation policies and algorithmic decision-making wield enormous influence over what information reaches the public.

Big Tech’s selective censorship has become increasingly apparent, with conservative voices often bearing the brunt of content moderation. In 2020, a New York Post exposé on Hunter Biden’s laptop was suppressed on both Twitter and Facebook. After the first Trump assassination attempt, Google intentionally omitted search results which referenced the attack, despite providing suggestions for historical assassination attempts on other presidents. These incidents highlight the growing concern over Big Tech’s power to shape public discourse through selective content moderation

At the core of this issue lies Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which shields interactive computer services from liability for content posted by users. While originally intended to promote free speech online, this provision has become a double-edged sword. It allows platforms to avoid responsibility for harmful or false content while simultaneously giving them broad discretion to censor or promote content as they see fit.

This legal framework has created a situation where Big Tech companies enjoy the benefits of both publisher and platform status without the corresponding responsibilities of either. They can curate content to maximize engagement and profits while avoiding accountability for the societal impacts of their decisions.

While proponents of the current system argue that users have the freedom to choose alternative platforms, the reality is far more complex. The network effects and data advantages enjoyed by incumbent players create significant barriers to entry for potential competitors. As Kashmir Hill’s experiment demonstrated, it’s nearly impossible to avoid the services of Big Tech companies entirely, as their reach extends far beyond their branded products and services.

As the digital economy often tends towards natural monopolies, simply breaking up these companies or imposing heavy-handed regulations is not the answer. The solution to these challenges must balance the need for innovation with the protection of free speech and fair competition. 

This calls for a comprehensive reevaluation of our regulatory framework for the digital age. This could include reforming Section 230 to strike a better balance between platform immunity and accountability and increasing transparency in algorithmic decision-making and content moderation practices.

The promise of the internet was a democratization of information and commerce, but the current reality falls short of this ideal. We must remember that a truly free market of ideas and commerce requires vigilance against the concentration of power, whether in the hands of governments or corporations.

By fostering genuine competition, protecting free speech, and ensuring accountability, we can harness the transformative potential of technology while preserving the fundamental principles of a free and open society. The stakes are too high to allow a handful of companies to become the arbiters of our digital lives.

Following the news of the Three Mile Island restart plans, it looks like our assertion that ‘nuclear is back’ is correct.

That’s because this week the U.S. closed on a deal to resurrect another nuclear plant, Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, thanks to a $1.52 billion loan from the Biden administration, according to Reuters.

A senior Biden administration official stated that reopening the plant could take up to two years—longer than the company’s estimate.

The Reuters report said that the administration aims to triple U.S. nuclear power capacity as demand rises and climate concerns grow, which could include restarting decommissioned reactors like Three Mile Island, site of the nation’s worst nuclear accident. Restarting these plants is a complex and costly process that has never been done before in the U.S.

“Palisades is a climate comeback story,” said White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi, emphasizing that nuclear power supports high-paying union jobs.

The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office is providing $1.52 billion in financing, along with $1.3 billion in public funding to power cooperatives Wolverine and Hoosier Energy, for the purchase of power from Palisades. Deputy Energy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small made the funding announcement.

Recall just days ago we wrote that Sam Altman-backed Nuclear SMR company Oklo announced it had finalized an agreement with the Department of Energy to advance the next phase of sitting at the Idaho National Lab. 

As we’ve noted last week, the nuclear energy embrace is starting to make its way across the country. Just hours ago Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was urging for Three Mile Island to reopen as quickly as possible, as well. 

Following Microsoft’s agreement to purchase power from the dormant nuclear plant, Shapiro urged regulators to prioritize the reactor’s connection to the electrical grid, according to a new report from Barron’s.

In a letter to PJM Interconnection, the grid operator serving Pennsylvania and several other states, Shapiro emphasized that the plant should not face the extended delays typical for new developments, as Microsoft aims to start utilizing the reactor’s energy by 2028.

PJM Interconnection responded to Shapiro’s concerns, stating that it is developing a “fast track” process to prioritize certain electricity projects, potentially speeding up the reactor’s return to service.

Shapiro wants the reactor to “be allowed to come online as quickly as possible rather than waiting in the queue as if they were an entirely new development,” he wrote.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The discrepancy between housing starts and completions is the largest since 1980. Let’s discuss…

Data from the Census Department, calculation and chart by Mish

The DotCom bust was unrelated to housing. Most recessions impact housing or housing busts lead to recession.

The single-family stats aren’t good, but they aren’t as bad.

Single Family Housing Starts Minus Completions

The next chart puts the discrepancy into proper perspective.

Housing Starts and Completions

Housing Starts Minus Completions Detail

The Strong Economy?

Fed Chair Jerome Powell put on a strong display during the FOMC press conference.

But if the economy was as strong as Powell let on, the Fed arguably should have not cut rates at all.

