Netanyahu's Finance Minister Calls For Israel's Borders To Extend To Damascus
Netanyahu's Finance Minister Calls For Israel's Borders To Extend To Damascus
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/smotrich-calls-israels-borders-extend-damascus
Hardline Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich has drawn criticism for calling for Israel to expand its borders to Damascus in a recent documentary.
In an interview for the documentary, In Israel: Ministers of Chaos, produced by European public service channel, Arte, Smotrich claimed that Israel would expand “little by little” and eventually encompass all Palestinian territories as well as Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
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"It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus," he said, citing the “greater Israel” ideology, which envisions the expansion of the state across the Middle East.
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs https://en.royanews.tv/news/54862
the incendiary remarks saying that they highlighted Smotrich’s dangerous and "racist" ideology.
Smotrich https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-smotrich-palestinians-no-such-thing
cited the concept at a memorial service for a Likud activist in Paris. When speaking from a podium decorated with a map of Israel that included Jordan, he claimed that there was “no such thing” as the Palestinian people.
The French foreign ministry subsequently announced that government representatives in Paris did not intend to meet with Smotrich during his https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-13/ty-article/.premium/smotrich-heads-to-paris-after-chilly-u-s-trip-but-not-at-frances-invitation/00000186-da57-d9b0-a3af-db7f4bf60000
.
Aside from being the finance minister, Smotrich now holds significant powers over the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, over at US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Saturday...
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/1844858920122331193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In August, Smotrich expressed https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-smotrich-says-its-justified-and-moral-let-palestinians-die-hunger
for blocking aid to Gaza, saying that: “Nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.”
Watch a portion of the interview...
In a documentary produced by Arte TV channel, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich advocates for a Jewish state and says it is written that "the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus"https://twitter.com/hashtag/WARonHUMANITY?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
— TRT World (@trtworld) https://twitter.com/trtworld/status/1844432708589564101?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
At the end of February, the minister said that the state of Israel shouldhttps://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-huwwara-wiped-out-face-earth-minister
the Palestinian village of Huwwara, after it was subjected to a violent rampage by Israeli settlers.
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Sun, 10/13/2024 - 11:05
Danish Psychotherapist Sued For $14,000 For Misgendering, After Warning About Trans Male's Hardcore Porn Content
Danish Psychotherapist Sued For $14,000 For Misgendering, After Warning About Trans Male's Hardcore Porn Content
A woman in Denmark is being sued for $14,000 due to allegations of "harassment and defamation" for misgendering a "trans-identified male with masculine pronouns". To be honest, after reading that line multiple times, we still don't know what gender the "victim" was formerly, and claims to be now.
Psychotherapist Lotte Ingerslev, a critic of gender ideology, "misgendered" Nadia Jacobsen while alerting her female followers about his hardcore fetish porn content. According to https://reduxx.info/denmark-woman-sued-for-14k-after-misgendering-a-trans-activist-and-sissy-fetishist/
:
Ingerslev’s blog post had documented the pornographic videos and images Jacobsen had posted to his social media and various fetish pornography websites. In one post made by Jacobsen to his now-defunct Tumblr account, nadiatv, he can be seen engaging with his male followers by way of gamifying his own sexual masochism.
After warning her followers, on August 29, Ingerslev received a letter from Jacobsen’s attorney demanding she delete a blog post exposing his sexual behavior and his role in drafting “inclusivity” policies for the Danish Football Association.
The post, published March 6, was titled: “Man whose pornographic, fetish-focused videos are available for public viewing online helped draft DBU’s new ‘inclusive’ recommendations to allow men into girls’ changing rooms.”
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“To make it a little more interesting I am going to let you all decide for how long I should refrain from masturbating. I can’t wear a chastity cage all the time, but when I am home I will… For every ‘like’ you add one day. For every reblog you add 3 days… I will only come [sic] as a girl for the rest of my life," Jacobsen had written. Reduxx notes:
There are also several photos and videos of Jacobsen masturbating himself anally with a sex toy while pretending to be a woman and wearing lingerie. Within the transgender pornography fetish community, a man’s rectum is described using terms typically associated with female genitalia.
The letter also sought compensation of at least DKK 100,000 ($14,000 USD) and accused her of harassment, defamation, and misgendering, according to https://reduxx.info/denmark-woman-sued-for-14k-after-misgendering-a-trans-activist-and-sissy-fetishist/
.
that lawyer Nikolaj Nielsen wrote: “Lotte Ingerslev has unlawfully violated Nadia Jacobsen’s privacy and honor by publishing on her website transkoen.dk an article that contains a number of information and images of an intimate nature, untrue claims, as well as by harassing Nadia Jacobsen in the article because of Nadia Jacobsen’s gender identity.”
“As illustrated by the title of the article, Lotte Ingerslev chose to misgender Nadia Jacobsen throughout the blog post and consistently refer to Nadia Jacobsen as a man, as well as to use the pronouns he/his when she refers to Nadia Jacobsen in the third person,” the suit continues.
“In Danish law, it is generally recognized that deliberate misgendering of a trans person constitutes harassment.”
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Fri, 10/11/2024 - 02:45
The Gold Bull Cycle Has Just Begun
The Gold Bull Cycle Has Just Begun
https://dailyreckoning.com/the-gold-bull-cycle-has-just-begun/
Cycles surround us. In markets, astronomy, and our lives.
Every day is a circadian cycle for us all. Our bodies move through phases based on our exposure to light or darkness.
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Markets are also remarkably cyclical, responding to the environment around them. Interest rates, regulation, monetary policy and investor psychology all play important roles.
Precious metals are no different. The sector’s performance ebbs and flows over time.
From 2000 to 2011, gold crushed the S&P 500:
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Source: https://bilello.blog/2021/how-to-win-any-argument-on-investments
An even better example is from 1972 to 1980 when gold returned 1,256% to the S&P 500’s 97%.
Of course, stocks take their turn in the spotlight too.
From 2012 to 2021, stocks returned 336% vs gold’s 16%. And from 1980 to 1999, stocks were absolutely dominant as gold went dormant for nearly two decades.
Over the past few years, both have done well.
The point here is that it’s a cycle.
Just take a look at the chart below. It shows the ratio of S&P 500 performance vs gold through 2021.
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Source: https://bilello.blog/2021/how-to-win-any-argument-on-investments
I believe we switched back to precious metals mode at the beginning of this year. And if this is the beginning of a fresh cycle, we may be in for another 7-plus years of precious metals outperforming stocks.
Given the magnitude of what we’re facing, it could go on longer than that.
Catalysts and Causes
Periods where gold outperforms tend to be chaotic.
Past catalysts have included a crash at the end of a major bull market (1971 and 2000), and an inflationary shift in monetary policy (1971 and 2000).
Wars often play a part as well, as they did in the 1970s (Vietnam and others), and the early 2000s (War on Terror). Wars spike deficits and increase the monetary supply. They also drive safe-haven demand from both central banks and investors.
I believe our situation today fits the bill.
Stocks are still doing well, for now, but markets look expensive. The chart below, from Longview Economics, shows that 90% of U.S. stock sectors are in their top quartile (25%) of historical valuations.
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Source: https://x.com/Lvieweconomics
on X
Stocks are richly valued across almost the entire board. This tends to happen near market peaks. And I don’t see any positive catalysts hiding around the corner to drive sustainable real growth.
Of course, the broad bubble in U.S. stocks could go on for longer than we expect, but at this point, I’m more focused on precious metals and even certain foreign markets.
To be clear, I do own U.S. stocks and will continue to.
But during times like these, I lower that exposure and boost my allocation to alternatives, particularly gold and silver.
Macro Looks Bullish for Gold
The U.S. and many other countries are reaching a tipping point with debt. Total global debt just reached $315 trillion, which is 333% of global GDP.
The Federal Reserve just switched into easy-money mode and is likely to fire up formal QE in the near future. China’s central bank just injected massive liquidity to boost its sluggish economy. More countries will follow suit, and global liquidity is poised to surge.
In addition, we have multiple wars and conflicts raging in Yemen, Ukraine, Israel, Iran and beyond. Nascent proxy wars between the US and Russia are quietly breaking out in multiple African countries.
Military spending is booming, with Russia increasing its annual defense spending to 40% of its total budget. And China’s defense spending now https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4624666-chinas-real-military-budget-has-quietly-become-almost-as-big-as-ours/
the U.S. in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). Naturally, the U.S. is no slouch in this area and is also ramping up spending and production.
Durable Catalysts
The stage is set for a powerful precious metals bull market cycle. The problems facing the world are not going away anytime soon. Even if all the conflicts end tomorrow, and they won’t, we’re still facing a structural debt problem of unprecedented magnitude.
Further conflict and spending will just add gas to the fire.
For now, markets seem complacent that all is well with the economy. It won’t last forever. If we get a nice pullback in gold and silver here, and we may well, it’ll be an amazing opportunity to stack up. I will continue to buy on pullbacks.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 10/10/2024 - 13:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/gold-bull-cycle-has-just-begun
UN Says 900,000 Lebanese Displaced By War, A Quarter Of Country Now Under Israeli Evac Orders
UN Says 900,000 Lebanese Displaced By War, A Quarter Of Country Now Under Israeli Evac Orders
The United Nations has issued a statement estimating that 600,000 Lebanese have now been internally displaced from their homes amid the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war, and as a massive Israeli bombing campaign on the capital of Beirut has continued. Another 300,000 have already fled the country. The UN called the situation "catastrophic".
"Lebanon finds itself facing a conflict and a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, https://www.arabnews.com/node/2574659/middle-east
. She described that the UN and Western leaders remain hopeful "that Israel too will now be ready to add its support to the many calls and appeals that are out there" for de-escalation and potential ceasefire.
Another official, Imran Riza, who is UN’s humanitarian coordinator described that Lebanon is facing "one of the deadliest periods" given that 600,000 civilians are internally displaced. He identified that over 350,000 these internal refugees are children. "Even wars have rules." This week the US State Department appeared to back off the idea of calling for immediate ceasefire. The US wants to see Hezbollah weakened and defeated.
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Israel has pushed back against the growing international criticism of its large-scale bombing of dense neighborhoods by saying, "We are not targeting civilians. But at the same time, if we will find Hezbollah activities or intention to launch rockets into Israel, we will do what any other country would do about it," according to the words of Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
Since Sept. 23, Lebanon's Health Ministry has said Israeli aggression has killed more than 1,323 people and injured nearly 3,700; however, Lebanon's government figures make no distinction between combatants and civilians. Overall, going back to Oct.8, 2023 in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks and the conflict's origin, Lebanon says a total of 2,141 have been called and over 10,000 injured.
