Month: January 2025

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The artificial hill of pottery shards is puny and localized; the consequences of our system will bring down the system in ways the system is completely blind to.

We’re all familiar with the plot device of the self-destruct sequence counting down while our hero / heroine frantically tries to find the kill switch that turns it off. The system–however we choose to describe it–is self-destructing and there’s no switch to turn it off.

We’re drawn to the notion that cabals and conspiracies are the root source of the system’s ills. If these cabals were exposed and disempowered, then the system would quickly right itself and all would be well again.

Cabals and conspiracies are not the source, they’re a symptom of a deeper, structural self-destruct mechanism, a mechanism we take for granted as the way the world works.

Regardless of ideological label–capitalist, socialist, communist–all systems are markets of some kind with producers, sellers and buyers / consumers. The market may be more or less open, or more or less controlled by the state, warlords or cartels, but in all cases there are producers, sellers and consumers.

In all cases, neither the producer, the seller nor the consumer have any responsibility for the downstream consequences of what’s produced, sold and purchased. Every participant is incentivized to maximize their self-interest without regard for the future consequences of this pursuit of self-interest.

The producer of the plastic bottle has no responsibility for what happens to the bottle after production, the seller has no responsibility for what happens to the bottle after it’s sold, and the consumer who tosses it in the river after consuming the contents has no responsibility for what happens to the bottle once they’re done consuming the product.

The market has no internal, intrinsic responsibility for the consequences of narrow self-interest nor any mechanism that looks beyond the present. The market is blind to future consequences, and imposes no responsibility to do so on any participant.

The only possible result of this system is self-destruction. Consider the Great Pacific Garbage Gyre, the poetic name for a floating mass of plastic and other waste generated by the “growth at any cost” global economy roughly the size of Texas. (See chart below.) This is not the only garbage patch in the planet’s oceans; it’s merely one of the biggest.

Who cares about a floating island of garbage? It’s harmless, right? Indeed. Can the same be said of the “forever” chemicals, the depleted freshwater aquifers, the mountains of electronic and other waste leaking toxic sludge and the rest of the consequences of a system that is blind to everything but “growth at any cost,” self-interest and the eternal Now?

Cabals and conspiracies attract our attention because they are intentionally cloaking the destructive consequences their self-interest is passing on to others. The tobacco cabal worked diligently for decades to obfuscate the deadly consequences of smoking, as the means of maximizing their profits / self-interest.

So let’s identify the cabal that intentionally created the Great Pacific Garbage Gyre to further their self-interest. Do we finger the producers of the 300 million tons of plastics produced annually, or the corporations that sold the 300 million tons of plastics, or the consumers who bought the 300 million tons of plastics?

The waste stream is generated by the system, not a cabal, and the system is constructed of values and what I call the mythology of Progress, a mythology of make-believe and play-acting, in which we watch a video of a group recycling a tiny sliver of the waste generated by global tourism and then declare, “See? Technology is solving the problems created by the system! No worries, it will all get solved by new technologies.”

Absolved by this magical-thinking, we’re free to continue pursuing our part of consequence-free “growth at any cost.” This is the internal logic of the market-system, and it operates the same under any ideological label.

In theory, political rulers are supposed to the future consequences, but rulers only rule by authority granted in the present moment. If their supporters are forced to sacrifice for some distant benefit, they will find someone else to support.

Every civilization that produces “forever” goods ends up creating mountains of waste. Broken pottery shards pile up into artificial hills. But the scale of the modern system is so colossal that the consequences are now planetary, affecting our health and complex systems we don’t fully understand, much less control. The artificial hill of pottery shards is puny and localized; the consequences of our system will bring down the system in ways the system is completely blind to.

Even if technology consolidated the Great Pacific Garbage Gyre at enormous expense, what would we do with the artificial garbage island? And since the system spews out 300 million tons of new plastic every year, a new Great Pacific Garbage Gyre will soon form.

There is no “off” switch on the system’s self-destruct sequence. We’ll only notice, or care, when the system started breaking down under the crushing weight of the consequences that have been piling up and ignored with play-acting solutions such as recycling.

*  *  *

Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

Subscribe to my Substack for free

Via Remix News,

“Ukraine is now ruled by an oligarch who increasingly relies on foreign aid. A state where corruption is rampant and there are no real democratic structures,” former German Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, cited by news agency V4NA.

The former minister emphasized that independent parties and mass media are banned in Ukraine and establishing democracy and independence would take a long time.

Reports of corruption are common in Ukraine, especially in the military, according to Magyar Nemzet. A recent anti-corruption investigation identified 30 Ukrainian officials suspected of embezzling funds, including employees of housing and maintenance departments, as well as representatives of commercial structures across Ukraine. Prosecutors say 15 of them were members of organized crime groups.

And as Zelensky goes begging for more money from President Joe Biden for the war, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced last week that it has uncovered a large-scale scheme to embezzle more than $3.7 million from the state budget — funds that had been meant for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to finance everything from heating and electricity to military infrastructure construction work. 

Prosecutors say some of these goods were purchased at significantly higher prices than market prices. Some of the suspects are also accused of abuse of power and negligence in military service. One of the defendants, the head of a regional housing and maintenance department, is suspected of illegally purchasing $285,000 worth of commercial equipment, land and other valuables that were registered in the name of an intermediary. 

Magyar Nemzet lists several scandals, including in January 2023 when Deputy Defense Minister Vitaly Polovenko announced that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry had terminated contracts with companies owned by Lviv businessman Ihor Hrynkevich, who was involved in the scandalous procurement of clothing for the armed forces. That same month, the Security Service of Ukraine announced that it had detained a colonel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the CEO of a defense supply company on suspicion of corruption.

In Ukraine, high-level corruption ranks second among the main concerns of Ukrainians after the Russian-Ukrainian war, a survey conducted by the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption revealed. The results of the research previously presented by the Transcarpathian news portal Kárpáti Igaz Szó show that 71.6 percent of the population consider this to be the country’s second-biggest problem, and 73 percent of entrepreneurs think the same.

According to 87.9 percent of the population and 81.3 percent of businesses, the level of embezzlement in the country has increased compared to 2022. Many hold Zelensky responsible, with 47.5 percent of citizens and 48.3 percent of company representatives stating that combating corruption is the responsibility of the president and his office.

In contrast, 36.9 percent of respondents and 32.4 percent of business people say that the anti-corruption agency, or the Supreme Council, is the one that should take action to curb corruption. The responses also included claims that the Council of Ministers and ministries can be held accountable for the spread of corruption.

Corruption in Ukraine has been getting much coverage lately. One widely followed account on X called out the additional billions U.S. President Biden is sending to Ukraine, to which one commenter stated: “Zelensky has genuinely pulled off one of the greatest money heists of all time,” with X owner Elon Musk pitching in, calling Zelensky “All-time champ.”

Screenshot

Read more here…

Authored by Nick Corbishley via NakedCapitalism.com,

After avoiding the issue for years, the legacy media are now trying to manufacture public complacency and consent for the government’s digital identity – and by extension, CBDC – agenda.

On July 5, the day Keir Starmer became UK prime minister, we wagered that a Starmer government would intensify the push to roll out a digital identity system in the UK — a country that has, until now, resisted all recent attempts to introduce an identity card system, including, most notably, by Starmer’s backroom consultant and mentor, Tony Blair.

Unfortunately, that prediction has proven to be pretty much on the money. Since taking office, the Starmer government has:

• Launched the new Office for Digital Identities and Attributes, with the task of overseeing the country’s digital ID market. As of October 28, almost 50 organizations with DIATF-certified services had been added to the office’s register.
• Pledged to roll out a digital ID card for army veterans. As in the US, the UK government is also looking to launch a digital driving license by next year.
• Announced plans to introduce digital ID legislation for age verification purposes, meaning that young people will soon be able to use digital ID wallets on their phones to prove they are over 18 when visiting pubs, restaurants and shops.

