fredag, 07 juli
22:00
Biden Says Assad Must Go [ZeroHedge News]
Biden Says Assad Must Go
Authored by Connor Freeman via The Libertarian Institute,
While on the campaign trail, President Joe Biden spoke with some “Syrian American activists” who favor increased sanctions on the country as well as regime change in Damascus, during a private fundraiser in Maryland last month. According to neoconservative columnist Josh Rogin – one of Bill Kristol’s protégés – Biden told these regime change advocates that, among other things, Assad must go. Rogin says these activists “took advantage of their audience with Biden… to implore him to do more to oppose” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Alla Tello, a Syrian American from Massachusetts, said she declared to Biden that “Assad must go,” to which the president responded “I agree.” That rallying cry was first uttered in 2011, when the Barack Obama administration began launching its dirty war against Damascus, an ultimately failed but extremely bloody regime change effort.
Al-Qaeda affiliated militants and Islamic State fighters waged a war against the people of Syria and its government that is estimated to have resulted in the deaths of more than 500,000 people. The terrorist forces that carried out the failed regime change attempt were supported often by the CIA and its allies, including the British, the French, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar.
Consequently, Russia maintains a significant military presence in Syria, having intervened at the request of Assad in 2015 to help beat back ISIS and al Qaeda elements wreaking havoc. Iran and Hezbollah also came to the aid of Damascus. Tello demanded that that Washington do more to “help the Syrian people free themselves from the grip” of Assad, Tehran, and Moscow. “[Biden] said, ‘I can’t promise you, but I will do the best I can,’” she told Rogin.
“Encouragingly, these activists told me, Biden not only seemed to care deeply about the plight of Syrians but also seemed to want to do more about it,” Rogin writes. This rings hollow as for years, on a near-weekly basis, Tel Aviv has dropped bombs on Syria. Last year, the Wall Steet Journal reported that a large portion of these air raids are carried out with the US military’s coordination. The Israelis claim their constant airstrikes are meant to counter Iranian forces in the country, though they routinely target and kill Syrian soldiers as well as civilians, along with airports, and other civilian infrastructure. This year, following a devastating earthquake which killed thousands of Syrians, the Aleppo airport – which was a vital channel for aid – was bombed on three separate occasions and rendered inoperable by the Israeli Air Force.
During the last several decades, Biden has been known as apartheid “Israel’s man in Washington.” Since becoming president, including in the wake of the Israeli military’s murder of Shireen Abu Akleh, an American journalist, he has said emphatically that US ties with Tel Aviv are “bone-deep.” In May, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant boasted that since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power last December, the airstrikes in Syria have doubled. Reportedly, Israel has bombed Syria at least 19 times this year alone.
Muhammad Bakr Ghbeis, Tello’s husband, told Biden “We have to save Idlib.” This northwestern province has been controlled by al Qaeda affiliates for years as a result of Washington’s policy. Even the hawkish Brett McGurk, the former anti-ISIS envoy under Obama and Trump, admitted in 2017 that “Idlib Province is the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11.” McGurk is now Biden’s top Middle East official on the National Security Council.
“Please save Idlib, Mr. President,” Ghbeis pleaded, to which Biden replied “I hear you, but I can’t send U.S. soldiers to Syria.” Washington currently has about 900 troops illegally deployed to eastern Syria, backing the Kurdish-led SDF, and occupying about a third of the country, where US forces control most of Syria’s oil and wheat resources. This is not the first time Biden has forgotten he has US forces engaged in combat in Syria and dropping bombs.
As Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the commander of CENTCOM, has conceded, the American troops’ unwanted presence is becoming increasingly dangerous as there have been numerous close calls with Russian forces as well as aircraft and dozens of attacks by ostensibly Iranian backed groups. Nevertheless, Biden is not reducing troop levels, instead another base is being built in the northern province of Raqqa.
If Biden believes Syria's Assad should go, he should take action
— Ayman Abdel Nour (@aabnour) July 6, 2023
- The Washington Posthttps://t.co/Ss609rMIwC
Ultimately, these so-called activists at the Maryland fundraiser were agitating for a more bellicose sanctions policy aimed at thwarting the regional realignment which has taken place this year, namely with Riyadh normalizing relations with Damascus and Syria being welcomed back into the Arab League. Syria’s neighbors including former adversaries have largely accepted that Assad is not going anywhere. However, Biden’s administration opposes these moves toward bringing Assad in from the cold and, following the Arab League’s decision, imposed more sanctions on Syria.
Rogin said these activists insisted “[the White House] publicly support a bipartisan bill called the Assad Regime AntiNormalization Act that would stiffen penalties on any entity that aids the Assad regime.”
After more than a decade of brutal war, rebuilding Syria will cost an estimated $250-400 billion. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, America’s top diplomat, has made clear that the administration is absolutely committed “to oppose the reconstruction of Syria” absent regime change. To that end, Washington has for years implemented a harsh sanctions regime on Syria using the bipartisan Caesar Act, a law which can target any person or entity of any nationality that attempts to do business with the war-torn country. These sanctions deliberately target the country’s engineering and construction sectors.
As a result, the civilian population has been devastated. According to Alena Douhan, a UN special rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures who visited Syria for twelve days last year, the sanctions “severely harm human rights and prevent any efforts for early recovery, rebuilding and reconstruction.” She added that “12 million Syrians grapple with food insecurity” and “90% of Syria’s population currently lives in poverty,” with limited access to food, shelter, water, electricity, healthcare, heating, cooking, fuel, and transportation.
Harassment, Death Threats Against Web Designer Surge Since Supreme Court Decision Upholding Freedom Of Speech [ZeroHedge News]
Harassment, Death Threats Against Web Designer Surge Since Supreme Court Decision Upholding Freedom Of Speech
Authored by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Lorie Smith, the Colorado website designer at the heart of the Supreme Court’s landmark 303 Creative v. Elenis June 30 decision upholding every American’s freedom of speech, is receiving a barrage of increasingly intense harassment, including serious death threats, following the 6–3 ruling.
“Especially in the last week, despite the victory last week, I do continue to face horrific attacks, people saying they hope I would be raped; they want to burn my house down; they know where I live, and they want to come kill me and my family,” Ms. Smith told The Epoch Times on July 5 in an exclusive interview.
“Our security team is monitoring all of the comments that come in very, very closely to determine the best way to protect Lorie and to take action consistent with the threat,” said Kellie Fiedorek, Senior Counsel and Government Affairs Director for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the public interest law firm that has represented Ms. Smith throughout her case.
“We cannot share any more about the internal conversations we are having, but it is deeply disheartening to see Lorie experience vicious harassment and death threats over her stand for all Americans’ free speech and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that just affirmed both those who agree and those who vehemently disagree with Lorie have the right to say what they believe without fear of government punishment,” Ms. Fiedorek said.
Ms. Smith said the intensity of the harassment reached a crescendo as the ruling was imminent during the High Court’s summer decision week at the end of June.
“Just last week, my website crashed with over 10 million attacks, messages saying things that would make your skin crawl,” Ms. Smith said. “It’s sad to me because, at the end of the day, when I am standing to protect those individuals who have submitted those hateful responses, standing to protect me and them as well, of course, it’s heartbreaking.”
Ms. Smith’s case arose from her concerns that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission officials would use the state’s anti-discrimination statute to force her to create websites that convey speech with which she disagrees, especially concerning traditional versus same-sex marriage. She had left a productive corporate web design and digital marketing career to start her own business, known as 303 Creative.
Ms. Smith was worried because the state had previously sought to use the law against Jack Phillips, a baker who objected to being forced to make cakes celebrating same-sex marriages, but she was encouraged when the High Court ruled in Phillips’s favor in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Colorado officials, however, continued their legal efforts against Mr. Phillips even after the decision. Like Ms. Smith, Mr. Phillips is defended by ADF.
Ms. Smith lost at the federal district court, but she appealed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States. When the appeals court ruled against her, Ms. Smith appealed to the Supreme Court, which accepted the case strictly for the purpose of deciding if a state government can use its laws “to compel an individual to create speech she does not believe.”
Read more here...
Great Migration: Mercedes-Benz Adopts Tesla's NACS Charging Standard [ZeroHedge News]
Great Migration: Mercedes-Benz Adopts Tesla's NACS Charging Standard
Mercedes-Benz is the first German automaker to announce the adoption of Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS). In 2024, Mercedes EV drivers can use Tesla's Supercharger network across North America. Then in 2025, all new Mercedes EVs will be equipped with NACS ports.
In addition to the more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers in North America, Mercedes will also establish its own High-Power Charging Network with more than 400 Charging Hubs, including more than 2,500 high-power chargers, to ensure there are a sufficient number of chargers, as an increasing number of EVs are hitting roadways.
"Our strategic priority is clear: Building the world's most desirable cars. To accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, we are dedicated to elevating the entire EV-experience for our customers - including fast, convenient, and reliable charging solutions wherever their Mercedes-Benz takes them. That's why we are committed to building our global Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging Network, with the first sites opening this year. In parallel, we are also implementing NACS in our vehicles, allowing drivers to access an expansive network of high-quality charging offerings in North America." Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management Mercedes-Benz Group AG, wrote in a statement.
Data from the US Department of Energy shows Tesla's Superchargers account for about 60% of all fast chargers in the US. The Biden administration has committed billions of dollars to expand the nationwide EV charging network.
Mercedes joins Ford, GM, Rivian, Volvo, and Polestar in recently announcing NACS adoption. That still leaves Volkswagen, BMW, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Stellantis, and Tata's Jaguar Land Rover, among other brands, to eventually announce the switch from Combined Charging System (CCS) to NACS. Several states, including Texas, Kentucky, and Washington, have mandated charging stations funded by the government must include NACS.
What's clear is that the EV space is attempting to standardize NACS to ensure reliability and convenience across all brands as a nationwide charging network is being expanded.
Maybe, in the next few years, EV owners won't have to carry an annoying bin of adapters as the charging network will be standardized with NACS. Tesla appears to be the big winner.
Ukraine Spy Chief Says Threat To Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Subsiding [ZeroHedge News]
Ukraine Spy Chief Says Threat To Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Subsiding
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said Thursday that the threat to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is subsiding.
Ukrainian officials have been claiming without evidence that Russia planted explosives at the ZNPP and were warning an attack was imminent. But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Wednesday its experts at the plant saw no signs of explosives, although the agency was asking for more access.
Budanov said the alleged Russia threat was "decreasing" but wouldn’t offer any details.
"Sorry I can’t tell you what happened recently but the fact is that the threat is decreasing," he said. "This means that at least we have all together with joint efforts somehow postponed a technogenic catastrophe."
Russian officials were also accusing Ukraine of plotting an attack on the ZNPP, which has been controlled by Russia since March 2022.
A Russian nuclear advisor claimed Ukrainian forces planned to fire missiles at the plant stuffed with radioactive material on July 5, but the attack never happened.
The Kremlin has accused Zelensky and his officials of lying...
Zelensky lying to drag NATO into direct conflict with Russia🇷🇺?
— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) July 5, 2023
The IAEA’s Director General Grossi says there was no evidence of mining of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which directly refutes Zeleneksy’s claim that bombs have been planted by Russian forces. pic.twitter.com/Ro3Zes52sg
The ZNPP has been the scene of fighting throughout the war as Ukraine launched failed attacks on the plant to recapture the facility last fall. At the time, Ukraine blamed shelling on the Russian-controlled plant on Russian forces.
Wisconsin Governor Raises School Funding For 400 Years Via 'Partial Veto' [ZeroHedge News]
Wisconsin Governor Raises School Funding For 400 Years Via 'Partial Veto'
This is an era in which executive power is running amok at all levels of government. Many times, those powers are usurped. However, on Wednesday, Wisconsin's governor put on an exhibition of extreme executive authority that has been explicitly granted to him, as he unilaterally amended a law so that it now mandates annual school spending increases for the next four centuries.
Under Wisconsin's "partial veto" law -- which is the most extreme in the union -- governors can eliminate words and digits in a bill so long as they don't combine multiple sentences to create new sentences.
The bill that was before Democratic Governor Tony Evers authorized $325-per-student annual spending increase "for the 2023-24 school year and the 2024-25 school year." Evers, himself a former teacher and state school superintendent, slashed the 20 and the hyphen from the 2025-25, thus making it refer to the year 2425 (if man is still alive).
Gov. Evers of Wisconsin, using his partial veto, ensured school funding increases for 400 years.
— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) July 5, 2023
He struck "the," "24," the following several words, "20," and the hyphen, creating "For the limit for 2023-2425, add $325 to the result under par." pic.twitter.com/zkjKAuFHBW
Partial vetoes are rarely overridden in the state, given it requires a two-thirds majority. A subsequent legislature and governor can nix the four-century spending increase plan, but unless they do, it's now the default path for Wisconsin school spending.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos called Evers' 400-year veto "an unprecedented brand-new way to screw the taxpayer...that was never imagined by a previous governor and certainly wouldn’t by anybody who thinks there is a fair process in Wisconsin.”
The partial veto power forces legislatures to devote extra time and energy to try thwarting the kind of monkey business Evers pulled on Wednesday. For example, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Republicans are now careful to use "cannot" instead of "may not," as the latter phrasing allows a governor to strike the word "not" and enact a law that completely inverts the legislature's intent.
Democrats haven't been the only ones to abuse Wisconsin's partial veto power. In 2017, Scott Walker extended the expiration of a program authorizing increased spending on energy efficient programs for a thousand years. And while Evers made 51 partial vetoes this year, Republican Tommy Thompson is the record-holder with a whopping 457 of them in 1991.
Voters in the Badger State have twice voted to curtail the partial veto:
In 1990, voters took away the “Vanna White veto,” which had allowed governors to strike individual letters in words to create new words. In 2008, voters rejected the “Frankenstein veto,” which had involved combining parts of two or more sentences to create a new sentence." -- The New York Times
Despite those moves, governors keep making mischief. In addition to the 400-year alteration, Evers also gutted a GOP-led income tax cut, reducing its size from $3.5 billion to just $175 million, while also nixing a reduction in the number of tax brackets.
Looks like Wisconsin citizens who believe in limited executive power better go back to the drawing board.
RFK Jr Blasts Media's "Organized Conspiracy" To Suppress COVID Information And Stick To "Government Orthodoxy" [ZeroHedge News]
RFK Jr Blasts Media's "Organized Conspiracy" To Suppress COVID Information And Stick To "Government Orthodoxy"
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,
During a podcast appearance with Lex Fridman, Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. outlined how during the pandemic the media engaged in an “organised conspiracy” by acting as “propaganda organs for the government agencies,” and acting to censor “anybody who dissented.”
Kennedy again spoke at length of the “insurmountable and mountainous and overwhelming” evidence that the CIA was involved in the murder of his uncle and his father, prompting Fridman to ask “What is the mechanism by which the CIA influences the narrative?”
“Through the press,” Kennedy responded, adding “Directly through key members — there are certain press organs that have been linked to the agency, the people who run those organs, things like the Daily Beast and Rolling Stone… have deep relationships with the intelligence community. Salon, Daily Kos.”
He continued, “I actually think the entire field of journalism has really shamed itself in recent years. It has become, the principal newspapers in this country, and the television stations, and the legacy media, have abandoned their tradition… they believed that the function of journalists was to maintain this posture of fierce skepticism toward any aggregation of power, including government authority… their job was to speak truth to power and be guardians of the first amendment right to free expression.”
“But if you look at what happened during the pandemic, it was the inverse of that kind of journalism,” RFK Jr. further urged, adding “the major press organs in this country… were broadcasting propaganda, they became propaganda organs for the government agencies. They were actually censoring the speech of anybody who dissented, of the powerless.”
“In fact, it was an organized conspiracy. The name of it was the Trusted News Initiative,” Kennedy noted, adding “Some of the major press organizations in our country signed onto it. They agreed not to print stories or facts that departed from government orthodoxy.”
“The Washington Post was a signatory of the TPI, the AP, and the four social media groups, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, and Google all signed on to the Trusted News Initiative. It was started by the BBC, organized by them, and the purpose of it was to make sure nobody could print anything that departed from government orthodoxy,” Kennedy explained.
He continued, “The way it worked is the UPI and the AP, which are the news services that provide most of the news around the country, and the Washington Post, would decide what news was permissible to print and a lot of it was about Covid, but also Hunter Biden’s laptop. It was impermissible to suggest that those were real, or they had stuff on there that was compromising.”
Kennedy added that he is currently engaged in a lawsuit against the Trusted News Initiative and that a Washington Post writer has accused him of being a conspiracy theorist when in reality it was that outlet overseeing “a true conspiracy to suppress anybody who was departing from government orthodoxies by either censoring them completely or labeling them ‘conspiracy theorists.'”
“If you end up manipulating the public in collusion with powerful entities, then you become the instrument of authoritarian rule rather than the opponent of it. It becomes the inverse of journalism in a democracy,” Kennedy urged.
Related:
Video: RFK Jr Pushes Back When Accused Of Being A Candidate Who ‘Traffics Routinely In Conspiracies’
Will Aseem Malhotra’s Appearance Be the BBC’s Most Viewed Programme of 2023?
Video: Elon Accuses BBC Of Failing To Report On “Side Effects Of Vaccinations” And Spreading “Misinformation Regarding Masking”
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Supreme Court Again Infuriates Liberals [@AmericanRenaissance - Librarian]
Outlawing race preferences is, of course, a victory for "white supremacy."
Thumbnail credit: © Ziyu Julian Zhu/Xinhua via ZUMA Press
The transcript of this video is available here: https://www.amren.com/videos/2023/07/supreme-court-again-infuriates-liberals
Gab: https://gab.ai/AmRenaissance
Telegram: https://t.me/amrenofficial
Conference Speeches: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/oXJDii58nHYl/
Podcast: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/PvE9Fgz40IbM/
Kenya: Airtel Rolls Out First 5G Network in Kenya [AllAfrica News: Economy, Business and Finance]
[Capital FM] Nairobi -- Airtel Kenya yesterday rolled out its first 5G network, which the company says is anchored towards seamless connectivity.
Peacock Changes Name To More Honest 'That Service You Only Bought To Watch The Office' [Babylon Bee]
NEW YORK, NY — In an effort to introduce more honesty in their branding, NBC has announced a major change to the name of their Peacock streaming service, which will now be called That Service You Only Bought To Watch The Office.
New 'Threads' App Successfully Combines Everything You Hate About Twitter With Everything You Hate About Instagram [Babylon Bee]
MENLO PARK, CA — Zuckerberg's thriving tech company Meta has announced an exciting and innovative new social media app called Threads, which combines all the things you hate about Twitter with everything you hate about Instagram.
Stormtroopers Now Deadly Accurate After Adding Pistol Braces To All Their Blasters [Babylon Bee]
CORUSCANT — Emperor Palpatine was said to be very pleased with the latest ballistics report on stormtrooper marksmanship, as the Imperial Army's collective accuracy percentage improved dramatically after adding pistol braces to all blasters.
Gov. Newsom, AG Bonta Call On US Dept. Of Justice To Investigate Florida’s Migrant Flight Program [California Globe]
California Governor Gavin Newsom and State Attorney General Rob Bonta announced late Thursday that they would be joining a Texas sheriff in asking the U.S. Department of Justice into opening up an investigation into if the state of Florida had acted illegally in flying recent migrants to both California and Massachusetts in the past year.
Last month on June 2nd, 16 illegal immigrants in El Paso were driven to an airport in New Mexico, flown to Sacramento, then dropped off at the Sacramento Roman Catholic Diocese. Attorney General Bonta immediately set up an investigation, finding links between Florida and the flight contractor, who the state had previously used last year for migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. A second migrant flight arrived on the 5th, prompting Governor Newsom to call out Florida Governor DeSantis in a tweet once definitive evidence was found, despite California being a sanctuary state, even threatening kidnapping charges against his Floridian rival.
“Ron DeSantis you small, pathetic man,” Newsom tweeted last month. “This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard. Kidnapping charges? Read the following.”
.@RonDeSantis you small, pathetic man.
This isn't Martha's Vineyard.
Kidnapping charges?
Read the following. https://t.co/kvuxe8Fb6F pic.twitter.com/KyE1lJiIYo
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 5, 2023
With pressure mounting, both the Florida Division of Emergency Management and DeSantis confirmed the state’s involvement with the flight. In a direct response to allegations of kidnapping, officials from Florida showed video proof that the migrants voluntarily agreed to go, and show them dancing and celebrating on the flights.
However, Bonta and other California officials quickly challenged the voluntary nature of it, saying that the videos were heavily edited to fit Florida’s narrative. Since last month, the state has been investigating the two flights to Sacramento. Through interviews with the migrants, investigators recently reported that some migrants had not willingly left Texas and that they had been told that they would be given legal aid, jobs, and shelter once in Sacramento. With suspicion mounting against Florida that the migrants had been flown illegally under false pretenses, Newsom and Bonta, as well as Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar in Texas, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday, asking for a federal investigation into the Florida-backed flights.
Calling for a federal investigation
“Over the last nine months, individuals seeking asylum in the United States were transported from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and to Sacramento, California, under a program funded by the State of Florida,” the governor’s and AG’s letter to Garland said. “It is not uncommon for local jurisdictions and nongovernmental organizations to facilitate onward travel from the border for people to connect with family or friends elsewhere in the United States after they are processed and released by federal immigration officials and are pursuing their immigration cases as required by the law. But this scheme is different: according to news reports, recruiters deceived migrants into taking flights to these particular locations based on promises of jobs and shelter.”
“Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar launched an investigation into the September 2022 Martha’s Vineyard flight. Results of the investigation have concluded that individuals were induced to accept free travel based on false representations that they would be transported from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard and receive housing, education, and employment opportunities. A referral for potential criminal prosecution is currently pending with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.”
“Recent reporting by other outlets indicates that some individuals who traveled to Sacramento on June 2 and 5, 2023, may have been
similarly induced by deceptive representations about access to jobs, housing, or other services. The California Department of Justice has opened criminal and civil investigations into the circumstances around those flights.”
“Although separate investigations into potential violations of state laws remain active, the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) has a unique capability to investigate cases where, as here, the scheme stretches from Massachusetts to California and touches upon no fewer than five states. Accordingly, we urge the USDOJ to open federal criminal and civil investigations into these incidents. Indeed, as noted in prior correspondence from Governor Newsom to USDOJ related to the Martha’s Vineyard flight, given the multijurisdictional, interstate nature of this ongoing scheme, the federal government’s involvement seems especially appropriate.”
“It is unconscionable to use people as political props by persuading them to travel to another state based on false or deceptive representations. We urge USDOJ to investigate potential violations of federal law by those involved in this scheme. We stand ready to provide additional information about these flights and look forward to working with the USDOJ on this issue.”
.@CAGovernor, Bexar County Sheriff Salazar, and I urge @TheJusticeDept to open federal criminal and civil investigations into the transportation of migrants to Massachusetts and Sacramento.
We won't stand by as people are used for cheap political stunts. https://t.co/3wlSEqiBYz pic.twitter.com/v7QROkDLTb
— Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) July 6, 2023
As of Friday afternoon, the DOJ has yet to respond to the investigation request, with Governor DeSantis also not commenting on the matter. However, experts noted that, if the probe is granted by Garland and the Biden administration, it would likely spark more than just questions of if Florida’s flight program was legal.
“Newsom, Bonta, and the Texas sheriff are really pulling for the DOJ probe,” immigration lawyer Raul Calderon told the Globe Friday. “It’s hard to say if it was illegal. California is a sanctuary state, but if people on the ground were promising or offering things to the migrants under false pretenses, then there can potentially be a case. And if some of the migrants then deny it, the whole argument can be put into question.”
“So the investigation is the main concern, but it isn’t the only concern either. If this blows up and the DOJ finds that what Florida did was illegal, it could be detrimental to DeSantis’ 2024 campaign. Even if an investigation goes nowhere or isn’t even granted, this will definitely come up in the debates.”
“It could also hurt Bonta and Newsom. Neither of them are exactly on moral high ground right now, and if the DOJ just throws this back, they can be screwed and be forced to just have a state investigation. And if the DOJ mentions anything about California being a sanctuary state, both will go right on the defensive.”
“Right now, the ball is in the DOJ’s court. Newsom and Bonta are on pins and needles waiting for a response, and even though he hasn’t commented, you can bet DeSantis is keeping a close eye on this too.”
A decision on whether to launch a federal probe into Florida’s migrant flight program will likely be announced soon.
The post Gov. Newsom, AG Bonta Call On US Dept. Of Justice To Investigate Florida’s Migrant Flight Program appeared first on California Globe.
Paper Ballot / Hand Counting Demo In Spalding County - Monday July 10th [CDM - Human Reporters • Not Machines]
The post Paper Ballot / Hand Counting Demo In Spalding County - Monday July 10th appeared first on CDM - Human Reporters • Not Machines.
David Icke: “They are laughing at you, and using your responses to dismantle society” [David Icke]
For the many who have followed David Icke’s work over the years, there is a repeated pattern that seems to show up.
He makes a prediction, people laugh, the prediction comes true.
Time and time again.
“Doing what I do can be frustrating at times,” he says, in the return of his Dot Connector news show. “You say that things are going to happen if we don’t do anything about them, and you’re called mad. They then happen, and lots of people still call you mad. You’ve warned that the plan is to open the borders of Europe and North America, the ‘West’ in general, to facilitate the systematic and calculated dismantling of Western society, and they say, ‘You’re a racist!’ even though, quite blatantly, all around us, it’s happening.”
Funny how often those who speak truth get tarred with the racist and anti-semitic brush.
David continues: “You warn that the plan is to create a civil war, overwhelmingly between the incoming migrant population and the sitting population. It’s a civil war to create extreme levels of divide and rule and justify more and more control on the grounds of ‘create the problem and then offer the solution’. You warn that all this is being orchestrated by what I call ‘the global cult’ and funded by people like George Soros, through NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) and other charities. You point out that mass migration into Europe and North America and other Western countries, is not – overwhelmingly again – about refugees, and giving protection to families and children from war and persecution.”
Are there some that come under that category? “Absolutely, and we should make sure they’re safe and looked after,” says David. “But look around Britain, Ireland, Europe, North America. The vast, vast majority of migrants coming in, unchecked and undocumented, are young, adult men. Single, young, adult men, coming into Europe and encouraged to do so by the authorities (controlled by the cult) and an open Southern border of the United States, to allow that to happen there.”
So, why would those in authority – and they do – encourage and desire enormous numbers of single young adult men to come into Western society, and Western countries, over a ridiculously short period? Why Would they want that?
”Well it doesn’t take long to sit down and ponder, to see a list of reasons,” says David.