As for what amounts to 900,000 displaced at this point, the NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/10/09/world/israel-iran-lebanon-hezbollah#:~:text=the%20United%20Nations.-,More%20than%20600%2C000%20people%20have%20been%20displaced%20within%20Lebanon%2C%20and,at%20more%20than%20one%20million.
:
More than 600,000 people have been displaced within Lebanon, and over 300,000 more have left the country since the war broke out last month, the U.N. said, a total nearly on par with the number of people displaced during Lebanon’s 2006 war with Israel. Lebanese officials have put the total latest displacement figure at more than one million.
Hezbollah, for its part, has stepped up deeper rocket attacks into Israel, the last several days sending hundreds of rockets on the north, and many dozens on the port city of Haifa, in some cases damaging infrastructure and causing injuries to Israeli civilians.
In southern Lebanon, Israel's military has ordered over 100 towns and villages to evacuate north. It is trying to create a buffer zone to precent Hezbollah launches into northern Israel.
The UN says a quarter of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli military displacement orders. "Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Israeli airstrikes have not only intensified but also expanded into previously unaffected areas and increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/lebanon/lebanon-flash-update-33-escalation-hostilities-lebanon-7-october-2024
Wednesday.
"Displacement orders for more than 100 villages and urban neighborhoods across southern Lebanon continue to force people to flee," the report said. The IDF confirmed Wednesday it has hit southern Lebanon with 1,100 airstrikes since heightened operations began earlier this month.
Footage recorded on Wednesday shows the destruction in the southern suburbs of Beirut, after days and nights of Israeli strikes. https://t.co/kLYC29xyEp
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) https://twitter.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1844348024446689529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Prime Minister Netanyahu has urged the Lebanese people to "free" the country from Hezbollah or else face destruction on the level of Gaza. But the reality is that among the country's very divided political blocs and religious communities - the major ones being Maronite Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Shia, and Sunni Muslim - it is Shia Hezbollah which is by far the most well-armed. In the last couple decades of the 20th century, the country went through a horrific civil war, the lasting effects which can still be felt. It is some 40% Christian and about 60% Muslim. The Shias are mostly concentrated in the south, with most Sunnis in Tripoli in the north.
The Lebanese Army is not even close to Hezbollah in military capability, something which the US and Western powers have ensured. The US intentionally limits Lebanon's Air Force - which is made up of a small American-supplied propeller planes. Western sanctions have long throttled the types and quantities of arms Lebanon is able to receive. Even though there are many people inside Lebanon, especially among the Maronites, who've long wanted to see Hezbollah disarmed and its power diminished, making this happen from within remains practically impossible.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Thu, 10/10/2024 - 12:40
GOOGL Tumbles After Judge Rules Tech Giant Must Open App Store To Competition
GOOGL Tumbles After Judge Rules Tech Giant Must Open App Store To Competition
A federal judge in San Francisco just handed a big victory to Epic Games in its long-running antitrust challenge to the technology giant’s app store.
Judge James Donato ordered Alphabet's Google to overhaul its mobile app business to give Android users more options to download apps and to pay for transactions within them,https://www.reuters.com/legal/google-epic-games-face-off-app-antitrust-trial-nears-end-2023-12-11/
Alphabet must lift restrictions that prevent developers from setting up rival marketplaces that compete with its Google Play Store, upending the search giant’s dominance in the lucrative Android app market.
This result sent GOOGL shares down over 2%...
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And that dragged the major US equity indices to the lows of the day...
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Donato said at an earlier hearing that he would establish a three-person compliance and technical committee to implement and monitor the injunction.
Donato to reject Epic’s proposed reforms, arguing they were costly, overly restrictive and could harm consumer privacy and security. The judge mostly dismissed those arguments during an August hearing.
“You’re going to end up paying something to make the world right after having been found to be a monopolist,” he https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-says-monopolist-google-cant-avoid-app-store-reforms-2024-08-14/
.
In a separate antitrust case in Washington, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Aug. 5 ruled for the U.S. Justice Department and said https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-rules-google-broke-antitrust-law-search-case-2024-08-05/
, spending billions to become the internet’s default search engine.
The judge’s decision is likely to accelerate the weakening of app store controls held by tech giants Google and Apple that have been under fire from regulators and lawmakers around the world.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Mon, 10/07/2024 - 14:41
Shocking Images Of Devastation Continue To Pour In From Western North Carolina
Shocking Images Of Devastation Continue To Pour In From Western North Carolina
As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida, Mountain communities in North Carolina have been absolutely devastated by Hurricane Helene, which initially made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 - and had not been expected to hit the mountainous regions with such ferocity.
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But as Helene moved north, it gathered strength, fueled by unprecedented rainfall that had accumulated after a two-month drought, defying traditional forecasting models.
Local meteorologists and residents struggled to grasp the magnitude of the disaster that has left more than 200 people dead and hundreds more missing. "When you start talking about really specific impacts, it’s hard to have imagination ahead of time that something this extreme could have the impact it did," Steve Wilkinson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg, told https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/06/hurricane-helene-north-carolina-dispatch
.
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The devastation was not limited to North Carolina. Neighboring states saw similar fates, with towns obliterated and critical infrastructure like Interstate 40 and I-26 severely damaged, disrupting major transportation routes.
Today’s update from our team in North Carolina
“The public doesn’t understand how bad it is for these rural parts of North Carolina. Their roads are completely gone and have been replaced by the river. It’s going to take YEARS to try and fix.
We delivered supplies today to… https://t.co/USIDZutCgG
— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) https://twitter.com/hodgetwins/status/1843142106820276501?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
notes further, Asheville, NC has been particularly hard hit.
In most places, the floodwater is gone, leaving large brown spots on the ground, but the suffering it brought persists. The community faces a cascade of problems for which there is no simple solution.
The Water Shortage
Perhaps the greatest irony of Helene is the dire lack of potable water after the floods. The storm completely destroyed Asheville’s water supply system. Water mains and underground pipes were swept away as the ground itself was removed by the torrent. Not a single building in town can access running water, and citizens survive by the thousands of gallons of water being shipped in every day.
“We need portable water ... nobody can flush their toilets, nobody can take a shower, nobody can do laundry. We have no water and the infrastructure for that water is totally destroyed,” Dr. Carly Brown, a primary care physician in Asheville’s River Arts District, told The Epoch Times.
“I haven’t had a shower since last Wednesday. I’m hearing horrible things about [others],” Wendy Feinberg, a 77-year-old retired schoolteacher in Asheville, told The Epoch Times.
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“There’s no running water in all of Asheville,” Ryan Austin, an Asheville local and disaster relief worker, told The Epoch Times. “Plenty of people are bringing in bottled water for drinking but there’s no way to use water for [anything else].”
The lack of water has been particularly dire at hospitals and shelters, where many injured and homeless citizens are taking refuge. Mission Hospital, a level-2 trauma center with 1,200 beds in downtown Asheville, was reportedly digging wells to find water for essential services, Brown said.
“There was feces piled up in the toilets, and people had buckets next to their rooms, and they were flushing their toilets that way... [Doctors] couldn’t do procedures because there was no way to clean their utensils,” Brown said.
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Access to water is the top demand from Asheville’s citizens.
“The biggest thing right now is that we definitely need to fix the infrastructure for the water. Water is the major need here,” said Rev. Micheal Woods, the pastor of Western Carolina Rescue Ministries in Asheville, whose facilities have become a staging point to accept donations and distribute them to the community. Woods told The Epoch Times he wants President Joe Biden and Gov. Roy Cooper (D-N.C.) to make water restoration their top priority.
“I’m down to four water bottles,” said Yoshida Mills, a resident of Asheville who came to collect free water bottles and supplies at a community center. “Give me everything.”
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Crime and Looting
The post-flood destruction has birthed another fear: crime. Several citizens reported incidents of looting to The Epoch Times, claiming that looters are targeting damaged and/or abandoned properties—motivated by desperation amid shortages, and opportunity, given many residents have fled.
Many fear they will be victims of a home invasion and are taking steps to defend themselves.
“I actually own a gun. I have it loaded and sitting by my bed, and I have a butcher knife and a can of wasp spray. I am afraid at night,” said Feinberg, the retired schoolteacher. “It’s totally dark, and nobody’s around, so just in case the looters decide to venture out, I’m there ... We’re a little nervous about looting.”
“We have heard there was looting in Swannanoa and Black Mountain,” said Brown, referring to nearby towns around Asheville. Many who say they’re residents of the area have https://x.com/search?q=looting%20north%20carolina&src=typed_query
that looting is ongoing.
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Local authorities are cognizant of looting and have issued public messages against it. “We understand that times are tough, but looting is never the answer. We urge everyone to stay calm and patient as resources are on the way to assist those in need,” wrote the City of Asheville on itshttps://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/city-of-asheville-prepares-for-tropical-strom-helene-and-shares-preparedness-tips/
regarding public safety. “We’re working closely with local and state partners to distribute supplies and restore order.”
Authorities have surged the police and military presence in Asheville to deter looting, with armed peace officers coming from across the country to provide assistance. Police officers from Louisiana were present in the area, The Epoch Times observed.
“We’re here to keep people out of the unsafe areas and to try to be a deterrent for looting,” said Officer C. Kostel, a North Carolina Probation Officer, who was deployed at Tunnel Road. “They pulled in everyone from the other coast, all the way through.”
Queen described the U.S. military presence in the area as “a combination of search, rescue, and avoidance of people doing stupid stuff, like looting.”
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Beyond looting, authorities have warned affected residents to be wary of disaster relief scams, where they may be prompted to pay for emergency services that do not come.
“False websites have been identified as circulating throughout the county. Please vet websites before you provide your information,” read a public safety alert broadcast to phones in Burke County, North Carolina, on Oct. 3.
The Newly Homeless
After the flooding, many citizens returned to Asheville to find that they had lost everything—homes, cars, and all possessions. Many businesses remain closed; their employees suddenly out of work. Many people are now living with friends and relatives as they process the new reality.
“My son and his wife, they lost everything. My mother-in-law lost everything,” said Sharon Parton, a motel operator in Asheville, who has several relatives now living with her. “For the first time in years, I have a full house,” she told The Epoch Times.
“[My grandmother’s] house is condemned. It’s got a big ‘X’ on the side,” said Queen, indicating that the property has been declared dangerous and legally uninhabitable.