Now, the propaganda is kicking into gear, and the main selling points, as always, are speed and convenience:

The UK government and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology have released a video showcasing their digital identification system, set to be rolled out next year.

In the video, they depict anyone using a physical ID as clumsy and outdated.pic.twitter.com/cfXD0Q0441

— Lewis Brackpool (@Lewis_Brackpool) December 23, 2024

In its first commercial, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology chose a British pub as the venue to showcase the, ahem, benefits of digital identity. In Greece, the government is trying to push the EU’s digital identity wallet on the public by making it obligatory for accessing sports stadiums. In Spain, the government is trying to make it a prerequisite for accessing online porn while Australia has just passed a law making it necessary for all Australians to verify their age (presumably with its fledgling digital ID) to access social media.

As we have noted in previous articles, digital identity programs, and the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) with which they are inseparably tied, are among the most important questions today’s societies could possibly grapple with since they threaten to transform our societies and lives beyond recognition, granting governments and their corporate partners much more granular control over our lives — precisely at a time when democracy is on the decline across the West, authoritarianism is on the rise and public trust in government is sinking to record lows.

Given what is at stake, digital public infrastructure such as digital IDs and CBDCs should be under discussion in every parliament of every land, and every dinner table in every country in the world. That is finally beginning to happen in the UK, but if early signs are any indication it is likely to be less an open debate than a barrage of propagandistic talking points. In the past three weeks alone, there have been gushing articles, op-eds and editorials on the potential wonders of digital identity in the Daily Mail, the Times of London, the Financial Times and Sky News.

In an op-ed for the Daily Mail, Tony Blair, with characteristic zeal for digital public infrastructure (DPI), touts digital identity as a cure-all for just about everything, from bringing down NHS waiting lists to tracking illegal immigrants, to cutting benefit fraud and resolving the UK government’s fiscal crisis:

Around the world, governments are moving in this direction. Of the 45 governments we work with, I would estimate that three-quarters of them are embracing some form of Digital ID. The President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, has said it is a top priority for the Bank’s work with leaders. But this is only one part of the immense, seismic change which this technological revolution will bring.

It is transforming drug discovery, with a whole raft of new treatments which will give us the chance to shift our healthcare system radically to prevention of disease rather than cure. If we used the potential of facial recognition, data and DNA, we would cut crime rates by not small but game-changing margins. There are interactive education apps now available which could provide personal tutoring for pupils.

But we need the right digital infrastructure to access all of this. And a Digital ID is an essential part of it.

In its article, “Why Britain Needs a Digital ID System“, published last week, the FT concludes that “if Britain wants a truly modern state”, digital identity is “an idea whose time has come”.  The article cites estimates from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (who else?) that a digital identity system could boost public finances by about £2bn a year, “mostly by reducing benefits fraud and improving tax collection, on top of broader economic gains”:

It reckons a voluntary system, built in part on the government’s existing — but low-profile — One Login initiative to enable a single sign-in to government services, could be set up within one parliamentary term and 90 per cent of citizens would sign up.

How will they achieve such a large take-up within such a short period, without coer? Yet according to The Times, an overwhelming majority of UK citizens are in favour of digital identity, citing a recent poll for the Times and Justice Commission:

The poll found that more than two thirds of Tory voters backed the introduction of digital ID cards, compared with 12 per cent who opposed it. Sixty per cent of those who voted Labour at the last election were in favour of the policy and 15 per cent were against it. Among Liberal Democrats, 54 per cent supported the idea compared with 16 per cent who did not. For Reform, the split was 59 per cent in favour and 21 per cent opposed.

One should perhaps be wary of reading too much into the results of one poll, especially when said results appear to chime perfectly with the long-term policy goals of the government of the day. Readers may recall that back in 2021, a flurry of polls claimed to show that a majority of Brits support the roll out of digital vaccine certificates, including one by the Serco Institute, an international think tank tied to the Serco Group, a British multinational defence, health, space, justice, migration, customer services, and transport company.

As Blair himself admitted recently, in reality the British public will need “a little coercing persuading” to embrace digital ID. That is presumably where the mainstream media comes in.

What Doesn’t Get Mentioned?

There are so many gaping gaps in the UK media’s no-warts-at-all discussion of digital identity that it’s hard to know where to begin. The FT, to its credit, concedes that “Britain has a dismal record in public sector IT — think of the Post Office Horizon scandal.” What it leaves out is the fact that this disastrous government IT program, which ruined the lives of thousands of Post Office submasters, was the brainchild of Tony Blair, the man whom the media are now treating as an authority on all matters technological.

Nor does the FT article mention that Blair was warned that the Horizon IT system could be flawed before it was rolled out, but chose to proceed nonetheless. When the anticipated problems began surfacing, his government did everything it could to cover them up. Yet somehow Tony Blair and his foundation are still a voice of authority on issues of digital governance.

The Post Office Horizon scandal is just one of a laundry list of IT disasters that successive UK governments have overseen, as our regular UK-based commenter Paul Greenwood recently reminded us:

This is brought to you from the same regime that cannot:

a) get e-Gates at major airports to function,
b) has repeatedly postponed eVisas because they cannot get them to work;
c) has repeatedly postponed Phytosanitary checks on agricultural imports at borders because ……..cannot get it to work…

(That’s not to mention) the Great NHS Computer Disaster…….the largest IT Project in Europe… [that cost more than £1 billion and never launched].

The NHS computer disaster, now used as a case study for how large government IT projects can go spectacularly wrong, costing billions of dollars in squandered public funds, was also launched by Anthony Charles Linton Blair. It involved the participation of IT consulting giants like Accenture and Fujitsu, which was the lead company behind the Post Office Horizon system and has been selected to lead the digital ID scheme, despite a pledge earlier this year to refrain from participating in UK government procurement.

Of the four articles on digital ID, not a single one has offered more than a token paragraph on the potential risks and downsides of digital identity. As the leading industry publication Biometric Update gleefully reported on December 16, the UK press has been “won over” on digital identity, and is now setting about “explaining why” to the British public.

Other issues that are completely ignored or glossed over include:

Privacy. All four of the articles pay lip service to the threat digital identity poses to privacy. The FT argues that “privacy arguments have less force when most adults happily carry smartphones stuffed with apps that can track everything from how many steps they do to what colour socks they buy.” However, as some FT readers pointed out in the comments thread, those apps can be turned off at any time. And whose to say that everyone’s mobile phone is “stuffed with apps”? Mine, for instance, has just two on it (Spotify and WhatsApp).

One thing a near-mandatory digital identity system will ensure is that we will never be without our trusted mobile phones. This sort of “digital coercion” — a term I learnt from the German financial journalist and digital rights activist, Norbert Häring — is on the rise just about everywhere. As Häring reported in September, this should hardly come as a surprise given that one of the main organisations pushing for the rapid rollout of digital public infrastructure (digital ID, digital health passes, instant payment systems, central bank digital currency…) is the corporate-controlled, WEF-partnered United Nations.

Security. Another major issue with digital ID is security, though it is totally glossed over in the MSM articles. While the FT mentions “dangers with hacking and cyber attacks”, it also claims that digital ID could help to combat “identity fraud.” Yet Norway and Sweden are suffering an epidemic of identity theft and cyber crime despite having rolled out digital ID systems years ago that are now thoroughly integrated into people’s daily lives? In Sweden, many cyber crimes involve BankID, the ubiquitous digital authorization system used by nearly all Swedish adults.

India, which is home to the world’s largest biometric-based digital ID system, Aadhaar, has suffered huge security problems, from identity theft to innumerable data breaches, including two in which the data of roughly a billion people were compromised. Much of it ended up for sale on the net. Said data included each person’s biometric identifiers (i.e. their iris and fingerprint scans). If this data is hacked, there is no way of undoing the damage. You cannot change or cancel your iris or fingerprint like you can change a password or cancel a credit card.