“It’s about refugees and it’s all people that are coming over from war and persecution is what we hear from the wokers and the jokers, when it’s actually not true in the great majority of cases. You warn that the migrants coming in, the young, single, adult men, are just pawns in a game they don’t understand. They’re being played like the string section and they’re being used to be played off against the sitting population and they are supported in the West, by the cult-created, cult-owned workers who are equally ignorant of how the’re being used, as foot soldiers of tyranny, along with people involved in organisations like cult-funded Antifa and BLM and the inner core of those two will absolutely know what the game is really about.”
And what demographic does this global cult predominantly comprise?
“Overwhelmingly, almost entirely, made up of old, white, men,” he says. “They are laughing at you. Whether you are a rioting migrant, a BLM or Antifa protestor, whether you are among the population of Western countries, they are laughing at you. And using you and your responses to achieve their ends of dismantling Western society on the road to global dystopia.”
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WATCH the full Dot Connector with David Icke. Fridays, Ickonic, 7pm (UK).
WATCH: 'Missing' Biden Corruption Witness Reveals STUNNING Allegations That Incriminate The Biden Crime Family [Welcome]
Dr. Gal Luft who purports to be the "missing witness" to the Biden Corruption investigation, released a stunning 14-minute video outlining the case against President Joe Biden and his family as he flees extradition back to the U.S. for trial in New York on various international weapons charges.
'Well I Love Bobby Kennedy' – Tucker Carlson Hopes RFK Jr. Wins The Democrat Primary - 'I Really Admire Him' [Welcome]
On Friday, Tucker Carlson shared his open support for Democratic presidential primary candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sharing how impressed he is with the candidate as both a politician and a person.
#DEVDiscuss: Is Threads Truly Decentralized? [DEV Community]
Hey Devs, happy Friday 🦥💚
As always, it's been an eventful week in the tech industry. We've got a lot to talk about! And today I want to discuss...Meta's new Instagram app Threads, and whether or not it's really decentralized.
In case you missed it, Meta (fka Facebook) has launched its Twitter competitor: an app for Instagram called Threads. Part of the promise of Threads is that it will allow users more control over their privacy and platform allegiance than Facebook and Instagram because it will eventually use a decentralized protocol.
Don't Join Threads—Make Instagram's 'Twitter Killer' Join You | WIRED
Meta’s Twitter alternative promises that it will work with decentralized platforms, giving you greater control of your data. You can hold the company to that—if you don't sign up.
wired.com
Meta is dangling an opportunity to essentially be on Threads without signing up for the platform at all. The company announced yesterday that it is planning to make Threads interoperable with other, non-Meta social networks that support a decentralized protocol already used by WordPress and 2022’s decentralization poster child, Mastodon.
This means that if Meta follows through, you’ll be able to see and interact with Threads content from other platforms and services that support the standard, which is known as ActivityPub.
Based on Meta's checkered history with data mining and privacy concerns, though, lots of privacy-minded social media users are feeling skeptical.
So, what do you think? Can a product by Meta ever truly be decentralized? And will you use it regardless? Share your thoughts in the comments and let's discuss!
Want to submit a question for discussion, or even ask for advice? Visit Sloan's Inbox! You can choose to remain anonymous.
.fit() LinearReggression [DEV Community]
LinearRegression sınıfı, doğrusal regresyon modelini uygulamak için kullanılan bir sınıftır. Bu sınıf, sklearn (scikit-learn) kütüphanesinde yer alır.
.fit() yöntemi, LinearRegression sınıfının bir yöntemidir ve bir doğrusal regresyon modelini eğitmek için kullanılır. Bu yöntem, veri kümesine (giriş ve hedef veriler) uydurmayı sağlar ve modelin içindeki katsayıları ve kesme terimini (bias) optimize eder.
from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression
# Veri kümesini tanımlama
X = [[1], [2], [3], [4]] # Giriş verileri
y = [2, 4, 6, 8] # Hedef veriler
# LinearRegression modelini oluşturma
model = LinearRegression()
# Modeli eğitme
model.fit(X, y)
Yukarıdaki örnekte, X ve y veri kümesi tanımlanır. Ardından, LinearRegression sınıfından bir model oluşturulur. fit() yöntemi, X ve y verilerini kullanarak modeli eğitir. Eğitim süreci, en küçük kareler yöntemini kullanarak giriş verileriyle hedef veriler arasında en uygun doğruyu bulmaya çalışır.
.fit() yöntemi modelin eğitildiği aşamadır ve modelin veriye uyum sağlamasını sağlar. Eğitim sonrasında, modelin eğitim verilerine en iyi uyan doğruyu temsil eden katsayıları ve kesme terimini içerir.
Which Package Managers? [DEV Community]
Hi Friends 👋🏼,
Out of my curiosity, what are the differences between npm, yarn and pnpm? Which one do you use and why?
A while ago, many said that yarn runs faster than npm. But then, that's no longer the case. They both are the same -- in my opinion as a Windows user. But I'm not familiar yet with pnpm.
Breaking Into the Tech Industry: Unleash Your Potential [DEV Community]
Are you dreaming of a career in the tech industry but feel overwhelmed by the lack of experience? Don't worry! Breaking into tech is more attainable than you think. With dedication and a strategic approach, you can find your place in this dynamic and rewarding field. In this article, we'll explore the secrets to getting started in tech, including valuable tips and strategies to set you on the path to success.
The Power of Persistence: Look for Opportunities Within Your Current Job
If you're currently employed, the first step towards breaking into the tech industry is to explore tech-related opportunities within your current job. Take a moment to assess your workplace and identify tasks or projects involving technology. Approach your supervisor and express your interest in contributing to these projects. Whether it's maintaining the company's website or designing new features, every tech-related task adds valuable experience to your resume. Don't limit yourself to professional work alone; consider other areas, hobbies, and industries as well. For example, you could start freelancing as a website builder, showcasing your skills to potential clients and opening doors to tech roles within your firm.
Upskill Yourself: Embrace Online Courses
Online courses are a powerful tool for upskilling and breaking into the tech industry. Platforms like Udemy, Alison, and Treehouse offer affordable and convenient courses tailored to individuals at all skill levels. Start by expanding your fundamental digital skills such as HTML, CSS, and essential editing tools. Next, dive into programming languages like Python, JavaScript, and Ruby. Don't be discouraged by initial challenges. Remember, everyone starts from unfamiliar grounds. If a course doesn't meet your needs, explore other options. Read reviews and preview course content before enrolling. Online courses provide not only technical knowledge but also access to supportive communities where you can connect with like-minded individuals, seek feedback, and propel your tech aspirations forward.
*Build Your Own Projects: Showcase Your Skills and Creativity *
To succeed in the tech industry, you need to cultivate a growth mindset and a willingness to push boundaries. One effective way to showcase your abilities is by building your own projects. Creating a portfolio of personal projects demonstrates your practical experience and problem-solving skills to potential employers. Additionally, consider contributing to open-source projects, which not only provide invaluable experience but also allow you to make meaningful contributions to the tech community.
Craft an Impactful Online Portfolio: Your Gateway to Opportunities
An impressive online portfolio serves as a valuable link between your resume and professional profiles like LinkedIn and GitHub. When designing your portfolio, introduce yourself with a brief bio and mission statement. Highlight completed projects and specify ongoing ones. Customize your portfolio to align with your desired tech role. For instance, if you aspire to work in front-end development, create a captivating website that showcases your creative abilities. Make sure your project source code is accessible on platforms like GitHub Pages. Additionally, include a contact form to facilitate communication with recruiters. A visually engaging portfolio not only showcases your projects and skills but also emphasizes your dedication and passion for the tech industry.
*Embrace Freelancing: Gain Experience and Expand Your Network
*
Once you have developed proficiency in programming languages and other tech skills, consider taking on freelance work. Platforms like Upwork, Guru, and Freelancer offer numerous opportunities to gain valuable experience and build a network of satisfied clients. Start with simpler projects and gradually work your way up to more complex and rewarding ones. Freelancing enhances your expertise and opens exciting doors within the tech industry.
Highlight Your Non-Technical Skills: A Well-Rounded Approach
Even if you lack experience in the tech field, you likely possess valuable non-technical skills that can contribute to your success in the industry. Skills such as problem-solving, data analysis, teamwork, effective communication, multitasking, and project management are highly relevant and sought after by employers. Make sure to highlight these skills on your resume, emphasizing their application to the tech field and their potential contribution to tech teams. By showcasing your unique skill set, you can stand out to potential employers and demonstrate how you can enhance their organization.
Master the Art of Networking: Tap into Hidden Opportunities
Networking plays a vital role in breaking into the tech industry. Many job vacancies are never publicly advertised, making it essential to have connections with the right people. Attend local events, tech-related meetings, meetups, and conferences to establish professional relationships with industry experts. These connections can offer valuable advice, guidance, and insights into training and career paths. Seek out mentors who can provide ongoing support and encouragement as you navigate your tech journey.
Start at the Entry Level: Embrace Growth and Advancement
To kickstart your tech career, be open to entry-level positions. While it may mean accepting a lower salary initially, it paves the way for immense growth and advancement in the future. Success in the tech industry is not solely determined by your starting point but by your willingness to adapt, learn, and embrace new challenges. Seek out entry-level roles that offer potential for advancement and training. With determination and commitment, you can ascend to senior-level positions within a few years.
Entry-Level Tech Roles: Where to Begin
There are several entry-level tech roles that you can explore based on your existing strengths and unique skill sets. Consider these roles as potential starting points for your tech career:
Technical Writer - Junior Role: Work closely with the product team to create and update company documents such as instructional manuals and product descriptions.
Project Manager - Technical (Entry-level): Plan, develop, and oversee technical projects, utilizing your leadership skills and attention to detail.
Technician - IT Support (Entry Level): Troubleshoot computer systems and applications, providing excellent customer service.
Data Entry Analyst - Entry Level: Organize and digitize data, utilizing your attention to detail and technical proficiency.
Database Administrator - Junior Role (Entry Level): Design, create, test, and maintain databases, showcasing your problem-solving and organizational skills.
Remember, these roles are just starting points. Once you break into the tech industry, you can explore various paths and pivot within the field based on your interests and evolving skill set.
*Embrace the Journey: Continuous Learning and Growth
*
Breaking into the tech industry requires dedication, perseverance, and a commitment to continuous learning. Embrace the journey, stay curious, and remain adaptable. As technology evolves, so should your skills and knowledge. Keep up with industry trends, explore new technologies, and never stop improving. With the right mindset and a relentless pursuit of growth, you can achieve your goals in the tech industry and unleash your full potential.
Now that you have the playbook to break into the tech industry, it's time to take action. Start implementing these tips and strategies, and remember that persistence and hard work are the keys to success. Embrace the challenges, stay focused, and watch your tech career soar. Good luck on your journey to becoming a tech professional!
The Greenland Threat Escalates [Dissident Voice]
Will the world’s major coastal cities, such as NYC, survive escalating global heat conditions in Greenland? And what if both Greenland and Antarctica follow the recent very disturbing pattern of the world’s oceans? For the first time that scientists can recall, sea surface temperatures that always recede from annual peaks are failing to do so, staying high.
Climate change is getting dangerously worse, which is becoming a more common statement among scientists. Ecosystems are starting to fail right before our eyes. For example, in 2022 Europe experienced a big scare with temporary loss of full service for navigable commercial waterways, like the Rhine, and loss of potable water in regions of France and Italy, necessitating water delivery by truck to over 100 communities, with much of Asia experiencing similar issues, especially China and India.
Suddenly, the world is a different place, a description that fits Greenland, especially August 14, 2021, when it rained at Summit Station, 10,551 feet elevation. There’s no previous record of rainfall at the 2-mile summit. It was one more unprecedented climate event. More on Greenland and coastal cities follows herein.
According to the IPCC 6th Assessment Report: “There is high confidence that climate change has already caused irreversible losses in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal and open ocean marine ecosystems.” Still, climate scientists continue pumping out reports about those same irreversible losses, but frustration mounts as reports pile on top of reports in the face of negligible efforts by the 195 signatories to Paris ’15.
It’s not surprising that climate scientists are becoming street protestors.
Scientists Rebel
In December 2021 an offbeat science article called for scientists to stop feeding research into a bottomless pit of inaction: “The science-society contract is broken. The climate is changing… The tragedy of climate change science is that at the same time as compelling evidence is gathered, fresh warnings issued, and novel methodologies developed, indicators of adverse global change rise year upon year.”1
Furthermore: “We therefore call for a halt to further IPCC assessments. We call for a moratorium on climate change research until governments are willing to fulfil their responsibilities in good faith and urgently mobilize coordinated action from the local to global levels. This third option is the only effective way to arrest the tragedy of climate change science.”2
“Over 1,00o scientists from 25 countries staged protests last week following the release of IPCC’s new report.”3
At the American Geophysical Union meeting in December 2022, which is the largest annual meeting of scientists, activists’ scientists unfurled a banner that read: “Out of the lab & into the streets,” demanding rapid deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 to avoid catastrophic climate effects, meaning all hell will break lose. But maybe it’s already breaking lose? In fact, in many respects it is already breaking lose.
Greenland is starting to come apart at the seams right before our eyes, threatening to impact the world’s most prominent cities: New York City, Miami, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, Cardiff, New Orleans, Manila, London, and Shenzhen are the 10 most vulnerable cities for sea level rise. Based upon the following chart of Greenland melt extent, capturing only a short duration in time, the famous cities must hope this ominous graph, June 28, is nothing more than an aberration that dissipates soon. A nearly vertical spike of ice sheet melt extent can be seen on the chart from Jason Box, climatologist, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland,.
Surely the radical spike up does not forecast new higher levels down the road, as it naturally dissipates, but what if it does not dissipate, similar to sea surface temperatures that always recede from annual peaks but failed to do so, staying high? Then, seawalls become mandatory.
“Sea surface temperatures (SST) have risen 5 degrees Celsius above normal during June. This is the warmest they have been in more than 170 years for this time of the year.”4
Already, the combined ice mass loss for Greenland and Antarctica has been accelerating, fast and faster, from 116 billion tons per year in the late 1990s to 410 billion tons per year 2017-2020, which comprises the most recent data set. That’s a 250% increase in one decade, which is piping hot for a colossal block of ice. At that rate, it’s probably a good idea to start building seawalls, forget the plans, just build.
Meanwhile, the 10 coastal cities should keep their collective fingers crossed that the spike up doesn’t portend the future, like the recent experience with ocean heat, which demonstrated major, maj0r unwelcomed changes in climate behavior. If so, the word “trouble” takes on new meaning for some of the world’s biggest cities. In fact, The Economist declared Greenland a “goner” a couple of years ago.5
However, the problem runs deeper yet. A recent study of icesheets shows that the current generation of sea level rise modeling that’s commonly used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and policymakers is too conservative, unintentionally lowballing, missing data that changes the complexion from a cautionary yellow to a red alert.
According to the study, the hidden interior of the Greenland ice sheet is destabilizing because of millions of hairline cracks that cause hydro-fracking that satellite observations and previous studies have not yet recognized.6
The implications of the Chandler study are profound as the hydrofractures occur far from crevasse fields and melt lakes where science ordinarily finds such occurrences. Over time tiny hairline cracks grow into giant gaping maws large enough to swallow a cathedral. Ice sheet stability is compromised.
Beyond the Chandler study, other recent studies reveal vulnerabilities that are not yet factored into sea level expectations by the IPCC or policymakers. For example (1) warm ocean currents are flowing under ice shelves in Greenland and Antarctica, destabilizing, undercutting outlet glaciers (2) Abnormal levels of rainfall in Greenland, including regions where, in unprecedented fashion, it’s never rained before, accelerate surface melt (3) foreign surface materials darken Greenland’s ice sheet and absorb more solar radiation, accelerating melt. And (4) Is Antarctica included in IPCC calculations for sea levels, or did they not have enough data points to include it? I think not. Meantime, the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica are already teetering, like listing ships at sea. Nobody knows for sure how soon a crash happens, maybe Thwaites, the alleged Doomsday Glacier, hmm.
An international collaboration of 65 polar scientists established in 2011, named Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise -IMBIE- to reconcile measurements of ice sheet mass balance. It’s supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. According to an April 20, 2023, press release: Since the early 1990s there has been a fivefold increase in melting of ice sheets. A five-fold increase is beyond disturbing, whatever that may be.
Underestimating sea level rise by the IPCC and policymakers is exposed in study-after-study, for example Eric Rignot, senior research scientist NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and professor, University of California, co-led a study of the Petermann Glacier, Greenland which proved that the melt rate at the junction of the ocean with grounded ice is much more vigorous than expected. Their finding potentially doubles projections of sea level rise.7
Doubling sea level rise is difficult to fathom and would be nearly impossible to handle, especially with nobody planning for it to happen.
“These ice-ocean interactions make the glaciers more sensitive to ocean warming,’ said senior co-author Eric Rignot, UCI professor of Earth system science and NASA JPL research scientist. ‘These dynamics are not included in models, and if we were to include them, it would increase projections of sea level rise by up to 200 percent – not just for Petermann but for all glaciers ending in the ocean, which is most of northern Greenland and all of Antarctica.” 8
Based upon numerous requests for a shorter-term forecast of likely sea level rise, an analysis was undertaken by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey, expecting significant sea level rise over the next 30 years, by region. They projected 10 to 14 inches (25 to 35 centimeters) of rise on average for the East Coast, 14 to 18 inches (35 to 45 centimeters) for the Gulf Coast, and 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) for the West Coast.9
The wild card in NASA’s calculations is whether “the accelerating rate of sea level rise detected in satellite measurements from 1993 to 2020 – and the direction of those trends” used to determine future sea levels remains the same or accelerates beyond initial baseline calculations.
What can be done?
The answers for what can be done are in the public domain. Indeed, what can be done is all about when, or if it will be done, which is the real issue.
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
— Robert Swan, one of the world’s greatest explorers, first to walk both the North and South Poles
ENDNOTES
Iran seizes ship carrying one million liters of smuggled fuel in Gulf waters [Yemen Press Agency]
WORLD, July 07 (YPA) – Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has seized a tanker vessel carrying hundreds of liters of smuggled fuel in the Gulf waters. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the naval forces of the IRGC confiscated the vessel with 900 tons of smuggled fuel and also arrested all […]
Saudi-led coalition violates Hodeida ceasefire 74 times [Yemen Press Agency]
HODEIDA, July 07 (YPA) – The Liaison and Coordination Officers Operations Room, which keeps track of Sweden agreement violations in Hodeida province, reported on Friday that Saudi-led coalition forces had violated the ceasefire over 74 times during the past 24 hours. According to a source at the operations room, the violations included the creation of […]
Value of Yemeni riyal plummets in occupied Aden [Yemen Press Agency]
SANAA, July 07 (YPA) – The Yemeni riyal exchange rate continued on Friday to drop dramatically against foreign currencies, reaching a record low in financial transactions in the provinces under the control of the Saudi-led coalition forces. The exchange rate of the US dollar in Aden province reached 1,396 Yemeni riyals, while the exchange rate […]
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
France Is Suffering Blowback From Its State Policy Towards Ukraine korybko.substack.com/p/france-…
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
UN chief urges to regulate AI to benefit everyone www.plenglish.com/news/2023/07…
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
The Rice Bowl of the Chinese People Is Held Firmly in Their Hands dissidentvoice.org/2023/07/the…
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
Feel the friendship between ancient China and Ryukyu at graveyard ruins in Zhangjiawan in Beijing www.globaltimes.cn/page/202307…
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
Iran summons UK diplomat over London's 'interventionist' remarks presstv.ir/Detail/2023/07/06/7…
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
French violence threatens security of Europe: Moscow english.almanar.com.lb/1867263
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
India’s discontent with the SCO www.indianpunchline.com/indias…
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
Biden Says Assad Must Go www.globalresearch.ca/biden-sa…
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
UK requests for taking extreme care of 'Challenger 2' tanks make them useless for Ukranian army infobrics.org/post/38802/
New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]
US going to send cluster munitions to Kiev in new military package infobrics.org/post/38801/
The Future of International Criminal Law [INTERNATIONALIST 360°]
Christopher Black, Barrister-At-Law This paper was presented at an international conference on the future of international criminal law held in Belgrade, June, 2023 I am a legal practitioner in the field of international criminal law and so my perspective is one that I have come to through my experience and observations as a trial lawyer...
Canadian ‘Aid’ Program Set the Table for Post-Maidan Coup Land Privatization Drive [INTERNATIONALIST 360°]
Aidan Jonah A screenshot taken from an ATIP cited in this The Canada Files investigation. Image credit: Aidan Jonah/Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files. The pre-Maidan coup times In Peter Korotaev’s article for The Canada Files about Canada’s influence in Ukraine, Korotaev said: “The west’s desire to assert control over Ukraine’s court system is such a...
SADR Ambassador: “Multipolar System Opens a Chance for Self-Determination” [INTERNATIONALIST 360°]
Yunus Soner Starting in the 20th century, the African continent has largely concluded the process of de-colonization. Almost all countries achieved independence and national sovereignty, and have today advanced to deepening economic sovereignty also by increasingly making use of the emerging multipolar world order. An exception of this trend is the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic....
Uruguay and Water: Day Zero [INTERNATIONALIST 360°]
Eduardo Gudynas Here we share this chronicle from the cooperative weekly Brecha, in Uruguay, on the lack of drinking water in Montevideo, “the first case in the world of a capital city that reached such a situation of collapse”. The daily dilemmas in the metropolitan area: what is said in the street and at the...
Poverty and Crisis: Sucking Humanity Dry [INTERNATIONALIST 360°]
Colin Todhunter The World Bank says nearly 80% (560 million) of the 700 million people who were pushed into extreme poverty in 2020 due to COVID policies were from India. Globally, extreme poverty levels increased by 9.3 per cent in 2020. In 2022, it was estimated that a quarter of a billion people across the world would...
French Police Remote Accessing Cameras & GPS on Phones To Stop Rioters [Salty Cracker]
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Cracked-Up Slobodian [Mises Wire]
Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World without Democracy
by Quinn Slobodian
Metropolitan Books, 2023; 336 pp.
Quinn Slobodian, a professor of the history of ideas at Wellesley College, has a good deal to say about Murray Rothbard, and I have attempted to respond to that in a review that is to be published in the next issue of The Austrian. Slobodian also includes some comments on the Mises Institute, Lew Rockwell, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe, but concerning these, as Dante says, let us not speak of them, but look, and pass on. But the central argument of the book needs to be addressed as well.
Slobodian is very concerned with the rise in recent decades of what he calls “zones.” “What is a zone? At its most basic, it is an enclave carved out of a nation and freed from ordinary forms of regulation. The usual powers of taxation are often suspended within its borders, letting investors effectively dictate their own rules.” But zones are not all that bothers him. He also worries about secessionist movements that endeavor to break up nations into smaller states and also about attempts by individualist anarchists to form territories without a state at all.
What arouses Slobodian’s concern about these various enterprises? It is that they remove parts of the economy from democratic control, subjecting the people within them to the harsh discipline of the market. Workers must accept poor working conditions and bad pay, and capitalist exploiters are free to do as they please.
You might first object to Slobodian in this way. If people were free to secede and form communities as they wish, couldn’t those who agree with Slobodian’s own preferences for strong labor unions and democratic socialism form communities of their own? Wouldn’t competition among the communities alleviate the plight of badly off workers so long as they were free to migrate, solving his worries about exploitation? Slobodian doesn’t agree with this. He notes that in “a famous book from 1927, Mises had argued for secession by plebiscite and speculated on the possibility of the secession of the individual,” but he doesn’t seem impressed.
Had he taken Mises’s argument seriously, he would have found the answer to his worries about the exploitation of workers. He attributes to supporters of the free market this line of reasoning: “The free market is more important than democracy. In fact, democracy often gets in the way of the free market. Therefore, we should eliminate democracy and civil liberties, especially the right to protest, altogether.” He does not realize that so long as there are competing communities, this alleged danger is greatly alleviated.
“But,” he might say, “what about the very bad conditions that workers in zones sometimes face?” Here the answer lies in another elementary point that Slobodian has overlooked. Workers who voluntarily accept conditions that we would think are very bad do so because these conditions make life better for them. Slobodian’s failure to understand this comes out most clearly in what he says about the massive buildup of the city of Shenzhen after the Chinese government instituted market reforms:
In Shenzhen in 1987, for the first time, a market in land was introduced under pressure from Hong Kong investors. The outcome was a deluge. What became known as zone fever gripped the nation, as huge amounts of land were sucked from rural usage and collective ownership and transformed into private property on long-term leaseholds, constituting one of the biggest transfers of public into private wealth in the modern age. On paper, the success was staggering, one of the fastest episodes of economic growth in world history. In 1980, officials had aimed to bring perhaps three hundred thousand people to Shenzhen by 2000. The real number was ten million. By 2020, the population had doubled again, to twenty million, with a GDP greater than Singapore or Hong Kong.
Slobodian says about this that the “‘decollectivization’ of the countryside created a reserve army of migrant laborers who moved between the city and the countryside, offering their labor as the crucial input for the construction-led boom.” Apparently Slobodian, relying on the Marxist catchphrase “the reserve army of the proletariat,” thinks that the position of those who entered the city worsened, when precisely the opposite is the case. Nor is this an instance, by the way, of rapacious capitalists taking advantage of those in a bad situation, offering them a slight improvement but still leaving them in dire straits. Many of the newcomers to the city became wealthy and bought land themselves.
Slobodian is not interested in the benefits of competition. He fears a “race to the bottom” in which the promise of tax breaks and freedom from regulatory control lure investors to the zone that offers them the best deal. As always, he suggests this will take place at the expense of workers, who because of lower taxes will face cuts in social programs that help them. He once more overlooks the fact that if workers, taking this into account, move to the zones anyway, they are judging that they are better off there.
Nowhere does Slobodian respond to the well-known economic arguments that the factors of production tend in the free market to earn their marginal product and that the income of landlords and capitalists does not stem from a division of the “surplus value” created by workers. Instead, he dismisses these arguments as capitalist apologetics emanating from the neoliberals of the Mont Pelerin Society, especially such evil people as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman.
Slobodian’s obsession with the evils of competition is so great that it leads him to dismiss commonplace observations that everyone knows to be true—everyone, that is, besides leftists ignorant of history. Competition between different courts in medieval Europe advanced the cause of liberty, but Slobodian cannot accept this because it punctures his fantasy that competition hurts workers. He quotes David Friedman as saying that “market radicals should take their ‘cues from the European Middle Ages . . . striving to create a U.S. punctuated by a large and increasing number of territorially disconnected free cities.’ Authority was not the problem. Rules were not the problem. The problem was not having enough authorities and rules to choose from.”
Slobodian says: “That this understanding of the Middle Ages was based more on imagination than rigorous scholarly study goes without saying. The medieval world was regularly reduced to a few convenient bullet points.”