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The region’s homeless population has grown, and they are relying upon temporary shelters, food banks, and clothes drives to survive. The American Red Cross has set up a temporary shelter for the unhoused at Asheville-Buncombe Technical College.
Randy Stay, a Red Cross volunteer from Arizona, told The Epoch Times that high demand has pushed such facilities to the limit of their capacity.
“It’s full. There’s a waiting list,” Stay said of the Red Cross facility. “We’ve got homeless people from encampments [and] people from houses that aren’t, you know, in the best shape.”
Some community leaders are raising concerns about the latter group of people, who have no previous experience with homelessness. Once shelters close, they say the lack of experience by the newly homeless will increase their suffering.
“This is what most people are not thinking about or seeing. There were people who were housed—they weren’t considered homeless—but they were on the fringe and, now, have lost their housing ... those people are now thrust into the unhoused community,” Woods said.
“That creates a whole different segment of people. That comes with a different mindset ... those that [were homeless] understand how to navigate it ... We’re not set up here locally to handle that [new] segment of the population.”
For now, relief efforts are working to ease that adjustment.
“We are distributing 25,000 meals a day,” volunteer with World Central Kitchen Maria Mora, a food relief organization created by celebrity chef José Andrés, told The Epoch Times.
“We’re going out into the communities and serving them,” her colleague, Erica Burke, said.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Mon, 10/07/2024 - 11:25
https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/shocking-images-devastation-emerge-western-north-carolina
NYC Reverses Course On Banning Cell Phones In Schools After Neurotic Parents Push Back
NYC Reverses Course On Banning Cell Phones In Schools After Neurotic Parents Push Back
New York City schools will not be banning cell phones for students after consideration after neurotic parents, all likely slaves to their own cell phone addictions, pushed back against the idea.
Parents, apparently unable to remember a time in the not too distant past where cell phones had nothing to do with schooling, cited struggling to reach their children during a lockdown at two Upper West Side schools last month, Bloomberg wrote this week.
states that, as a result, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks came out and said “now is not the time” to ban cell phones in schools.
“Parents were saying that ‘if an emergency happens, I need to be in touch with my child,’” he told Fox 5. He didn't mention any outraged parents threatening legal action, but if we had to venture an unsupported guess, given what we know about New York City, we wouldn't be surprised if that played a role as well.
Ergo, Banks has reversed his stance on a proposal to limit phone use for over 1.1 million public school students across 1,800 campuses.
Initially pushing for a ban, Banks acknowledged on Wednesday that a balanced approach is needed. Speaking to Fox 5 New York, he noted that while cell phones can be a distraction, they also allow students to stay connected during emergencies.
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The shift comes as Banks prepares to leave office earlier than planned, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-03/nyc-schools-reverse-course-on-cell-phone-ban-after-parents-balk?sref=6uww027M
. Originally set to retire at the end of the year amid a corruption probe, his departure was moved up to Oct. 16. Deputy Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos will take over.
The change of heart followed a Sept. 12 lockdown at Frank McCourt High School and a nearby elementary school due to a false report of a gunman. Parents were frustrated by the lack of direct communication during the incident.
Recall back in May we published what happened when several schools banned cellphones. Our https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/this-is-what-happened-after-several-schools-banned-cellphones-5644536?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge
found that it resulted in improved academics, reduced bullying, and reduced students’ need for counseling.
Citing a 73-page Norwegian paper, they wrote: “Banning smartphones significantly decreases the health care take-up for psychological symptoms and diseases among girls.”
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4735240
followed data from recent decades, mainly focusing on 2010 to 2020.
The researcher observed no negative impact from introducing such a policy.
“The phones are an absolute distraction. Even if a kid has the phone in their pocket during class, if the phone is on vibrate every time it vibrates, which is constantly, their mind automatically shifts away from what the teacher is teaching to the phone,” Tom Kersting, a psychotherapist who was a school counselor for 25 years, told The Epoch Times in agreement with the report’s findings.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Fri, 10/04/2024 - 14:00
Watch Live: Fed Chair Powell Speaks As Rate-Cut Euphoria Fades
Watch Live: Fed Chair Powell Speaks As Rate-Cut Euphoria Fades
Since the July FOMC meeting, US macro data has done nothing but surprise to the upside, but that didn't stop The Fed from slashing rates by a crisis-like 50bps on 9/18.
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Source: Bloomberg
The strengthening economic data, 'soft' or 'no'-landing-esque, has prompted a hawkish decline in the market's expectations for rate-cuts in 2024 and 2025...
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Source: Bloomberg
In light of all that, Fed Chair Powell is scheduled to address the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) at 1355ET in Nashville, Tennessee, and for the first time since the big cut, he is expected to elaborate on the Fed's decision and on the considerations that will frame an expected series of reductions in borrowing costs over the rest of this year and in 2025.
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Debate over that decision has already begun.
In remarks to a bank conference in South Carolina on Monday, https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bowman20240930a.htm
who dissented against the half-percentage-point cut on Sept. 18 in favor of a quarter-percentage-point reduction, noted that the personal consumption expenditures price index stripped of food and energy costs had increased slightly in August.
Interestingly, Reuters reports that among 32 professional forecasters surveyed recently by the NABE, 39% cited a "monetary policy mistake" as the "greatest downside risk to the U.S. economy over the next 12 months." By contrast, 23% regarded the outcome of the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election as the biggest downside risk and the same number cited an intensification of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
So will the apolitical Powell jawbone the market's uber-dovishness back a smidge? Or play down just how strong recent macro data has been?
Watch Powell speak live here (due to start at 1355ET):
Read Powell's full prepared remarks below:
Developing...
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Mon, 09/30/2024 - 13:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/watch-live-fed-chair-powell-speaks-rate-cut-euphoria-fades
British Government Warns Of Weak Military - Says Civilians Must Be 'Ready To Fight'
British Government Warns Of Weak Military - Says Civilians Must Be 'Ready To Fight'
The British House of Lords has https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/360/international-relations-and-defence-committee/news/202994/ukraine-a-wakeup-call-for-the-uk-and-nato/
claiming that military recruitment is dangerously low and the country's combat readiness is at risk. They say the civilian population 'must be ready to fight' (a clear reference to military conscription) should war with Russia be triggered.
The paper, titled 'Ukraine: A Wake-Up Call', admits to weaknesses in NATO's assumptions on "deterrence", though it seems to pretend as if Ukraine is part of NATO when it's not. Chaired by Lord de Mauley, the committee launched the inquiry in February 2024, two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the goal of assessing the conflict’s implications for UK defence policy.
"...We identified two key lessons. First, our deterrence strategy towards Russia clearly failed. If we are to restore the credibility of NATO’s nuclear and conventional deterrence posture towards Putin, we must develop a clearer understanding of the reasons for this failure."
"Secondly, the invasion exposed significant weaknesses in both the UK’s and NATO’s military strength, and the UK's ability to sustain large-scale warfare. Successive governments have attempted to maintain the notion of the UK as a global power, but the war in Ukraine has been a wake-up call, laying bare the gap between that ambition and reality."
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It should be noted that February was near the beginning of Russia's attrition based offensive that is poised to take control of the entire Donbas region of Ukraine. This was well after Ukraine's much hyped "counter-offensive" which ended with an embarrassing whimper.
The report paints a concerning picture of the https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-army-too-small-to-meet-commitments-lords-warn/
to contribute adequately to NATO’s deterrence strategy. It states:
“All in all, the evidence we heard points to the current size of the British Army being inadequate. While size is not the only measure of capability, we are concerned that the Army cannot, as currently constituted, make the expected troop contribution to NATO. We therefore question whether the British Army is prepared to meet the growing threat posed by Russia to European security.”
The current size of the British Army is 75,166 regular troops and 183,000 personnel across all branches. Keep in mind only 80,000 of these personnel would play a front line combat role. If the casualty numbers coming out of Ukraine are anywhere close to accurate this would not be enough troops to sustain a single year of combat in an attrition based war.
The House of Lords called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to develop a plan that “resonates with citizens, emphasizing the importance of national security in their daily lives and moving beyond the notion that defense is solely the military’s responsibility”.
The paper also warned that while there was a risk that conversations around civilians “could end up veering into discussions around conscription”, the government had “an opportunity to broaden this out and consider how it could incorporate the whole of society in building resilience”.
The real question is, why would the British public fight for the current government? Military recruitment relies heavily on true patriots and a sense of national identity, but Keir Starmer and government overall has made it quite clear that they intend to erase indigenous Anglo-Saxon British identity through forced mass immigration from third-world countries. Starmer has even gone so far as to arrest British citizens simply for posting critical opinions on social media.
The House of Lords acts bewildered as to why the civilian population has little interest in military readiness. Maybe it's because the British government has gone full Orwellian? The average westerner is not going to go to war to risk their lives for a system that oppresses them. This is why recruitment is at all time lows and why conscription would be useless.
Another factor which likely plays a considerable part in public apprehension is the threat of WWIII. The majority of people in the west have little enthusiasm over engaging in a war that could very well lead to a global nuclear exchange, especially over a country like Ukraine which, for them, is insignificant. There is nothing to be gained.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Sat, 09/28/2024 - 07:35
Sunlight And Clouds - Not CO2 - Drive Earth's Climate; 'Shocking' New Study Finds
Sunlight And Clouds - Not CO2 - Drive Earth's Climate; 'Shocking' New Study Finds
This year’s summer months were characterized by cold outdoor pools that eagerly welcomed guests, concrete that scorched the soles of bare feet, and popsicles that melted in the relentless, blazing heat.
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In August, the European Commission’s Copernicus https://climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-temperature-august-2024
found that the global average temperature had reached record highs in the past 12 months, an increase of 1.51 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Similarly, using https://www.drroyspencer.com/
, Roy Spencer and John Christy of the University of Alabama Huntsville determined that the average temperature in August was 0.88 degrees Celsius higher than the 30-year average from 1991–2020.
Extreme heat is not just an environmental crisis, it’s a serious threat to our public health—and communities across the country are struggling to respond,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/08/14/biden-harris-administration-unveils-national-heat-strategy-protect-community-health-extreme-heat.html
in a news release.
“What we’re facing today wasn’t what we were experiencing 30 or 40 years ago. This is a different world we are in.”
On Aug. 14, President Joe Biden https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/08/14/biden-harris-administration-unveils-national-heat-strategy-protect-community-health-extreme-heat.html
is primarily caused by human-induced increases in carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas.