In South East Asia, cyber criminals have been targeting iOS users with malware that purloins face scans from the users of Apple devices to break into and pilfer money from bank accounts – thought to be a world first. Likewise, in India there have been reports of bank accounts being emptied using compromised Aadhaar numbers and biometric identifiers.

As we shift into a world where digital public infrastructure (DPI) increasingly dominate our lives, the security of our data, including our biometric identifiers, seems to be increasingly at risk. Of all the UK articles on digital identity in the UK, not a single one mentions the word “biometric” once, perhaps because that might actually scare off some readers.

Exclusion.  While often touted as a tool for social and financial inclusion, the reality is that digital identity systems are inherently exclusionary. As the World Economic Forum admits, while verifiable identities “create new markets and business lines” for companies, especially those in the tech industry that will help to operate the systems while hoovering up all the data, they also (emphasis my own) “open up (or close off) the digital world for individuals.”

It is not just the digital world that could end up being closed off; so, too, could much of the analogue world. As the now-ubiquitous WEF infographic suggests, a full-fledged digital identity system, as currently conceived, could end up touching just about every aspect of our lives, from our health (including the vaccines we are supposed to receive) to our money, to our business activities, our private and public communications, the information we are able to access, our dealings with government, the food we eat and the goods we buy.

It could also offer governments and the companies they partner with unprecedented levels of surveillance and control powers.

A Gateway to CBDCs. One other thing that doesn’t get a mention in any of the articles is the role digital identity will play as a gateway to CBDCs. In a 2021, the FT conceded that without a government-backed digital identity system, CBDCs would be unworkable:

“What CBDC research and experimentation appears to be showing is that it will be nigh on impossible to issue such currencies outside of a comprehensive national digital ID management system. Meaning: CBDCs will likely be tied to personal accounts that include personal data, credit history and other forms of relevant information.”

Here’s the former governor of Sweden’s Riksbank, Stefan Invges, openly admitting in 2018 that without “a government-sponsored” digital identity, “that explains in a digital form who you are, you can’t run a CBDC system”:

Sweden’s Central Bank Governor just described a six-step plan on how they would implement their own digital currency:

– 24/7 payments anywhere
– Cross currency & borders
– Update legal tender laws
– Issued directly from the bank
– Digital IDs
– Physical cash incase it fails pic.twitter.com/I8XFGt8u4e

— Rhythm (@Rhythmtrader) November 22, 2019

So, if digital identity goes hand-in-hand with CBDCs, then surely any balanced discussion of digital identity must take into consideration the potential implications, both positive and negative, of a CBDC — including its likely programmable features. After all, both the Bank of England and the UK Treasury seem fairly intent on developing a digital pound, which is currently in the design phase. Given that most Brits appear to harbour suspicions rather than excitement about such a prospect, its omission from the media coverage so far is hardly surprising.

Clearly, all discussion of digital identity in the UK media will be anything but balanced — unless, of course, the focus is on the digital identity system being rolled out in China. As we reported in August, some of the UK and the US’s biggest media outlets, including Time magazine, New York Times, the Financial Times, The Economist and the US government-funded Radio Free Asia, recently had a field day warning about the Chinese Communist Party’s planned digital identity system.

The ostensible goal of the new digital ID system is to cut down on the personal information that internet platforms can collect from their users. However, in the subheading to its article, “China’s New Plan for Tracking People Online“, The Economist asks whether the digital ID proposal is “meant to protect consumers or the Communist Party”. The FT cites the concerns of a China-based Western consultant that the proposals could “significantly expand the government’s ability to monitor people’s activity online.”

The exact same thing could be said of the digital identity systems being rolled out by almost all Western governments, but never is. The only time Western news outlets deign to cast a critical look at the emerging digital ID systems is when it is in relation to non-Western countries, in particular China and India. By contrast, when it comes to the systems being developed by Western governments, the media’s stock response is silence. In the case of the UK, however, the public’s deep-rooted scepticism of the need for a national ID system calls for a different approach: blatant propaganda. Whether it works, time will soon tell.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak shared an update on the proposed Russian gas pipeline to China through Kazakhstan, which was analyzed here in November, shortly before the start of the year. He confirmed that “This process, so to speak, is underway. Estimates, the feasibility study and negotiations are now underway.”

This statement shouldn’t be misinterpreted as assuming that the project is a done deal like RT implied in its report, however, since it’s more of a message to the US at this point.

The previously mentioned analysis cited last summer’s about the continued Sino-Russo pricing dispute over the Power of Siberia II (POS2) pipeline, which boils down to China demanding bargain-basement prices (reportedly equivalent to Russia’s domestic ones) while Russia obviously wants something better. This impasse hasn’t yet been resolved, and while some like Asia Times’ Yong Jian consider the trans-Kazakh proposal to be an agreed-upon rerouting of POS2, that’s arguably a premature conclusion.

Pricing disputes still exist and the “process” that Novak described has only begun. It’s far from finalized and might still take a while to be completed, if ever, as suggested by the POS2 and Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline precedents. The first, which was earlier known as the “Altai Pipeline” before the decision to reroute it via Mongolia, has been discussed for a full decade already with no deal in sight. The same goes for the second, which was first agreed upon in 2015, but no progress has been made since then either.

Amidst the latest talk of the Russia-Kazakhstan-China (“RuKazChi”) gas pipeline, Russia’s last direct gas pipeline to Europe was just shut down after Ukraine’s decision to let their five-year transit agreement lapse. Russia can still indirectly export gas to Europe via TurkStream, and Europe can always compensate for this long-foreseen loss of 5% of its gas import total via more Russian LNG, but the writing is on the wall that the EU will continue diversifying from Russia under American pressure.

In that event, Russia’s lost budgetary revenue from energy exports to Europe can only realistically be replaced by China, but Russia is still reluctant to agree to the bargain-basement prices that China is reportedly demanding. Its decisionmakers’ thought processes can only be speculated upon given the opacity and sensitivity of these talks, but this might reasonably be due to the expectation that the US’ more muscular containment of China could coerce Beijing into agreeing to better prices with time.

Another possibility, which isn’t mutually exclusive at this point at least, is that they might also be holding out hope that some of their European exports could one day be resumed seeing as how the infrastructure still exists but their partners made a US-pressured political decision to cut off imports. The best-case scenario from their perspective would therefore be that China agrees to prices closer to the market rate while the EU resumes some of their Russian gas imports after the special operation ends.

The reality though is that Russia is unlikely to have its cake and eat it too, and there’s no guarantee that either of its two main gas partners – the EU and China – will behave as expected even at a later date. The EU won’t resume any pipeline imports unless it receives approval from the US while China is known to operate on a much longer timeframe than most so it might hold off on clinching a deal indefinitely until Russia finally accepts its bargain-basement price demands. This places Russia in a very bad position.

Unless something changes, Russia might very well be coerced by the unfortunate circumstances in which it finds itself into agreeing to China’s reported proposal to sell it gas at domestic prices, which could turbocharge China’s superpower rise while placing Russia in a greater position of dependence.

That might be preferred by Russian decisionmakers over sitting on these reserves indefinitely without receiving any financial benefit from them as sanctions start to create fiscal and monetary challenges.

From the US’ perspective, it’s worse for Russia to turbocharge China’s superpower rise and enter into a relationship of greater dependence with it that could be exploited by China to procure other resources at equally cheap rates than to allow the partial resumption of Russian exports to Europe. At the same time, such resumptions couldn’t be approved until after the Ukrainian Conflict ends, and this would be politically impossible in any case unless the US could spin the outcome as a victory of sorts over Russia.

Likewise, Russia couldn’t agree to this arrangement unless it too was able to spin the outcome as a victory, especially if the informal terms include a commitment not to build any new pipelines to China in exchange for the abovementioned proposed resumption overcompensating for that lost revenue. Therein lies the need for creative diplomacy of the kind suggested here last month and here the other day, the insight of which will now be blended, summarized, and built upon for the reader’s convenience.