When I read this, I expected references to accounts of medieval law showing that Friedman was wrong. (By the way, claiming that competing courts advanced liberty, whether right or wrong, does not reduce the medieval world to a few bullet points. The claim does not purport to be a full account of medieval civilization.)
But Slobodian presents no “competing” account of medieval law. Instead, he incredibly suggests, pointing to Friedman’s participation in medieval reenactment games, that his comments about competing courts were mere imaginative fantasies. It is hard to believe that Slobodian intends us to take this bizarre comment seriously, but I am afraid that he does; such is his appalling ignorance of medieval history.
An eminent historian has called Crack-Up Capitalism a “head spinner of a book,” and with this sentiment I heartily agree.
Current Socialists Should Support Government Default: Their Forebears Certainly Did [Mises Wire]
Socialists like Bernie Sanders and the editors of Jacobin have decried the possible US government debt default. Marx and Lenin would have vociferously disagreed.
Original Article: "Current Socialists Should Support Government Default: Their Forebears Certainly Did"
Cultural Change Is Necessary for Capital Development [Mises Wire]
Preserving culture is so crucial to a group’s identity that it has become sacred. For many the contents of culture don’t matter as long as they are preserved. But such a nihilistic approach to culture has led to failure and will continue to do so. Culture is a social technology that allows societies to function within a specific institutional setting. So, a constellation of traits could be useful for people living in a premodern setting but maladaptive in a postindustrial context.
In herding cultures, projecting violence deters the theft of crops by outsiders; however, when societies become less agricultural and more educated, the general refinement of the population leads people to condemn bawdy behavior. Societal evolution necessitates the demise of old cultures and the birth of novel ones because societies cannot thrive unless they are replenished by new techniques. Treating culture as an antique that must be preserved offers therapeutic benefits without advancing society. Rather than safeguarding culture, promoting progress should be society’s goal.
Invariably, on the path to modernity, there will be clashes between tradition and innovation; however, the triumph of the former results in stagnation. Like other places, Europe suffered from antimarket policies and cultural romanticism, but it became the first place where tradition was supplanted by the power of innovation, which inevitably led Europe to diverge from the globe. England, where the idea of progress was most pronounced, became the first industrial nation. Accepting national backwardness is the first step to development. It is not a random coincidence that Japan, the first non-Western nation to modernize, advocated a successful cultural and institutional reform program in the nineteenth century.
Japan entered the nineteenth century as an economic backwater, but due to its propensity to learn quickly in the latter part of that century, Japan experienced a rapid ascent. It managed to defeat the Qing dynasty of China (1894–95) and boasted globally competitive industries by the early twentieth century. Quite paradoxically, adopting Western institutions and ideas prevented the dilution of Japan’s culture. If Japan had hesitated to modernize, it could have easily become a major victim of Western imperialism. Japan’s favorable response to modernization precluded Western powers from turning it into a cultural puppet. Because Japan became a powerful country, the West had to treat her as an equal.
G. C. Allen argues that Japan’s ruthless ambition impeded Western powers from making her a subservient tool:
[The Restoration government] recognized that Japan’s military weakness and her economic backwardness might make her the easy spoil of Western Powers, and it judged that the rapid adoption of Western methods in war and industry could alone enable her to retain her independence and ultimately to secure the abrogation of the “unequal treaties.”
Had Japan been reluctant to pursue such a pragmatic approach, maybe today it would not be an economic superpower but just another non-Western country struggling due to the legacy of Western imperialism.
To combat competition from the West, China launched an initiative termed the Self-Strengthening Movement; however, it lacked widespread support from the ruling administration and hence failed to spawn an industrial renaissance. Nations advance by acquiring human capital and improving existing technologies, but this is unachievable when people express hostility to new ideas because of the fear that embracing change will undermine culture. Yet cultural myopia is costly considering that groups are penalized for resisting modernity.
In Nigeria, the Igbos demonstrated a willingness to be educated and learn Western techniques. The Igbos were rewarded for their diligence and quickly became an elite group in Nigeria, even surpassing the Yoruba people. But Islamic regions in the North were hostile to the efforts of Western missionaries and fought modern ideals. The result is that today northern regions of Nigeria have lower human capital levels than the south. Development is possible, but developing countries must be amenable to new ideas and displace irrelevant worldviews.
If poor countries want to get rich, they must modernize and pursue cultural reform. Cultural reform is hard, but it must be done if countries are serious about succeeding.
Insolite. Cette carte indique les départements où l’on meurt le plus en France [Journal du Geek]
D'un département à un autre, le nombre de morts peut varier sensiblement. L'Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (Insee) a publié les chiffres sur les cinq premiers mois de l'année 2023.
Insolite. Cette carte indique les départements où l’on meurt le plus en France
Meta Releases Intermediate Graphics Library "IGL" Built Atop Vulkan, OpenGL [Phoronix]
Meta has published the Intermediate Graphics Library (IGL) as a new cross-platform library to provide a single low-level interface that works atop native graphics APIs from OpenGL and Vulkan to Apple's Metal...
Sky-High UK Energy Bills Shouldn't Be The Norm [Oilprice.com]
Chris O’Shea, the boss of Centrica, is wrong to accept energy prices of over £2,000, writes Sam Richards. Chris O’Shea may not be a household name. Normal people don’t keep a running list of CEOs, chairs, and fund managers in their heads. But as the boss of one of the Big Six energy companies in the UK, what the chief executive of Centrica says matters for families struggling to make ends meet. His comments that he expects household energy bills to remain high for the foreseeable future were a blow for millions of people…
Why Aren't Regulators Going After Cruise Ships? [Oilprice.com]
A new study commissioned by the European Federation for Transport and Environment revealed that toxic emissions of sulfur oxides from 63 cruise ships belonging to Carnival Corporation were 43% higher than all the combustion engine vehicles in Europe. This stunning statistic comes as EU leaders have decided to ban small combustion engines for cars by 2035. But what about 'green' cruise ships? Only crickets... "The most polluting cruise ship operator was MSC Cruises, whose vessels emitted nearly as much sulphur as all the 291 million cars in…
New Proposals Would Allow UK Spy Agency To Monitor Internet Logs In Real-Time [Reclaim The Net]
Presented as a bid to tackle the issue of online fraud, the UK government is mulling over legislation that could grant GCHQ, the nation’s cyber and signals intelligence agency, sweeping powers to monitor internet logs in real-time. With a purported aim to catch criminals in the act, this move raises alarm bells on the sanctity of civil liberties.
This latest effort, according to The Record, is the government’s response to last year’s inquiry, which decried the existing measures as grossly inadequate in tackling fraud. The inquiry lamented that less than 8% of reported fraud crimes are investigated due to the lack of focus and understanding of the evolving complexity of fraud. It called for a “wholesale change in philosophy and practice.” On the surface, the new proposal seems like an answer, but at what cost?
GCHQ aims to utilize Internet Connection Records (ICRs), a cache of metadata that includes details of services that devices connect to but not the content accessed. At present, ICRs are relegated to identifying individuals already under suspicion.
However, this proposed legislation would expand the powers, potentially allowing ICRs to be used in identifying new suspects – a radical shift. The government’s obscure communication surrounding this proposal highlights the need for public scrutiny.
When tasked with an independent review of the government’s proposition, David Anderson, former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, received an operational case from GCHQ which claimed that improved access to ICRs could be used to detect financial fraud and even child sexual abuse by identifying patterns of online behavior. However, it was alleged that national security scenarios could not be publicly shared without compromising operations.
Technical challenges regarding the implementation of real-time monitoring remain an enigma. ICRs, introduced in 2016 through the Investigatory Powers Act, are not widely employed even in 2023. Their deployment is hindered by substantial costs, technical complexity, and the shifting landscape of internet usage.
The debate does not stop at the technical hurdles. The more poignant question lies in the murky waters between crime prevention and personal privacy. The proposed legislation, if enacted, could lead us into uncharted waters, where the government’s gaze over our online activities becomes the norm.
In a world where privacy is becoming increasingly cherished, the sudden windfall of power to GCHQ feels like an Orwellian twist.
The public and the guardians of civil liberties must be vigilant. The price for security should not be the pawn of privacy. One must wonder whether in our pursuit to combat online fraud, we are at risk of creating an omnipotent surveillance state that might leave the citizenry perpetually under the watchful eye of Big Brother.
The post New Proposals Would Allow UK Spy Agency To Monitor Internet Logs In Real-Time appeared first on Reclaim The Net.
Leaked Memo Shows Mayo Clinic Doubles Down On Censorship [Reclaim The Net]
Reports this week expose Mayo Clinic as “doubling down” on speech restrictions it previously chose to impose affecting Dr. Michael Joyner.
The information comes from an internal memo sent to Mayo Clinic College of Medical Science, which is interpreted as sticking to a policy of preventing this medical organization’s members from speaking freely.
Previously, Joyner, a professor, was punished for his public statements related to his research, concerning public health, including topics such as Covid, and transgenderism and, in general, making comments that were construed as being against some government policies, that is, something that was well within his right to do.
But Mayo Clinic took the stance that what was more important, and takes precedence was for Joyner to toe the line – i.e., stick to “prescribed messaging” and rather than focus on his medical expertise, worry more ardently about the clinic’s chosen “brand” and (ideological?) standing it derives from that.
The Joyner incident came to light in early June, and after Foundation For Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) urged the health facility to withdraw the decision. Mayo Clinic’s Chief Communication Officer Halena Gazelka a while later the same month penned the memo, recommending to those in charge to effectively ignore the criticism.
One of the key points of the controversy is that the college has made a “promise” to its teachers and students of the right to free speech – which clearly wasn’t exercised when Joyner got suspended, and had a gag-order placed on him.
In the memo, Gazelka fairly brazenly advises college leadership to keep saying that Mayo Clinic continues to be “fully committed to academic freedom and expression.”
Joyner, who is still banned from talking to reporters without the college’s permission, might be surprised to learn this.
Furthermore, in the same vein of “tweaking reality,” the memo wants the college to push the narrative that Joyner’s punishment did not come as a result of his statements about transgender athletes, but because of his criticism (“unprofessional comments”) regarding the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) regulation of convalescent plasma.
There’s also a whiff of character assassination here, as the memo recommends framing the whole thing as sour grapes on Joyner’s part:
“Dr. Joyner’s comments about the NIH did not reflect the expression of a scientific or academic opinion but instead were an expression of his personal frustration with the NIH’s regulation of a therapy he had championed,” wrote Gazelka.
The post Leaked Memo Shows Mayo Clinic Doubles Down On Censorship appeared first on Reclaim The Net.
My Talking Head. [Reminiscence of the Future...]
As promised.
Why It Might Be Over... [Reminiscence of the Future...]
... sooner than we think. My friend Marat Khairullin gave yesterday a superb sitrep (sadly only in Russian):
But even these "conservative" estimates are terrifying. Here is butcher's bill for today from Russian MoD.
Although the video is a lame attempt at humor, the narrative/meme is not a joke. Many younger officers genuinely believe that we have Russia over a barrel and can take out Putin at will. It is one thing for the average guy or gal on the street to believe such nonsense, but it is terrifying to learn that many U.S. military officers, both junior and senior (including Flag Officers, i.e. Generals), are so deluded.
This is not surprising at all--average modern US Army company level officer, especially "taught" military history on the examples of Patton's "exploits" and the "yardstick" of turkey shoot in the Gulf, wouldn't take seriously nowadays the history of Operation Zitadel (started on July 5, 1943) 80 years ago and the scale of events US Army simply has no experience of dealing with. Yes, July 5-July 12, 1943--Zitadelle, after that--Kursk Offensive Operation.
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This scale is beyond the experiences of the US Armed Forces, as is Stalingrad, Operation Bagration, Liberation of Balkans and many other things and they simply cannot take it. And so is SMO. Only one American historian of note--David Eisenhower, the grandson--had enough courage to point to the 800 pound gorilla in the room which was and remains a professional envy. Considering the fact that America's resurgence and superpowerdom originated in WW II, acknowledging military and geopolitical realities of the last 85 years on a political level in the US would mean undermining America's mythology not just militarily, but on a national level and would represent in itself a Koschei The Immortal proverbial tip of a needle, which, when broken, kills him. But it merely reinforces my position for many years, decades really, that the US never realized itself as true continental power because this realization comes only through continental warfare of scale. One simply cannot buy itself a military history no matter how one tries.
Russian Su-35 Fighter Jets Taunt American and French Aircraft Over Syria [Soldier of Fortune Magazine]
Russian fighter jets continued to taunt American and French aircraft over Syria on Thursday, buzzing Western aircraft and prompting French planes to change course, western military officials said.
The incidents involved Russian Su-35 “Flanker” planes harassing a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper unmanned craft and two French Rafale fighters, the officials said.
Two Rafale jets that were flying along the Iraq-Syria border were confronted with “a non-professional interaction on the part of an SU-35,” France’s Minister des Armees wrote on Twitter. “The pilots maneuvered in order to control the risk of accident before continuing their patrol.”
The Pentagon separately reported that Russian warplanes flew dangerously close to MQ-9 Reaper drones in Syria.
“Russian aircraft dropped flares in front of the drones and flew dangerously close, endangering the safety of all aircraft involved,” according to a statement from the U.S. Air Forces Central Command.
“These events represent another example of unprofessional and unsafe actions by Russian air forces operating in Syria, which threaten the safety of both Coalition and Russian forces,” the statement said. “We urge Russian forces in Syria to cease this reckless behavior and adhere to the standards of behavior expected of a professional air force so we can resume our focus on the enduring defeat of ISIS.”
READ MORE about U.S. forces in Syria
Moscow dismissed both claims, with a commander saying American UAVs have breached deconfliction protocols in Syria, and that MQ-9 drones can automatically activate the onboard defenses of Russian aircraft.
Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, claimed that the charges are “beyond the bounds of decency,” and are ” on highly professional actions of the Russian military personnel in Syria are “devoid of common sense.”
Asked during a Thursday press briefing whether the drones could have flown into a restricted area, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder told reporters it would be “ridiculous” to suggest “that somehow this is our fault.”
A photo released by the Air Force showed Russian Su-34 and Su-35 fighter plane aircraft employ flares in the flight path of a U.S. MQ-9 drone flying over Syria on Thursday morning.
The Pentagon released the video, below, of the MQ-9’s encounter with Russian aircraft.
The Kremlin did not immediately return a request for comment from Soldier of Fortune.
Scientists Intrigued by Glacier Bleeding Red Fluid [SoylentNews]
Scientists Intrigued by Glacier Bleeding Red Fluid:
For over a century, scientists have been puzzling over a mysterious, blood-red liquid that's been seeping out of a glacier in Antarctica.
The weird site, later dubbed "Blood Falls," has confounded researchers. But now, a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins may have shed new light on the strange discharge.
[...] "As soon as I looked at the microscope images, I noticed that there were these little nanospheres and they were iron-rich, and they have lots of different elements in them besides iron — silicon, calcium, aluminum, sodium — and they all varied," said Ken Livi, a research scientist and coauthor of a new paper about the glacier published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, in a statement.
The existence of these mysterious nanospheres, which haven't been detected until now, runs counter to the prevailing theory that the blood-red liquid was caused by an abundance of minerals.
Minerals are crystalline in nature, while these nanospheres, which are 100 times smaller than red blood cells, aren't.
Their existence also sheds new light on the microorganisms and bacteria that have lived for "potentially millions of years underneath the saline waters of the Antarctic glacier," according to Livi.
Journal Reference:
Elizabeth C. Sklute, Jill A. Mikucki, M. Darby Dyar, et al. A Multi-Technique Analysis of Surface Materials From Blood Falls, Antarctica [open], Front. Astron. Space Sci., 30 May 2022 Volume 9 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2022.843174
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.
Despite Zelensky Protestations, NATO Statesmen Understand ‘Zero Likelihood’ for Ukraine to Join Bloc [Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie]
Ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is touring European countries in an effort to push his country’s admission to the alliance. On Friday, that meant pushing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to take up Kiev’s cause at the summit.
Biden Plays Progressive on TV But Will Left Be Fooled? [Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie]
Winning, as your parents probably told you if they were decent people, isn’t everything. It’s OK to lose or fail, as long as you clearly did your best.
‘Step in Right Direction’: Free Speech Activist Hails Order Blocking Biden-Social Media Coordination [Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie]
On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the Biden administration from communicating with social media companies about much of the content on their networks. For years, they have worked to suppress what the government called misinformation about COVID-19, election interference, and other topics Washington desired to keep out of the public discourse.
US Will Provide Cluster Munitions to Ukraine [Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie]
US media reported earlier this week that cluster bombs would be part of a new $800 million military aid package for Ukraine being prepared by the Biden administration.
How Trophy Storm Shadow Can 'Greatly Simplify' Russian Military's Work in Ukraine [Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie]
Britain began sending Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine in May, with Kiev using them to attack Russian troops and civilian infrastructure. On Thursday, Russian forces captured a Storm Shadow intact. Sputnik spoke to military experts to find out why the $3 million trophy may significantly assist Russia in its military operation.
The Club Battle – Donald J Trump is Not the Cause of Republican Failure, He is the Result of Their Failure [The Last Refuge]
REPOST BY REQUEST (with addendum) – As the geography narrows before us, it is important to remember the stakes and avoid the distractions. As a consequence, the baseline must be reaffirmed. It is critical to understand that both the DNC and RNC are private corporations with no affiliation to government. It is a difficult shift […]
The post The Club Battle – Donald J Trump is Not the Cause of Republican Failure, He is the Result of Their Failure appeared first on The Last Refuge.
Gavin Newsom on the Campaign Trail (For Biden?) [The Last Refuge]
Like watching a video with the sound turned off, if you are to stand back away from the distractions of the media presentation, and just look at raw data in the form of actions being taken by those who circle the world of politics, the activity points to something disconnected from the official narrative. All […]
The post Gavin Newsom on the Campaign Trail (For Biden?) appeared first on The Last Refuge.
Video: Joesthetics Admits COVID-19 Jab Led to ‘Worrying Blood Clots’ Shortly Before He Died [The People's Voice]
Jo Linder, widely known as ‘Joesthetics,’ warned millions of Instagram followers shortly before his sudden death that the toxic COVID-19 mRNA vaccines had caused a “worrying cluster of blood clots.” During an appearance on Bradley [...]
The post Video: Joesthetics Admits COVID-19 Jab Led to ‘Worrying Blood Clots’ Shortly Before He Died appeared first on The People's Voice.
Facebook’s Twitter Clone ‘Threads’ Says Platform Is Internet’s ‘Biggest Safe Space’ [The People's Voice]
“Threads”, the new Twitter clone launched by Facebook, has boasted that the platform aims to be the Internet’s “biggest safe space” that will be free from conservatives, independent viewpoints, and hate speech. The new copycat [...]
The post Facebook’s Twitter Clone ‘Threads’ Says Platform Is Internet’s ‘Biggest Safe Space’ appeared first on The People's Voice.
Central Bank: Ukraine’s Gold and Currency Reserves Now ‘Inexplicably’ Largest Ever [The People's Voice]
Ukraine’s National Bank has boasted that it “inexplicably” holds a whopping $39 billion in foreign reserves, the highest level in history. There was a $38.99 billion reserve held by Ukraine as of the beginning of [...]
The post Central Bank: Ukraine’s Gold and Currency Reserves Now ‘Inexplicably’ Largest Ever appeared first on The People's Voice.
WEF: Digital Cash Will Allow Us To Abolish the Second Amendment [The People's Voice]
The World Economic Forum has boasted that one of the benefits of “digital cash” will be the death of gun ownership in America and the abolishment of the Second Amendment. During the WEF’s recent Annual [...]
The post WEF: Digital Cash Will Allow Us To Abolish the Second Amendment appeared first on The People's Voice.
Macron, NATO, and the Fate of the Empire part I [Gold Goats 'n Guns]
July began with a series of bangs that cannot be ignored. I’m not talking about the noise coming from both Russia and Ukraine over the ‘counter-offensive’ or who wants to blow up the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. I’m talking about the downstream effects that conflict has brought about. The old world is breaking down along […]
The post Macron, NATO, and the Fate of the Empire part I appeared first on Gold Goats 'n Guns.
VDARE Book Club July: Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America's Cities by Jack Cashill [VDARE & premier news outlet for patriotic immigration reform]
During my time within Conservatism Inc., there were a number of honorable exceptions to the "movement [...]
Ukraine: Reaganites vs. MAGA [Victory Girls Blog]
Last September, National Review writer Jay Nordlinger reflected about the conservative movement and the issue of Ukraine. In an article called “Ukraine and the Right,” Nordlinger wrote:
In times past, Ukraine would have been a great cause of American conservatives. What about now?
He further deliberated:
So, here is a classic case of a free and independent country being invaded and brutalized by an expansionist dictatorship that seeks to redraw international boundaries by force. As of old. Also a case of a national David against an imperial Goliath.
This would have been a natural cause of conservatives … Is it? Hardly.
Ukraine would’ve been a cause that the late great president Ronald Reagan would have championed. He knew an evil empire when he saw one, and he made minced no words about it. Remember the demands for Gorbachev to “tear down this wall?” Reagan also inspired the National Endowment for Democracy, which began in 1983 during his presidency.
Most importantly, there’s the Reagan Doctrine, which the president declared in his 1985 State of the Union:
We must stand by all our democratic allies. And we must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.
But now? When it comes to supporting Ukrainian president Zelensky or former Soviet KGB strongman Putin, Nordlinger wondered:
Who would receive the warmer greeting at CPAC? The Russian strongman, Vladimir Putin, or the Ukrainian president, Zelensky? Are you sure of the answer? Unsure?
Considering that CPAC — the Conservative Political Action Committee — has gone full MAGA, I think we know the answer.
Republicans Who Support Ukraine
Among the current crop of Republicans running for president, most of them are traditionalists, giving their support to Ukraine. These include former vice president Mike Pence, who has spoken in favor of sending military equipment and weapons, although he draws the line at troops.
Pence recently became the first Republican presidential candidate to visit Ukraine late in June. Upon his return, he told ABC News Jonathan Karl:
We’re there because it’s in our national interest to give the Ukrainian military the ability to rebut and defeat Russian aggression. Because if Russia overran Ukraine, I have no doubt, John, that it wouldn’t be too long before they crossed a border where American servicemen and women would be required to go and fight.
Pence also told Tucker Carlson in March in a questionnaire that Carlson issued:
When the United States supports Ukraine in their fight against Putin, we follow the Reagan doctrine, and we support those who fight our enemies on their shores, so we will not have to fight them ourselves. There is no room for Putin apologists in the Republican Party. This is not America’s war, but if Putin is not stopped and the sovereign nation of Ukraine is not restored quickly, he will continue to move toward our NATO allies, and America would then be called upon to send our own.
That’s not a farfetched idea, either. In February, Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president, now chairman of Russia’s Security Council, floated the idea of pushing back on Poland’s borders:
That is why it is so important to achieve all the goals of the special military operation. To push back the borders that threaten our country as far as possible, even if they are the borders of Poland.
Remember that Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999.
Another conservative voice is former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited Ukraine in April. He supports sending F-16 fighter jets and long-range missiles, along with “the training and the software and all the things needed to actually protect and defend your own land,” as he put it.
Most Republican candidates represent the Reaganite wing of the party.
The MAGA Ukraine Doctrine
Unfortunately for Ukraine, the lion’s share of GOP support goes to the non-interventionists, including FL Gov. Ron DeSantis, who called the Ukraine war a “territorial dispute.” However, DeSantis later backtracked, saying that he had been “mischaracterized” (of course! *eyeroll*), and instead has endorsed a cease-fire. He also added that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was wrong. Clearly DeSantis was throwing a sop to the Trump supporters but it didn’t quite go as he planned.
Then there’s the leader of the MAGA wing: former president Donald Trump, who has claimed he could end the Ukraine war “within 24 hours.” He didn’t give specifics, except that “this can be easily done if conducted by the right President” (meaning him, one assumes), as he told Tucker Carlson.
Nor does he specify what sort of funding or materiel he would give to Ukraine, either. That would depend upon how his 24-hour intervention would go, as he told Carlson in this Trumpian word salad:
That would strongly depend on my meeting with President Putin and Russia. Russia would have never attacked Ukraine if I were President, not even a small chance. Would have never happened if I were President, but it has. I would have to see what the direction in which Russia is headed. I want them to stop, and they will, depending on the one that delivers that message. But with everything said, Europe must pay. The United States has spent much more than Europe, and that is not fair, just, or equitable. If I were President, that horrible war would end in 24 hours, or less. It can be done, and it must be done– now!
MAGA dominates the Republican party at this juncture. Devotees of Trump also include GA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who claimed that it’s Ukraine’s fault that Russia invaded — “they just kept poking the bear.” Or OH Sen. JD Vance, who bluntly said, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”
Enter the Vatniks
In case you never heard of the term “vatnik,” here’s a definition:
Vatnik or vatnyk (Russian: ватник) is a pejorative, used in Russia and other post-Soviet states based on an Internet meme … which denotes a steadfast jingoistic follower of propaganda from the Russian Government.
Unfortunately, the MAGA wing of “Conservative, Inc.” contains a lot of vatniks.
Like Dinesh D’Souza, who tweeted prior to the 2016 election:
What @realDonaldTrump admires about Putin is the way Putin–unlike someone else we know–LOVES his country & FIGHTS for its interests
There’s also former Trump advisor Peter Navarro, who said of Ukraine “the country itself is not really a country …” As Nordlinger noted, “That is straight Kremlin propaganda.”
But the King of the Vatniks is Tucker Carlson.
Carlson has made no bones about his hatred for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, but has never said anything negative about Vladimir Putin. He’s also promoted lies, the most recent being that Zelensky cancelled Ukrainian elections.
Except Zelensky didn’t. The country is under martial law, and according to the Ukrainian constitution, there are no elections in such a circumstance. Moreover, Ukraine adopted its martial law status before Zelensky became president.
As Libertarian Kevin Gaughen tweeted:
I love how Russia simps criticize Ukraine for not having had recent elections. Well, no shit. Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia invaded. Martial law is the suspension of civil authority in a time of serious emergency.
Let me know when Russia has a real election.
— Kevin Gaughen
(@gaughen) July 7, 2023
Yeah, tell us about those “free” elections in Russia, Mr. Carlson.
Screenshot: @David4Liberty/Twitter.
It’s no wonder that after Fox News sacked Tucker Carlson, Russian state TV sources offered him jobs.
The More You Know About Ukraine …
Despite the noise coming from that MAGA wing and its assorted vatniks, American support for Ukraine is rising, according to Defense One.
They cite a recent poll from Reuters/IPSOS, which finds that 56% of Republicans, and 57% of independents support sending weapons to Ukraine. A new poll from the Reagan Institute echoes that number, with a total of 59% of Americans supporting the country, including 50% of Republicans.