“Stabilizing the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching net zero CO2 emissions,” Panmao Zhai, a Chinese climatologist, and co-chair of the IPCC Working Group I, stated in a press release.
“Limiting other greenhouse gases and air pollutants, especially methane, could have benefits both for health and the climate.”
Ned Nikolov, a physical scientist and researcher affiliated with Colorado State University, told The Epoch Times the IPCC is incorrect regarding CO2.
“The greenhouse theory claims that atmospheric composition is important,” Nikolov said.
“They are arguing that tiny increases of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere cause global warming and that we must stop burning fossil fuel to avoid dangerous climate change.
“That is completely wrong.”
On Aug. 20, Nikolov and Karl Zeller, a retired U.S. Forest Service meteorologist, published their https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7418/4/3/17
that found that recent warming is not the result of increasing CO2.
Instead, after analyzing satellite data, the two researchers concluded that the Earth has warmed because it’s been absorbing more sunlight due to reduced global cloud cover.
Albedo and Climate
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/what-is-earths-energy-budget-five-questions-with-a-guy-who-knows/
), Earth’s atmosphere is constantly working to balance the planet’s “energy budget”—the amount of energy entering and leaving it. After the Sun’s shortwave radiation—sunshine—reaches the Earth, the energy flows back into space as thermal radiation.
If this balance is disrupted, and more sunlight is absorbed or not enough heat escapes to space, Earth’s temperature will rise. An imbalance in the energy budget is known as radiative forcing, with the incoming radiation being shortwave and the outgoing radiation being longwave (or thermal).
Additionally, Earth’s albedo, the fraction of sunlight reflected back into space, impacts the amount of radiation that reaches the surface.
In its https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/chapter/chapter-7/
, the IPCC states that, due to increased atmospheric CO2 concentration from human greenhouse gas emissions, Earth’s energy budget is out of balance—more thermal energy is being trapped, resulting in elevated temperatures and warmer oceans.
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A sign near Strasburg, N.D., on Jan. 11, 2024. Jack Dura/AP Photo
It also notes regarding the Earth’s albedo that, between 1950 and 1980, there was “evidence for a widespread decline of surface solar radiation (or dimming),” followed by “a partial recovery (brightening) at many observational sites thereafter.”
As to the cause, the IPCC https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/chapter/chapter-7/
, “Multi-decadal variation in anthropogenic [human-caused] aerosol emissions are thought to be a major contributor (medium confidence), but multi-decadal variability in cloudiness may also have played a role.”
In addition, the IPCC said some studies show that “cloudiness” can play a role in “dimming” and “brightening.” But the contribution of aerosols and clouds to dimming and brightening is still debated, and “the origin of these trends is not fully understood.”
That, according to Nikolov, is where his study comes in.
Challenging the IPCC
“Climate is controlled by the amount of sunlight absorbed by Earth and the amount of infrared energy emitted to space. These quantities—together with their differences—define Earth’s radiation budget,” NASA’s Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (https://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/
) website states.
Since March of 2000, the NASA team has been collecting satellite data to examine the energy exchange between the Earth and space.
Using those measurements and a “novel climate-sensitivity model derived from independent NASA planetary data,” Nikolov and Zeller evaluated how Earth’s decreasing albedo impacted global temperature during the 21st century.
“CO2 is an invisible trace gas that does not interfere with sunlight. It’s believed to trap thermal radiation coming from the surface, but that’s a misconception because the absorption of longwave radiation by CO2 and heat-trapping are completely different physical processes. According to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, heat-trapping is impossible in an open system such as the atmosphere,” Nikolov said.
He added that while water vapor is also a greenhouse gas, it becomes visible when it condenses and forms clouds. And because clouds “reflect solar radiation back to space,” their impact on the climate is “measurable and significant.”
“Cloud formation is partially controlled by cosmic forces. When clouds decrease, the planetary albedo drops and more radiation reaches the surface, causing warmer temperatures.”
“In our paper, we show, using the best available observations from the [Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System] platform, that the warming of the last 24 years was entirely caused by the observed decrease of Earth’s albedo and not by increasing greenhouse gas concentrations as claimed by the IPCC.”
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Figure 1. Monthly radiative anomalies derived from the CERES EBAF 4.2 dataset: (a) Earth’s global albedo calculated via dividing the reflected all-sky shortwave anomaly by the globally averaged incident solar flux at the TOA (i.e., the global insolation) and multiplying the resulting fraction by 100 to convert to a percent; (b) Earth’s absorbed solar flux calculated via multiplying the CERES reflected all-sky shortwave anomaly by −1 based on the fact that radiation absorption is opposite (and complimentary) to reflection. Courtesy of Ned Nikolov
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Figure 7. Comparison between observed GSAT anomalies and CERES-reported changes in the Earth’s absorbed solar flux. The two data series, representing 13-month running means, are highly correlated with the absorbed SW flux, explaining 78% of the GSAT variation (R2 = 0.78). Also, GSAT lags the absorbed shortwave radiation between 0 and 9 months, which indicates that GSAT is controlled by changes in sunlight absorption. Courtesy of Ned Nikolov
Nikolov said that, in the greenhouse theory, atmospheric composition is “very important” for a planet’s global surface temperature.
By applying dimensional analysis to NASA’s data describing the environments of different planets and moons in the solar system—including Earth—Nikolov and Zeller discovered a new universal relationship across planetary bodies. This revealed that the atmosphere warms the surface not through longwave radiation emitted by greenhouse gases but through total pressure—adiabatically, without the loss or gain of heat—and that atmospheric composition has no effect on global temperature.
“Adiabatic heating (a.k.a. compression heating) is a well-known thermodynamic process. This revolutionary discovery about the physical nature of the atmospheric thermal effect (currently known as greenhouse effect) was https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/New-Insights-on-the-Physical-Nature-of-the-Atmospheric-Greenhouse-Effect-Deduced-from-an-Empirical-Planetary-Temperature-Model.pdf
in [our] peer-reviewed literature in 2017,” Nikolov said.
“This is why when you get up in elevation, it gets cooler—either in the mountains or when you’re flying on an airplane—because the pressure drops with height.”
He compared the Moon’s surface temperature, as measured by NASA, compared to Earth’s global temperature to evaluate the thermal effect of the atmosphere.
“The data shows that the Moon is a perfect, airless equivalent of Earth because it orbits the Sun at the same distance as Earth but has no atmosphere. So, the temperature difference between Earth and the Moon gives us the net thermal effect of the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Nikolov found that the Moon was about 88 degrees Kelvin cooler on average than the Earth. That’s significant, he said.
“Currently, the greenhouse theory claims that without an atmosphere, the Earth would only be about 33 degrees colder than it is now. Some estimates even say only 18 degrees cooler.
“So, the present theory grossly underestimates the actual thermal effect of our atmosphere. However, this 88-degree thermal enhancement is due to total pressure.
“And that’s one of the fundamental differences between the greenhouse theory and our new climate concept.”
Through analyzing the Earth’s Energy Imbalance (EEI), “calculated as a difference between absorbed shortwave and outgoing longwave radiation at the top of the atmosphere,” Nikolov and Zeller discovered that the scientific community had misinterpreted it.
“EEI is not caused by ‘heat-trapping’ resulting from increasing atmospheric greenhouse gasses as currently claimed, but ‘arises from adiabatic dissipation of thermal energy in ascending air parcels in the troposphere due to a decreasing atmospheric pressure with height,’” Nikolov said.
Specifically, using mathematics, Nikolov and Zeller showed that EEI is an “apparent phenomenon” rather than a “real imbalance,” which they said necessarily implies no long-term heat storage in the Earth system by increasing greenhouse gases and no “warming in the pipeline,” as claimed by the latest Report by the IPCC.
Where Are the Clouds?
Nikolov said Earth’s reduced cloud cover could have several causes, including galactic cosmic rays, solar wind, and interactions between the Sun’s and Earth’s magnetic fields.
“We have hypotheses about what’s driving the cloud cover changes, but we don’t have an exact mechanism or a conclusive theory,” Nikolov said.
“This is why we cannot mathematically describe it yet in a model to make predictions. ”
He called for “large-scale interdisciplinary research into the physical mechanisms controlling the Earth’s albedo and cloud physics,” as they are “the real drivers of climate on multi-decadal time scales.”
“The current climate science acknowledges that the clouds have been declining, and the Earth’s albedo has been decreasing, but they attribute it to an internal climate variability. This is incorrect! Changes of cloud cover and albedo are externally forced. Identifying this external forcing is where future research has to focus instead of studying carbon emissions and [greenhouse gas] radiative forcing,” Nikolov said.
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Clouds are seen in Western Australia on June 14, 2024. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times
If rising global temperature was due to greenhouse gasses, there should have been more warming than observed, he said.
“The simple fact is that the solar forcing alone explains the entire warming of the 21st century and leaves no room for any anthropogenic forcing.
“This inconvenient truth for the UN’s Climate Agenda might explain the absence of discussion in the 2021 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report about the decrease of Earth’s albedo since 2000 observed by [NASA’s Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System] and its impact on recent warming.”
In response to the question “Is the Sun causing global warming?” on its website, NASA https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/is-the-sun-causing-global-warming/
, “No. The Sun can influence Earth’s climate, but it isn’t responsible for the warming trend we’ve seen over recent decades.
“The Sun is a giver of life; it helps keep the planet warm enough for us to survive. We know subtle changes in Earth’s orbit around the Sun are responsible for the comings and goings of the ice ages. But the warming we’ve seen in recent decades is too rapid to be linked to changes in Earth’s orbit and too large to be caused by solar activity.”
The IPCC did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment regarding Nikolov’s findings by the time of publication.
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Mon, 09/16/2024 - 20:55
Would-Be Trump Assassin Palled Around With Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade In Ukraine: What Did The Government Know?
Would-Be Trump Assassin Palled Around With Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade In Ukraine: What Did The Government Know?
Perhaps the most interesting angle to https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-safe-after-shooter-ak47-reportedly-targeted-former-pres-while-golfing-secret
that when he went to Ukraine to recruit for its International Legion in 2022 he was a Western mainstream media darling for a time, having been quoted on behalf of the cause to get more foreign fighters to throw into the battle against Russia by a who's who of major media sources from FT to Newsweek to the NY Times.
But when he arrived in Ukraine, according to these media reports, the 58-year old Routh himself was considered too old to fight alongside the Ukrainian army. "So plan B," Routh described to one outlet, "was to come to Kiev and promote the idea of many others coming to join the International Legion. We need thousands of people here to fight alongside Ukrainians."