The gist is that the US and Russia could agree to a series of mutual compromises culminating in the partial restoration of an energy bridge between Russia and the West for the purpose of depriving China of its envisaged decades-long access to ultra-cheap Russian resources for fueling its superpower rise. No one should assume that everything proposed below will enter into force, but these suggestions could help move their talks along.

From the US’ side, its possible compromises could take the form of:

* Ukraine finally holding elections as part of a US-backed “phased leadership transition” against Zelensky, who’s the top obstacle to a lasting peace, and then legitimizing the following two agreements;

* Ukraine restoring its constitutional neutrality in order to exclude itself from ever joining NATO and thus resolving the core security concern that provoked Russia’s special operation;

* Ukraine demilitarizing and denazifying everything east of the Dnieper in what had for centuries been Russia’s traditional “sphere of influence” (everything west had traditionally been under Polish influence);

* The US terminating its bilateral security agreement with Ukraine in order to assure Russia that any cessation of hostilities wouldn’t be a ruse for rearming Ukraine and reigniting the conflict at a later date;

* The US agreeing that no Western peacekeepers will deploy along the DMZ between Russia and Ukraine east of the Dnieper (all parties might agree to an entirely non-Western peacekeeping mission though);

* The US also agreeing that Article 5 won’t apply to any Western country whose uniformed troops in Ukraine, which would be unilaterally deployed there in this scenario, come under attack by Russia;

* The US approving the EU’s partial resumption of Russian gas pipeline imports in order to buoy the bloc’s struggling economy via an influx of low-cost fuel (but higher-priced than what China demands);

* The US and EU returning some of Russia’s seized assets as “compensation” for the West retaining control over the European portion of its pipelines;

* The US lifting its sanctions on the Russian-EU energy trade, including Russia’s use of SWIFT, and expanding this to include more countries and spheres as a reward for keeping the peace with Ukraine;

* The US waiving sanctions on Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project for itself, the EU, India, and Japan so that they can replace lost Chinese investment and ensure that they receive this gas instead of China;

* The US replicating the preceding policy on a case-by-case basis to squeeze out and ultimately replace all Chinese investment in Russian energy projects to preclude the possibility of more future exports to it;

* and the US building upon the trust that it hopes to regain with Russia through these compromises to resume frozen strategic arms control talks on a priority basis before the expiry of the New START in 2026.

From Russia’s side, its own compromises could take the form of:

* Agreeing to only the partial demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine west of the Dnieper (ideally with the first influenced by the Istanbul Agreement while the second might remain superficial);

* Limiting its control of Ukrainian-claimed lands to only Crimea and those four regions that voted to join Russia in September 2022’s referenda;

* Tacitly accepting that it won’t be able to assert control over the parts of Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions west of the Dnieper but nevertheless continuing to officially maintain such claims;

* Agreeing to limited military restrictions on its side of the DMZ as a trust-building measure for furthering the rest of the complicated negotiation process and then complying with these terms;

* Informally agreeing to prioritize the development of its Arctic and Pacific fleets over its Baltic and Black Sea ones in a tacit cession of influence to NATO that soberly reflects the current military realities;

* Formally acknowledging the loss of control over the EU and Ukrainian portions of its pipeline infrastructure (ideally in exchange for “compensation”, including the return of some of its seized assets);

* Tacitly accepting that the rest of its seized assets are lost, but possibly agreeing that they can be invested in rebuilding Ukraine and/or Syria or donated to the UN, perhaps to fund a new African project;

* Informally agreeing not to build new pipelines to China or expand energy exports to it so long as sanctions-waived energy investments from and exports to others overcompensate for that lost revenue;

* Unofficially preferring sanctions-waived investment from others (America, Europe, India, Japan, South Korea) in its resource-rich Arctic and Far East regions as opposed to that from China;

* Doing the same with regard to preferring tech imports from them (and Taiwan too, which was Russia’s main source of high-precision machine tools a year ago);

* Tacitly accepting that these sanctions waivers can be rescinded in an instant if Russia reneges on the Ukrainian or Chinese terms of this proposed grand deal;

* and negotiating with the US in good faith on strategic arms control, which could ultimately include restoring limits on intermediate-range missiles in Europe that lead to warehousing the mighty Oreshniks.

For as politically difficult as these compromises might be for each side, the US could spin them as having stopped Russia from controlling all of Ukraine and thus preventing it from planting its boots on the Polish border, while Russia could spin them as having stopped Ukraine from joining NATO and thus preventing that bloc from planting their boots on its exposed western border. Moreover, Russia would relieve pressure upon it in Europe, while the US Navy would control the bulk of China’s energy imports.

The key to this is the US offering Russia a decent deal in Ukraine with lucrative sanctions-waived energy and tech opportunities that would incentivize Russia into informally agreeing to deprive China of decades-long access to ultra-cheap resources for fueling its superpower rise at the US’ expense. This grand deal is Trump’s to lose, and the world will know that he fumbled it if Russia makes progress on new pipelines to China, which could accompany or be followed by him “escalating to de-escalate”.

Via The Mind Unleashed,

Imagine staring at the night sky, knowing that somewhere out there, a world exists where the air holds the faint whispers of life—a clue so rare and extraordinary that it could rewrite our understanding of the cosmos. NASA’s latest discovery might just be that world: a planet larger than Earth, shrouded in a gas that, on our own planet, is only produced by living organisms.

What does it mean for humanity if this alien gas signals the presence of life beyond Earth? Could this discovery be the first step toward answering one of our oldest and most profound questions: Are we truly alone in the universe?

The Planet: Bigger, Mysterious, and Full of Promise

Orbiting a distant star in a quiet corner of the galaxy, this newly discovered planet captivates astronomers with its sheer scale and unique characteristics. Towering over Earth in both mass and diameter, it has been dubbed a “super-Earth” due to its size and rocky composition. Yet, what truly makes this planet extraordinary is its position within the “Goldilocks zone,” a delicate orbital range where temperatures are just right for liquid water—a crucial ingredient for life as we know it—to exist. This tantalizing detail has elevated the planet from another exoplanet in the vast catalog of discoveries to one of the most intriguing celestial bodies observed in recent years.

Unlike Earth’s picturesque landscape of oceans, continents, and clouds, this exoplanet’s atmosphere presents an enigmatic profile. Early observations suggest a thick, possibly turbulent atmospheric layer rich in gases that are not yet fully understood. Among these, however, one chemical signature has stunned scientists—a gas that, on Earth, is almost exclusively associated with biological processes. Its detection has turned this planet into more than just a geological wonder; it has become a potential beacon of life beyond our solar system. The mere presence of this gas raises profound questions: Is it possible that life, in some form, has taken root on this distant world? Or could there be unknown processes creating this chemical signature in ways we cannot yet imagine?

This remarkable find was made possible through the use of state-of-the-art telescopic technology, designed to detect minute changes in light and chemical signatures from planets light-years away. Over the years, NASA has identified thousands of exoplanets, many of which have hinted at habitability, but few have displayed such promising signs of life as this discovery. The scale and conditions of this planet make it a cosmic enigma—a riddle begging to be solved. For scientists and dreamers alike, it represents more than a distant world; it’s a keyhole through which we may glimpse answers to one of humanity’s greatest mysteries: Are we alone?

The Gas of Life: A Clue to Something Greater

Amid the swirling gases of the planet’s atmosphere lies a clue so profound that it has sent shockwaves through the scientific community—a gas that, on Earth, is exclusively tied to biological activity. Known as [gas name, e.g., phosphine or methane], this compound is a byproduct of life, produced through processes as diverse as microbial activity in swamps to the digestion of food by animals. Its detection on a planet orbiting a distant star raises a tantalizing possibility: could there be life—however alien—thriving on this massive exoplanet?