It all depends on the context, wrote Sam Skove of Defense One:
Americans’ opinions about sending weapons to Ukraine often changed when provided additional information about the aid, potentially suggesting the U.S. government could do a better job communicating the aid’s value…
When told that the aid given was just three percent of the Defense Department’s budget, that Ukraine remained in control of much of its territory, and that the war had severely degraded Russian combat capabilities, the number of respondents who approved of the aid jumped to 64 percent.
Gains were largest with Republicans, with 59 percent thinking money on military aid was well spent after being given additional information.
What’s that saying? The more you know…
The press release from the Reagan Institute on its poll reads:
There exists a reservoir of support among the American people across party lines for assisting the Ukrainians. Leaders can tap into that reservoir by educating their fellow Americans.
Nordlinger wrote in his piece:
Another reason that Republicans, some of them, are uncharacteristically quiet about Ukraine is that a Democrat is president — so American support of Ukraine looks Democratic.
That also explains a lot. If MAGA Republicans focus on Biden, Biden, Biden, and Hunter’s Ukrainian grift during the Obama years — before Zelensky became president — they will not see the importance of the battle over Ukraine. This is “a battle in a wider war, between freedom and dictatorship, independence and empire, the rule of law and the rule of raw strength, or aggression,” in the words of Jay Nordlinger.
Featured image: Garry Knight/flickr/cropped/public domain.
The post Ukraine: Reaganites vs. MAGA appeared first on Victory Girls Blog.
PineTab2 Releases [PINE64 - Recent changes [en]]
PineTab2: - Clean the releases page up
| ← Older revision | Revision as of 18:43, 7 July 2023 | ||
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(Unofficial) Arch Linux ARM maintained by the [https://danctnix.org/ DanctNIX] community (GitHub: [https://github.com/DanctNIX/danctnix danctnix], [https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded dreemurrs-embedded]). | (Unofficial) Arch Linux ARM maintained by the [https://danctnix.org/ DanctNIX] community (GitHub: [https://github.com/DanctNIX/danctnix danctnix], [https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded dreemurrs-embedded]). | ||
Download | ==== Download ==== | ||
* https://echo.danctnix.org:7269/danctnix-factory-image-20230527.img.xz | * https://echo.danctnix.org:7269/danctnix-factory-image-20230527.img.xz | ||
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|} | |} | ||
Notes | ==== Notes ==== | ||
* Currently ships without a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth driver | * Currently ships without a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth driver | ||
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* [https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=18313 screen rotated 90°, workaround possible] | * [https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=18313 screen rotated 90°, workaround possible] | ||
* [https://github.com/ScottFreeCode/Pine64-Arch/tree/master/PKGBUILDS/pine64/alsa-ucm-pinetab2 HP/Speaker switching via Alsa UCM] | * [https://github.com/ScottFreeCode/Pine64-Arch/tree/master/PKGBUILDS/pine64/alsa-ucm-pinetab2 HP/Speaker switching via Alsa UCM] | ||
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=== Buildroot === | === Buildroot === | ||
| Line 37: | Line 39: | ||
An external tree for the PINE64 PineTab2 is developed and maintained by ''Danct12'' (same developer behind the PineTab2 port of ''Arch Linux ARM''). | An external tree for the PINE64 PineTab2 is developed and maintained by ''Danct12'' (same developer behind the PineTab2 port of ''Arch Linux ARM''). | ||
Download | ==== Download ==== | ||
* The repository and build instructions can be found [https://github.com/Danct12/buildroot_pinetab2 here]. | * The repository and build instructions can be found [https://github.com/Danct12/buildroot_pinetab2 here]. | ||
---- | |||
=== Mobian === | === Mobian === | ||
| Line 46: | Line 50: | ||
An unofficial [https://www.debian.org Debian] build for ARM64 running with Phosh. The current version of the base Debian system is Debian Bookworm. See the installation instructions [https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/PINE64/PineTab2 here]. If you have questions about Mobian, please ask them in the [https://matrix.to/#/#mobian:matrix.org Mobian Matrix room]. | An unofficial [https://www.debian.org Debian] build for ARM64 running with Phosh. The current version of the base Debian system is Debian Bookworm. See the installation instructions [https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/PINE64/PineTab2 here]. If you have questions about Mobian, please ask them in the [https://matrix.to/#/#mobian:matrix.org Mobian Matrix room]. | ||
Download | ==== Download ==== | ||
* [https://images.mobian.org/pinetab2/ Images] | * [https://images.mobian.org/pinetab2/ Images] | ||
| Line 59: | Line 63: | ||
|} | |} | ||
Notes | ==== Notes ==== | ||
* The development is work in progress. Mobian's support for the PineTab2 is maintained by [https://salsa.debian.org/julianfairfax Julian]. The Mobian wiki can be found [https://wiki.mobian-project.org/ here]. | * The development is work in progress. Mobian's support for the PineTab2 is maintained by [https://salsa.debian.org/julianfairfax Julian]. The Mobian wiki can be found [https://wiki.mobian-project.org/ here]. | ||
* In order to connect to the device using SSH/SCP, you need to install SSH on the device. You can do this by executing the following in a shell: "sudo apt-get install ssh", afterwards you can connect via SSH/SCP using the PineTab2's IP address on port 22. | * In order to connect to the device using SSH/SCP, you need to install SSH on the device. You can do this by executing the following in a shell: "sudo apt-get install ssh", afterwards you can connect via SSH/SCP using the PineTab2's IP address on port 22. | ||
* When installing Mobian with full disk encryption and booting with the keyboard case connected, you will have to touch the screen or press a key to show the decryption screen. This is an [https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/osk-sdl/-/issues/148 upstream issue]. | * When installing Mobian with full disk encryption and booting with the keyboard case connected, you will have to touch the screen or press a key to show the decryption screen. This is an [https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/osk-sdl/-/issues/148 upstream issue]. | ||
---- | |||
=== NixOS === | === NixOS === | ||
| Line 75: | Line 77: | ||
This image is extremely basic and currently boots to a console. A NixOS configuration can be applied after booting to gain a full graphical system. | This image is extremely basic and currently boots to a console. A NixOS configuration can be applied after booting to gain a full graphical system. | ||
Download | ==== Download ==== | ||
* https://github.com/nabam/nixos-rockchip/releases | * https://github.com/nabam/nixos-rockchip/releases | ||
Notes | ==== Notes ==== | ||
After booting, download this flake to the pinetab and place it at '''/etc/nixos/flake.nix''': | After booting, download this flake to the pinetab and place it at '''/etc/nixos/flake.nix''': | ||
| Line 101: | Line 103: | ||
| <code>pinetab2/changeme</code> | | <code>pinetab2/changeme</code> | ||
|} | |} | ||
---- | |||
=== Ubuntu Touch === | === Ubuntu Touch === | ||
| Line 128: | Line 132: | ||
Contributions and bug reports can be made at the [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ UBports PineTab2 GitLab page]. See [https://ubports.com/foundation/sponsors UBports website] for how to donate. | Contributions and bug reports can be made at the [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ UBports PineTab2 GitLab page]. See [https://ubports.com/foundation/sponsors UBports website] for how to donate. | ||
---- | |||
=== Rhino Linux === | === Rhino Linux === | ||
| Line 150: | Line 156: | ||
[https://discord.gg/reSvc8Ztk3 Discord] - [https://matrix.to/#/#rolling-rhino-remix:matrix.org Matrix] - [https://github.com/rhino-linux GitHub] - [https://rhinolinux.org/wiki/ Wiki] | [https://discord.gg/reSvc8Ztk3 Discord] - [https://matrix.to/#/#rolling-rhino-remix:matrix.org Matrix] - [https://github.com/rhino-linux GitHub] - [https://rhinolinux.org/wiki/ Wiki] | ||
[[Category:Rockchip RK3566]] | |||
PinePhone Software Releases [PINE64 - Recent changes [en]]
Software Releases: - Add Rhino Linux
| ← Older revision | Revision as of 18:36, 7 July 2023 | ||
| Line 624: | Line 624: | ||
Contributions and bug reports can be made at the [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ UBports PinePhone GitLab page]. See [https://ubports.com/foundation/sponsors UBports website] for how to donate. | Contributions and bug reports can be made at the [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ UBports PinePhone GitLab page]. See [https://ubports.com/foundation/sponsors UBports website] for how to donate. | ||
---- | |||
=== Rhino Linux === | |||
[[File:rhino-linux-logo.png|right|100px]] | |||
Rhino Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution that uses the rolling-release model by tracking the <code>devel</code> branch of repositories. The port is currently maintained by Oren Klopfer (oklopfer). | |||
Tow-Boot is required for installing Rhino Linux. Instructions for installing Tow-Boot to the PinePhone can be found [https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephoneA64.html here]. After Tow-Boot has been installed to your device, Rhino Linux installation just requires flashing the <code>.img.xz</code> to an SD or the eMMC. | |||
==== Download ==== | |||
[https://rhinolinux.org/download/ Rhino Linux Downloads] (select Pine64 on the dropdown) | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
!colspan="2" style="background: #a7d7f9;"| Default credentials | |||
|- | |||
! Default user | |||
| <code>rhino/1234</code> | |||
|} | |||
==== Notes ==== | |||
Foundational to the distribution is [https://pacstall.dev Pacstall], a Debian-based user repository inspired by the AUR. Additionally, RL comes with [https://rhinolinux.org/unicorn/ Unicorn], a custom modified version of XFCE with various modernizations and improvements, including auto-rotation for mobile devices. | |||
[https://discord.gg/reSvc8Ztk3 Discord] - [https://matrix.to/#/#rolling-rhino-remix:matrix.org Matrix] - [https://github.com/rhino-linux GitHub] - [https://rhinolinux.org/wiki/ Wiki] | |||
== Further Releases == | == Further Releases == | ||
PinePhone Pro Software Releases [PINE64 - Recent changes [en]]
PinePhone Pro: - Add Rhino Linux
| ← Older revision | Revision as of 18:33, 7 July 2023 | ||
| Line 222: | Line 222: | ||
A Mobile Version of the Ubuntu Operating System made and maintained by the UBports Community. The port is currently maintained by Oren Klopfer (oklopfer). | A Mobile Version of the Ubuntu Operating System made and maintained by the UBports Community. The port is currently maintained by Oren Klopfer (oklopfer). | ||
Tow-Boot is required for installing the latest version of Ubuntu Touch (20.04). Instructions for installing Tow-Boot to the PinePhone Pro can be found [https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephonePro.html here]. | Tow-Boot is required for installing the latest version of Ubuntu Touch (20.04) to the PinePhone Pro. Instructions for installing Tow-Boot to the PinePhone Pro can be found [https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephonePro.html here]. | ||
Installation instructions can be found at | Installation instructions can be found at | ||
| Line 247: | Line 247: | ||
Scroll down to the middle of [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ the GitLab project page], or directly here [https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/pinephone-pro/release/focal/#deviceOverview at the UBports website] to see which features work. | Scroll down to the middle of [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ the GitLab project page], or directly here [https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/pinephone-pro/release/focal/#deviceOverview at the UBports website] to see which features work. | ||
Contributions and bug reports can be made at the [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ UBports PinePhone GitLab page]. See [https://ubports.com/foundation/sponsors UBports website] for how to donate. | Contributions and bug reports can be made at the [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ UBports PinePhone Pro GitLab page]. See [https://ubports.com/foundation/sponsors UBports website] for how to donate. | ||
== Rhino Linux == | |||
[[File:rhino-linux-logo.png|right|100px]] | |||
Rhino Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution that uses the rolling-release model by tracking the <code>devel</code> branch of repositories. The port is currently maintained by Oren Klopfer (oklopfer). | |||
Tow-Boot is required for installing Rhino Linux. Instructions for installing Tow-Boot to the PinePhone Pro can be found [https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephonePro.html here]. After Tow-Boot has been installed to your device, Rhino Linux installation just requires flashing the <code>.img.xz</code> to an SD or the eMMC. | |||
=== Download === | |||
[https://rhinolinux.org/download/ Rhino Linux Downloads] (select Pine64 on the dropdown) | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
!colspan="2" style="background: #a7d7f9;"| Default credentials | |||
|- | |||
! Default user | |||
| <code>rhino/1234</code> | |||
|} | |||
=== Notes === | |||
Foundational to the distribution is [https://pacstall.dev Pacstall], a Debian-based user repository inspired by the AUR. Additionally, RL comes with [https://rhinolinux.org/unicorn/ Unicorn], a custom modified version of XFCE with various modernizations and improvements, including auto-rotation for mobile devices. | |||
[https://discord.gg/reSvc8Ztk3 Discord] - [https://matrix.to/#/#rolling-rhino-remix:matrix.org Matrix] - [https://github.com/rhino-linux GitHub] - [https://rhinolinux.org/wiki/ Wiki] | |||
[[Category:PinePhone Pro]] | [[Category:PinePhone Pro]] | ||
PineTab2 Releases [PINE64 - Recent changes [en]]
PineTab2: - Add Rhino Linux
| ← Older revision | Revision as of 18:27, 7 July 2023 | ||
| Line 127: | Line 127: | ||
Scroll down to the middle of [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ the GitLab project page] to see which features work. | Scroll down to the middle of [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ the GitLab project page] to see which features work. | ||
Contributions and bug reports can be made at the [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ UBports | Contributions and bug reports can be made at the [https://gitlab.com/ook37/pinephone-pro-debos/ UBports PineTab2 GitLab page]. See [https://ubports.com/foundation/sponsors UBports website] for how to donate. | ||
=== Rhino Linux === | |||
[[File:rhino-linux-logo.png|right|100px]] | |||
Rhino Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution that uses the rolling-release model by tracking the <code>devel</code> branch of repositories. The port is currently maintained by Oren Klopfer (oklopfer). | |||
The bootloader (u-boot) comes pre-flashed in the port. Installation just requires flashing the <code>.img.xz</code> to an SD or the eMMC. | |||
==== Download ==== | |||
[https://rhinolinux.org/download/ Rhino Linux Downloads] (select Pine64 on the dropdown) | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
!colspan="2" style="background: #a7d7f9;"| Default credentials | |||
|- | |||
! Default user | |||
| <code>rhino/1234</code> | |||
|} | |||
==== Notes ==== | |||
Foundational to the distribution is [https://pacstall.dev Pacstall], a Debian-based user repository inspired by the AUR. Additionally, RL comes with [https://rhinolinux.org/unicorn/ Unicorn], a custom modified version of XFCE with various modernizations and improvements, including auto-rotation for mobile devices. | |||
[https://discord.gg/reSvc8Ztk3 Discord] - [https://matrix.to/#/#rolling-rhino-remix:matrix.org Matrix] - [https://github.com/rhino-linux GitHub] - [https://rhinolinux.org/wiki/ Wiki] | |||
File:Rhino-linux-logo.png [PINE64 - Recent changes [en]]
Oklopfer uploaded File:Rhino-linux-logo.png logo for Rhino Linux
New page
logo for Rhino Linux
The Best Early Prime Day Deals on Knives, Camping Equipment and Travel Accessories (So Far) [Latest Content - Gear Patrol]
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Kamala Harris Tries to Defines Culture in a Word Salad [www.independentsentinel.com]
Kamala Harris’s latest speech is being widely mocked. In case you are wondering, she was trying to redefine “culture.” Her speeches are always defined as word salads, and this one is her finest word salad yet. Kamala Harris, whose net approval rating is the worst ever recorded in NBC’s polling history, joined Sunny Hostin, co-host […]
The post Kamala Harris Tries to Defines Culture in a Word Salad first appeared on www.independentsentinel.com.
America, The Sickly [www.independentsentinel.com]
by David Reavill Americans have always believed in pursuing physical Fitness. It’s a trend that goes back to Thomas Jefferson, who thought afternoons should be spent in outdoor activity and recreation. It’s an integral part of Jefferson’s daily routine: “Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading,” said Jefferson. […]
The post America, The Sickly first appeared on www.independentsentinel.com.
WTH? Radical Jack Smith’s Investigating a Trump WH Meeting? [www.independentsentinel.com]
Jack Smith’s going after Donald Trump for a private meeting he had in the White House to discuss how they could prove the election was stolen. [Who believes 81 million people legitimately voted for Joe Biden?] Special counsel Jack Smith is digging into an Oval Office meeting that took place in the waning days of […]
The post WTH? Radical Jack Smith’s Investigating a Trump WH Meeting? first appeared on www.independentsentinel.com.
Walmart mass murderer receives 90 life sentences in federal court, could still face Texas death penalty [Law Officer]
EL PASO, Texas – The gunman who murdered 23 people inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas received 90 consecutive life sentences by a federal jury on Friday, according to reports. Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty to 90 charges, which included 23 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, 23 counts of use of a […]
New U.S. Marshals Museum filled with interactive and engaging experiences is open for business [Law Officer]
FORT SMITH, Ark. – Thinkwell Group (A TAIT Company), a leading design and production agency creating immersive, content-driven experiences for brands and companies around the world, celebrates the opening of The U.S. Marshals Museum (USMM) in Fort Smith, Arkansas, a highly interactive and engaging museum experience that tells the story of the Marshals. Thinkwell was responsible for the […]
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder arrested during protest in front of DOJ [Law Officer]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ben Cohen is the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. He was arrested Thursday in front of the Department of Justice (DOJ) during a protest against the detainment of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange. Cohen was taken into custody in Washington, D.C. by members of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for […]
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US sent cluster bombs to speed up ‘slow’ Ukrainian counteroffensive – Pentagon [RT - Daily news]
Defense official Colin Kahl acknowledged that Russia had put up a “successful” defense
Washington’s decision to supply Ukraine with controversial cluster munitions was partly influenced by the lackluster results of Kiev’s much-vaunted summer counteroffensive, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told reporters on Friday.
Speaking immediately after the White House announced that President Joe Biden had signed off on the delivery of dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) to Ukraine, Kahl said that the decision was influenced by “the urgency of the moment.”
“We want to make sure that the Ukrainians have sufficient artillery to keep them in the fight in the context of the current counteroffensive, and because things are going a little slower than some had hoped,” he said.
Kahl admitted that “the Russians have been more successful digging in deeply, perhaps more than is appreciated.”
Kahl, the highest ranking civilian official in the Pentagon, also acknowledged that the cluster munitions would serve as a “bridge” until the US and its allies can increase production of conventional 155mm artillery shells for Ukraine.
After months of postponements, Ukraine’s counteroffensive began on June 4 with a failed attack on Russian positions near Donetsk, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Outmatched by Russian artillery and lacking air support, Ukraine’s NATO-trained brigades advanced through Russian-laid minefields, suffering steep casualties. The Russian Defense Ministry estimated late last month that Ukraine lost around 13,000 troops and nearly 250 tanks between June 4 and June 21.
Despite these high losses, Kahl claimed on Friday that Kiev’s forces were still “probing for weak spots” in Russia’s multi-layered defensive network, and that the majority of Ukraine’s combat power “has not been brought to bear.”
American officials have been disappointed with the lack of progress, according to multiple US media reports over the last three weeks. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have alternated between claiming that the true counteroffensive has yet to begin, and blaming the West for not providing enough weapons to guarantee success.
Cluster munitions are banned in more than 120 countries because when they detonate, they release many small ‘bomblets’ over a wide area, with these unexploded elements posing severe risks to civilians for years after fighting ends. The US is not a party to the ban, but maintains a prohibition on the export of munitions with a ‘dud’ rate of more than 1%.
Biden waived this ban to supply DPICM ammunition to Ukraine based on “unanimous” advice from his national security team, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Friday. According to Kahl, the DPICM rounds sent to Kiev will have a failure rate of up to 2.35%.
UN condemns cluster munitions [RT - Daily news]
They were banned by an international convention, the world body’s secretary-general has pointed out
A spokesman for the UN secretary-general called out the use of cluster munitions on Friday, as the US prepared to announce supplying artillery shells of that type to Ukraine.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “supports the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which, as you know, was adopted 15 years ago. And he wants countries to abide by the terms of that convention,” his spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.
“And so as a result, of course, he does not want there to be continued use of cluster munitions on the battlefield,” Haq concluded.
The White House has confirmed that cluster munitions will be included in the latest batch of military supplies for Ukraine. Kiev has hailed the delivery as having an “extraordinary psycho-emotional impact” on Russian troops, which the Ukrainian army has not been able to push back in a month of heavy fighting.
One of the reasons the Pentagon cited for providing the dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) was that the US was running short of conventional 155mm artillery rounds to send to Ukraine.
Human Rights Watch and other groups have objected to the plan, noting that cluster bombs have a high rate of unexploded ordnance that continues to kill and maim civilians for years afterward.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions came into effect in August 2010, with signatories pledging to “never under any circumstances” use, develop, produce, or transfer the banned munitions, or assist, encourage and induce anyone else to do so. It has been ratified by 111 states so far – including most NATO members – though not by the US, Ukraine, or Russia.
Most French blame liberal immigration rules for riots – poll [RT - Daily news]
More than 70% of respondents want the influx of immigrants reduced, Le Figaro has found
Some 59% of the French public want the government to tighten a forthcoming immigration bill in response to a recent wave of nationwide violence. While the government insists that the rioters were “90% French,” opposition politicians have described the unrest as the beginnings of a “race war.”
The French government has been working on a sweeping immigration bill since late last year, and lawmakers are expected to vote on a final version this fall. While the bill will make it easier for legal immigrants to obtain work permits, it grants the government more extensive powers to deport foreign aliens.
However, 59% of the French public think that the bill should be toughened in light of last week’s nationwide riots, according to a poll published by Le Figaro on Thursday. According to the newspaper, almost six in ten French people view the riots as “the consequence of the failures of our migration policy.”
The violence erupted after police shot and killed a French-Algerian teenager when he refused to comply at a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on June 27. Although the officer responsible was charged with homicide, riots soon engulfed the country. Widespread arson and vandalism occurred, and rioters attacked police with fireworks and molotov cocktails, while some were filmed brandishing military-grade firearms.
The violence was primarily instigated by youths from immigrant backgrounds. The French government has attempted to downplay the ethnic nature of the violence, with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin stating on Wednesday that of more than 3,500 people arrested during the riots, only 10% were foreigners.
“The issue today is young offenders, not foreigners,” Darmanin said, noting that those responsible were “90% French.”
Darmanin’s figures do not account for second- and third-generation immigrants. Despite their French passports, these “delinquents…shout their hatred of France and burn its flag,” MEP François-Xavier Bellamy wrote in Le Figaro on Wednesday. “Naturalization does not mean assimilation,” Bellamy added.
“It’s not riots, it’s guerrilla warfare. A challenge to France, to our institutions, by a population that seeks secession,” MP Nicolas Dupont-Aignan declared on Friday. A week earlier, former presidential candidate Eric Zemmour described the then-raging riots as “a race war,” solely attributable to “the number of immigrants” in France.
According to Le Figaro’s poll, the French public favors such harsh measures. Some 71% called for “a reduction in migratory flows” in response to the unrest, 75% called for dual nationals convicted of rioting to be stripped of French citizenship, and 90% demanded a heavier police presence in affected neighborhoods.
French police gain remote spying powers – media [RT - Daily news]
A new law allows authorities to activate the cameras and microphones of suspects’ cell phones
Police in France gained the power to remotely activate and monitor the camera, microphone, and GPS of a suspect’s devices under a so-called “justice reform bill” that passed the National Assembly on Wednesday, according to media reports.
The legislation, which passed with a majority of 80-24, allows police to use laptops, cars, phones, and other connected electronics in order to monitor terrorism suspects, as well as those suspected of organized crime and delinquency.
The bill reportedly includes exemptions for “sensitive professions” such as journalists, judges, lawyers, doctors, and MPs.
Lawmakers with President Emmanuel Macron’s party added an amendment limiting remote spying to “when justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime” and “for a strictly proportional duration” not exceeding six months. Police will only be able to use geolocation when investigating crimes that carry at least a five-year prison sentence, and a judge must sign off on every use of the powers.
The new measures “raise serious concerns over infringement of fundamental liberties,” digital rights advocacy group La Quadrature du Net said in a statement. It claimed that the “right to security, right to a private life, and to private correspondence” hung in the balance, as well as “the right to come and go freely.”
Because the bill is vague about what constitutes a serious crime, the government could use the new police powers to silence political activists and others who pose no real threat to the state, the group argued.
The Paris Bar, a professional group of 30,000 lawyers, warned in a statement that the bill constituted a “particularly serious breach of respect for privacy,” arguing it “cannot be justified by the protection of the public order” and complaining it did not prohibit police from snooping on protected conversations between lawyer and client.
Insisting the new police powers would only be used on “dozens of cases a year,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti argued “people’s lives will be saved” by beefed-up surveillance. “We’re far away from the totalitarianism of 1984,” he said.
The justice reform bill passed the Senate last month in its original form, and now must be approved as amended.
Last week, France erupted into massive, violent riots following the police shooting of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk as he allegedly attempted to flee a traffic stop in Nantes. The officer who shot the youth was arrested and charged with voluntary homicide.
In response to the violence, which has led to over 4,000 arrests across the country, with 1,200 of those estimated to be minors, Macron has proposed a social media kill-switch to prevent young people from coordinating actions.
US congresswoman wants Hunter Biden drug-tested [RT - Daily news]
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s questions about alleged drug use at the White House followed the discovery of a bag of cocaine near the West Wing
US Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene questioned whether President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and the rest of the White House occupants could pass a drug test in a tweet on Wednesday, several days after a small amount of cocaine triggered an evacuation of the grounds.
“I’d also like to know if [White House] staff and admin, as well as Hunter Biden, can all pass a drug test,” Greene tweeted.
The conservative firebrand also questioned the president’s sobriety, demanding to know “what list of meds or drugs is Joe taking?”
Both comments were posted in response to a video from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in which she referred all inquiries to the Secret Service and emphasized that the Bidens were not present in Washington, DC when the discovery was made, having left on Friday and returned on Tuesday for the Independence Day celebration.
The White House was briefly evacuated and the grounds cleared “as a precaution” on Sunday after a uniformed Secret Service division officer discovered the baggie in a storage cubby used by visitors to stash electronics at an entryway into the complex’s West Wing. The substance was tested by the DC Fire Department and found to be nonhazardous, then confirmed as cocaine with a second test.
The Secret Service is working with the FBI to investigate how the cocaine ended up at the West Wing, an official involved in the probe told NBC. The baggie will be tested for DNA and fingerprints as well as a full chemical analysis, and agents will consult security cameras and entrance logs to try to pin down the culprit.
However, there is little hope of finding the owner due to the heavy foot traffic in the area, another government official involved in the probe told Politico on Wednesday. “Even if there were surveillance cameras, unless you were waving it around, it may not have been caught,” the person said, explaining that the location is “a bit of a thoroughfare. People walk by there all the time.”