"There are about 190 countries on our planet, and if the governments are not officially sending soldiers here, then we civilians should pick up this torch and make it happen," he described. He had told Newsweek in a video interview from Ukraine that the war with Russia was as simple as "good vs. evil" and essentially the same as good guys and bad guys in the Hollywood movies Americans grew up with. It was not a gray conflict, he described, but "black and white".
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In March of 2022, just a month into the Russian invasion, he tweeted that everyone around the globe should be willing to volunteer and "fight and die" in Ukraine. Still, much of his time was https://thegrayzone.com/2024/09/15/suspect-trump-assassination-plot-recruited-for-ukraines-international-legion/
spent in a hotel room in the far western city of Lviv.
Among the more bizarre aspects to his campaigning on behalf of the Ukrainian military's foreign legion were his efforts to recruit US-trained Afghan special soldiers to go to Ukraine's front lines. The initiative appeared so large in scale (given Routh was seeking to transfer hundreds, or even thousands, of Afghan fighters - according to his words) - that one https://x.com/Travis_4_Trump/status/1835439611687862602
in light of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump: "Who was he working with in the US government that was allowing him to do this?"
In a 2023 interview with the NY Times Routh openly displayed his proclivity toward violent acts by threatening to shoot his critics, and the Times featured the quote almost as if lionizing his commitment https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/politics/trump-shooting-suspect-routh.html
:
In a telephone interview with The New York Times in 2023, when Mr. Routh was in Washington, he spoke with the self-assuredness of a seasoned diplomat who thought his plans to support Ukraine’s war effort were sure to succeed. But he appeared to have little patience for anyone who got in his way. When an American foreign fighter seemed to talk down to him in a Facebook message he shared with The New York Times, Mr. Routh said, "he needs to be shot."
There needs to be a full investigation of all the Washington officials and reporters the second would-be Trump assassin has interacted with over the last four years, including Malcom Nance, the entire Vindman clan, and everyone associated with the Helsinki Commission. https://t.co/JErwzeSIzu
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1835489687105896890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
He has received the media attention https://www.semafor.com/article/03/08/2023/ukraine-is-turning-down-hundreds-of-afghan-soldiers-who-want-to-join-its-war-effort
head of the International Volunteer Center in Ukraine. Importantly, he has boasted of having "had partners meeting with [Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense] every week and still have not been able to get them to agree to issue one single visa." This raises the question of the degree of his involvement with US government officials at the time.
The Times had documented that Routh planned to move volunteers "in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine" - and claimed that many had expressed interests. He further boasted of breaking or at least bending foreign countries' laws in some cases. "We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country," he told NY Times. He announced on Facebook at one point, "Soldiers, please do not call me. We are still trying to get Ukraine to accept Afghan soldiers and hope to have some answers in the coming months… please have patience."
He also recounted some of this experience in his self-published book, still https://www.amazon.com.br/Ukraines-Unwinnable-War-Abandonment-Citizen-Taiwan-ebook/dp/B0BX4W9XKT
, which is titled "Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity."
As if all of this weren't shady enough, raising a myriad of questions over who in the US government knew what and when of the future would be Trump shooter, he had connections with Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov Brigade (often referenced by its earlier name Azov Battalion).
🚨BREAKING: Ryan Routh was featured in an AZOV propaganda video in 2022. For those unaware, AZOV is a violent, far-right Ukrainian militia with neo-Nazi origins, notorious for its anti-Russian extremism—and supported by the CIA. Yet the media stays silent. https://t.co/kfHvo6vZWx
— Dr. Simon Goddek (@goddeketal) https://twitter.com/goddeketal/status/1835496716373524824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
For a brief background review of Azov, even mainstream media has long grudgingly https://news.sky.com/story/us-lifts-10-year-weapon-ban-on-ukraines-controversial-azov-brigade-which-russia-calls-neo-nazis-as-kharkiv-sees-calm-with-american-arms-13151380
.
The US State Department in June of this year announced that it finally lifted a longtime ban on giving weapons and training to Ukraine's notorious Azov Brigade (often referenced by its earlier name Azov Battalion). All the while, Azov's members have never been shy about sporting Nazi-inspired patches.
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As of Monday, and with all of these deep Ukraine connections made evident with regard to Ryan Routh, the Zelensky government as well as Azov Brigade are attempting some serious PR damage control. But in the process, their statements serve to confirm Rough's connections to the neo-Nazi outfit. According to https://www.euronews.com/2024/09/16/suspected-trump-florida-shooter-wasnt-a-member-of-ukrainian-international-volunteer-unit-i
:
Meanwhile, a video appeared on social media linking Routh to the Azov Brigade, claiming he participated in a 2022 event to support the unit's Mariupol brigade.
The Azov Brigade said the event was a peaceful demonstration open to all and that Routh was never part of the unit.
"We would like to officially state that Ryan Wesley Routh has no connection to Azov and has never had any connection to Azov," the unit said in a statement on X.
So they are literally doing the "mostly peaceful" line. The statement from Azov Brigade continues with an attempt to blame all of this on Russia: "We believe that the spread of the narrative about the possible connection between Azov and Ryan Wesley Routh is playing along with Russian propaganda and discredits the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine and the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine in general," it added.
And yet, below is an example of something Rough posted to his social media. https://thegrayzone.com/2024/09/15/suspect-trump-assassination-plot-recruited-for-ukraines-international-legion/
reported on it before it was deleted by Facebook administrators, presumably amid the FBI/Secret Service investigation: An official Ukrainian military enlistment form Routh posted on his Facebook page, which administrators have deleted.
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But one thing is still indisputable based on the piles of public evidence. As geopolitical analyst Andrew Korybko https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-ukrainian-trace-in-the-latest
, "The suspect is a Ukro-maniac who’d been radicalized by the Mainstream Media into traveling to Kiev, trying to join the 'International Legion'..."
Korybko further https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-ukrainian-trace-in-the-latest
:
There’s no way that the earlier mentioned American “deep state” had no idea who Routh was after he’d already traveled to Kiev to try to join the “International Legion” and then openly told the New York Times about his plans to recruit Afghan soldiers that fled to Pakistan as refugees. He also brazenly boasted about how he’d purchase passports for them from there to facilitate their travel to Ukraine. The FBI might soon “do the meme” and admit that he was “on their radar”, but there’s much more to it.
The Newsweek interview... certainly the mainstream didn't treat him as just some rando who happened to be passing through war-ravaged Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/UKRAINE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
— Russian Market (@runews) https://twitter.com/runews/status/1835453559191548028?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Clearly, this doesn't look like a guy who had no connections in Ukraine, or was merely some 'war tourist' on the sidelines as the Ukrainian government and Azov would have us believe. Again the question remains: what did the US government know about this radicalized individual and when did they know it? Did he have help from US government officials in his Ukraine travels and recruitment campaign?
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Mon, 09/16/2024 - 09:40
"Can't Take It Anymore": Residents Of Springfield Ohio Beg For Help After 20,000 Haitians Overwhelm City, Eat Local Wildlife
"Can't Take It Anymore": Residents Of Springfield Ohio Beg For Help After 20,000 Haitians Overwhelm City, Eat Local Wildlife
The city of Springfield, Ohio - population 60,000, has been overwhelmed by roughly 20,000 Haitian illegal migrants, who flocked to the city - exacerbating a 'significant housing crisis' according to https://www.vance.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Housing-and-Immigration-Letter-7.8.2024.pdf
, and eating pets and wildlife according to locals.
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During an Aug. 27 City Commission meeting, one local resident said that Haitians were "in the park grabbing ducks, cutting the heads off, and eating them."
"Haitians are in the park grabbing ducks, cutting the heads off, and eating them"
Springfield resident to City Council: https://t.co/aZLsOT8v2b
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1832773191976014217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Another local resident posted to a Facebook group that their neighbor had a cat go missing - only to see it "hanging from a branch, like you'd do a deer for butchering, & they [the Haitians] were carving it up to eat."
Springfield is a small town in Ohio.
4 years ago, they had 60k residents.
Under Harris and Biden, 20,000 Haitian immigrants were shipped to the town.
Now ducks and pets are disappearing. https://t.co/OOFq3ZdTiA
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1832134984557113706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
While the cat claim has been https://x.com/ZaidJilani/status/1832462731896586257
showing that cats are indeed part of Haitian cuisine.
Another local told the city that she "can't take it anymore," as Haitian migrants are littering on her yard and harassing she and her husband.
Absolutely HEARTBREAKING moment Springfield, Ohio, resident tells mayor that she "can't take it anymore" as Haitian migrants squat on her lawn, litter in her yard and harass her and elderly husband daily.
The mayor of Springfield does NOT want people to see this: https://t.co/OJtAy7LSXX
— captive dreamer (@captivedreamer7) https://twitter.com/captivedreamer7/status/1832265609905672235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Resident Glenda Bailey told the city "They have become the occupiers. What they've done is they've replaced the population in Springfield."
Tensions came to a boil last year after a illegal immigrant from Haiti caused a school bus crash last August, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark after the child was thrown out of the emergency exit as the bus rolled off the road. Another 20 students were injured.
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In July, city manager Bryan Heck wrote to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee asking for more federal funding.
"Springfield has seen a surge in population through immigration that has significantly impacted our ability as a community to produce enough housing opportunities for all," he wrote.
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Sun, 09/08/2024 - 16:55
MSM Tells Only Part Of The Story, Highlights 'Record Number Of Deaths' From 'Climate Change'
MSM Tells Only Part Of The Story, Highlights 'Record Number Of Deaths' From 'Climate Change'
,
The Hill recently ran an https://www.wjtv.com/weather/record-number-of-americans-killed-by-heat-in-2023-research/#:~:text=At%20least%202%2C325%20people%20died,an%20underlying%20and%20contributing%20factor
by Zack Budryk, which highlighted the “record number of Americans killed by heat” last year; here’s what he had to say:
Extreme heat killed more Americans in 2023 than any other year over nearly a quarter century of records, https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1055305
published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
At least 2,325 people died from the heat last year, according to the study, which included deaths with heat as both an underlying and contributing factor.
If you didn’t already figure it out, this piece was on “climate change,” and its purpose, like most pieces on climate change, is to get people to capitulate to the radical green agenda. Why don’t journalists ever report on the number of people killed each year by extreme cold, which is much higher than heat deaths?
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The answer is that facts don’t matter when the media and other Democrats are trying to force people to surrender to their agenda.