On Earth, the presence of this gas is unmistakably linked to living organisms, a fact that makes its detection on another world all the more remarkable. Scientists have painstakingly ruled out non-biological sources that might explain its presence, such as volcanic activity or chemical reactions in the atmosphere, adding weight to the hypothesis that life might be at play. The sheer improbability of this discovery has turned this planet into a case study, forcing researchers to reevaluate what they thought they knew about life’s potential in the cosmos.

However, the presence of this gas doesn’t offer definitive proof of extraterrestrial life—yet. It is a puzzle layered with complexity. Could there be an entirely unknown geological or chemical process at work on this distant planet, creating the illusion of a biosignature? Or is this gas the interstellar equivalent of a fingerprint left by alien microbes or organisms? These questions underscore the monumental challenge of interpreting data from light-years away. What is clear, however, is that this discovery represents a milestone in astrobiology, offering a tangible lead in the search for life beyond Earth—a clue that dares us to imagine what might be out there.

Tools of Discovery: Cutting-Edge Technology

Revealing the secrets of a planet located light-years away requires more than just powerful telescopes; it demands technological ingenuity and relentless human curiosity. NASA’s discovery of this remarkable exoplanet and its life-associated gas was made possible through advanced tools like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and spectroscopic analysis. These technologies allow scientists to analyze the faint starlight filtering through a planet’s atmosphere, breaking it down into its chemical components with incredible precision. It is this groundbreaking capability that unveiled the presence of [specific gas] on this distant super-Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope, equipped with state-of-the-art infrared sensors, played a pivotal role in identifying the molecular fingerprint of the gas. These sensors are capable of detecting subtle changes in light caused by specific gases in a planet’s atmosphere, even from billions of miles away. This method, known as transit spectroscopy, involves observing the planet as it passes in front of its host star, capturing data that would otherwise remain hidden to human eyes. For scientists, every beam of light becomes a treasure trove of information, holding clues about the composition, temperature, and potential habitability of alien worlds.

While the technology is astonishing, its application also speaks to the brilliance of the scientific minds behind it. The data collected from this exoplanet underwent rigorous analysis, with teams working tirelessly to confirm that the detected gas could not be attributed to non-biological sources. This meticulous process underscores the reliability of the findings, making this discovery one of the most robust yet in the search for extraterrestrial life. By pushing the boundaries of what we can observe and interpret from across the cosmos, tools like the JWST not only expand our knowledge but also ignite hope that we may one day find definitive proof of life beyond Earth.

Implications for Life Beyond Earth

The discovery of a gas linked to biological activity on a distant planet has profound implications, not only for science but for humanity’s understanding of its place in the universe. On Earth, this gas is a hallmark of living processes, from microbial life to complex organisms. Its detection in the atmosphere of an exoplanet raises one of the most tantalizing possibilities in modern science: that life, in some form, exists beyond our home planet. But what might that life look like? Could it mirror the microbes that first emerged on Earth billions of years ago, or is it something far beyond human imagination?

This discovery challenges the notion that Earth is unique in its ability to harbor life. For decades, the search for extraterrestrial life has focused on identifying “habitable zones” and Earth-like conditions. Yet the existence of this gas suggests that life might not require a mirror image of our planet to thrive. It could evolve under entirely different circumstances, adapting to conditions we might consider inhospitable. Such a possibility broadens the scope of the search, encouraging scientists to rethink where and how they look for signs of life in the universe.

The philosophical implications are equally profound. If life exists elsewhere, it forces humanity to confront questions about its uniqueness, purpose, and future. How might this knowledge reshape our understanding of biology, evolution, and the interconnectedness of all living things? This discovery doesn’t just point to the stars—it asks us to look inward, to consider how the existence of extraterrestrial life might redefine our understanding of ourselves. For scientists and dreamers alike, it’s a reminder that the cosmos holds infinite mysteries, and this discovery may be the first step toward unraveling one of its greatest secrets.

The Bigger Picture: Humanity’s Quest for Answers

Throughout history, humanity has gazed at the stars, yearning for answers to the profound question: Are we alone in the universe? This discovery, with its potential to signal the existence of life beyond Earth, represents a pivotal chapter in that quest. It is not just a scientific breakthrough; it is a moment that transcends disciplines, blending biology, chemistry, and astronomy with philosophy and the human spirit of exploration.

If the gas detected truly points to biological processes, it will fundamentally reshape our understanding of life’s prevalence and resilience. It challenges the notion that life is a rare, Earth-bound phenomenon and hints at a universe teeming with possibilities. Such a revelation could unite humanity, sparking a collective curiosity and sense of purpose that transcends borders, ideologies, and generations. It reminds us that, despite our differences, we all share the same desire to explore, discover, and understand.

But even if life is not confirmed, the implications remain extraordinary. This discovery demonstrates the capabilities of human ingenuity and the relentless drive to push boundaries. It proves that, as a species, we are capable of asking bold questions and seeking answers in the vast unknown. In many ways, the search for life beyond Earth is also a search for meaning—a journey that reflects our deepest hopes and dreams, as much about us as it is about the cosmos. Whether this planet holds the key to extraterrestrial life or simply deepens the mystery, it reaffirms one undeniable truth: the universe is a place of endless wonder, and our journey to understand it has only just begun.

Authored by Josh Stylman via The Brownstone Institute,

As I often do on Sunday mornings, I was drinking my coffee and scrolling through my news feed when I noticed something striking. Maybe it’s my algorithm, but the content was flooded with an unusual amount of vitriol directed at Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s nomination as HHS Secretary.

The coordinated messaging was impossible to miss—talking heads across networks uniformly labeling him a “conspiracy theorist” and “danger to public health,” never once addressing his actual positions. The media’s concerted attacks on Kennedy reveal more than just their opinion of his nomination—they expose a deeper crisis of credibility within institutions that once commanded public trust.

The Credibility Paradox

The irony of who led these attacks wasn’t lost on me—these were largely the same voices who championed our most destructive pandemic policies.

As Jeffrey Tucker aptly noted on X this morning:

The Coordinated Response

This hypocrisy becomes even more glaring in the New York Times’ recent coverage, where dismissive rhetoric consistently replaces substantive engagement. In one piece, they acknowledge troubling trends in children’s health while dismissively declaring “vaccines and fluoride are not the cause” without engaging his evidence. In another, Zeynep Tufekci—who notably advocated for some of the most draconian Covid measures—warns that Kennedy could “destroy one of civilization’s best achievements,” painting apocalyptic scenarios while sidestepping his actual policy positions.

Meanwhile, their political desk speculates about how his stance on Big Food might “alienate his GOP allies.” Each piece approaches from a different angle, but the pattern is clear: coordinated messaging aimed at undermining his credibility before he can assume institutional authority.

The Echo Chamber Effect

You can almost hear the editorial conveyor belt opening as senior editors craft the day’s approved reality for their audience. The consistent tone across pieces reveals less independent analysis than a familiar pattern—mockingbird media still in action. As I detailed in How The Information Factory Evolved, this assembly-line approach to reality manufacturing has become increasingly visible to anyone paying attention.

What these gatekeepers fail to grasp is that this smug dismissiveness, this refusal to engage with substantive arguments, is precisely what fuels growing public skepticism. Their panic seems to grow in direct proportion to Kennedy’s proximity to real power. This orchestrated dismissal is more than a journalistic flaw—it reflects a larger institutional dilemma, one that becomes unavoidable as Kennedy gains traction.

The Institutional Trap

The Times faces an emerging dilemma: at some point, they’ll need to address the substance of Kennedy’s arguments rather than rely on dismissive characterizations—especially if he assumes control of America’s health apparatus. Just this morning, MSNBC anchors were literally shouting that “Kennedy is going to get people killed”—yet another example of using melodramatics and fear instead of engaging with his actual positions. Their reflexive ridicule strategy backfires precisely because it avoids engaging with the evidence and concerns that resonate with parents and citizens across political lines. Each attempt to maintain narrative control through authority rather than evidence accelerates institutional credibility collapse.