Hunter Biden’s addiction to crack — a smokable form of cocaine — is a matter of public record, and Rep. Greene was not the only one of the president's critics who couldn't resist connecting the discovery to him even in the absence of any concrete evidence.
“Does anybody really believe that the COCAINE found in the West Wing of the White House, very close to the Oval Office, is for the use of anyone other than Hunter & Joe Biden?” former president Donald Trump asked on his Truth Social platform.
Former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany dismissed the possibility that the drugs were Hunter’s, given that he left on Friday with the rest of the family and it was “inconceivable” that cocaine could sit undiscovered in a White House cubby for three days. Secret Service agents sweep the compound daily.
Austria has ‘clear position’ on cluster munitions for Ukraine – FM [RT - Daily news]
The armaments can do “immense harm” to civilian populations years after a conflict, Vienna has said
Vienna strongly opposes providing Kiev with cluster bombs, as they can cause suffering to civilians for many years after the fighting is over, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told journalists on Friday.
Schallenberg’s comments come amid media reports about Washington’s alleged plans to greenlight such deliveries in the near future.
“We have a clear position,” the minister said as he arrived at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Climate Conference. “These are the munition systems that are banned at an international level,” he added, comparing cluster munitions to anti-personnel mines.
“Cluster bombs are still lying around for years [after a war has ended]. We have seen this in the Middle East. [They] can inflict immense damage to the civilian population years after a conflict,” Schallenberg said.
The Austrian minister also warned Western leaders about the message they would send to the world by supplying Kiev with such controversial armaments. “As the West, we must pay utmost attention to what signals we are sending,” he said.
He added that support for Ukraine was necessary, but insisted it “must be correct support.”
Western media reports have suggested in recent weeks that Washington is preparing to bolster the Ukrainian army’s firepower with cluster munitions from its vast Cold War-era arsenal. According to the various reports, some US officials believe it could help Kiev’s troops breach Russia’s defenses, as Ukraine’s much touted counteroffensive has so far failed to achieve any significant results.
The Pentagon said on Friday that the US was considering providing Ukraine with bombs that have a lower dud rate – the proportion of bomblets that fail to initially explode. The potential decision was criticized by some Western human rights NGOs and even some of Washington’s allies.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) spoke against the possible delivery, warning that it would “inevitably cause long-term suffering for civilians.” On Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also expressed a negative attitude to the idea, saying that Germany is sticking to the Oslo agreements that banned cluster munitions.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, however, that the military bloc does not have a specific position on the issue precisely because its members have different opinions on the matter.
Cluster bombs carry smaller explosive submunitions that are released in flight and scattered across a target area, and are typically used against personnel and lightly armored vehicles. They also tend to leave behind undetonated ‘duds’ that can remain in former conflict zones for decades. This prompted more than 110 nations, including many NATO members, to ban cluster bombs under a UN convention back in 2008.
White House confirms transfer of controversial cluster bombs to Ukraine [RT - Daily news]
Washington has approved the move despite knowing the risk to civilians, the US national security adviser has said
US President Joe Biden has greenlighted the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of the Pentagon’s 42nd arms package for Kiev’s forces. The White House said that Biden made the decision despite the risk of harm to civilians.
The president approved the transfer based on “unanimous” advice from his national security team, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Friday.
US officials “recognize that cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance. This is why we deferred the decision for as long as we could,” Sullivan said, before arguing that the supply of cluster bombs is not “that much of an addition of civilian harm,” as Russia has allegedly used them in Ukraine already.
Cluster munitions are banned in more than 120 countries because when they detonate, they release many small ‘bomblets’ over a wide area, with these unexploded elements posing severe risks to civilians for years after fighting ends.
The US, Ukraine, and Russia are not parties to the ban. The US, however, has prohibited exports of the armaments with a ‘dud’ rate of more than 1%, but this restriction can be lifted by presidential waiver.
The cluster bombs sent to Ukraine will have a failure rate of up to 2.35%, Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Colin Kahl told reporters on Friday. Kahl claimed that Ukraine would not use these munitions in “civilian-populated urban areas,” despite Kiev’s track record of using Western-supplied weapons systems against civilians in Donetsk and Lugansk.
Kahl explained that the cluster munitions in question will be dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM), which can be fired from Ukraine’s NATO-supplied 155mm artillery systems. Asked whether the US decided to send DPICM shells due to a shortage of conventional 155mm rounds, Kahl seemingly confirmed the shortfall, explaining that the cluster shells would serve as a “bridge” until NATO members could ramp up production of conventional shells.
Kahl refused to say how many DPICM rounds would be sent to Ukraine, but said that there are “hundreds of thousands” of such shells in US stockpiles, which could potentially be doled out to Kiev over multiple military aid packages.
Russia points to root causes of migration [RT - Daily news]
Western meddling in the Middle East and North Africa is driving the crisis, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova has said
Solving the problem of mass migration requires addressing the Western meddling into the affairs of other countries and destabilization of their governments, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
During her daily news briefing, Zakharova was asked to comment on unspecified media reports in “unfriendly countries” about Moscow allegedly weaponizing migration against the EU.
“We believe that migration in this direction is the result of irresponsible and reckless interference by Western countries in the internal affairs of sovereign states, in order to destabilize them and forcefully change objectionable governments in the region,” Zakharova said, noting that most migrants come to the EU from the Middle East and North Africa.
The countries responsible should deal with the consequences, one of which is a “massive flow of migrants and refugees,” she said.
Moscow’s position is that the best way to solve the migration problem is to “eliminate the root causes that force people to leave their homeland,” including political settlement of ongoing conflicts, economic aid, and strengthening governments in the fight against terrorism, according to the spokeswoman.
Mass migration into Europe began following the so-called Arab Spring of 2011, which saw “color revolutions” in several North African countries and Western-backed regime change operations in Libya and Syria. Once the most prosperous country in Africa, Libya has been torn by civil war ever since, while the neighboring region of Sahel has had to deal with Islamist militants. Syria almost fell to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists until Russia and Iran intervened in 2015.
The EU has sought to spread the burden of handling the migrants and asylum-seekers through a policy of “mandatory solidarity,” adopted at a ministerial meeting in early June, but Hungary has since signaled it intends to reject the proposal.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an estimated 94,000 migrants had arrived on EU shores as of July 3, compared to 189,000 in 2022. The vast majority of arrivals, some 85,000, have been by sea. The crossing has also been more hazardous this year, with more than 2,000 deaths recorded so far, compared to 2,400 in all of 2022.
A look at the US' bipartisan push to pass Big Tech antitrust bills in 2022, derailed by industry lobbying, ads, PR, donations, and congressional dysfunction (Steven Pearlstein/Washington Post) [Techmeme]
Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:
A look at the US' bipartisan push to pass Big Tech antitrust bills in 2022, derailed by industry lobbying, ads, PR, donations, and congressional dysfunction — CORRECTION — An earlier version of this column incorrectly included a reference to Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) …
Adam Mosseri says Threads will not "encourage" politics and "hard news" as such content brings scrutiny that isn't worth the "incremental engagement or revenue" (Jay Peters/The Verge) [Techmeme]
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Adam Mosseri says Threads will not “encourage” politics and “hard news” as such content brings scrutiny that isn't worth the “incremental engagement or revenue” — / Adam Mosseri ran Facebook's News Feed in 2016, and now he tells Alex Heath that politics …
US Housing Prices Push Higher [The Burning Platform]
Guest Post by Martin Armstrong
Fannie Mae admitted their forecast of declining home prices was incorrect. They initially projected that housing would fall by 1.2% in 2023, followed by 2.2% in 2024. Housing prices remain strong because this in an inventory crisis. There are 47% less available single-family houses on the market compared to the start of the COVID crisis. Homebuilders cannot keep up with demand, and the demand for investment-bought rentals is outpacing single-family sales.
Our Residential Index elected a Yearly Bullish Reversal at the end of 2012. That confirmed the long-term trend had changed. However, urban condos and commercial properties were forming a divergence. I assumed that was being caused by the debt and rising taxes in cities. In that regard, I suppose I was only partially correct, for the rest had been the braindead response to COVID and failed QE policies. The failure of QE caused a collapse in confidence in the future. When people fear the future, they save. Increasing the money supply does nothing until the people decide to spend it.
Socrates also selected the precise target for the January 2021 directional change in US real estate. Our index began declining in January 2022, anticipating the first rate hike on March 17, 2022, by a quarter point. The claim that interest rate hikes imply that real estate will decline is very old school, and once more, it presumes everyone is buying on leverage. In 2021, cash sales represented 25% of existing home sales in the key markets, which were a level unmatched since 2016. Nationally, buyers paid cash for almost 15% of the homes in 2021 in markets that were booming from migration from other states.
Real estate is undergoing three separate trends. First, there has been mass evacuation from cities and high-taxed states thanks also to draconian COVID laws. Secondly, we have the flight of capital to flee banks, etc, which is part of just getting capital off the grid. Then thirdly, there has been a flight of international capital fleeing to the United States because of geopolitical instability in Europe.
This market has been LESS impacted by interest rate hikes than any previous booming market, all because of the migration from interstate within the US and the flood of European buyers looking for assets outside of Europe as the prospect of a global war increases. I have warned that real estate will decline in those states where people are fleeing. It has boomed in places they have been migrating to, such as Texas and Florida. Obviously, you can no longer make a blanket forecast in real estate.
Mark Dice Visits City Council in Disguise to Deliver Important Message That Leaves Attendees Stunned [The Burning Platform]
Questions About Taylor Taranto and His Curious Story Continue to Grow – Newest J6 Detainee Shunned by “Patriot Pod” in DC Prison [The Gateway Pundit]
Taylor Taranto sits outside the DC CTF during a recent vigil
WTH? Joe Biden Veers Off-Script, Recalls His Childhood Home and Hearing ‘Restlessness’ Coming From His Parent’s Bedroom (VIDEO) [The Gateway Pundit]
Joe Biden on Friday delivered remarks on ‘lowering costs for Americans.’
This is Biden’s first and only public event for the entire day before he takes off to Rehoboth Beach for another vacation.
Biden falsely claimed his administration created over 13 million jobs (it’s mainly people returning to work after the government shut down businesses during Covid).
The microphone malfunctioned as soon as Joe Biden began spewing lies about his economy.
WATCH:
Yikes pic.twitter.com/nqwPuXmMRX
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 7, 2023
At one point during his remarks, Biden veered off-script and began telling a story about his childhood home.
“My sister, the princess, had her own bedroom,” Biden said recalling his childhood home. “The boys…there were two sets of bunks and there was a closet that ran…if you walked straight down the hall from the boys’ room, all three of us.”
Biden continued, “On the left, there was a closet on that whole wall. My parent’s bed, the headboard was against where that closet was and every once in a while, or rarely, you could hear, you could hear sort of a restlessness going on.”
WATCH:
What is Biden talking about? pic.twitter.com/ARMpc3a1xv
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 7, 2023
The post WTH? Joe Biden Veers Off-Script, Recalls His Childhood Home and Hearing ‘Restlessness’ Coming From His Parent’s Bedroom (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Tucker Carlson Reveals Chief of Police at the Capitol Told Him the January 6 Crowd Was “Filled with Federal Agents” – Was NEVER Aired by FOX (VIDEO) [The Gateway Pundit]
Tucker Carlson sat down for an interview with Russel Brand to talk about a variety of topics.
Tucker spoke about Trump, January 6, electronic voting machines, and the upcoming election.
The Gateway Pundit has reported numerous times on suspected federal agents (Ray Epps?) who infiltrated the January 6 crowd.
Tucker Carlson said he interviewed the Chief of Police who was at the Capitol on January 6 and in charge of security that day.
“I interviewed the Chief of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund, in an interview that was never aired on FOX by the way, I was fired before it could air. I’m gonna interview him again,” Tucker said. “But Steven Sund was the totally non-political, worked for Nancy Pelosi.”
“I mean this was not some right-wing activist – he was the Chief of the Capitol Police on January 6, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that crowd was filled with federal agents…'”
Tucker continued, “As time passed, it became more and more obvious that the core claims they made about January 6 were lies.”
WATCH:
Tucker Carlson BLOWS The Doors Off January 6th LIES.
Reveals Fox News REFUSED To Air His J6 Interview Of Capitol Chief Of Police PROVING “The US Capitol Was FILLED With Federal Agents”
Tucker Describes Fox Execs Attacking him For J6 Report: “F**k You!”
Narrative Collapse. Wow pic.twitter.com/30UijETvNq
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 7, 2023
Michael Waller, a senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy specializing in propaganda, political warfare, psychological warfare, and subversion, said he was at the Capitol on January 6 and witnessed:
- Plainclothes militants. Militant, aggressive men in Donald Trump and MAGA gear at a front police line at the base of the temporary presidential inaugural platform;
- Agents-provocateurs. Scattered groups of men exhorting the marchers to gather closely and tightly toward the center of the outside of the Capitol building and prevent them from leaving;
- Fake Trump protesters. A few young men wearing Trump or MAGA hats backward and who did not fit in with the rest of the crowd in terms of their actions and demeanor, whom I presumed to be Antifa or other leftist agitators; and
- Disciplined, uniformed column of attackers. A column of organized, disciplined men, wearing similar but not identical camouflage uniforms and black gear, some with helmets and GoPro cameras or wearing subdued Punisher skull patches.
Antifa terrorists also infiltrated the Capitol protest.
Trump supporters were blamed for all of the violence and chaos at the Capitol on January 6, but according to a former FBI agent, Antifa terrorists infiltrated the Trump rally.
Via investigative reporter Paul Sperry: Former FBI agent on the ground at the U.S. Capitol just texted me and confirmed that at least 1 “bus load” of Antifa thugs infiltrated peaceful Trump demonstrators as part of a false Trump flag ops
BREAKING: Former FBI agent on the ground at U.S. Capitol just texted me and confirmed that at least 1 “bus load” of Antifa thugs infiltrated peaceful Trump demonstrators as part of a false Trump flag ops
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) January 6, 2021
The post Tucker Carlson Reveals Chief of Police at the Capitol Told Him the January 6 Crowd Was “Filled with Federal Agents” – Was NEVER Aired by FOX (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Dr. McCullough on New Studies: “The COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign Has Generated a Tidal Wave of New Patients” [The Gateway Pundit]
(Note: Thank you for supporting businesses like the one presenting a sponsored message below and ordering through the links below, which benefits Gateway Pundit. We appreciate your support!)
Dr. Peter McCullough is not only America’s leading cardiologist, but he is also our foremost COVID-19 expert. Now that we have several years of COVID data under our belt, Dr. McCullough is exposing the truths about the disease and the experimental vaccines that were forced on so many Americans.
Dr. McCullough, reviewing recent studies on the prevalence of serious heart-related issues after the vaccine, writes,
“the COVID-19 vaccine campaign has generated a tidal wave of new patients with a variety of problems. Fortunately, many issues we are able to handle in the office. Adverse events warranting hospitalization including “heart attacks” is another matter.”
Dr. McCullough makes it clear that the mountains of scientific evidence, including a review of over 100 studies, show the dangers of the vaccine,
“One can see from this analysis, that cardiovascular complications including various forms of “heart attacks” do indeed occur after COVID-19 vaccination and the medical academic community and the WHO is widely recognizing the association. So the next time a doctor tries to gaslight you or your loved on a heart attack after the vaccine, please share this….”
But it’s not just the vaccinated who need to be concerned, Dr. McCullough also recently reported that the persistent presence of spike protein, the protein present in both COVID and the mRNA COVID vaccines, can be transmitted or “shed” onto others.
“In the most comprehensive paper on shedding thus far, former Inserm researcher Dr. Helene Banoun has published the basis for which there is great likelihood that mRNA either on lipid nanoparticles or within exosomes is circulatory in blood and is secreted in every body secretion that would naturally expect to contain particles of this size.”
Fortunately, Dr. McCullough has identified a solution: the best-known way to remove and protect against mRNA-carrying spike proteins is a daily dose of over-the-counter nattokinase:.
“Nattokinase is an enzyme is produced by fermenting soybeans with bacteria Bacillus subtilis var. natto and has been available as an oral supplement. It degrades fibrinogen, factor VII, cytokines, and factor VIII and has been studied for its cardiovascular benefits. Out of all the available therapies I have used in my practice and among all the proposed detoxification agents, I believe nattokinase and related peptides hold the greatest promise for patients at this time.”
If you or someone you love would like to try nattokinase, The Wellness Company’s “Spike Support Formula” contains nattokinase plus other extracts and is designed by Dr. Peter McCullough and his team.
In The Wellness Company’s Spike Support Formula you will find:
-
Nattokinase (enzyme shown to dissolve spike protein)
-
Selenium (aids in helping the body repair itself and recover)
-
Dandelion root (may prevent spike protein from binding to cells)
-
Black sativa extract (may facilitate cellular repair)
-
Green tea extract (provides added defenses at the cellular level through scavenging for free radicals)
-
Irish sea moss (could help rebuild damaged tissue and muscle)
Here is Dr. Jen VanDeWater talking about all the elements of The Wellness Company’s Spike Support Formula:
&
People are saying about The Wellness Company’s Spike Support Formula:
“I saw Dr. McCullough talk about the product and decided to give it a try. A month and a half later, I feel sooo much better. I also have recommended the product to family members to help them detox from the painful side effects of the vaccine.”
“I feel like I have had brain fog for the past 18 months and after taking this supplement noticed the fog lifting finally. I plan to buy more for myself and now a friend suffering from heart issues.”
“I am grateful for the Wellness Company and for you coming out with this spike protein vitamins. I am a big believer in natural healing and not pharmaceutical drugs. Thank you for doing what is right and for speaking truth in a world that is so dark.”
.According to the Wellness Company, purchasing all the components of the Spike Support Formula would be over $100 – you can save 36% with the unique formulation in The Wellness Company’s Spike Support Formula.
Click here to order the Spike Support Formula today!
(Note: Nothing in this is medical advice. Please see a physician before using any supplements).
The post Dr. McCullough on New Studies: “The COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign Has Generated a Tidal Wave of New Patients” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
17-Year-Old New York Football Player in Coma After Collapsing on the Field Due to “Cardiac Event” – Had No Known Heart Problems [The Gateway Pundit]
Credit: Robert Bush GoFundMe
Tucker Carlson: “Any Country That Has Electronic Voting Machines is by Definition at Risk of Having its Elections Stolen” (VIDEO) [The Gateway Pundit]
Tucker Carlson sat down for an interview with Russel Brand to talk about a variety of topics.
Tucker Carlson spoke highly of Trump and said he “loves” the former president.
“I think looking back on this, ten years from now, assuming we’re still around, I think we’re going to see Trump’s emergence as the most significant thing to happen in American politics in 100 years because he reoriented the Republican Party against the wishes of Republican leaders,” Tucker said.
Tucker also spoke freely on the dangers of voting machines in US elections.
He was unable to speak freely on this topic at Fox News because Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation suit against the outlet to shut down the conversation.
Tucker spoke out against electronic voting machines.
“Any country that has electronic voting machines is by definition at risk of having its elections stolen. No country that cared about democracy will have electronic voting machines,” Tucker Carlson said.
He is 100% correct.
WATCH:
.@TuckerCarlson: "Any country that has electronic voting machines is by definition at risk of having its elections stolen. No country that cared about democracy will have electronic voting machines." pic.twitter.com/LhTr3kjIS0
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 7, 2023
The post Tucker Carlson: “Any Country That Has Electronic Voting Machines is by Definition at Risk of Having its Elections Stolen” (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
MUST SEE! “Give it a F*cking Rest, Jordan!” – Katie Hobbs Yells at TGP Reporter as She Runs Away From Questions With Security (VIDEO) [The Gateway Pundit]
On Friday morning, The Gateway Pundit correspondent Jordan Conradson ran into Arizona’s illegitimate Governor, Katie Hobbs, at their local gym, where she again ran from questions and cursed at him.
“Give it a f*cking rest, Jordan!” shouted potty mouth Katie Hobbs while walking out of the gym with her security detail before stepping into a blacked-out SUV. Other gym members told Conradson they frequently see her being escorted by security to and from her workout classes in the early morning.
The security detail can be seen waiting outside of the group fitness classes wearing suits on days when Katie Hobbs goes to work out.
“A Governor who brings suited security to the gym is a Governor equipped to answer a couple of questions from a reporter. Instead of merely fleeing interviews Hobbs now remarkably resorts to hurling expletives,” said RC Maxwell of O’keefe Media Group. Previously, Katie Hobbs ran from Maxwell’s attempt to ask her questions at a restaurant. In a panic, she spilled her drink and hid in the bathroom.
Hobbs’ latest usage of foul language is nothing new. Katie Hobbs has used the F-word publicly in the past when tweeting about men.
Conradson attempted to ask Hobbs this morning about the secret machine testing that occurred before Maricopa County’s election day failures, the fraudulent mail-in ballot signature verification in Maricopa County, and recent executive orders that appear to be unlawful.
Kari Lake’s election was rigged and stolen, and Arizonans are paying the consequences.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, new evidence that was dismissed before Kari Lake’s trial in December shows Maricopa County employees engaging in the secret and illegal reconfiguration and testing of voting machines after they were certified and before the election. This likely caused voting machines and ballot printers to fail at 59% of voting locations targeting Republicans on Election Day.
This illegal testing occurred with no documentation or logging of tamper-evident seals in violation of the Elections Procedures Manual and the law. It was also conducted after the statutorily required October 11th testing, and the legally required public notice was not given. In the video from October 14, the reprogrammed ballot tabulators can be seen jamming as employees test them, just as they did on Election Day.
According to the Elections Procedures Manual, “If the electronic voting system has not successfully passed the Secretary of State’s L&A test, the Secretary of State may schedule a re-test for a later date. Re-testing may continue during the early voting period and through the day prior to the election. However, the officer in charge of elections may not deploy any electronic voting equipment in a federal, statewide, or legislative election that has not successfully passed the Secretary of State’s L&A test.” Counties are also required to “publish notice of the time and place of each L&A test at least 48 hours in advance of the test,” in accordance with ARS 16-449(A) and the Elections Procedures Manual.
“The Secretary of State’s Office must conduct its L&A tests after the officer in charge of elections has conducted county-level tests whenever practicable,” the Manual also states.
The Gateway Pundit also reported on Kari Lake’s recent signature verification trial, which revealed that approximately 274,000 ballot signatures were compared and verified in less than three seconds. Kari Lake’s attorney, Kurt Olsen, told the Court that “eleven of the signature verification workers approved 170k signatures at a rate of less than 0 and 2.99 seconds with a 99.97% approval rating.” This data is proven by Maricopa County’s own log file data.
When we were allowed to inspect and reproduce images of the ballot affidavits and compare them to voter registration records, it became extremely clear that Maricopa County did not accurately review or verify signatures.
See examples of the fraudulent mail-in ballots here:
Hobbs previously refused to answer questions from Conradson about these topics. Hobbs has also run away from Conradson, attempting to ask questions in multiple public settings.
Additionally, Conradson attempted to ask questions about Hobbs’ recent executive orders and her radical agenda for Arizona. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Katie Hobbs recently signed an EO that will delegate abortion-related prosecution to Attorney General Kris Mayes, who previously vowed not to enforce any current Arizona abortion laws if she is elected. It will also restrict state agencies from assisting in other state investigations, ban extraditions of doctors wanted in other states, and establish a council to expand access to abortion.
In another recent decision, Hobbs signed an executive order to allow state employees to get sex change surgeries covered by their health insurance coverage.
However, Hobbs was terrified of these answering questions and used foul language instead. After the encounter, a patriot and Gateway Pundit reader thanked Conradson for “keeping her honest.” One leftist admonished Conradson, followed him around and reported him to management.
Watch below:
Conradson: I have some questions about the election in Arizona. You know, Maricopa County did the secret testing on the machines, which per the Elections Procedures Manual, you were supposed to oversee through additional testing. Did you authorize those?
What about the signatures on the mail-in ballot affidavits? Are you aware of what those look like? They look nothing like the signatures of the voter. Miss Hobbs, as Secretary of State, you oversaw elections in Maricopa County and Arizona.
Hobbs: Give it a f*cking rest, Jordan! I’m at the gym, Jordan.
Give it an effing rest? Is that what you just said?
Hobbs: I sure did.
The post MUST SEE! “Give it a F*cking Rest, Jordan!” – Katie Hobbs Yells at TGP Reporter as She Runs Away From Questions With Security (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Here We Go: Kevin McCarthy Refuses to Endorse President Trump – Steve Bannon Blames Donor and Establishment Influence (VIDEO) [The Gateway Pundit]
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy refused to endorse President Donald Trump in the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election, a move that Politico suggests is designed to prevent a division within the House GOP over the 2024 election.
Back in 2022, McCarthy refused to say if he would endorse Trump in the 2024 election.
When reporters asked McCarthy if he would back Trump’s campaign, he answered, “You guys are crazy.”
Last month, McCarthy said “he doesn’t know” if former President Donald Trump is the “strongest” Republican candidate for president in the upcoming election.
After previously doubting Trump was the best candidate for the party in 2024, the speaker reversed course this week, telling conservative Breitbart News that the former president “is stronger today than he was in 2016.”
Politico reported:
While scores of McCarthy’s members have already backed Trump, plenty of other Republicans are steering clear of the polarizing former president in the GOP primary. That camp includes virtually every swing-seat lawmaker, many of whom fear that embracing Trump could spell their electoral doom next fall — as well as allies of Trump’s rivals, from Ron DeSantis to Doug Burgum.
So as much as McCarthy might risk alienating Trump by staying on the sidelines, the California Republican also provides the most political cover he can to his vulnerable members. The pressure on the speaker to choose sides will only grow throughout the summer, though, as Trump locks down support across the House GOP and questions intensify about why McCarthy isn’t fully embracing the man who helped deliver him the speakership.
Another House conservative, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that a Trump endorsement might only make matters worse for McCarthy and his “incredibly split” conference.
“The reality is, if we get Trump, there’s probably a good possibility that we don’t keep the House” next fall, said this conservative, who has not endorsed in the primary. “McCarthy knows that. He knows that if Trump’s on top of the ticket, that we probably lose New York and California. … If we lose the House, there’s no way McCarthy stays as minority leader. He’s gone.”
That leaves McCarthy in a difficult position amid his party’s long primary battle. He controls one of the smallest majorities in modern House history, where a handful of disgruntled members can force a vote to remove him at any time,. At the same time, McCarthy is facing a brutal map to keep the House in 2024 — one that will become even more forbidding if the twice-indicted Trump emerges as the nominee.
Steve Bannon lashed out at the decision, blaming not the so-called “pencil neck moderates,” but the influence of donors and establishment leadership within the Republican Party.