This reminds me how the media, CDC, Anthony Fauci, and others in power got large swathes of the public to capitulate to government edicts on COVID, which destroyed so many kids and small businesses. Instead of just reporting deaths actually caused by COVID, they goosed the numbers by including comorbidity deaths from cancer, strokes, heart attacks, obesity, and many other ailments if the deceased happened to also be infected with COVID at the time of death, or if healthcare workers thought their cold symptoms simply looked like COVID.
Per Budryk, the researchers behind the “heat deaths” data includes deaths where heat may have been a contributing factor. So if you were 90 years old with cancer, lung disease, or heart issues who died when it happened to be hot, your death would be chalked up to “extreme heat.” That is insane!
For one thing, 2,325 alleged “heat” deaths, reportedly the highest in 25 years, is still less than one tenth of a percent of the three million Americans who die each year. It is a shame that so many supposed journalists and other Democrats are willing to destroy our way of life, our economy, and tens of millions of jobs related to oil, natural gas, and coal to pretend they can somehow reduce this small number of deaths.
Why don’t they do a study that shows how many people have been preserved and saved each year by central air and heat because we use coal, oil, and natural gas?
Why don’t they say how people with asthma have a much greater life experience because they can keep their windows closed and not have to worry about temperature regulation because they have central air?
Why don’t they tell us how many lives are preserved and saved because of all the modern conveniences and products derived from oil?
The answer to all of the above is they don’t care. All they care about is radical Democrats forcing people to do what they want as they hand out massive kickbacks to their green political supporters.
In another https://ca.news.yahoo.com/dangerous-heat-early-snow-us-154923113.html
, a journalist reporting on “triple-digit heat” that is set to “scorch millions,” somehow doesn’t see the record cold and snow in Montana in August as a contradiction. After 160 years of energies that supposedly cause warming, they are warning people of hypothermia in August:
Meanwhile, the first snowflakes of the season were forecast to reach the higher elevations of northwestern Montana on Wednesday, the https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/hpcdiscussions.php?disc=pmdspd
said. A winter weather advisory was in place for the mountains of northwestern Montana, where up to 10 inches of snow was possible.
The https://www.weather.gov/mso/
warned people who planned to spend time outdoors in Montana to beware of hypothermia.
And pure indoctrination from CNN, who gave Kamala a tongue bath interview that was essentially a campaign ad. This https://www.yahoo.com/news/far-reaching-cooldown-coming-just-111431285.html
about cooling talks about warming due to fossil fuel pollution:
A far-reaching cooldown is coming just in time for Labor Day weekend
But summer is bleeding into fall as the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution, so the cooldown isn’t expected to last more than a handful of days before temperatures creep back up again. The flip from warm to cool to warm is a trend that could continue through much of fall, according to the https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/28/weather/fall-forecast-heat-hurricane-climate/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo
.
What people will never see in articles blaming humans and our use of natural resources for warming is any scientific data supporting that theory because there is none. As the article says, this fall we will have both periods of warming and cooling… as we always have.
Indoctrination is a dangerous thing. Children and others are being dumbed down by AI, educators, and the media. They are taught not to ask questions or do research.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Fri, 09/06/2024 - 22:35
Globalism Is Economic Slavery
Globalism Is Economic Slavery
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/08/globalism_is_economic_slavery.html
Imagine life in the near future. ..
A man resides alone in a tiny apartment. He would prefer to be married, but the State considers that antiquated institution “patriarchal” and “white supremacist.” He would prefer to have children, but he can’t afford them. Besides, his yearly carbon allowance is insufficient to cover another resource-wasting human being.
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He has never owned anything. He rents his bedroom, his furnishings, and his meager entertainments. Each month, a digital account associated with his digital ID receives a number of central bank digital currency units. How much he receives depends upon the number of hours he works at his government job, how much the government values his work, how much the government taxes him for the privilege of using public infrastructure, and how much of his income the government decides should be redistributed to other citizens in need. After taxes, rents, utilities, and other assorted municipal, state, federal, and international fees are deducted from his earnings, he has little — if any — discretionary income.
If he chooses to save that income to invest in his future, the government informs him that his central bank digital currency units disappear within ninety days. If he tries to purchase something that the government has banned, he forfeits what he currently has. If he does something that the government deems contrary to his well-being, his social credit score decreases, and a fraction of his discretionary income disappears. Every few weeks, a digital doctor (running on artificial intelligence) appears on the video screen in his apartment with a detailed list of all the “unhealthy” things he has done since their last interaction. He is informed that a portion of his temporary savings will be redistributed to citizens with healthier habits. His A.I. health monitor tells him that he must immediately report to the closest pharmaceutical distribution center so that he can be injected with the latest “vaccines.” Failure to do so will result in the deactivation of all electronic entertainment devices and a permanent mark on his social credit record.
He is unhappy, and because the State’s A.I. supervisor has detected his unhappiness, the display monitor in his apartment encourages him to find personal meaning by “joining the fight against global warming.” For a while, he does just that. He attends community meetings in his apartment building where government officials talk about the importance of “saving the planet” by “owning nothing.” He chats with anonymous strangers (bots?) on the State’s social media platform, and they all agree that the sacrifices they’re making to save the world are definitely worth it. He wakes up one morning to discover that his social credit score has risen and that he has been rewarded with a few extra central bank digital currency units. Still, our future man remains unhappy.
Then one day sirens blare, and his apartment monitor flashes with breaking news: the country is at war. He listens intently but can’t figure out which foreign nations are attacking. The trusted news anchors tell him that peace, prosperity, and freedom are all at risk. He steps outside his tiny apartment to find other solitary renters fired up and talking excitedly about the battles to come. He walks back inside to find his A.I. supervisor informing him that he has been personally selected to protect the homeland from its enemies. For the first time in many years, our future man feels alive.
He soon finds himself in boot camp, where he enjoys regular exercise, discipline, and camaraderie. Six months later, he and his new friends are shipped overseas. Strangely, in all this time, nobody has explained whom they will actually be fighting. All he knows is that they’re at war with “the authoritarians” who wish to “take our democracy.” There is anticipation in his camp and endless talk of adventure. Then, when everyone least expects it, a thunderous swarm of drones attacks from overhead. Nobody has time to react. Explosions seem to come from out of nowhere. He sees the bodies of his friends torn to pieces. Then everything goes dark.
He awakes in a hospital severely injured, is called a hero, and is later sent home. When he arrives, he notices breadlines outside the government’s genetically engineered food distribution centers. He hears a beggar on the street joke that they should call them “insect-lines,” since that’s all there is to eat. He learns that someone else has moved into his old apartment, but he is offered a new one because of his military service. It is smaller and has even fewer furnishings than the one he lost. He realizes that most of his former neighbors never returned from war and that many of the newcomers now living in their apartments look and sound like those people he was told to fight overseas. Nothing makes sense. His injuries torment him. He feels even more lost and lonely than before he went to war. His A.I. supervisor informs him that he has been added to a list of people considered “potential domestic terrorists.” Remaining on this list will make it hard for him to work and live.
Then, one day, his digital doctor asks if he would like some assistance in ending his life peacefully. “You can save others,” he is told, “by permanently reducing your carbon footprint.” In agony, he wonders, “How did we get here?”
The shortest answer to our future friend is this: governments abandoned sound money. They replaced gold coins with paper currencies. They made it illegal for ordinary citizens to conduct business freely and demanded that government-issued bills be used in economic transactions. Then they gave private central banks the authority to print these paper bills whenever they determined that doing so would be good for the economy.
Whose economy do wealthy central bankers protect — Wall Street’s or that of the working class? Although putatively charged with financial duties to maximize employment and minimize inflation, central banks function as market manipulators and money printers for overspending governments. By increasing the supply of paper currency, the price of consumer goods rises. However, the numerical price of stock market shares also goes up. These capital assets do not gain any real value, but their rising prices give the illusion of economic growth. Many bad companies that would never survive in a free market become lucrative investment opportunities in fake markets. Easy money sustains companies that produce no market value. Who loses most in this artificial arrangement? The poorest people who have no stocks and only limited cash savings. They have watched the hundred-dollar bill hidden under their mattresses lose most of its value over the last fifty years.
Neither fiat currencies nor central banks have any functional place in free societies. Governments that manipulate the value of money rig markets and steal from the working poor. The wealthiest end up owning everything, while everyone else tries to balance life precariously on a tightrope of consumer debts, mortgages, long-term loans, and the growing prospect of insolvency. This world that financial and political elites have built is unsustainable. It is also a kind of economic slavery.
Because it is unsustainable, those who have benefited most from its creation will do anything they must to survive its collapse. A crashing dollar does not matter if those who control the financial system today control the central bank digital currencies of tomorrow. Gross inequality and rampant poverty do not matter if governments can convince unhappy citizens that climate change, disease, and war require them to own less and sacrifice more. Growing public anger does not matter if those with armies can censor speech, throttle food supplies, foment wars, and imprison dissidents.
Ponder this: how much of the story above seems foreign, and how much of it seems painfully familiar? Your answer tells us just how much time we have left.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Tue, 09/03/2024 - 23:25
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/globalism-economic-slavery
So Much For Sanctions: Russia Surpasses US For Gas Exports To EU
So Much For Sanctions: Russia Surpasses US For Gas Exports To EU
By Liz Heflin of https://rmx.news/article/so-much-for-sanctions-russia-surpasses-us-for-gas-exports-to-eu/
From April to June, the European Union bought more than 12.7 billion cubic meters from Russia and 12.3 billion cubic meters from the United States.
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Director of the Russian Department of Economic Cooperation of the Foreign Ministry, Dmitri Birichevski, says Russia now supplies 15 percent of the total volume of natural gas imported by the European Union. This despite the EU’s REPowerEU instituted back in May 2022 to shift away from Russia and cut it off from its flow of energy profits.
Birichevski noted, in particular, the fact that France imported 4.4 billion cubic meters of liquid natural gas (LNG) in the first quarter of 2024, more than double the circa 2 billion it imported in 2023.
Norway is still in first place, having supplied the EU with 23.9 billion cubic meters in Q2. Prior to its invasion of Ukraine, Russia held the top spot.
The German government maintains it no longer imports any gas from Moscow. However, many member states clearly do.
In the face of renewed demands to end Russian imports and defund Putin’s war chest, the energy policy spokesman for the Free Democratic Party (FDP) suggested that the EU “pay a fixed amount of aid and arms supplies to Ukraine for every cubic meter of imported Russian gas.“
After Hungarian FM Szijjártó's meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, Hungary doubles down on Russian gas, saying it is not a matter of ideology but physics.