Beyond Kennedy: Redrawing Political Lines

The NYT’s analysis about Kennedy potentially alienating GOP allies particularly highlights their fundamental misunderstanding of the shifting political landscape. As a lifelong Democrat who still champions many traditional progressive values, Kennedy transcends conventional political boundaries. His message—”We have to love our children more than we hate each other”—resonates precisely because anyone who dismisses this crusade to restore American vitality as mere political theater is blind to the groundswell of people who’ve grown tired of watching their communities crumble under the weight of manufactured decline.

This isn’t just about Kennedy—it’s about the media’s inability to address the legitimate concerns of a disillusioned public. When institutions refuse to engage with dissenting voices, they deepen mistrust and fracture the shared foundation necessary for democratic discourse. While RFK, Jr.’s message has resonated across political boundaries, the media’s inability to address core issues—like regulatory failures—reveals just how out of touch they’ve become.

The Art of Missing the Point

Consider this fact-check from the same article: The Times attempts to discredit Kennedy’s Fruit Loops example, but inadvertently confirms his central point: ingredients banned in European markets are indeed permitted in American products. By focusing on semantic precision instead of the broader issue—why US regulators allow unsafe ingredients—the media deflects from substantive debates.

Senator Elizabeth Warren declared this week: “RFK Jr. poses a danger to public health, scientific research, medicine, and health care coverage for millions. He wants to stop parents from protecting their babies from measles and his ideas would welcome the return of polio.” Yet this alarmist framing dodges the simple question Kennedy actually raises: Why wouldn’t you want proper safety testing for chemicals we’re expected to inject into our children’s bodies? The silence in response to this basic inquiry speaks volumes about institutional priorities—and their fear of someone with the power to demand answers.

A Referendum on Manufacturing Consent

Say what you want about Trump, but his “fake news” remarks struck a chord that resonates deeper with each passing day. People who once scoffed at these claims are now watching with eyes wide open as coordinated narratives unfold across media platforms. The gaslighting has become too obvious to ignore. As I explored in We Didn’t Change, The Democratic Party Did, this awakening transcends traditional political boundaries. Americans across the spectrum are tired of being told not to believe their own eyes, whether it’s about pandemic policies, economic realities, or the suppression of dissenting voices.

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. 

It was their final, most essential command.”

–George Orwell, 1984

The Moment of Truth

With Kennedy potentially overseeing America’s health infrastructure, media institutions face a crucial inflection point. Fear campaigns and ad hominem attacks won’t suffice when his policy positions require serious examination. The machinery of coordinated dismissal—visible in identical talking points across networks—reveals more about institutional allegiance than journalistic integrity.

This moment demands something different. When Kennedy raises questions about pharmaceutical safety testing or environmental toxins—issues that resonate with families across political lines—substantive debate must replace reflexive ridicule. His actual positions, heard directly rather than through media filters, often align with common-sense concerns about corporate influence on public health policy.

This institutional pattern of manufactured authority connects directly to themes I explored in Fiat Everything earlier this week—systems built on decree rather than demonstrated value. They don’t sell weapons—they sell fear. The same forces that control monetary policy now seek to dictate public health discourse.

Breaking the Machine

The solution won’t come from institutional gatekeepers (that’s what got us here) but direct examination. We all need to:

• Listen to Kennedy’s complete speeches rather than edited soundbites

• Read his policy positions rather than media characterizations

• Examine the evidence he cites rather than fact-checker summaries

• Consider why certain questions about public health policy are deemed off-limits

I’m not suggesting we accept every contrarian position, but rather that institutional credibility must be earned through rigorous analysis rather than assumed through authority. Until then, coverage like these recent Times pieces will continue to exemplify the very institutional failures that fuel the movements they seek to discredit. As Kennedy approaches real institutional power, expect these attacks to intensify—a clear signal of just how much the guardians of our manufactured consensus have to lose.

Republished from the author’s Substack

Submitted by Mitch Vexler, President G.P. of Mockingbird Properties

“I sincerely believe that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale” – Thomas Jefferson, 1816

“They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” – Benjamin Franklin

Issue #1

One can argue the 16th Amendment going back to 1913 and we are prepared to do so.  The quantified evidence that we have assembled over several years of lawsuits points to exactly why the law as originally written prohibits taxation on unrealized gains. “Market value” as created by the States from which an Assessed Taxable Value is denoted, is in fact an unrealized gain. 

Although perhaps well intentioned in its debut, property tax has been made illegal because there are no longer any enforced laws protecting the rights of the real estate taxpaying Citizens.

Let us hold the following to be true:

1. There are 3,143 Counties in the United States and the vast majority of them under State Law require Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) and Mass Appraisal Standards.

2. USPAP is rendered meaningless as it is not followed in favor of hand overwriting property values outside the confines of any law or proper appraisal method.

3. An Implicit guarantee, as claimed by the Taxing Entities (for example, School District Bonds), for which there is no signature, is not implicit. 

4. Contracts made under duress are unenforceable; “voluntary consent” requires adequate information, lack of coercion, force, manipulation, or intimidation, and the freedom to revoke consent at any time.

5. If Fraud is discovered, contracts are void.

6. States and Central Appraisal Districts across the U.S. have violated USPAP, which in many States is a 3rd degree felony for those who signed an Oath of Office.

7. States and Central Appraisal Districts across the U.S. have violated Mass Appraisal Standards (USPAP Standards 5 & 6).

8. Many school districts refuse to make public their bond schedules, balance sheet with proper notes, and a sources and uses schedule of the bond proceeds.  We have discovered a compound cumulative effect of not retiring the bond debt but rolling it out and rolling the interest rate up.

9. States and Central Appraisal Districts have violated State Property Tax Codes, for example, in Texas sections 23.01(b) & 23.01(e) to identify a few. (not all inclusive)

10. States, Taxing Entities (school districts, cities, counties, special districts, etc.), Central Appraisal Districts across the U.S. have violated State Constitutions – Uniform and Equal (Texas) – Board of Equalization in California.

11. Real Estate Taxpayers (Single Family, Multifamily, Commercial, Land Owners) have had their rights to due process under the 5th and 14th Amendments violated as the recourse to prohibit the equity stripping and theft of taxpayer money has been rendered impossible by the intentional layering of gauntlets such as the Appraisal Review Panels which are comprised mostly of senior citizens who know nothing about appraisal law (USPAP and property tax code) or math.

12. “Pay your taxes or we will take your house” (We have testimony & audio evidence.)

13. “Go get a second job to pay your taxes” (We have testimony & audio evidence.)

14. “We took 60,000 properties out of the database, manipulated them in excel and put them back” Chief Appraiser, Denton Central Appraisal District, County Texas. (We have this recording.)

15. We calculated that in the last 5 years, roughly $21.2 Trillion of fraudulent property valuation (roughly double in the last 5 years alone) has been created, which resulted in roughly $450 Billion in over taxation paid by Mom and Pop in 2024.

16. As seen in the graphic below, each homeowner in the U.S. owes roughly $1.3 million of U.S. National Debt, Unfunded Liabilities plus Local Taxing Entity Debt, which if amortized over 25 years at 6.25% would require that your income increase by $9,000 per month immediately which is not possible to pay off. (wording)

17. The above violates the U.S. Constitution 1st, 5th, 14th, and 16th Amendments.

18. The above equates to State and Federal RICO crimes throughout the majority of States.

19. The U.S. Constitution trumps State Law under the Supremacy Clause which exists to prohibit a State from violating its own Constitution.

If property valuation were true, requiring a willing buyer and willing seller neither under duress, and cash settled, then the maximum value assigned could only be what the house was built for or what the house was purchased for, until such time as the house is sold.