On September 19, I noted Existing Home Sales Decline for the 24th Time in 31 Months

From a year ago sales are down 2.5 percent. Sales are down 39 percent from the January 2022 high.

The Ominous Reason Continued Unemployment Claims Have Improved

Also, please note The Ominous Reason Continued Unemployment Claims Have Improved

The brief synopsis is unemployment benefits are expiring rapidly.

Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn gave gave must-watch speeches last weekend at the ‘Rescue The Republic’ rally in Washington D.C. – which was organized to promote free speech and the 8 pillars of ‘Join the Resistance.‘

Taibbi torched the establishment, starting with John Kerry – who recently said he wants the First Amendment “hammered out of existence” so the elites can control information.

Taibbi also went full Les Grossman on the ‘anti-disinformation’ dickheads from the censorship industrial complex…

Let me pause to say something about America’s current intellectual class, from which the “anti-disinformation” complex comes. By the way: there are no working-class censors, poor censors, hungry censors. The dirty secret of “content moderation” everywhere is that it’s a tiny sliver of the educated rich correcting everyone else. It’s telling people what fork to use, but you can get a degree in it. –Matt Taibbi

But while “the Michael Haydens, John Brennans, James Clappers, Mike McFauls and Rick Stengels who make up America’s self-appointed behavior police” keep trying to censor, they’re on “a fool’s errand.”

But “Motherfucker, I’m an American. That shit does not work on me. And how can you impugn my patriotism, when you’re sitting in Klaus Schwab’s lap, apologizing for the First Amendment to a crowd of Europeans? Look in the mirror.”

Watch:

Novelist Walter Kirn also spoke at the event, telling “a little bedtime story” about his childhood in rural Minnesota – “the land of the deplorables,” that can best be summarized by the man himself via Racket News (emphasis ours);

When I was a kid in rural Minnesota, the land of the deplorables in the late sixties and early seventies, my mother had a little record player. The problem was, she only had five records, and all were protest music. Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary. I used to listen to the records, and I had a favorite song. Maybe you know it: “If I had a Hammer.”

It was very strange that my mother had these records, because she was a young Republican. Anyway, I was eight years old, and I had no idea what this song meant. It seemed to have something to do with being powerless, and dreaming or fantasizing that you had power. If I had a hammer, I’d hammer out justice. I’d hammer out freedom all over this land. I’d hammer out love between the brothers and the sisters…

That was my favorite line, because it was so puzzling. Isn’t love between brothers and sisters incest? As I said, I found this song confusing, and the thing that confused me most about the song was: Why didn’t the singer have a hammer? What had happened? Who’d taken it away?

This morning, I was reading Twitter and I was reminded of this song in the most unlikely way. I saw a clip of a discussion at one of those big international conferences that you and I are never invited to, and on this video was John Kerry, former Secretary of State, former Skull and Bonesman, that secret society at Yale — the same secret society that George W. Bush belonged to. The guy who ran against John Kerry for president in 2004: Skull and Bones versus Skull and Bones. Talk about the illusion of choice.

Anyway, what Kerry was talking about was the First Amendment, and how it was a problem. A big, big problem. He had a peculiar complaint about it.

The First Amendment stopped people like him, he said, from trying to “build consensus.” Now, that’s how these people think about themselves, as builders of consensus. What does that make you and me? We’re construction materials!

John Kerry, master builder, had a complaint. The First Amendment, he said, was a “major block” for people like him from stopping what he now calls disinformation. It kept him from, he said, “hammering it out of existence.”

Now, I’m pretty sure that in 1949 when Pete Seeger wrote, “The Hammer Song,” or “If I Had a Hammer,” he didn’t mean if John Kerry had a hammer. He didn’t mean if they had a hammer:

If they had a hammer,

They’d hammer out disinformation.

They’d hammer out vaccine hesitancy,

All over this land.

They’d hammer out Kennedy.

They’d hammer Matt Taibbi….

That is not the song, and John Kerry has it wrong. The hammer does not belong to him.

That hammer belongs to us. It’s ours. But why don’t we have it? That’s the mystery.

That’s the question I’ve spent a lifetime trying to figure out. Look at this gray hair. It’s been a lifetime. Why doesn’t the singer have a hammer? Why? Why do we have to dream to fantasize? Why do we have to wish we had one?

Well, I think I’ve finally answered it. We have it right in front of us. The question is, will we pick it up? The question is, will we use it? So, I have a request for you. When you go home tonight, when you get home, pick up your hammer. Pick up your hammer and use it. It’s time to build.

My mother had one other record. It was by Simon and Garfunkel. It also had a song I loved called El Condor Pasa. I think you remember its greatest line: “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.”

Don’t be a nail. Pick up your hammers. Go home. Let’s build a New America.