The government has repeatedly put families and households first when it comes to securing energy supply, and with the… https://t.co/iBL0Rl6J3p
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1829523156358324736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The matter of Russian gas imports has been an ongoing saga, with reports of shipments from Russia being essentially laundered through other countries and pipelines to avoid being stamped as “Russian.”
This new data comes in the face of no less than 14 sanctions packages, including the latest one adopted in June, which specifically prohibits the transit of Russian LNG.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Tue, 09/03/2024 - 18:25
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/so-much-sanctions-russia-surpasses-us-gas-exports-eu
Yale Divinity Students Forced To Read From Witch's "Spell" At Orientation
Yale Divinity Students Forced To Read From Witch's "Spell" At Orientation
By Raleigh Adams of https://www.thecollegefix.com/yale-divinity-students-forced-to-read-from-witchs-spell-at-orientation/
Yale’s Divinity School coerced students to read from a “spell” written by a “witch” as part of its Before the Fall Orientation.
The three-day orientation between Aug. 21 to 23 saw a series of talks and activities preparing incoming students for the year ahead, interspersed with small group discussions.
One of these small group periods was the first activity of orientation. Participating as an incoming student in one of these circles, I saw how the discussion opened with a set of “Restorative Circle Rules.” These rules boiled down to a warning to be open minded: all viewpoints were expected to be heard, that you only have to take what you want from the circle and participate as wanted – at least nominally.
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After this show of inclusion, we as students were led to read aloud, line by line and one by one, from Adrienne Brown’s “https://adriennemareebrown.net/2018/02/20/radical-gratitude-spell/
.”
Brown (pictured) has been https://meetingofmindsuk.uk/africa-in-focus/on-pleasure-and-belonging-manifesting-lessons-from-adrienne-maree-brown-in-egypt/#:~:text=adrienne%20is%20a%20mixed%2Drace,%E2%80%93%20may%20I%20say%20%E2%80%93%20goddess.
by Meeting of Minds as a “mixed-race Black queer American writer, community organizer, facilitator, witch and- may I say- goddess.”
Brown herself ascribes to witchcraft, and it informs her public work. Her website describes her as someone who “grows healing ideas in public” through “her writing, which includes short- and long-form fiction, nonfiction, spells, tarot” and “her music, which includes songwriting, singing and immersive musical rituals.”
This context of Brown, her work, and her particular spiritual inclinations was not given to students before participating in the reading. As such, the group reading of the spell took on an undeniable coven-like feeling, with students unable to fully consent to the pseudo-ritual knowingly, despite the Circle Rules.
A second-year student, who requested to remain anonymous, expressed to me a deep concern over this act by the orientation staff. The student called the provided spell “bizarre,” and “gross,” especially for students to not be told of the author or intentions behind the spell before being led to participate.
Other recent Yale College graduates and members of the campus Catholic community commented to me in conversation, in a simultaneously tongue in cheek, yet serious manner, that “the very campus of the Divinity School needed prayer.”
They were unsurprised at the inclusion of the spell into orientation. Apparently, it is a popularly known fact amongst more conservative and religious circles in the Yale community that there is little still “divine” about the Divinity School.
As a student who experienced the “Radical Gratitude Spell” first hand, it was a deeply concerning experience for the state of higher education.
Under the name of inclusion, acts of pagan spirituality are being blindly normalized in educational spaces, Yale Divinity School being a prime example of such.
Conversely, the preference for diversity comes at the expense of the sanctity of other students’ faith. While it was proclaimed that “you only have to take what you want from this circle,” personally I did not feel safe to opt out of the spell, being all too aware of the power imbalance and the risk of social stigma against me in this completely new environment. I cannot imagine myself being the only one to feel this way.
Diversity and nominal comfort come at a cost. Its inclusion in orientation raises deep concerns over the boundary that exists between said diversity and the religious rights of individual students.
This worry is especially poignant in the nearly blind way which the spell was integrated into our first moments as students at Yale.
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Tue, 09/03/2024 - 17:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/yale-divinity-students-forced-read-witchs-spell-orientation
Media Giant CMG Bragged About Eavesdropping On Phone, Laptop Or 'Smart Home' Microphones
Media Giant CMG Bragged About Eavesdropping On Phone, Laptop Or 'Smart Home' Microphones
For years people have suspected that their smartphones, laptops, and home assistants were secretly eavesdropping on their private conversations. Now, a leaked pitch deck seems to confirm that our devices are, in fact, listening—and the implications are far-reaching.
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A leaked pitch deck presentation from Cox Media Group (CMG) - major player in the digital advertising space, appears to detail how its "Active-Listening" software uses artificial intelligence to capture and analyze "real-time intent data" from users' conversations. The presentation, https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-listening-ad-targeting/
reports.
Active-Listening: A Six-Step Process to Harvest Voice Data
The pitch deck outlines a six-step process for CMG's Active-Listening software, which turns seemingly benign conversations into targeted advertising gold. The first slide describes how the software listens to your conversations and extracts real-time intent data, which advertisers can then pair with behavioral data to target "in-market consumers." In simple terms, it means that if you mention a product or service in a conversation, advertisers can target you with ads for that very item.
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For instance, if you're talking about Toyota cars with a friend, you might soon find yourself inundated with ads for Toyota’s latest models. This alleged use of private conversations for ad targeting represents a significant breach of what most people consider to be their personal privacy.
The slideshow goes further, showcasing tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon as clients of CMG, suggesting they may use this controversial technology. These companies have long denied listening to user conversations through device microphones, but this leaked document raises new questions.
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Tech Giants in Hot Water: Denials, Uncertainties, and Potential Backpedaling
Following the leak, Google swiftly removed Cox Media Group from its "Partners Program" website, a move that suggests a distancing from the controversial practice. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, responded by stating it is reviewing CMG for any potential violations of its terms of service. Meanwhile, Amazon declared that its advertising division "has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so." However, their spokesperson left the door slightly ajar, stating that if a marketing partner violates their rules, action will be taken.
The mixed responses leave the status of these relationships somewhat murky. Are these denials simply a strategy to buy time while the companies reassess their partnerships with CMG, or are they genuinely unaware of these practices?
Is Active Listening Legal?
Although the notion of listening to conversations may seem like an egregious violation of privacy, CMG claims it is entirely legal. In a now-deleted blog post from November 2023, CMG wrote, "We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal? The short answer is: yes. It is legal for phones and devices to listen to you."
The legality, CMG argues, comes from the lengthy and often-overlooked "terms of use" agreements that consumers must accept when downloading new apps or updates. Buried in the fine print of these agreements, the software's Active Listening feature is sometimes included, making the practice legally permissible—if ethically questionable.
This might explain how CMG operates in states like California, where wiretapping laws typically prohibit recording someone without their knowledge. If users unknowingly consented to these practices when they accepted an app's terms of service, then companies like CMG can claim they are within their rights.
A Long-Running Speculation, Now Potentially Validated
For years, users have speculated that their phones or tablets were eavesdropping on their private conversations, only to serve up eerily targeted ads shortly after. Tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon have consistently denied these claims. Meta’s online privacy center even states, "We understand that sometimes ads can be so specific, it seems like we must be listening to your conversations through your microphone, but we're not."
However, the leaked pitch deck paints a different picture. It appears to confirm what millions have long suspected: tech giants and their marketing partners could be cashing in on what users say in the privacy of their homes.
New Revelations Spark Further Concerns
This revelation follows a series of similar findings that have ignited debates over privacy in the digital age. Just a day after the CMG leak, 404 Media exposed another AI marketing company, MindSift, which boasted on a podcast about using smart device speakers to target ads.
As more details emerge, the extent of privacy violations continues to grow. The question now is, what steps will regulators, companies, and consumers take in response to these revelations? Will there be a move toward more stringent privacy protections, or will these practices become more ingrained in the digital advertising landscape?
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https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Tue, 09/03/2024 - 16:40
"Counterfeit Political Ads": Philadelphia Eagles Disavow Guerilla Street Posters Endorsing Kamala Harris
"Counterfeit Political Ads": Philadelphia Eagles Disavow Guerilla Street Posters Endorsing Kamala Harris
The Philadelphia Eagles have disavowed guerilla art street posters claiming that Kamala Harris is the "official candidate" of the team.
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The posters, which have been spotted on 16th and Spring Garden streets, 18th Street and JFK Boulevard, and 34th and Walnut streets in Philadelphia show Harris holding a football while wearing a black Philadelphia Eagles jersey and Eagles helmet.
And while we're sure Harris owns some knee pads, the team says they had nothing to do with the creation, calling the posters "counterfeit political ads" that they're working to remove.
We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed.
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/1830657116702642281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
And there it is...
BREAKING: The Philadelphia Eagles just issued a statement rebuking the "counterfeit" Kamala Harris ads that have been put up in the city using their name. They're actively getting them REMOVED as we speak
They say the city of Philly somehow worked with someone to put them up. We… https://t.co/KVSBxyABTX
— George (@BehizyTweets) https://twitter.com/BehizyTweets/status/1830709063505846355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The city told https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/philadelphia-eagles-kamala-harris-endorsement-art/
the following:
"A number of illegally placed posters of Kamala Harris and the Philadelphia Eagles were placed in bus shelters in Philadelphia. These were not digital ads placed by the Harris campaign, the Philadelphia EAGLES, SEPTA, The City of Philadelphia or the media agency, Intersection, that handles the transit ad space. This was not a digital breach; whomever is responsible for the illegally placed posters, broke into the securely covered shelter ad space and somehow put the posters in the space. Intersection has advised the City's Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS) that they plan to conduct a full inventory tomorrow of all bus shelters, and remove any illegally posters. The City has a process to review all bus shelter ads but this, again, was not a digital ad."
According to the report, citing social media, the work is from artist Winston Tseng - who has created previous faux ads for major brands.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C9tKGsttCn4/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
https://www.instagram.com/p/C9tKGsttCn4/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
https://www.instagram.com/p/C9tKGsttCn4/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1wy2lbOqnd/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1wy2lbOqnd/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1wy2lbOqnd/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
That said, some people aren't so sure it wasn't a rogue marketing campaign from the Eagles.