The laws and violations thereof have morphed to the point where the cash grab of the local Taxing Entities (i.e. School Districts) have rendered meaningless all the protections in law that were established to protect the Citizen real estate taxpayers, and this has an extreme fraudulent inflation factor.  There are 8 elements of real estate tax in the milk that goes in your cappuccino.  Therefore real estate tax fraud on a mass scale effects every person who shops whether they realize it or not.  The more elements of tax, the higher the inflation, the higher the fraud.

If those protections are going to be ignored (USPAP, State Property Tax Code, State Constitutions and U.S. Constitution), then the net result is the equity stripping of property taxpayers, such that if there is no law, then why pay real estate taxes.   In other words, either the law exists, or it doesn’t.  Equity Stripping is the compound cumulative effect of paying a fraudulently created overvaluation resulting in over taxation and this means that making money on the purchase of your home has a very low probability of success because the Taxing Entities took your profit by over taxation via the fraud.

If those protections under the law are going to be adhered to, then those responsible for violating the laws must be held accountable.  The Taxing Entities (i.e. School Districts) are hiding the bond schedules from the public, which would show that the bonds are not being paid off and that the cumulative compounding of debt and interest is occurring.  Many school districts will need to be put into involuntary bankruptcy to unwind what debt can be unwound.  We have discovered that there are roughly 143,000,000 single family homes in the U.S. which are burdened by roughly $240,000 of school bond debt. 

Either the law exists, your Honor, or it doesn’t.  Please state the obvious which is that the law exists, for the protection of the Citizens, and if not, which has clearly been proven, or we would not be in front of the Appellate Court, then eliminating property taxes in favor of a Uniform States Sales Tax (estimate approximately 15.6%) must be implemented to ensure the protections of the Citizens. Return the balance sheet to Mom and Pop, restore transparency by eliminating the real estate tax fraud, and make the playing field fair for all real estate taxpayers and reduce the fraudulently created inflation simultaneously.

Issue #2

Several well-known people on YouTube interviewed me and in one of those videos I asked… “Mr. Spencer (Chief Appraiser Denton County/Central Appraisal District), what is to stop you or any Chief Appraiser from raising the values in 2025 to infinity?” Given that the values are irrefutably created by hand outside any requirements in USPAP, Mass Appraisal Standards, State Property Tax Code, State Constitution and U.S. Constitution, the answer would be nothing.  We now have further proof of such a criminal position, which is the November 22, 2024 article that exposes the Montgomery County Assessor in Central Illinois wherein an attempted theft of an approximate 1,400% increase in real estate taxes for 2025 was on the table.  To be crystal clear, real estate valuation that adheres to the law is based on quantified analysis of true comparisons, not meeting pre-determined budgets handed to the Chief Appraisers by the Taxing Entities, where many of those Taxing Entities are bankrupt. So, to keep the illusion going is just burning money and is not going to the benefit of students (lower test scores, lower enrollment, closing schools) but rather intended to protect the pensions.  It is a form of a second social security. 

Are the homeowners responsible for the actions of the School District?   NO!

Real Estate Taxpayers have been dupped by omission.  When bonds are raised by the school districts, big money is spent in advertising to pull the wool over the eyes of the trusting public, to the point where now roughly 30% of the households will go bankrupt or lose the roof over their head, because of the cash grab at the hands of the Central Appraisal Districts and their owners, the Taxing Entities (i.e. school districts).

Even when ordered by the State Attorney General to turn over the Bond Schedule, we have yet to see a single bond schedule, balance sheet with proper notes, and a sources and uses, which is what should be required as part of the process of raising bond money.  The appropriate solution, for this intentional omission and pattern and practice to deceive, is to file the School Districts into involuntary bankruptcy and then sue each person who signed an Oath and hold the attorneys responsible (officers of the court) for violating taxpayers’ rights under both Federal and State Constitutions, as well as pressing criminal charges and disbarment.  The main point being… put the school districts into bankruptcy.  At the State level the equity stripping of Mom and Pop has now herein been laid bare. 

If you think the above is bad, but wait, there is more!

Who purchased the school bonds? Could it be 401Ks and Pensions?  Who owns the 401Ks and Pensions?  Mom and Pop.   What due diligence was done by the purchasers of the school bonds to determine the true value and value at risk?  

A school district in Texas with an alleged balance sheet of $8 million has effectively bankrolled the private development of two 2,000-acre solar fields, via 313 Agreements promoted by the State Comptroller.  Are the taxpayers obligated to pay for this fraud on the public, where there is no guaranteed return on investment or guaranteed return of investment?   NO!

Did the real estate taxpaying citizens agree to fund the non-reduction of bond debt which is intentionally hidden from the public such that even the State of Texas does not know how much debt is being retired but does know that six to twelve billion is being raised every six months?  NO!

These problems are not just Texas specific but are across the vast majority of the U.S. because USPAP (the law) is being ignored in favor of unfettered theft of taxpayer money.

Issue #3 – Average Annual Housing Expenses vs Debt (Federal and Local Taxing Entities)

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average annual household expenditures were $77,280 (or $6640/month) in 2023, with the largest share going toward housing costs, with property taxes being a significant portion of the cost of housing.  Others have crunched the numbers and have shown that for a family of four the average monthly expenditures are between $8450 and $9817, or $101,400 to $117,804 annually.

So, if the average household needs to earn between $77,280 to $117,804 annually to cover a monthly living cost between $6640 and $9817, how can households also cover an additional $9000/month or $108,000 per year in “implicit debt guarantees” resulting from the excessive debt existing at the Local & Federal levels.

The household median income for 2023 was reported at $80,610 by census.gov. So clearly, if their cost of living was $77,280 as stated by the USLBS, they are not saving much (maybe $3000 a year), nor can they cover the implicit debt guarantee of $9000 PER MONTH.

The chart below shows the math behind the $9000 per month of the Local and Federal debt burden, implicit guarantee, using Denton County Texas households as the example population group.

Issue #4

The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not provide for, nor state, that all land is owned by the Federal Government.  In fact, the war of 1812 was fought to prohibit this exact action.   Real Estate Property Owners have been relegated to paying rent on the dirt below their asset, and yet there is no agreed to ground lease with any State government as the Lessor and a property owner as the Lessee.   Can anyone show you or me where the Taxing Entities are the ground Lessor in any Taxing County in the United States such as the Lands of His Majesty King Kamehameha III in Hawaii which date back to 1848?   NO!   

Given the above and given the testimony from across the U.S. that is coming to our office daily, it is clear that Mom and Pop are being taxed out of their homes.  What was once the balance sheet of Mom and Pop being a home with a declining debt balance to eventually zero, is no longer possible, making retirement for many impossible.  The current situation, including a Military Veteran in Ohio, named Bob, who is 85 years old, on fixed income who bought his home for $24,000, is now being commanded to pay $3,100 in property tax which is money he does not have.  What is the benefit to moving this man to senior care that he does not need or want on the dime of the real estate taxpayer at an approximate cost of $80,000 per year??   We have quantified that roughly 72% of the single-family homeowners cannot afford what the Central Appraisal Districts claim as the median value of a home which proves the fraud on its face.  The system has become so irretrievably corrupt, that the only solution is the elimination of property taxes in favor of a Uniform States Sales Tax.  The balance sheet of home ownership (Mom and Pop being the economic engine of the U.S.) must be reinstated so that when the property is sold, a potential profit is achievable for purposes of retirement and not to force people out of their homes (MF and Single Family) because they can’t afford the fraudulent induced real estate taxes.  If not, the system of fraud has effectively bankrupted the vast majority of its Citizens as well as the Taxing Entities (by their own hand) such that the debt on the Federal and or Local level cannot be paid off.   It is time to put those responsible in jail.  The District Attorneys need to do their job and if they don’t, they are part of the problem.  State and Federal RICO laws are clear, and the map is the list I provided at the beginning of this discussion.  The evidence is at www.mockingbirdproperties.com/dcad.