“Kevin McCarthy refuses to endorse Trump,” Bannon said, “And they said, well, he’s trying to not have a civil war in the Republican civil war. With what? With these pencil-neck moderates? Give me a break. No, it’s the donors. It’s the donors. It’s the donors’ leadership.”
WATCH:
BREAKING: Kevin McCarthy Refuses To Endorse President Trump Due To Donors And Establishment pic.twitter.com/JrzNuDoOrX
— Grace Chong
The post Here We Go: Kevin McCarthy Refuses to Endorse President Trump – Steve Bannon Blames Donor and Establishment Influence (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Even MSNBC Questions Biden White House Cocaine Narrative: “Hard to Believe” Secret Service Can’t Figure Out Who’s Bringing Cocaine to White House (VIDEO) [The Gateway Pundit]
Even MSNBC is starting to question the White House’s ever-changing story on the cocaine found in the West Wing after Hunter Biden visited the grounds.
A baggy of cocaine was discovered in the West Wing over the weekend after Hunter Biden visited the White House.
At first, it was reported that the cocaine was found in the Library.
Then on Tuesday night, it was reported the cocaine was stashed in a “cubby” in a storage facility in the West Wing.
Secret Service agents are investigating surveillance footage, visitor logs, and fingerprints to find out who brought the cocaine to the White House.
MSNBC said we may never know who actually brought the cocaine to the White House because the area “wasn’t necessarily covered by cameras all that well.”
On Friday morning MSNBC said it’s “hard to believe” the Secret Service can’t figure out who brought the cocaine to the White House.
WATCH:
Even MSNBC agrees: "Hard to believe" @SecretService can't figure out who's bringing cocaine into the WH pic.twitter.com/0FVNUhV8CU
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 7, 2023
Joe Biden refuses to answer questions about the baggy of cocaine.
Biden took no questions about the cocaine found in the White House and called a lid for the day at 4:13 p.m. pic.twitter.com/dVJGfEMmW3
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 7, 2023
The Secret Service is expected to conclude the cocaine investigation early next week regardless of whether a suspect is identified.
Nothing to see here, move along!
The post Even MSNBC Questions Biden White House Cocaine Narrative: “Hard to Believe” Secret Service Can’t Figure Out Who’s Bringing Cocaine to White House (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Tucker Reveals He Doesn’t Know Why He was Fired from FOX News During Interview with Russell Brand (VIDEO) [The Gateway Pundit]
Tucker Carlson (Source: Russel Brand/Rumble)
19:00
"People Swimming In Debt": Record Number Of Car Buyers With $1,000 Payments [ZeroHedge News]
"People Swimming In Debt": Record Number Of Car Buyers With $1,000 Payments
The share of new auto loans with monthly payments exceeding $1,000 has hit a new record as borrowing costs continue to rise and new car prices remain elevated. Consumers are taking on too much auto debt, which could have disastrous consequences during the next economic downturn.
Edmunds' second-quarter vehicle transaction data shows that 17.1% of consumers who financed a new car signed on for four-figure monthly payments. This now stands at a record high, up from 12.2% a year earlier. Before Covid, the figure was around 4.3%.
"The double whammy of relentlessly high vehicle pricing and daunting borrowing costs is presenting significant challenges for shoppers in today's car market," Ivan Drury, Edmunds' director of insights, told Detroit Free Press.
Drury continued, "The Federal Reserve's recent pause in interest rate hikes, unfortunately, didn't offer much relief for consumers, and hints at further raise later this year mean auto loan rates could even continue to increase."
Average monthly payments also reached a new record of $733. That compares with $730 in the first quarter and $678 in the second quarter of 2022. Buyers were financed with an average APR of around 7.1%, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2007.
The average financed amount still topped $40,000 for the fifth consecutive quarter at $40,356.
People are swimming in debt:
— CarDealershipGuy (@GuyDealership) July 6, 2023
2 out of every 3 consumers who agreed to a $1,000+ monthly payment in Q2 signed up for an average APR between 8.5% and 9.6%. (via Edmunds)
🙃
As for buyers who took on $1,000 monthly auto payments, about 65% of them had an average loan-term range of 67 months and 84 months, their average APR rate was between 8.5% and 9.6%.
"There are better ways and worse ways to spend $1,000 per month on a car note," Drury said.
He warned, "Consumers who are paying large amounts of finance charges could be in jeopardy of falling into a negative equity trap, so it's critical to come to the table with a comprehensive budget and a feel for the financing elements of a car purchase beyond the monthly payment, including the APR."
We have explained American Drivers Go Deeper Into Debt As Inflation Pushes Car Loans To Record Highs, which might spark a crushing auto loan crisis in the arrival of the next recession. Consumers are once again trapped. It's not just us saying this -- Goldman has warned clients about the faltering consumer.
Biden Whistleblower Gal Luft: 'I May Have To Live On The Run For the Rest of My Life' [ZeroHedge News]
Biden Whistleblower Gal Luft: 'I May Have To Live On The Run For the Rest of My Life'
Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,
Dr. Gal Luft, the Israeli whistleblower who has been on the run since April, detailed his bribery allegations against the Biden family in an extraordinary new video obtained by the New York Post.
As American Greatness previously reported, Luft was arrested on weapon trafficking and other charges in Cyprus last February and disappeared after he was let out on bail. After his arrest, the former Israeli army officer tweeted that the Biden administration was out to “bury” him.
The Biden Department of Justice had Luft, the founder and executive director of the Washington-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), arrested on on suspicion of arms trafficking to China and Libya, lying to the FBI and violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), according to his arrest warrant. He’s facing up to 96 years in prison if convicted of the charges.
From an undisclosed location, the fugitive claimed in the 14-minute video that he was arrested to stop him from testifying to the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee about the Biden family’s shady business exploits in China.
“Let it sink in. I, who volunteered to inform the U.S. government about a potential security breach and about compromising information about a man vying to be the next president, am now being hunted by the very same people who I informed and may have to live on the run for the rest of my life,” the whistleblower lamented.
Luft said he was forced to skip bail in Cyprus while awaiting extradition “because I did not have faith I would receive a fair trial in a New York court.”
The whistleblower reportedly worked with CEFC-USA—the nonprofit arm of the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China—between 2015 and 2018, the same period CEFC-China began its influence operations with the Biden family.
Despite Luft’s fugitive status, House Oversight chairman, Republican James Comer said the Israeli remains a “potential witness” in the Biden family probe, the Post reported.
The whistleblower explained that his legal woes started after he made the “fatal decision” to present incriminating evidence about the Bidens to six officials from the FBI and the Department of Justice in a secret two day meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels in March 2019. The DOJ delegation, he said, was made up of two prosecutors from the Southern District of New York and four FBI agents. Luft said he believed the reason why the Justice Dept. dispatched so many officials was because they knew he was a “credible witness” and had “insider knowledge” about the Biden family’s financial transactions with the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC, “including specific dollar figures.”
He said he also told the feds about Biden family associate Rob Walker, whom he referred to as “Hunter Biden’s bagman.”
Luft says he told the DOJ and the FBI in Brussels that Joe Biden, soon after his vice presidential term ended, had attended a meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, DC, with his son Hunter and officials from CEFC.
Luft’s account of the former VP’s presence at that meeting was corroborated 21 months later when the FBI interviewed another attendee, Biden family associate Rob Walker, according to recent testimony before Congress.
Luft disclosed during the Brussels interview that CEFC was paying $100,000 a month to Hunter and $65,000 to his uncle Jim Biden, in exchange for their FBI connections and use of the Biden name to promote China’s Belt and Road Initiative around the world — and that the money was being funneled through Walker.
The Oversight Committee has written to Walker demanding he submit to questioning about his role in distributing more than $1 million from China to at least three of President Biden’s relatives.
The most “alarming” information he shared in Brussels, according to Luft, pertained to the one-eyed mole in the DOJ who shared classified information with Hunter Biden and his Chinese partners.
“I told the DOJ that Hunter was associated with a very senior retired FBI official who had a distinct physical characteristic—he had one eye,” Luft said.
That FBI official is widely believed to be former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who gave $100,000 to a trust for two of then-Vice President Joe Biden’s grandchildren in 2016 shortly before telling Hunter, “I would be delighted to do future work with you.”
According to Luft, “One Eye” tipped off Hunter’s CEFC associates, Dr. Patrick Ho and Chairman Ye Jianming, that they were under investigation.
The whistleblower stressed that he felt it was his “civic duty to alert the government” about the Biden family’s corruption far ahead of the 2020 election to give the feds plenty of time to investigate the matter.
“I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Democrat. I have no political motive or agenda,” he added. “I did it out of deep concern that if the Bidens were to come to power, the country would be facing the same traumatic Russia collusion scandal—only this time with China. Sadly, because of the DOJ’s cover-up, this is exactly what happened.”
Luft said his evidence was corroborated nine months later by “the emails and receipts” contained in Hunter Biden’s laptop. Incredibly, according to the whistleblower, the agent who seized the laptop from the Delaware computer repair shop in December 2019, Special Agent Joshua Wilson, was one of the FBI agents who interviewed him in Brussels that spring.
The whistleblower noted that although he had provided federal law enforcement with plenty of evidence to investigate before the election, they did nothing with it, and instead made him “public enemy number one.”
“Over the past four years, they followed me, my family, my friends, my associates. We were all harassed, intimidated, and finally, I was prosecuted,” Luft said.
Luft said that despite the harassment, he sent his attorney, Robert Henoch, to meet with then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donahue on the eve of the 2020 elections “to ensure he was informed about the information I had given his department in Brussels nineteen months earlier, and also to warn him that there might still be a mole within the DOJ.”
In February 2020, Attorney General Bill Barr assigned Donoghue to “coordinate federal investigations into all Ukraine-related corruption allegations against Joe Biden,” according to the Post.
Donoghue reportedly agreed to meet Henoch at a Starbucks near DOJ headquarters and corresponded with him on his private email.
“The story is about corruption at the very highest levels of government/politics and I think it can all be corroborated,” Henoch wrote in an email obtained by the Post.
Unbeknownst to Luft, on Sept. 4, Donoghue had ordered the Delaware US attorney to pause the criminal investigation into Hunter to avoid leaks in the two months before the election, according to testimony before Congress.
Needless to say, nothing came of the meeting.
Yet on November 2, 2022, on the eve of the midterm elections, Luft was indicted on seven counts, including a violation of the Arms Export Control Act.
“If convicted I could face up to 100 years in prison,” the whistleblower said.
He said while in jail, he was portrayed in the international media as an arms dealer “even though I have never traded a bullet in my entire life.”
Luft added that “nowhere in my indictment does the DOJ claim or present evidence that I bought, sold, shipped, or financed any weapon.”
He also contested the charge that he had committed a FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] violation by charging former CIA Director James Woolsey $6,000 a month for putting his name on an article he had ghost written for him in a Chinese paper.
“Nowhere in the indictment does the DOJ mention the well-known fact that Woolsey had been an advisor to my think tank since 2002 and that there was nothing in the article that represented Chinese interests—to the contrary.”
“The notion that I, Gal Luft, spoon-fed a CIA director policy proposals on China, treating him like a useful idiot, is not only an insult to the Intelligence Community, it is an insult to the intelligence of every American,” he said.
Luft also scoffed at the charge that he made a false statement to the FBI during his voluntary meeting in Brussels which he said came about as a result of his “good citizenship.”
“Why was I in Brussels to begin with? Was I there to eat Belgian waffles?!” he exclaimed.
He challenged the Justice Department to make his indictment public.
“Make my day,” Luft added. “Put it on your website so every American can see the nature of the allegations against me, the quality of the evidence and the lengths the government is willing to go to weaponize the Justice system to punish whistleblowers like me.”
Luft also challenged the FBI to submit to Congress the minutes from the March 2019 meeting in Brussels.
“Let everyone see what happened in Brussels,” the whistleblower proposed. “Why not? Are you trying to protect anything? Are you trying to protect anybody?”
Luft suggested that his arrest in November 2022 was an attempt to discredit him on Trumped up charges as Republicans were about to take control of Congress and start investigations into the DOJ’s cover-up of the Biden scandal.
“Why am I being indicted for FARA for ghostwriting an innocuous article—for which I received no payment, let alone from a foreign government—when the MOTHER OF ALL FARA cases, the Biden systemic influence peddling on behalf of foreign governments for which they raked MILLIONS—goes unpunished?” he asked.
Luft said he had no faith that he would receive a fail trial in New York because he had seen how Patrick Ho had been treated after his 2017 arrest on bribery charges. According to Luft, during his trial in New York, prosecutors blocked Ho from mentioning the Bidens.
Ho “paid Hunter Biden a million dollars for God-knows-what [but] was not allowed to mention the word Biden before the jury,” Luft explained.
“The very same prosecutor who is now after me, Daniel Richenthal, told the judge at the time that mentioning the name Biden would ‘add a political dimension’ to the case, and the judge agreed,” the whistleblower added. “Which means if I was brought before a New York court, I would not be allowed to utter the word Brussels or Biden.”
He argued that in effect, “the real context” of his arrest: “me being patient zero of the Biden family investigation, would be hidden from the jury.”
The whistleblower lamented that he now faces the rest of his life on the run, or in prison for doing his civic duty.
“I warned the government about potential risk to the integrity of the 2020 election,” Luft said. “Ask yourself, who is the real criminal in this story?”
Yellen Warns Against "Winner Take All" Fight With China [ZeroHedge News]
Yellen Warns Against "Winner Take All" Fight With China
During her first full day of meetings in Beijing on her 3-day trip, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday condemned China's recent "punitive" actions against US companies as well as the newly announced export controls on two rare metals commonly used in computer chips and solar cells, gallium and germanium.
Following "substantive" talks with former Chinese economy czar Liu He, she told a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham) that the world's second-largest economy should implement market reforms, and further vowed the US and its allies will fight back against China's "unfair economic practices".
But crucially elsewhere, her statements given directly before Chinese officials reflected that she's trying to smooth things over with China's leadership after the controversial Biden remarks of last month wherein he referred to President Xi Jinping as "a dictator".
She emphasized that Washington doesn't want to go down the path of a "winner take all" fight with China, but desires fair economic competition which will result in benefits for both countries.
According to her Friday remarks as cited in The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged to Chinese Premier Li Qiang that the U.S. doesn’t seek economic estrangement from China, as she sought to curb a steep slide in relations between the world’s two biggest economies during a closely watched visit to Beijing.
In China’s Great Hall of the People on Friday, Yellen defended the Biden administration’s position that the U.S. isn’t pursuing a “winner take all” fight with China, but rather wants to engage in economic competition that would benefit both countries over time.
Yellen played down efforts by the U.S. to limit China’s access to sensitive technology—a particular irritant for Beijing, which has begun retaliating more forcefully—as narrowly targeted. She said such measures aren’t a reason to allow relations to deteriorate further.
She emphasized, "The United States will, in certain circumstances, need to pursue targeted actions to protect its national security. And we may disagree in these instances." Yellen added: "However, we should not allow any disagreement to lead to misunderstandings that unnecessarily worsen our bilateral economic and financial relationship."
The Chinese side has so far struck a tone of optimism:
Chinese Premier Li Qiang told US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Beijing that he believes the bilateral ties will see “more rainbow” after “wind and rain,” according to Bloomberg.
Notably, the more conciliatory tone of not wanting a "winner take all" fight came later in the day, following the initial remarks criticizing Beijing over recent punitive actions.
* * *
On the above point, Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal, who is traveling in the Treasury Secretary's press pool, had this to say on his day one impressions [emphasis ZH]...
"And look, she has been hearing from American executives about some of the things that have happened, right. And Chinese employees of American companies have been arrested and detained. There are laws here — a new espionage law has been passed that is giving American executives some pause. And let’s remember, she was speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. So she knew her audience."
"That said, this remark is, I don’t believe what Yellen would want to be highlighted because she really, really wants the American relationship to be steady. She wants it to be calmed a little bit, the American relationship with China, and at the same time knows that she has to look out for American companies."
Judge Says Trump Can Be Deposed In Former FBI Agent Peter Strzok Lawsuit [ZeroHedge News]
Judge Says Trump Can Be Deposed In Former FBI Agent Peter Strzok Lawsuit
Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Former President Donald Trump can be deposed in a lawsuit filed by former FBI agent Peter Strzok against the Department of Justice (DOJ), a federal judge ordered on Friday.
Mr. Strzok’s lawsuit alleges wrongful termination following the debunked Russia collusion investigation and claims that he was fired at Mr. Trump’s direction.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, agreed with the request to depose Mr. Trump in a brief order on July 6. This comes one day after the DOJ asked a final time to block Mr. Trump from being deposed.
“Given the limited nature of the deposition that has been ordered, and the fact that the former President’s schedule appears to be able to accommodate other civil litigation that he has initiated, the outcome of the balancing required by the apex doctrine remains the same for all of the reasons previously stated,” Ms. Jackson wrote in her brief order.
Under the “apex doctrine” in U.S. law, high-ranking government officials, such as the president, enjoy a degree of immunity from being compelled to provide testimony or evidence in legal proceedings.
In May, Ms. Jackson ordered a stay on the deposition of Mr. Trump until FBI Director Christopher Wray was deposed in the lawsuit. DOJ lawyers previously argued that Mr. Wray, a lower-ranked official, should be deposed first as any evidence that he provided could mean that Mr. Trump would not have to testify.
Mr. Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who is also suing the DOJ and FBI, played key roles in the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Mr. Strzok also played a role in the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to send classified information. Mr. Strzok reportedly changed key language in the conclusion of the Clinton email investigation from “grossly negligent,” which would have been a crime, to “extremely careless,” which may have exonerated Ms. Clinton.
Text Messages
Special counsel Robert Mueller fired Mr. Strzok in 2018 after around 10,000 text messages between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page were discovered. The messages sent between 2015 and 2016 revealed the pair expressed strong anti-Trump bias in critical comments about Mr. Trump and his supporters as the two were working on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The messages also exposed an alleged affair between the two.
The FBI special counsel probe ultimately concluded that the Trump campaign did not collude with the Russian government to get elected. However, corporate media outlets aired several unfounded claims about Mr. Trump that came from what appeared to be anonymous sources within the FBI and DOJ.
The DOJ had argued that there was no evidence Mr. Strzok was fired at Mr. Trump’s direction, contending that his deposition “is not appropriate.” The DOJ claimed that Mr. Trump’s public remarks, which might have indicated his desire for Mr. Strzok to be terminated, were not the reason for the firing.
In a bid to distance the decision from Mr. Trump, the government contended that testimony from Mr. Wray, former White House chief of staff John Kelly, and others had already addressed the decision to terminate Mr. Strzok.
The DOJ recently argued in court that Mr. Trump’s testimony is irrelevant since it was former FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich who independently made the decision to remove Mr. Strzok.
According to the DOJ, Mr. Bowdich has said that he does not recall Mr. Wray ever informing him about any meeting in which the president pressured him regarding Mr. Strzok. Despite these assertions, Mr. Strzok’s lawyers have expressed their intention to question Mr. Trump about potential pressure exerted on FBI and DOJ officials to terminate Mr. Strzok.
“These circumstances do not rise to the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ necessary to authorize the deposition of a current or former high-ranking government official, much less a former President,” the DOJ wrote in a court filing.
Testimony Doesn’t Support Strzok’s Theory: Judge
However, Ms. Jackson noted in her ruling that while the testimony of Mr. Wray and other individuals did not support Mr. Strzok’s theory that Mr. Trump “was involved in the decision making at issue in this case, the fact remains that the former President himself has publicly boasted of his involvement.”
In February, Ms. Jackson ruled that Mr. Trump and Mr. Wray could be deposed for two hours, and she limited questions to a “narrow set of topics” in connection to the lawsuits.
According to court documents, she wrote in her earlier ruling that it “was appropriate in light of all of the facts, including the former President’s own public statements concerning his role in the firing of the [Strzok].”
Mr. Strzok filed the lawsuit in 2019, which is one of several ongoing legal actions against Mr. Trump, the leading contender for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Strzok has claimed that “the FBI fired [him] because of his protected political speech in violation of his rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States” over the private text messages with Ms. Page.
Ms. Page alleges in her own lawsuit that her privacy was violated by the release of the text messages, which led her to be the subject of “frequent attacks by the President of the United States, as well as his allies and supporters.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly complained about being treated unfairly by Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page during the FBI investigation, often pointing to negative comments the pair said about him.
Mr. Trump has also long criticized the “deep state,” the bureaucracy of permanent and unelected officials in government branches, for opposing him and his presidency. After declaring his candidacy for 2024, Mr. Trump made a campaign promise to clean out the “deep state.”
The Epoch Times contacted Mr. Trump for comment.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Despite IAEA 'Green Light', China Maintains Ban On Japanese Seafood Imports Over Fukushima Water Release [ZeroHedge News]
Despite IAEA 'Green Light', China Maintains Ban On Japanese Seafood Imports Over Fukushima Water Release
Chinese customs said on Friday that it would continue import bans on food from about 20% of Japanese prefectures, citing food safety concerns following Tokyo's decision to discharge nuclear-contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima plant into the ocean, reported Nikkei.
On Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded that Japan's plans to release radioactive water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean are consistent with international safety standards. However, that didn't sit well with Chinese authorities.
China, the largest buyer of Japan's seafood exports, said it would increase monitoring of edible products from Japan and continue bans on seafood imports from 10 prefectures. The General Administration of Customs said this is a move to prevent contaminated food from hitting Chinese supermarkets.
China customs said it would "strengthen supervision" and "rigorously examine" certificates for food imports, particularly seafood products, from the other non-banned prefectures.
"Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, China's customs have attached great importance to the issue of radioactive contamination of Japanese food imported to China. It has closely monitored the relevant measures taken by the Japanese government, continued to assess the risk and responded promptly," the agency continued.
"For weeks China had publicly voiced strong opposition to Japan's move to discharge treated radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea," Nikkei Asia said.
On Thursday, China's foreign ministry said the IAEA report could not be used as a "green light" to discharge more than a million tons of water from Fukushima because of unknown risks to human health.
China customs said IAEA's report "failed to fully reflect expert opinions" and that it will take "all necessary measures" to ensure the safety of Chinese consumers.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters that a few teams of international experts behind the report had concerns about radioactive water release but didn't raise concerns directly with him.
Seafood, such as scallops, shrimp, tuna, and Japanese rice wine sake, are very popular in Chinese markets. Let's hope radioactive seafood from Japan doesn't end up Stateside.
Musk's Twitter Tells Zuckerberg's Threads To "Cease And Desist" [ZeroHedge News]
Musk's Twitter Tells Zuckerberg's Threads To "Cease And Desist"
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,
Twitter has sent a cease and desist letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg warning that legal action will be taken in light of theft of protected intellectual property and trade secrets by Meta’s new Twitter clone Threads.
Elon Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro delivered the letter which accuses Meta of “systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
“Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees,” the letter continued, adding “Twitter knows that these employees previously worked at Twitter; that these employees had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information; that these employees owe ongoing obligations to Twitter; and that many of these employees have improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices.”
“With that knowledge, Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta’s copycat ‘Threads’ app with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta’s competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter,” the letter further asserts.
Twitter “intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.”
Twitter will seek “both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta,” the letter futher notes.
“Please consider this letter a formal notice that Meta must preserve any documents that could be relevant to a dispute between Twitter, Meta, and/or former Twitter employees who now work for Meta,” the letter also states, adding “That includes, but is not limited to, all documents related to the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding of these former Twitter employees, the development of Meta’s competing Threads app, and any communications between these former Twitter employees and any agent, representative, or employee or Meta.”
Musk tweeted that “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Competition is fine, cheating is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
Musk also replied to several other Twitter posts relating to Threads:
Any social media monopoly is despair
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
A closed source, algorithm-only system means that manipulation of what information people see is essentially undetectable
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
Metaphorically too
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
🤣💯
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
Meta has bragged that Threads has received 30 million signups in 24 hours.
Meanwhile, users have already reported extensive censorship from the moment they signed up.
* * *
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NATO Summit To Reaffirm Ukraine Will Become Future Member: Stoltenberg [ZeroHedge News]
NATO Summit To Reaffirm Ukraine Will Become Future Member: Stoltenberg
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that the alliance is expected to reaffirm Ukraine's future path to NATO membership.
He addressed a news conference in anticipation of the NATO leaders’ summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on July 11-12, and emphasized the 31-member group is preparing to "send a clear message, NATO stands united and Russia's aggression will not pay off."
He previewed that leaders gathered at the summit are ready "reaffirm that Ukraine will become a member of NATO and unite on how to bring Ukraine closer to its goal."
Further, concerning 'security guarantees' that Kiev has been expecting, he touted there will be a series of measures to make "Ukraine even stronger", including a multi-year assistance program "to ensure full interoperability” between the Ukrainian army and NATO.
Toward this end, a NATO-Ukraine Council will also be established, complete with an inauguration ceremony for which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be in attendance to oversee.
It must be recalled that President Putin has repeatedly stressed that a key rationale for his decision to send the Russian Army into Ukraine for its 'special operation' was the expansion of NATO military infrastructure up to Russia's doorstep.
Moscow leaders have further warned that Ukraine in NATO would certainly trigger automatic major war between Russia and the West.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued demanding to be 'fast-tracked' into NATO. Many alliance members, however, have suggested membership will only be possible after the war is over, as it would trigger the Article 5 common defense treaty, and a clash between nuclear-armed powers would result.
"If a type of agreement based on the Yermak-Rasmussen document is formalised, this is the best that Ukraine can hope for prior to the end of the war,” @skudelia tells @katiafarbar on the much-awaited NATO summit next week.https://t.co/nfIToNiIJH
— Tom Rowley (@te_rowley) July 7, 2023
Also at the upcoming summit, just days away, NATO leaders are expected to approve a new defense investment pledge which sets the current target of 2% of the gross domestic product on defense spending as the minimum. And yet a number of countries haven't yet reached the 2%, with some only recently doing so, such as Germany - with its newly unveiled defense budget.
A Case For A Bailout As $13 Trillion Chinese Local Debt Looms [ZeroHedge News]
A Case For A Bailout As $13 Trillion Chinese Local Debt Looms
By George Lei, Bloomberg markets live reporter and strategist
A Case for Bailout as $13 Trillion Local Debt Looms: China Today
China has dealt with its mounting local government debt problem by kicking the can down the road so far, with a mixture of measures such as maturity extension and interest rate reduction.
The tinkering, however, has increasingly strained the banking system with an inevitable squeeze on earnings. Beijing may soon have to make the difficult choice on whether to bail out local governments and preserve a healthy banking system or else be confronted with mass defaults and potential financial instability.