BREAKING:
🚨🚨🚨🚨
Following my expose of Christian Molnar’s X post last night in which he attacked a man for covering up the pro Kamala Harris https://twitter.com/Eagles?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) https://twitter.com/LauraLoomer/status/1830970906228703561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Tue, 09/03/2024 - 12:05
American Workers Talk About What Drives Them
American Workers Talk About What Drives Them
,
Work defines us. It shapes our days, fills our hours, gives meaning to what we do and who we are.
For some, it’s a profession, a career, a calling. Others see a job as a necessity that allows them to do their most important work: raising a family, building a community, pitching in to help others.
This is the work that has built America. This Labor Day weekend, we pause to praise the American worker.
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‘There Ain’t No Quit in Me’
Farrier Robb Hoffman thinks a lot about the state of America as he drives between commercial horse operations and backyard hobby farms throughout North Florida.
His “office” is a small, white pickup with a mobile workshop in the bed, filled with tools for trimming horses’ hooves and shaping horseshoes.
For job security and because he has five grandchildren, he hopes the next president will bring about “a good, strong economy and a strong border,” he told The Epoch Times. “That’s more conducive to business.”
Without those things, “the people start to suffer and they start to cut the fat. They start to do away with things they don’t need, like horses.”
Hoffman, 59, hopes the upcoming election will put someone in the White House who is “for the people, and for our country. They’re Americans first, and they’re politicians second.”
“I can tell you straight up, there’s been many a day that my wife and I have ate less, so our kids can eat more. And I think all families go through that.”
Horses’ hooves continuously grow and need to be trimmed and balanced about every 4-6 weeks. Some need shoes that must be customized for each hoof. Some need corrective or therapeutic shoeing in order to move freely and without pain.
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Hoffman went to farrier school out West to become certified in his craft. Then he apprenticed with pros near Ocala, Florida, said to be the horse capital of the world.
To make ends meet, he often works 12- to 16-hour days, sometimes six days a week. It’s the kind of bent-over work that makes a guy’s back, legs, and arms ache.
Between each horse, he rests a bit and takes a few sips of water he keeps in his truck.
“If you don’t like hard work, and working when it’s 105 degrees, or working when it’s pouring down rain and all your tools are getting wet, it’s just not a career somebody would want to pursue.”
So why do it?
It’s simple, he told The Epoch Times.
“I love horses, and I love people.
“Plus, my dad instilled in me a work ethic that, no matter what, you don’t give up.
“He used to tell me all the time, that there’s nothing more important in your life than your job … you always provide for your family. You feed your kids, you clothe your kids, and you take care of your kids and your wife.”
Hoffman has had “a lot of health issues and a lot of debilitating things”… “but I just don’t quit. There ain’t no quit in me.”
He works wearing therapeutic shoes and leg braces.
“I just don’t look at it like a disability. I just look at it like, this is the cross that I bear, and I’m gonna do everything I can to do everything that I do well.
And he doesn’t see his work as just providing foot care for horses.
“I’ve tried to use this as a ministry. Sometimes that has to deal with Christianity, and sometimes people just need to talk, to get things off their chest, like therapy.”
One client calls him a “farr-apist.” It’s a moniker he’d like to put on a hat some day.
The Value of Work
Darryl Burkett doesn’t fit the stereotype of a CEO. With his ball cap cocked back on his head, he contemplates the grease under his nails, takes a break from restocking his truck with plumbing supplies, and opines about why he’s proud of his work in Durant, Oklahoma.
Since 2009, he’s owned and operated KD Plumbing & Construction, LLC., a business that has grown to employ 14 people in a warehouse near the airport. He figures the keys to his entrepreneurial success are his dedication to his family and his community and an education that extends beyond classrooms and lectures. His most skilled instructor, he says, was his father.
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“My dad told me that if you learn how to do everything and you’re willing to do anything, you’ll always make a living. You make yourself valuable,” he told The Epoch Times.
Like most ranchers, tradesmen, and blue collar workers in this Southeast Oklahoma town, Burkett has amassed a variety of skills. He welds, fixes equipment, repairs plumbing, builds things, and operates all kinds of vehicles.
“There’s nothing that I’m scared to do.”
He played some baseball in college, then went to work at the Choctaw Casino & Resort-Durant. But realizing he “was not an inside guy,” he moved on to work with his father, who taught him valuable technical skills.
But more importantly, he said, his father taught him the value of work.
Eventually, he bought a truck, gathered his tools, and opened his own business. But it’s the work ethic, taught by his father, that has kept his company open and his family fed, he said.
“I like to work with my hands. I’ll get down in the hole like anyone else. If I have to keep my crew late, I’m right there with them.”
He likes knowing that others, far beyond his immediate family, depend on the jobs he provides. Few think about the workers who tend a city’s infrastructure ... until the water stops.
“If [tradesmen] quit for a week, the country would fall apart,” he said.
Burkett wants his children to feel the same pride and satisfaction in their work, regardless of the career they choose. He’s less concerned about the kind of work they do and more focused on the type of workers they become.
“I want to teach them well enough to be my competitors someday.”
Blue Collar Skills Pay
Blue collar workers deserve the same respect as other professionals, some told The Epoch Times.
Nine years ago, Kevin Dougherty was a cybersecurity specialist with a company in Houston, Texas. Today, he prefers to wield a chainsaw from an elevated bucket mounted to a truck as part of a three-man tree-trimming crew in Bryan County, Oklahoma.
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“I’m tired of working in an office,” said Dougherty, 39, foreman of Texoma Dirty Work Tree Service. “As much as I can, I like to get in the bucket.”
Along with co-workers DJ Henson and Billy Derryberry, he trims limbs away from roofs and electrical lines and removes trees that could fall on buildings or other property.
His coworker, Henson, left the loan department of a local bank about a year ago to trim trees. All three men in the crew agree: They find fulfillment and enjoyment in providing an essential service that protects their customers’ property.
“[Without us] trees would fall on houses,” Henson said.
Plus, running chainsaws and wood chippers pays better than shuffling papers and typing on computer keyboards, they said.
Henson spends about 55 hours a week raking tree debris and hauling away the limbs Dougherty drops to the ground from more than 20 feet above. Then he feeds them into a chipper.
“It’s harder work“ than at the bank, Henson said, ”but I make a lot more money.”
Dougherty said most of his coworkers were raised in politically and socially conservative homes. Most still lean that way, he said, and they base political preferences largely on policies affecting their work.
When it comes to who will inhabit the White House next, he said, issues such as the Keystone pipeline make the best barometers of blue collar sympathies.
“When they shut that down, a lot of blue collar guys started reaching [out to be] Republican. They’re deciding on [voting for] whoever will keep them at work.”
He believes salaries for blue collar vocations are rising because fewer people are willing to do physically demanding work. And despite what some may think, education matters, even in blue collar work. The more skills you master, the more you can earn, he said.
“You can make six figures easy.”
But, some things matter more than money.
“I get out here and do it because I love it,” he said. “People don’t realize that blue collar jobs are honorable.”
Every Shift Brings an Opportunity
Gina Rivera, 27, is filling shifts this Labor Day weekend as a server at a restaurant where patrons will be celebrating the holiday that honors workers.
She’s fine with that.
In fact, it’s an opportunity. Not only will the single mother earn some side-hustle cash, but she'll also be able to market herself.
Rivera, of Lakeland, Florida, holds three jobs. She’s a licensed cosmetologist and a real estate agent, too. For her, each job blends into the others.
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“I like networking. I like meeting new people, talking with people,” she told The Epoch Times.
Every diner, salon client, and prospective home buyer is a potential customer at one of her other businesses.
Those are Rivera’s jobs.
Her “work” is caring for her three children. At 7, her oldest, Malachi, is just starting second grade. Her middle child, Luca, is 4, and the youngest, Rosemar, is just 3 three months old.
It’s constant motion, a work in progress.
“It’s hard,” the Massachusetts native said. “I had to push myself. There were times I wanted to give up.”
If not for her mother—a fellow cosmetologist, who encouraged her to pursue that licensing—and a friend who watches her children, Rivera couldn’t support her family.
“It takes a village,” she said. “A lot of women don’t have a village.”
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Mon, 09/02/2024 - 19:20
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/american-workers-talk-about-what-drives-them
ICC Informs Mongolia It Must Arrest Putin When He Arrives
ICC Informs Mongolia It Must Arrest Putin When He Arrives
The International Criminal Court is seeking to remind its members state Mongolia that it must detain Russian President Vladimir Putin when he arrives in the country which shares a border with Russia on Monday.
Any country that signed the Rome Statute, which Mongolia has done, will "have the obligation to cooperate in accordance with Chapter IX," a statement by The Hague-based court told the https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0e852r50x7o
.
ICC spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah went so far as to threaten significant repercussions for Mongolia if it does not comply. "In case of non-cooperation, ICC judges may make a finding to that effect and inform the Assembly of States Parties of it. It is then for the Assembly to take any measure it deems appropriate," he said.
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The only exceptions that the Rome Statute does provide includes avoiding the violation of a treaty obligation with another country, or if an arrest would violate the "diplomatic immunity of a person or property of a third state."
To be expected, Ukraine too is calling on Mongolia to abide by its obligations with the International Criminal Court and arrest Putin.
This impending trip marks the first time that Putin will travel to a country which is legally obligated to arrest him, following the ICC issuing its arrest warrant for him last March on allegations of overseeing war crimes and human rights abuses in Ukraine.
The Kremlin says is that the visit is at the invitation of Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh. While Putin is there, the two leaders will attend a ceremony commemorating the 1939 Soviet-Mongolian victory over Japan in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol.
"The heads of state will discuss prospects for further development of the Russian-Mongolian comprehensive strategic partnership,” the Kremlin described. Regional analyst Samuel Ramani https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1829246268733788653
that the "aim of the trip is likely to promote the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline with China."
Mongolia has long vocalized that it remains neutral on the question of the Ukraine war. Mongolia and Russia have also long been close regional allies, even this week having held joint military exercises.
In August of 2023 President Putin decided to skip an in person BRICS summit hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa - precisely because the host country is a Rome statute signatory.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/Putin?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
— Manu Gómez (@gosthdarkconrad) https://twitter.com/gosthdarkconrad/status/1830138947558605298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Moscow has emphasized of this week's events in the Mongolian capital that it expects everything to go smoothly. "We have an excellent rapport with our partners from Mongolia," spokesperson for the Russian presidency Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a fresh statement. "Of course, all aspects of the president’s visit have been carefully prepared."
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Mon, 09/02/2024 - 05:35
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/icc-informs-mongolia-it-must-arrest-putin-when-he-arrives