What can Mom and Pop do right now to help themselves?  Travis Spencer wrote a FREE Course available at  https://real-estate-mindset-homebuying-101.teachable.com/ to explain how to create true property comparisons to be used at an Appraisal Review Board meeting. 

In addition to the webpage at www.mockingbirdproperties.com/dcad, we have a full library behind the wall designed for attorneys and accountants wishing to dig into the filings, articles and math models.  Please email me for the password.

Resources to understand the depth of the problem:

• https://irp.cdn-website.com/39439f83/files/uploaded/Partial_List_of_Violations_Reviewed-052224.pdf
• Jeremy Bagott, MAI, AI-GRS, https://mailchi.mp/2a23230963ef/jeremy-bagott
• Real Estate Mindset, Travis Spencer, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLo3dZB8Cn9QuemgK3OwUL1qncSqqlfXl_
• George Gammon of Rebel Capitalist with his attorney Robert Barnes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZK2a8e9gqA
• Dr. Chris Martenson of Peak Prosperity, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lCQqGgGMPk
• Robert Helms, Uncovering Evidence of Massive Fraud, https://realestateguysradio.com/podcast-uncovering-evidence-of-massive-fraud-in-property-tax-valuations/
• Michael Bordenaro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy3vsw30yYw
• Melody Wright https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnuIG-7onR8
• JD McCleod KW (series), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCYOjMnViaEWx-L1TWl45keK7yK-Gb_Zj
• Luke Smith with Market Mania (Canada) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4un987al2lw (part 1)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMpeeiDH-Yk (part 2)
• Mike Adams with Brighteon, https://www.brighteon.com/4ddf6d1b-75a7-412c-9cd5-ce283da5b5a0
• Travis Spencer, Free Course https://real-estate-mindset-homebuying-101.teachable.com/
• Kate Dalley, December 17, 2024, https://www.katedalleyshow.com/
• U.S. Debt Clock, https://www.usdebtclock.org
• Mitchell Vexler, What is Inflation – Truth vs Omission https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0XsvlT3jp4
• The Evidence https://www.mockingbirdproperties.com/dcad

Authored by Audrey Enjoli via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Chilean authorities say they have recovered an engraved Rolex watch believed to have been stolen from actor Keanu Reeves’s Los Angeles home in December 2023.

On Saturday, the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) announced on X that detectives had seized various pieces of jewelry, valuable watches, and other stolen items in Peñalolén, a commune in Santiago, Chile.

“A watch belonging to a famous movie actor, the victim of a robbery in Los Angeles,” was among the more than a dozen watches recovered, police said.

The Rolex Submariner, valued at over $9,000, according to the Swiss luxury brand’s website, features the engraved words “The John Wick Five. Keanu Thank You. JW4. 2021” on the back.

Reeves, who played the titular character in the “John Wick” film franchise, gifted customized Rolex Submariner watches to the four stunt performers he worked with on “John Wick: Chapter 4,” which premiered in theaters in March 2023.

According to CNN Chile, the PDI conducted raids on four homes in Peñalolén, recovering a total of three watches that belonged to the 60-year-old actor.

“There are two watches in particular that have the inscription referring to actor Keanu Reeves,” Hugo Haeger Bórquez, the deputy director of police and criminal investigation at the PDI, said during a press conference.

“Along with our counterparts in the United States, through Interpol, it was determined that he was a victim of theft in his home in 2023 when he lost nearly $7 million.”

Speaking to Chilean broadcaster TVN on Monday, PDI Inspector Marcelo Dibarrat said Chilean authorities are working with the Los Angeles Police Department to return Reeves’s stolen property to him.

Officers with the PDI arrested a 21-year-old man during the Peñalolén raid, though his identity has not yet been released.

Dibarrat told TVN that the suspect claimed at the time of his arrest that his brother had been the perpetrator of the theft of Reeves’s engraved watch.

The Epoch Times contacted the Los Angeles Police Department and a representative for Reeves for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

String of Break-Ins

Chilean authorities believe the stolen watches were taken from Reeves’s Hollywood Hills residence in the fall of 2023.

At the time, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told the Los Angeles Times that “suspects entered the property through the backyard and broke a rear window to gain access” on the evening of Dec. 6, 2023.

The suspects, who wore ski masks, reportedly made off with jewelry and a firearm.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A second Homeland Security agent has been charged with selling illegal drugs, taken from seized evidence, for hundreds of thousands of dollars through a confidential informant.

Nicholas Kindle, a special agent in Utah tasked with investigating illegal narcotics trafficking, was arrested three weeks after his alleged co-conspirator, special agent David Cole. Both men face felony drug distribution conspiracy charges. Kindle faces an additional charge of conspiracy to convert U.S. government property for profit.

Kindle was formally charged in an information document filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which does not require grand jury approval to initiate criminal proceedings. Court records indicate that he has not yet been assigned an attorney.

A magistrate judge on Jan. 3 set Kindle’s initial court appearance for Jan. 21 in Salt Lake City. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

Cole was indicted by a grand jury on Dec. 18 and has pleaded not guilty to his drug distribution conspiracy charge. He is due to stand trial the week of Feb. 24 and faces a maximum of 20 years if convicted.

His attorney, Alexander Ramos, previously said that he was still trying to gather information about the case.

The pair’s Homeland Security credentials have been suspended following the indictments but they have not been terminated, according to court documents.

Synthetic bath salts, also known as Alpha-PHP, are controlled substances with effects comparable to methamphetamine and cocaine. Abuse of the drug can result in adverse effects, including vomiting, paranoia, hypertension, seizures, or even death, according to U.S. authorities.

Federal prosecutors stated that Cole and Kindle began acquiring the drugs from HSI evidence in 2021 and sold them to a confidential informant from 2022 to 2024.

The defendants allegedly allowed the informant to resell the drugs and the buyers were never investigated or arrested, according to court documents.

The transactions typically involved one ounce, or 28 grams, of bath salts for $5,000 that would then be sold by the informant at a higher cost, according to an FBI affidavit filed in December 2024.

According to the FBI affidavit, investigators seized more than $67,000 in cash and bath salts during raids on the defendants’ residences, government vehicles, work cubicles, and a safety deposit box. The FBI did not disclose the amount of bath salts allegedly seized.

The FBI said the scheme brought in between $195,000 and $300,000.

The investigation began in October 2024 after the informant’s lawyer reported the illegal drug sales to the U.S. attorney in Utah. The informant was recruited by the agents while in prison to conduct controlled buys from drug dealers upon his release. However, the informant said he was compelled by the two agents to also engage in illegal sales, the affidavit said.

“A drug dealer who carries a badge is still a drug dealer – and one who has violated an oath to uphold the law and protect the public,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, said in a Dec. 18 statement.

Gallup conducted a survey on what Americans think the Trump administration will accomplish over the next four years.

It found that nearly seven in ten respondents (68 percent) said that the incoming administration will control immigration. However, as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, respondents were least likely to say that Trump would be able to heal political divisions in the country (33 percent said his administration would be able to).

Around six in ten respondents thought that Trump will reduce unemployment, keep the country safe from terrorism and improve the economy.

Just over half (54 percent) think he will cut U.S. taxes and (51 percent) reduce the crime rate. Meanwhile, only around a third (35 percent) of respondents said that the Trump administration will be able to improve the quality of the environment.

A majority of respondents also said he will not be able to improve race relations, improve education, substantially reduce the federal budget deficit, improve conditions for minorities and the poor or reduce the prices of groceries and other items.

As the chart below shows, a similar set of questions was asked to U.S. voters in 2016 about their expectations the first time Trump was in office.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Between the two survey waves, the biggest change was in response to the question of whether the government would keep the nation out of war (17 p.p. increase).

While the population answered far more favorably this time round, only just over half of respondents (55 percent) consider this to be the case now.

The biggest drop in optimism was over whether Trump would be able to improve the healthcare system. Where 52 percent of respondents had thought he could in 2016, only 40 percent thought the same in 2024 (-12 p.p.).