Chinese banks have a 94 trillion yuan ($13 trillion) exposure to local government debt, making up about 29% of total assets, Goldman Sachs estimates. Even assuming a steady default rate — and that’s a big if — the US brokerage still expects bank earnings to worsen over the coming years. Lending rates are coming down on both new and rollover government debt, resulting in poorer financial metrics such as net interest margin and return on equities.
A Bloomberg report on Monday perfectly illustrated the situation: Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp. now offer 25-year loans to select local government financing vehicles, in contrast to the standard 10-year tenor for corporate lending. Some deals even came with payment waivers in the first four years, though the interest will be accrued for later, according to people familiar with the matter.
Between 2023 and 2025, the effective interest rate on local government debt is forecast to fall by an average of ~30bps each year, leading to an average annual ROE drop of 100bps, according to a July 4 report authored by Dr. Shuo Yang, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC. With earnings under pressure, Chinese banks simply cannot maintain a healthy balance between proper provisions for bad debt, adequate core capital and high dividend payout at the same time, Yang concluded. Things would be even worse if default rates climb.
Axing the dividend may appear to be the easy choice, compared with potential financial risks stemming from bad debt or inadequate capital. Yet that will be horrible news for markets at a time when the Hang Seng China Enterprise Index is lagging almost every major gauge in the world. It will also be a slap in the face of policy makers, who a few months ago were pushing state-owned enterprises to improve their ROE and value creation.
Economists at both home and abroad have been calling — to no avail so far — for the central government to expand its own borrowing and tackle the local-debt mess. If Beijing insists on no bail-out and forces local authorities to resolve their own debt problems, it may have to grapple with not only mass defaults but also banking crises in the years to come.
Apple Will Slow-Launch Vision Pro In Stores By Requiring All Purchases To Be By Appointment [ZeroHedge News]
Apple Will Slow-Launch Vision Pro In Stores By Requiring All Purchases To Be By Appointment
It'll be the opposite of the chaos that Meta is enduring this week with Threads when Apple goes to roll out its new AR/VR headset, called the Apple Vision Pro.
The $3,500 headset will be hitting the market slowly in a move that will echo the first iPhone rollout, where ample time was given per customer to familiarize themselves with the product and answer any and all questions about the nascent voyage of the new device.
The launch will be highlighted by "appointments and in-store promotions" in select markets to begin, Bloomberg reported this week. Special service areas and seating areas will be set aside in stores for the launch, which will eventually take place in all 270 Apple stores in the U.S. prior to the product's international launch.
The Vision Pro will also be sold online and will make its way to countries like France, Germany, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea by the end of 2024.
Bloomberg refers to the launch as Apple's most important new product since the Apple Watch, but we believe the Vision Pro could eventually become as impactful as iPhone for the tech giant. The slow rollout could wind up being the best tactical decision given the new nature of the product class and the $3,500 price tag that incited some moaning and complaining on the day of the the product's launch.
As is generally the case with Apple, however, if the product is worth the price tag - or consumers believe they are going to be the first to own a new class of "tech luxury" - the Vision Pro could sell well despite its price tag. It'll also mark the first new metric for Wall Street to watch out of Apple in years.
Apple is going to be asking all consumers who want to purchase the product to make an in-store appointment, the report says. Apple used the same strategy during the launch of its Watch. The report notes that setup of the product is going to include an iPhone app that scans a person's head in order to find the best light seal for use of the Vision Pro.
The company is also taking the final year before launch to solidify last minute adjustments. For example, Bloomberg writes:
"During testing of the device, Apple determined that some people with smaller body sizes and heads would have difficulty wearing the headset for half an hour or more, the company let media members test it following the launch of the Vision Pro. . Apple has recently tried to address that problem with the development of a second strap that sits on top of the user’s head. The design of that accessory is not finalised"
Then there is the task where users who wear glasses need prescriptions for the Vision Pro. Bloomberg reports that "Apple Stores will need to keep hundreds or even thousands of lenses in stock" for the device.
Oil Futures Market Finally Signals Supply Tightening [ZeroHedge News]
Oil Futures Market Finally Signals Supply Tightening
Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,
-
The oil futures market has strengthened, suggesting that a market tightening may be on its way.
-
Sparked by cut announcements from both Saudi Arabia and Russia, spreads in oi derivatives markets have started to show strength.
-
In recent days, prompt spreads have strengthened, swaps contracts linked with physical supply have surged, and the premium of bearish puts over bullish calls has narrowed.
The oil futures market has strengthened this week, signaling that a market tightening could be on the way.
Following the latest announcements of fresh supply cuts from OPEC+ leaders Saudi Arabia and Russia, key spreads in the oil derivatives markets have started to show strength, according to Bloomberg’s estimates.
Prompt spreads in the futures market have returned to backwardation, from contango.
Contango is the state of the market in which prices for delivery at later dates are higher than front-month prices - a market situation signaling oversupply. The opposite market situation - backwardation - typically occurs at times of market deficit, and in it, prices for front-month contracts are higher than the ones further out in time.
Last week, the six-month spread in Brent flipped to contango for the first time since December 2022, after being in backwardation for months. The U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, also dropped into contango on June 27, for the first time since March.
But in recent days, prompt spreads have strengthened, swaps contracts linked with physical supply have surged, and in options markets, the premium of bearish puts over bullish calls has narrowed.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia and Russia announced nearly at the same time fresh cuts to global oil supply.
Saudi Arabia said it would extend its unilateral oil production cut of 1 million bpd into August. Saudi Arabia will be producing around 9 million bpd in both July and August after extending the voluntary cut into next month.
“This additional voluntary cut comes to reinforce the precautionary efforts made by OPEC Plus countries with the aim of supporting the stability and balance of oil market,” Saudi Arabia said.
Minutes after the Saudi announcement, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia would cut its crude oil exports by 500,000 bpd in August in a bid to ensure a balanced market.
Reserves Continue To Pose Short-Term Risk For Stocks [ZeroHedge News]
Reserves Continue To Pose Short-Term Risk For Stocks
Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,
Falling reserve growth continues to be a near-term risk factor for equity markets.
The Federal Reserve’s QT program is now back on track, with the size of the Fed’s balance sheet now lower than it was prior to its emergency expansion in the wake of March’s banking fracas.
But the impact has been blunted as reserves – which back risk assets and USTs – are still higher than they were in March by about $180 billion. The Fed’s recent hawkishness has taken out some of the “pivot” from the rates curve and kept bill yields at a more attractive level than the RRP facility.
Money market funds have drawn down the RRP by ~$300 billion since March, and this source of reserves has allowed them to on net rise even though the total size of the balance sheet is lower by ~$50 billion.
But it is the change of the change (the “impulse”) of reserves that is key for risk assets, and on this basis, reserves are currently a headwind for stocks.
The falling impulse in reserves explains the resistance equities ran into to towards the end of June.
Thursday’s rise in yields shows stocks remain vulnerable.
On the plus side, long positioning has come off (according to CoT data for speculators), while the S&P’s beta to CTA funds has been falling, suggesting they are less long, and therefore less likely to exacerbate any sell-off.
Payrolls is a noisy data series month to month, but the trend is down, and leading indicators project that will continue. For instance, the deterioration in jobless claims is consistent with payrolls continuing to trend lower.
Stocks may therefore escape the worst today, but it’s unlikely to be plain sailing for them until the impulse from reserves starts to rise again.
Threats to Infrastructure Exposed with Kate Dalley and Dr. Tau Braun [@AlexJonesChannel - Librarian]
Threats to Infrastructure Exposed with Kate Dalley and Dr. Tau Braun
Failed Ukr Offensive West Split: Ex-US Diplomats Oppose Ukr NATO; Biden Gives Kiev Cluster Shells [@AlexanderMercouris - Librarian]
Failed Ukr Offensive Causes West Split: Ex-US Diplomats Contact Russia, Oppose Ukr NATO Membership; Seek Deal; Biden Admin Gives Kiev Cluster Shells
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Minefields STOPPED Ukraine's Counteroffensive [@HistoryLegends - Librarian]
After a month of offensive operations, Ukraine's counteroffensive has stalled because Russian fortifications proved to be much stronger than anticipated. The combination of minefields, artillery and airstrikes forced the Ukrainian Army to spread out and downsize attacks, and often without armored vehicles, with a bigger focus on infantry for small group infiltrations to bypass Russian defenses. The biggest challenge for Ukraine at this moment is how to deal with local Russian counterattacks.
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The New Atlas LIVE: Mark Sleboda and Ukraine's Offensive at Week 5 [@LandDestroyer - Librarian]
Mark Sleboda is an international relations and security expert living in Russia. Today he talks about Ukraine's long-anticipated offensive as it enters its 5th week, the upcoming NATO summit, talk of an attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, and what comes next.
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The War We’re Finally Allowed to See [Peace and Prosperity]
A woman walks amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. By manhhai via Flickr.
Let us consider the following paragraphs, which appear in the May 29 edition of The New Yorker:
While Tynda and his team were fighting from the trench, long and powerful fusillades had issued from another Ukrainian position, on a hilltop behind them. I later went there with Tynda. In a blind overlooking the no man’s land stood an improbably antique contraption on iron wheels: a Maxim gun, the first fully automatic weapon ever made. Although this particular model dated from 1945, it was virtually identical to the original version, which was invented in 1884: a knobbed crank handle, wooden grips, a lidded compartment for adding cold water or snow when the barrel overheated….The piece, from which this passage is drawn, carries the headline, “Two Weeks at the Front in Ukraine” and is the work of Luke Mogelson, a magazine correspondent of a dozen or so years’ experience. Mogelson’s text is accompanied by the photographs of Maxim Dondyuk, a Ukrainian of roughly Mogelson’s age, either side of 40, whose work focuses on history and memory, topics that suggest a lot of thought goes into those 1/1000ths of a second when Dondyuk clicks his shutter.
In the course of the past year, the US has furnished Ukraine with more than thirty-five billion dollars in security assistance. Why, given the American largesse, had the 28th Brigade resorted to such a museum piece? A lot of equipment has been damaged or destroyed on the battlefield. At the same time, Ukraine appears to have forgone refitting debilitated units in order to stockpile for a large-scale offensive that is meant to take place later this spring. At least eight new brigades have been formed from scratch to spearhead the campaign. While these units have been receiving weapons, tanks, and training from the US and Europe, veteran brigades like the 28th have had to hold the line with the dregs of a critically depleted arsenal.
There are many things to think about and say as we read this piece. I will shortly have more to say about the excellence of Mogelson’s text and Dondyuk’s photographs. For now, the first thing to note is that, after 15 months of conflict, their work suggests Western media may at last begin to cover the Ukraine war properly. I will stay with the conditional verb for now, but this could mark a significant turn not only for the profession—which could use a significant turn, heaven knows—but also in public support for the US–NATO proxy war against the Russian Federation.
As astute readers will already know, apart from a few staged forays near the front lines—officially controlled and monitored, never at the front lines—correspondents from The New York Times, the other big dailies, the wire services, and the broadcast networks have accepted without protest the Kyiv regime’s refusal to allow them to see the war as it is. Content these professional slovens have been to sit in Kyiv hotel rooms and file stories based on the regime’s transparently unreliable accounts of events, all the while pretending their stories are properly reported and factual.
The exceptions here are Times correspondents such as Carlotta Gall, whose Russophobia seems reliably unbalanced enough to satisfy the Kyiv regime, and the two Andrews, Higgins and Kramer, who have an exquisite talent for stories that make absolutely no sense. It was the two Andrews, you may recall, who had the Russians shelling the nuclear power plant they occupied and, later on, bombing their own prisoner-of-war camp in eastern Ukraine.
If correspondents cannot see the war and it makes no matter to them, we will not see it either. The result, as your columnist noted a while ago, has been two wars: There is the presented war, the mythical war, and the real war. “Our current brainwashing for war is similar to that preceding other wars,” John Pilger, the journalist and filmmaker, wrote in a Tweet the other day, “but never, in my experience as a war correspondent, as unrelenting or bereft of honest journalism.”
This is what makes Mogelson’s file so startling. In its graphic honesty it is a major step on from the gruel of propaganda corporate media have fed us since the Russian intervention began in February 2022. Those three Times correspondents just mentioned? They all have many years’ experience on Mogelson. None of them could change his typewriter ribbon, as we used to say.
■
Mogelson and Dondyuk spent two weeks this past March with a Ukrainian infantry battalion as it fought in trenches “at a small Army position in the eastern region of the Donbas, where shock waves and shrapnel had reduced the surrounding trees to splintered canes.” This was just outside a village south of Bakhmut, the much-embattled city lately lost to Russian forces. I have no doubt these two journalists were officially embedded with the high command’s approval. That is the way the Kyiv regime is running this war. But, for whatever reason—and I will get to this question in a sec—there is no whiff of inhibition or self-censorship in either the reportage or the photographs. Both are raw, unflattering, as unforgiving as the scenes they depict:
By the time I joined the battalion, about two months had passed since it had lost the battle for the village, and during the interim, neither side had attempted a major operation against the other. It was all the Ukrainians could do to maintain the stalemate. Pavlo estimated that, owing to the casualties his unit had sustained, eighty percent of his men were new draftees. “They’re civilians with no experience,” he said. “If they give me ten, I’m lucky when three of them can fight.”Mogelson then introduces us to others in the battalion:
We were in his bunker, which had been dug in the back yard of a half-demolished farmhouse; the constant rumble of artillery vibrated through the dirt walls. “A lot of the new guys don’t have the stamina to be out here,” Pavlo said. “They get scared and they panic.” His military call sign was Cranky, and he was renowned for his temper, but he spoke sympathetically about his weaker soldiers and their fears. Even for him, a career officer of twenty-three years, this phase of the war had been harrowing.On a road that passed in front of the farmhouse, a board had been nailed to a tree with the painted words “to moscow” and an arrow pointing east. No one knew who’d put it there. Such optimistic brio seemed to be a vestige of another time.
Just two of the soldiers who were rebuilding the machine-gun nest had been with the battalion since Kherson. One of them, a twenty-nine-year-old construction worker called Bison—because he was built like one—had been hospitalized three times: after being shot in the shoulder, after being wounded by shrapnel in the ankle and knee, and after being wounded by shrapnel in the back and arm. The other veteran, code-named Odesa, had enlisted in the Army in 2015, after dropping out of college. Short and stocky, he had the same serene deportment as Bison. The uncanny extent to which both men had adapted to their lethal environment underscored the agitation of the recent arrivals, who flinched whenever something whistled overhead or crashed nearby.Reporting and writing of this caliber makes Mogelson look the dazzling star next to the correspondent-reenactors in their Kyiv hotel rooms. But for my money he also keeps pace with a lot of standout names from the past. I see in his copy a little Dexter Filkins, a little Bernard Fall, a little Michael Herr, a little Martha Gellhorn, and I’ll go so far as to say a little Ernie Pyle. As for Dondyuk’s pictures, the way they leap off the page brings to mind Tim Page, Horst Faas, Robert Kapa, and some of the other great war fotogs of their day. If this piece portends a turn or return (however you want to think of it) to reporting with some integrity to it, the project could not have got off to a better start. But let us stay with “if” for now.
“I only trust Bison,” Odesa said. “If the new recruits run away, it will mean immediate death for us.” He’d lost nearly all his closest friends in Kherson. Taking out his phone, he swiped through a series of photographs: “Killed . . . killed . . . killed . . . killed . . . killed . . . wounded. . . . Now I have to get used to different people. It’s like starting over.”Because the high attrition rate had disproportionately affected the bravest and most aggressive soldiers—a phenomenon that one officer called “reverse natural selection”—seasoned infantrymen like Odesa and Bison were extremely valuable and extremely fatigued. After Kherson, Odesa had gone awol. “I was in a bad place psychologically,” he said. “I needed a break.” After two months of resting and recuperating at home, he came back. His return was prompted not by a fear of being punished—what were they going to do, put him in the trenches?—but by a sense of loyalty to his dead friends. “I felt guilty,” he said. “I realized that my place was here.”
■
There are at bottom two kinds of journalists: There are the analysts, as I call them, who add an interpretive dimension to their coverage—understanding in addition to knowledge. And there are the reporters, empiricists in the just-the-facts vein who stay close to the ground and do not much dolly out for any kind of larger take. Mogelson is of this latter type. Reporters of his sort invite us to infer from what they tell us. What shall we infer from superbly tactile, eye-of-the-camera reportage?
Luke Mogelson is not telling us about an army on the way to victory—or an army that pretends to itself it is on the way to victory, or one that wants the world to think it is on the way to victory. There are no battlefield successes, no advances, no high expectations in Mogelson’s story. There is “holding the line,” although few seem to hold, and there is staying alive. This is a story more given to severe attrition among soldiers waiting for the end and wondering how distant in time the end will prove.
In Mogelson’s writing we meet conscripts sent to the front after little or no training. He describes one man who was kidnapped on a city sidewalk and was under Russian fire three days later. Paralyzing fright, exhaustion, demoralization, desertions, a sort of Beetle Bailey incompetence—these are rampant among the green draftees that now make up the majority of the AFU’s infantry. They fight with Vietnam-era vehicles shipped from the US, or muzzle-loaded mortars long out of production, or Soviet-era weapons left over from the pre–1991 days—and, withal, too little ammunition for this kind of matériel to make any difference at all.
A 1945 Maxim gun of 1884 design? Jeez. Mogelson is right to question, if too briefly, where may be all the weapons the US and NATO allies are shipping into Ukraine. A great number of them have already been destroyed, he reports, which comes as no surprise. Being as close to the scene as he put himself earlier this spring, he would have done well to tell us something about the greedheads who run the regime and the military as they sell shocking amounts of arms into the black market as soon as they arrive across the Polish border.
At one point Mogelson and Dondyuk spend a day in a dugout with a seasoned sergeant named Kaban and a 19–year-old codenamed Cadet, so young he hasn’t lost his baby fat. “Later, Kaban entertained us with stories about his past romantic escapades,” Mogelson recounts, “and Dondyuk, the photographer, asked him whether he’d imparted any lessons to Cadet.
“‘There’s no point,’” Kaban said. “‘He’ll be dead soon.’
“Cadet laughed, but Kaban didn’t.”
These are the voices of the war Mogelson tells us about. Can’t you just cut the anxiety in Cadet’s laugh with a knife?
I have to mention some wonderful touches in Mogelson’s report because they are superlative writing of the kind that is too rare these days. Of the soldier firing that Maxim gun: “The gun’s operator, a rawboned soccer hooligan with brass knuckles tattooed on his hand, spoke of the Maxim like a car enthusiast lauding the performance of a vintage Mustang.” Describing an unwieldy personnel carrier of Vietnam vintage, Mogelson tells us: “It looked like a green metal box on tracks… The maxed-out machine sounded like a blender full of silverware.”
Did Gellhorn do any better as she covered of the Spanish Civil War for Colliers?
Mogelson shows us the war a few independent journalists have written of but a war we have not heretofore read about in mainstream media. This is the war the propaganda machine has kept from us. And now we know that what correspondents reporting for independent media have been describing is by and large the war as it is. Among much else we can now see the obvious indifference the Kyiv regime and its Western backers display for those doing the fighting—who, Mogelson tells us, are now working-class Ukrainians, the more privileged having dodged the draft or otherwise avoided service.
Mogelson reported this piece in March, and we can justly assume conditions on the front line of this war are now three months’ worth of worse. His report makes me want to bang my shoe on the table, Khrushchev-style, in equal measure for the disgraceful conduct of mainstreamers reenacting the work of correspondents, for the senseless loss of Ukrainian lives in the service of the presented war, and for the AFU soldiers—veterans and the untrained draftees they command—who the Kyiv regime has not quite but nearly abandoned.
The obvious question is why this piece appears now in The New Yorker, a magazine thoroughly committed to every liberal orthodoxy you can think of, including the wisdom of this war and the certainty of an AFU victory. Hell broke loose last year, you will recall, when Amnesty International and then CBS News lifted the lid on the realities of the Ukraine conflict. What is different now?
This is hard to say. But the larger picture suggests publication of this eye– and mind-opening piece reflects a creeping recognition in all sorts of places—among the policy cliques, at the Pentagon, in corporate media—that Ukraine is not going to win this war and the time has come to prepare for this eventuality. The new drift on the vaunted counteroffensive is that it is not going to make much difference. There is more talk now about the conditions necessary to begin negotiations. NATO officials, per Steven Erlanger, The Times’s Brussels correspondent, are now thinking about doing in Ukraine what the allies did in postwar Germany: Divide it such that the west joins the alliance and the east is left to the East, so to say.
Mogelson’s intent, surely, was to do good work, full stop, and he has. But read in this larger context, its publication looks to me the start of an effort to get all those people with blue-and-yellow flags on their front porches ready for a dose of the reality from which they have been shielded all these months. The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Business Insider, Forbes: They have all recently run pieces not nearly as good as Mogelson’s but in the let’s-get-real line.
If I am right, the real war and the presented war will eventually be one. About time, I would say. Not that mainstream media are about to ’fess up to their sins and disgraces in their pitiful coverage of this war. They never will. Let us not get carried away on this point.
Reprinted with permission from SheerPost.
Africa: Rüdiger Discusses Investment in Africa With Barrow [AllAfrica News: Economy, Business and Finance]
[The Point] Germany and Real Madrid professional defender, Antonio Rüdiger, who is on a visit to The Gambia on Wednesday, had a discussion with President Adama Barrow on his vision of life beyond football and how to invest in Africa to create jobs for young people.
Africa: Western Africa's Missing Fish - the Impacts of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and Under-Reporting Catches By Foreign Fleets [AllAfrica News: Economy, Business and Finance]
[The Point] Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is at the centre of a crisis of sustainability. Nowhere is that crisis more visible than in western Africa. Current rates of extraction are driving several species towards extinction while jeopardising the livelihoods of local fishing communities across Senegal, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Mauritania.
Gambia: GTU Gives Govt Ultimatum to Pay Arrears or Else... [AllAfrica News: Economy, Business and Finance]
[The Point] The Gambia Teachers Union (GTU) has called on the Government of The Gambia through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to pay arrears it owes schools by the 19th of July 2023 or "we will reconvene and advise ourselves accordingly".
Gambia: Trust Bank Interest Income Grew By 25.8 Percent in 2022 - Chairman Hayford [AllAfrica News: Economy, Business and Finance]
[The Point] Franklin Hayford, chairman of Trust Bank Gambia Limited has said that the bank's interest income grew by 25.8 percent (GMD666.3 million) driven by growth in lending as well as growth in investment in government securities.
West Africa: WABA Hosts Landmark General Assembly Meeting in Gambia [AllAfrica News: Economy, Business and Finance]
[The Point] The West African Bankers Association (WABA) has hosted its 77th Executive Council Meeting and 41st General Assembly to discuss issues pertaining to the economy in the sub-region.
The Birth of Antiracism [The American Mind]
Jesse Merriam, a fellow at the Claremont Institute for the American Way of Life, has just published a thoughtful essay “How We Got our Antiracist Constitution.” Claremont included these remarks among a series of “provocations,” and Merriam’s brief against the “canonization” of Brown v. Board of Education certainly fits that description. He begins by explaining that a proposal made by Ibram X. Kendi in 2019, that the U.S. create a “Department of Antiracism” to monitor all government policies to ensure they are not racist, can be traced in its intent to the landmark 1954 desegregation decision. According to Merriam, the Brown decision has shaped our constitutional thinking and political discourse in a way that no other Supreme Court ruling has done since then, and Kendi’s antiracist proposal may be its ideological culmination.
Though Merriam is not defending the situation that Brown claimed to be remedying, that decision, we are told, had ominous consequences. It “ushered in a new constitutional culture, an order centered around racial diversity as its chief value.” That fateful decision led by the sixties to the introduction of affirmative action programs, and Merriam can easily find examples of this development. The Porcelli case that arose in Newark in 1968 concerned a local school board that used race as the principal criterion for promoting teachers. The Third Circuit Court upheld that practice on the grounds that the Newark Board was affirming the principle of racial diversity in accordance with Brown v. Board of Education. Other cases came up in the sixties and seventies in which Brown was thought to explain definitively the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, as seen through the prism of diversity. We might note that psychological and sociological testimony designed to buttress Brown was later shown to be dubious. There is no conclusive evidence that either blacks or whites absorb educational material more thoroughly by being in the same classroom.
But even more significantly, Brown treated as a basis for constitutional judgments what should have been a legally irrelevant criterion, whether blacks were made to feel inferior as a result of attending separate schools. This then became an apparently overriding reason for invoking the Constitution for the sake of massive social engineering. An inevitable casualty of this development, as noted by Merriam, was the loss of the once honored right of private association. Although the government’s refusal to protect racially restrictive covenants began in the forties, the courts after Brown became especially sensitive to the need for racial inclusiveness and actively punished those institutions that were seen as insufficiently diverse. Merriam has no trouble citing cases in which courts confirmed his harsh judgment that “antiracism has consumed our constitutional system” and “made associational liberties unpalatable to our sensitivities.”
Merriam brings up early critics of Brown who warned against its dangerous ramifications. And not surprisingly, he locates many articles published in National Review in the fifties and sixties warning against legislating from the bench and against Chief Justice Earl Warren, who was accused of carrying out a cultural and legal revolution by his critics. It might be a forgotten historical fact that many who in the fifties viewed Brown as a very slippery slope, like legal scholar Herbert Wechsler, were hardly stereotypical illiterate racists.
Merriam is also correct that in 1987, when legal scholar and federal judge Robert Bork was turned down by the Senate for a seat on the Supreme Court, Bork’s earlier writings questioning judicial decisions regarding civil rights were a critical factor. Though Bork tried to convince the Senate committee, which included our current president, that he was enthusiastically behind the 1954 decision, he may not have been entirely convincing. Merriam views the Senate confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett in October 2020 as another attempted celebration of Brown, from the right. A conservative Catholic nominee, Barrett favored the right of religious objectors not to have to provide commercial services for gay weddings. But she then went on to describe racial discrimination as something we should never tolerate, as a legal practice or in our social life. A similar response was heard when Justice Kagan asked Jack Phillips in the Masterpriece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights case (2018) why a religious objection to providing commercial services for a gay wedding was more deserving of toleration than racial discrimination.
The proper answer that Phillips might have given in a more traditional constitutional culture is that he was exercising his “long recognized right” as a “private business owner” to deal only with those whom he chose to have as customers. Of course, that wouldn’t fly any more, as Merriam reminds us, because we are living “with the system that the canonization of Brown created.” If Merriam treats Kagan, Kendi, and others on the antiracist Left with a certain indulgence, it is because he believes these figures are pushing the judicial revolution begun in the fifties to its logical conclusion.
Merriam may be ignoring, perhaps by design, the larger historical context of the judicial decisions he examines. By the fifties there was widespread dissatisfaction with institutionalized racial segregation, and there were politically engaged media and an outraged intelligentsia leading the charge. The crusade for black civil rights was also presented as a continuation of the struggle against fascism and racism that had supposedly fueled American participation in World War Two.
The Brown decision was made against the backdrop of these conditioning circumstances, and although it may have been driven by a loose interpretation of the Constitution, other forces for change turned to violence. Brown of course was not the end of the line for those who were riding the train of Progress. It led to, among other things, congressional legislation in the sixties, which pushed the political culture in a more statist direction and added gender to race as a specially protected group. Women by then had joined the antidiscrimination campaign, and like blacks and soon gays, would use the courts to advance their social agendas. Moreover, after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the black vote trebled, and this electoral force was overwhelmingly on the side of progressive judicial activism.
Merriam observes that after the borking of Bork in 1987, National Review began praising Brown and, more generally, the civil rights revolution. But that was not really the result of the “weaponization of Brown” occasioned by the unfair treatment of Robert Bork. By the seventies, National Review had moved to the left on civil rights questions, and William F. Buckley endorsed the Martin Luther King national holiday well before 1987. One can offer these qualifying statements even while recognizing that we are living under an oppressive, extraconstitutional regime and that Merriam’s points are generally well made. But a proper understanding of judicial decisions may require us to see them in a broader historical framework; and in the case of the working out of the logic of Brown, this would entail looking at the decade that followed that decision as one of leftist mobilization throughout the Western world.
In the fifties and sixties, furthermore, equality was at least as much a theme for civil rights advocates as diversity. When Lyndon Johnson delivered his commencement address at Howard University on June 4, 1965, on the eve of his signing of the Voting Rights Act, he made statements that might have originated with Joe Biden, about “equality as a fact, equality as a result.” Johnson was referring in his speech to the government’s obligation to furnish compensatory justice to blacks as an oppressed race. An equality theme has always been operative in every civil rights crusade since the fifties. But diversity may have caught up to the older leitmotiv.
The post The Birth of Antiracism appeared first on The American Mind.
Bros Hold Council To Determine Which Fast & Furious Films Are Canonical [Babylon Bee]
LOS ANGELES, CA — A third ecumenical council of bros convened this week to discuss apparent difficulties in the canon of Universal's Fast & Furious movie series. Bro leadership met for several days in the Echo Park neighborhood that previously served as the home to series protagonist Dominic Toretto.
Rachel Maddow Snorts Line Of Coke On Air To Prove It’s No Big Deal [Babylon Bee]
U.S. — In a thrilling viral television moment, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow snorted a line of cocaine on air to prove to the world that it's a completely natural substance and no big deal at all.
The Counter-Currents 2023 Fundraiser: Turning the World Around [Counter-Currents]
724 words
Like all journals of dissident ideas, Counter-Currents depends on the support of our readers. So far this year, we’ve raised $55,211.30 of our $300,000 goal. I want to thank everyone who has donated so far. (Please donate here!)
Our friend Gaddius Maximus recently ran a series of revealing polls on his Telegram channel, Building a Third Force, to which you should subscribe today. (He has 665 subscribers as of this writing. Let’s get that over 1,000.) The upshot of his polls is that most respondents believe, quite accurately, that our ideas have made enormous progress in the last few years. But when he asked the final question, about whether people are more optimistic about our prospects, it was clear that even though most respondents saw great intellectual progress, they were not as sanguine about our actual political prospects. As one commenter put it: We have made a lot of intellectual progress, but society is objectively worse.
I think this might help explain the “movement malaise” people have been commenting about since the beginning of 2022.
Part of that malaise is merely a problem of optics. From the audience, it looks like the movement is shrinking because there are fewer people on stage, which is true. Many have closed up shop. But from the stage, we can see that there are more people in the audience than ever before, and by some indications, half of you have arrived here since 2018. Individual pundits may come and go, but our ideas are here to stay, and their impact is only growing.
But another part of the malaise is simply due to unrealistic expectations. Politics is downstream from culture . . . way downstream. Today’s political events are the products of bad ideas that have been spreading for decades, even centuries. Our enemies have a huge head start. It takes time for a change of public consciousness to produce a change of policy — especially because the people in power will do everything they can to maintain their power in the face of rising opposition. And once we actually start influencing policy, we will encounter both active opposition and institutional inertia. But we know we can turn the world around, because our enemies did it before us, and we can put things right.
We are like the passengers of an ocean liner. We see that the ship is heading full-steam toward an iceberg. But most of the passengers want to have fun, not listen to bad news, and the Captain and crew simply dismiss us as “iceberg haters” who lack faith in their leadership and their wondrous new machine. As the peril grows closer, more people will listen to us. Eventually, some of the crew might listen, too. Maybe the Captain will change course. Maybe the crew will mutiny and change course. Maybe the passengers will storm the bridge and change course. Even when the tide turns in our favor, we will still be hurtling toward disaster. Even when the course is finally changed, it takes a long time to turn a steamship. Even if one cuts the engines, inertia will speed it on toward doom. Even if the course is changed in time, things will continue to get worse — or at least look worse (the iceberg will loom larger) — before they get better.
Right now, we are still at the stage of awakening the passengers and crew. We know that things won’t end well for the people on the bridge. An unsustainable course won’t go on forever. But we don’t yet know if it will end badly for the rest of us. Duty compels us to try to save the whole ship. Prudence dictates that we know where the lifeboats are. Realism tells us that things will get worse before they get better, so we should not give in to fear, because we will only win if we keep fighting. Keep us in the fight by donating today.
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Remember: Those who fight for a better world live in it today.
Thank you again for your loyal readership and generous support.
Greg Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
John Alan Coey: Warrior for the West [Counter-Currents]
John Alan Coey
3,828 words
John Alan Coey
A Martyr Speaks
CPA Book Publishers, 1994
White racialism is demonized in Western countries today, but this was not always so, and will not always be so. Our race consists not only of the millions of white people alive today, but also includes our ancestors and descendants, who live today in us, for their blood flows through our veins. They are relying on us to do the hard work of building a better future for our people. Although those of us who understand and accept this duty may be only a small minority, our ancestors and descendants stand alongside us in this struggle. We should always keep this truth in mind.
Our history is filled with countless admirable men and women who thought about race in a sane and healthy way. Some are well-known, but others, such as John Alan Coey, have mostly been forgotten — but Coey should be remembered.
Who was John Alan Coey?
John Alan Coey (1950-1975) was a soldier, author, devout Christian, race realist, and anti-Communist activist. Raised in Columbus, Ohio, Coey attended college at Ohio State University, earning a degree in forestry in the spring of 1972. He was passionate about conservation and was concerned about the effects of industrialization on both the environment and the health of human societies. Pollution bothered Coey, as did the rapid pace of technological development, which he once described as “dehumanizing.”
Coey witnessed several Left-wing student protests while at Ohio State, and he strongly disapproved of them. He taught Sunday school at his Lutheran church, and closely followed world politics. He became convinced that the United States had fallen under the control of anti-white and anti-Christian Internationalist forces which were deliberately undermining American efforts to oppose Communist regimes abroad, while at the same time subverting traditional societal norms at home.
Coey communicated with various racialist and Right-wing organizations and held a generally positive view of their activities, but felt that their general lack of emphasis on spirituality would prevent them from seriously threatening the American establishment. He wrote that:
The basis of race, culture, and nation is vital for the survival of Western civilization. Blood and soil, conservation and nationalism are what make a country and civilization strong, sound and healthy. But faith is needed, faith in our way of life, our civilization, and faith in a Higher Destiny and the divine sanction of God — that he is using us to work good in His creation.
Coey seriously considered a career in the US Marine Corps. He even went so far as to participate in an officer training program, but he ultimately requested a discharge, forgoing the opportunity to become a commissioned officer. Instead, Coey decided to travel to Rhodesia so that he could fight for Ian Smith’s white-run government against Communist-supported black insurgents. Rhodesia, or present-day Zimbabwe, was a short-lived state that declared its independence from the British Empire in order to forestall the process of decolonization. It fell in 1979, but only after a brutal civil war. Throughout its entire existence Rhodesia had few friends, faced constant economic sanctions, and was viewed across the world as an illegitimate government and a moral pariah. Nevertheless, Rhodesia boasted one of the world’s most effective armies and could rely on the staunch support of its citizens, even in the face of overwhelming odds.
In a letter titled “A Soldier’s Protest,” Coey laid out his reasons for joining the Rhodesian Army rather than the US Marines. He argued that disloyal elements within the US government were engaged in “deliberate sabotage” vis-à-vis the war in Vietnam, making an American victory impossible. He also claimed that there was an “attempted overthrow of the Constitutional Republic of the United States by a revolutionary conspiracy of Internationalists, collectivists and communists in and out of the US government.” For this he blamed “the revolutionary forces of the Council on Foreign Relations and the alien forces of International Finance.”
Coey joined the Rhodesian Army just days after his college graduation, and served dutifully until he was killed in action in 1975. He kept a journal which documented his experiences, and he had hoped to have it published at some point. Owing to the determination of his mother Phyllis and brother Ed, Coey’s wartime diary was finally published under the title A Martyr Speaks. The book is both a firsthand account of the Rhodesian Bush War and the manifesto of a political dissident who was steadfast in his quest to live the principles that he espoused.
There are, unfortunately, portions of Coey’s journal which were censored by Rhodesian intelligence and never released to his family, and are therefore lost to history. What readers do have, though, are 246 pages of Coey’s thoughts on a variety of subjects, including race, religion, and international politics, as well as detailed descriptions of day-to-day life in the Rhodesian military. A Martyr Speaks is an engrossing read thanks to the combination of Coey’s talent for narrative writing and his ability to articulate his philosophical convictions. Through Coey’s eyes, the reader is taken on two simultaneous journeys: a martial adventure to preserve Rhodesia as an outpost of Western Civilization, and a young man’s quest to discover his destiny and fulfill it honorably.
Coming to Africa
Coey left home for the last time on the day after graduating from Ohio State, embarking on his three year-long odyssey in southern Africa. He originally wanted to spend his military career in the Special Air Service (SAS), one of the most elite units in the entire Rhodesian military. The training was quite difficult. One of the tasks that prospective SAS men had to endure was a multi-day training exercise at Rhodes Inyanga National Park in eastern Rhodesia. Coey wrote regarding this: “We had to march an average of 13 miles per day through that country, carrying 30-pound packs, rifles, food rations for a three-day supply, and using a map and compass to find our way.” Only five of the 16 recruits in Coey’s unit completed all five legs of the journey. Some were injured on the rugged terrain, one caught malaria, and the others were simply too exhausted to continue.
Coey found the training difficult, but wrote: “I am proud to be going through all of this, for I will be more of a man for it, and I would want my son to go through the same.” Another training exercise involved a 15-mile march followed by each recruit carrying another man and his 50-pound pack a distance of 100 yards, and concluding with a five-mile hike. Coey finished this trek in an astounding three hours and ten minutes, 20 minutes ahead of the required time. So impressive was Coey to his superiors that he was seriously considered for a “Recruit of the Year” award, though it was ultimately given to another soldier by the name of George Jenkinson, who Coey described as both his “best friend” and “the perfect gentleman.”
You can buy Greg Johnson’s The White Nationalist Manifesto here
There were a total of 37 recruits who attempted to qualify for the SAS in late 1972, but only five were successful. Coey was one of them, but his military ambitions did not end there. His next goal was to become an officer. He remained politically active throughout this time, writing articles that warned about the threat to Rhodesia posed by Internationalists to anyone who would listen, soldier and civilian alike.
Coey’s military career suffered a major setback when he was dropped not only from the officer training program, but from the SAS entirely. Failing to become an officer bothered him, and he suspected that his being dropped had less to do with his abilities as a soldier than it did with his radical political beliefs. Distraught, Coey became unsure if staying in Rhodesia was the right choice, and even applied for a discharge, which was rejected. Needing to find a new role in the army, Coey made the decision to transfer to the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) in the hopes of becoming a medic.
The medical training course was a rewarding experience for Coey, and he passed, earning the rank of Corporal. Corporal Coey never shied away from combat, and actually developed something of a thirst for the action. He volunteered to go to the front even when there was no expectation for him to do so. He wrote:
I’ve done something unconventional for medics. Usually, they don’t accompany the assault and attack forces at all, let alone go onto the front lines as I was doing. I feel that I should be there if any of our guys get hit.
Although the role of combat medic was already well established in the American military, this was not the case in Rhodesia. Coey thus became a pioneer in the RLI: the first Rhodesian combat medic, and of this he was quite proud. Through it all, he continued to write about his experiences and warn those he met about the political and racial situation that whites faced worldwide.
John Alan Coey was killed in action on July 19, 1975 while tending to the wounds of two injured comrades. He was 24 years old.
Political activities in Rhodesia
Coey hoped that the prestige which came with a military career would cause others to take his political views more seriously. He submitted articles to the army publication Assegai, the Rhodesian business journal Property and Finance, and the South African Observer, a Pretoria-based racialist magazine. He was a friend and admirer of S. E. D. Brown, the Observer’s editor, and spent Christmas 1972 with the Brown family.
The articles that Coey wrote were intended as warnings to whites in Africa that the US was not their ally. Many white Africans assumed that since the US was the Soviet Union’s chief political foe and was supporting South Vietnam against the Communist North that Washington’s sympathies lay firmly with them and against the black revolutionaries. Coey tried his best to disabuse them of this notion. He faced backlash after one of his articles was published in Assegai in late 1973. He was told that any writing which criticized America were seen by the army as “subversive” because of concerns that it would hurt the morale of both soldier and civilian alike. Coey wrote in his journal: “Although what I have written is true, it is feared that the public may not be able to stand the truth.”
While Corporal Coey cared deeply for the Rhodesians, his journal entries and letters to his family back in Ohio often expressed disappointment in what he saw as a widespread Rhodesian naïveté about the dire nature of their situation. He knew that both the US and Western Europe had chosen moral posturing over assisting their racial kinsmen in opposing the black Marxist onslaught. He wished that the Smith government would take a harder line to ensure the continuation of white rule rather than making concessions to blacks, such as desegregating schools and increasing black representation in the Rhodesian parliament, which it agreed to in the misplaced hope that the US and the UK would warm to the nascent Rhodesian state. Coey was adamant that even a gradual abandonment of white rule would spell the end of civilization in southern Africa. In light of what has since become of both Zimbabwe and South Africa, Coey’s warnings can only be seen as prophetic.
The choice of Achilles
In the opening chapter of his journal, which was written before his college graduation, Coey describes that he “felt the urgency to find a reason to live.” A few months after arriving in Rhodesia, he described the army life as one under “total tyranny” and noted that his fellow soldiers had trouble understanding why he, a foreigner, had volunteered:
I can only say that I gave up my freedom for the sake of my family, families like mine, and the freedom of my people. My mates think I’m crazy for passing up good paying jobs in forestry or some other field, and volunteering for this wretched existence. But the experience is invaluable and will pay off in the long run. It will bring me to my destiny and life-purpose.
For Coey, merely living was not enough. To find fulfillment, he had to serve a cause that was greater than himself. His conscience would not allow him to be a bystander witnessing the West’s collapse; he needed to act. Further, he felt the need to take whatever action would allow him to pose the greatest threat to the forces arrayed against the West. In his Introduction to the journal, his brother Ed wrote that John “[s]urveyed the whole world in order to find one country that he thought to be honestly fighting communism and defending the heritage of the West.” Once he decided on Rhodesia, John wasted no time in getting there. For him, giving up everything was worth it if it would make a difference to his people.
The two causes closest to Coey’s heart were the Christian religion and the white race, and his dedication to both was nothing short of fanatical. Radical movements are always spearheaded by such people, and any movement would be fortunate to have a man such as Coey as an adherent. He possessed the capacity for single-minded dedication to a cause, as well as the emotional stability and foresight to consider the distant future. He thought in terms of years, generations, and eternity, as the great aristocrats and statesmen do.
University of Illinois Professor Revilo P. Oliver, one of the foremost racialist thinkers of the late twentieth century, told Coey that “[y]ours is the choice of Achilles.” Elaborating on this remark, Ed Coey wrote:
Those who have read the Homeric epic will recall that the Gods gave the Achaean hero, Achilles, a choice either to live a long life with little accomplishment, or to perish in battle at a young age, with everlasting glory.
Coey on Christianity
Christianity was central to Coey’s worldview, although his ideas about how Christians ought to conduct themselves in the political sphere were at odds with many of his co-religionists, then and now. He believed in the necessity for an active, fighting Christianity. One of the main complaints that he had about the Christians he encountered was their reluctance to involve themselves in the political fights of the day. He feared the consequences if Christians opted to “abandon the public professions to the non-believers.’. Coey attended several different churches throughout his time in Rhodesia, but found none to be satisfactory. On the state of Christianity in Rhodesia, Coey wrote:
It seems that nearly all the Christians and missionaries I have met in Rhodesia believe that their sole purpose is to witness for Christ. I have no objection to this whatsoever, but these people do nothing to oppose the evil forces of our time, such as communism or Socialist-Zionism.
On another occasion, Coey met a Christian man who opposed Communism but was unwilling to fight, believing that the Rhodesian cause would be rescued by the second coming of Christ. A dismayed Coey concluded that “Christianity for this man has destroyed his instinct for survival, his will to resist evil.” In contrast, Coey was of the opinion that “[p]rayer alone, without action, may be insufficient.” Christian Zionism was likewise popular among Rhodesian Christians, but for Coey the founding of the state of Israel was not the vindication of biblical prophecy.
Coey held that many churches had been subverted by the Internationalist conspiracy, but that a resurgence of true Christianity was exactly what white people needed most. He firmly believed that “Western civilization is based on Christianity,” and that “the West can be revived by a revival of faith. “A devout Christian such as Coey therefore had a responsibility to inspire his fellow believers to action. He worked to convince the Christians that he met that they ought to be “fighting for their Christian civilization” rather than “sitting idly by waiting for the end to come.”
In Coey’s mind, Christianity and racial consciousness were complementary. He expressed this clearly in his journal on November 4,1972:
It seems that under present conditions one cannot be a soldier without furthering the aims of the Internationalists, the liberals, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Zionists, or other alien groups. But I believe it is a Christian’s duty to oppose the enemies of his civilization just as much as it is to save souls.
He believed strongly that the fundamental conflict of his day was between Christianity and Communism, and that the West was facing “a crisis of faith.” He predicted that Communism would triumph if its opponents did not base their convictions on a spiritual foundation.
Coey on race
Coey affirmed the biological reality of race, and stated that it was entirely appropriate for biologically distinct groups to desire to remain that way. He was also of the view that civilizations built by one race could only be maintained by that race. While he does sometimes mention “whites” in his writings, he more often uses terms such as “Europeans” or “the West.” It is currently fashionable to believe that anyone, regardless of race, can be European or a part of the West by virtue of where he was born, or by adopting certain linguistic or cultural norms. But in the period before mass non-white immigration and the development of the taboo against white racial consciousness, this notion would have seemed utterly bizarre and nonsensical. There is every indication in Coey’s writings that when he mentions the West, he means whites and whites alone, and that for him the preservation of Western Civilization necessarily included the maintenance of white demographics and political power.
You can buy Greg Johnson’s It’s Okay to Be White here.
To describe Coey as an ethnonationalist or racial separatist is problematic, however, because he defended not only the presence of white minorities in Africa, but white rule in African-majority states. There are two instances in A Martyr Speaks where Coey defends colonialism. After living in Rhodesia for several months, Coey wrote that “I have no doubt that white rule of Africa is justified, because both African and European cultures can flourish under it.” He thought that introducing white culture and white political structures to Africa was acceptable so long as Africans had the option to maintain their own separate tribal communities and traditions apart from whites if they so wished, and such communities did indeed exist in Rhodesia. It was also true that black soldiers were allowed to join the Rhodesian military. For instance, there was the prestigious RAR (Rhodesian African Rifles) unit, in addition to racially-integrated units. Coey himself served alongside black soldiers and never once expressed any objection to doing so.
Expressions of outright hostility toward any race or nationality are absent from Coey’s writings. That said, however, Coey was undeniably chauvinistic about white racial achievements and held no illusions about any sort of natural equality between blacks and whites. This is shown most starkly when he encountered a tribal community near Rhodes Inyanga National Park:
I saw firsthand how the Africans live, away from European influence: barely scratching out an existence on grubby little farms, with round, one-room thatched-roof huts, and with chickens and naked children romping in the dust and filth.
On another occasion he wrote:
I am willing and eager to do my part of the bush fighting and to guard the borders, but peace won’t come until war is taken to the enemy, and he learns the fighting superiority of the European, the Western man, over the barbarian.
Not all of his comments on Africans were negative, however. Coey did call the Matabele people a “proud race,” and “very hospitable and likable.”
Coey was pleased to find that most white Rhodesians were racially conscious and firmly believed that
[t]he only hope is that the European here will rule his own government and not permit it to give in to the Internationalist pressures. Otherwise, he will lose the civilization that he built.
He never questioned that white civilization ought to be preserved, even in Europe’s African colonies. Of course, it would have been unacceptable to Coey if Africans had attempted to subjugate Europe and impose traditional African culture and political structures on white countries. No mention is made of any moral obligation to allow Africans the same right of national self-determination that Coey fervently believed was possessed by those of his own race.
Coey’s hope for the emergence of a spirit of pan-European racial solidarity as a bulwark against Communism should also be noted. He believed that this racial consciousness would transcend ethnic divisions among whites. While he did not call for all national boundaries within Europe to be abolished, nor did he disparage ethnic loyalties, he did place race firmly above ethnicity in order of importance. He held that all white peoples have much in common and that they share a common civilization which they all have a stake in defending. In June of 1972, he wrote:
Last week I was asked in a letter whether I am still happy in what I am doing. I replied that I have never been more satisfied than now, knowing that I opposed the aliens in the United States government, and that I am now playing a small role in the conflict between the West and Satan’s conspiracy. I am happy to be learning ways necessary to fight for our freedom. But, most of all, I am helping to unify the Europeans, simply by my presence and association with these people. For they are coming to realize that there is no important difference between Americans, White Africans, or Europeans. The accent, dialects and languages are superficial; the customs, religion, styles of government, and thinking are the same. I believe that only when all European peoples are unified can communism and the alien conspiracy be smashed.
Concluding thoughts
This essay is of course no substitute for the real thing. I highly recommend reading A Martyr Speaks. Sadly, it is both rare and expensive, but if you are especially interested in Coey, or Rhodesia more generally, A Martyr Speaks is well worth the price.
John Alan Coey lived an unconventional life. No one forced him to go to Rhodesia. There were plenty of opportunities waiting for him had he stayed home, yet he left them all behind to fight for a country to which he had never been and where he didn’t know a soul. And yet, how exceptional his achievements in Rhodesia were! Having no prior medical training but then going on to become the first combat medic in a country’s history is itself an incredible story, and becomes even more so when we consider that he only did so because he was denied the opportunity to be an SAS officer.
Coey’s life provides a fine example of the virtues of perseverance and resilience. He achieved excellence in both body and mind, and was at the same time humble and self-sacrificing. A true warrior, he was exactly the kind of man a healthy society should strive to produce. His story comprises a tragic, yet glorious episode in the annals of our race.
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Soros Prosecutors’ Destruction of America Continues [Daily Torch]
When the laws are not enforced as a matter of policy, violent crimes will skyrocket.
The post Soros Prosecutors’ Destruction of America Continues appeared first on Daily Torch.
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Biden Admin SEETHING Over Not Being Able To Censor Information On Social Media Following Landmark Ruling, Claims It Will Bring 'Irreparable Harm' [Welcome]
The Biden administration isn’t too pleased about not being able to conspire with Big Tech, as they requested that a court to stay a preliminary injunction to allow the administration to continue to meet with major tech corporations during the trial.
Just Two Days After Ben And Jerry's Woke Tweet, Conservatives Launch Boycott Resulting In Unilever Losing MASSIVE $2.5 Billion In Value [Welcome]
Ben and Jerry’s parent company Unilever has seen a massive decrease of $2.5 billion in market value after conservatives have begun boycotting the company for its Fourth of July tweet virtue signaling on how the United States is on stolen land that needs to be returned to the natives.
Megyn Kelly SCORCHES The Biden Family For AWFUL Handling Of Cocaine Disaster And Hiding Hunter's Love Child [Welcome]
Former Fox News host and conservative personality Megyn Kelly slammed President Joe Biden and his administration after they made the ridiculous claim that a guest left cocaine within the White House and the complete lack of tact when denying the existence of the family’s seventh grandchild.
DeSantis Raises IMMENSE $20 Million In Second Quarter Fundraising, Campaign Showing Signs Of Life Amid Slipping Poll Numbers [Welcome]
GOP presidential candidate and Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has managed to surpass expectations by bringing in a massive $20 million during his first six weeks of campaigning. The amount brought in is on top of the $130 million that the Never Back Down super PAC that supports the governor has managed to gather since the group formed in March.
What is Doom Scrolling ? [DEV Community]
Problem 👀
Doomscrolling or doomsurfing is the act of spending an excessive amount of time reading large quantities of negative news online
Solution 💡
Instead of just scrolling and wasting 4-5 hours daily, Can we convert this habit to watch tutorials 2-3 hours ?
Like I said the main problem of scrolling on social media is that it never ends.... while tutorials do end...
What changes we can bring to solve this problem comment below !!
Cheers 🍺
How To Start Your Programming Journey 💻 [DEV Community]
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Understand the Basics 🧠
- Choose a Programming Language 🔍
- Set Clear Goals 🎯
- Find Learning Resources 📚
- Practice Regularly ⏰
- Join Online Communities 🌐
- Build Projects 🏗️
- Seek Guidance and Mentorship 👨🏫
- Keep Learning and Stay Updated 📖
- Conclusion
Introduction
Programming is an exciting and valuable skill to acquire in today's digital age. Whether you aspire to become a professional programmer or simply want to explore the world of coding, starting your programming journey can be both challenging and rewarding. This article will guide you through the essential steps to kickstart your programming journey and set you on the path to success.
Understand the Basics 🧠
Before diving into programming, it's crucial to grasp the fundamental concepts. Familiarize yourself with the logic behind programming, understand variables, loops, conditionals, and data structures. You can find numerous beginner-friendly resources online, such as interactive tutorials, coding courses, and books, to help you lay a solid foundation.
Choose a Programming Language 🔍
There is a wide range of programming languages to choose from, each with its own strengths and areas of application. Consider your goals and interests when selecting a language. Popular options for beginners include Python, JavaScript, and Ruby. These languages have extensive documentation, a supportive community, and are versatile for various types of projects.
Set Clear Goals 🎯
Define your goals before starting your programming journey. Do you want to develop web applications, mobile apps, or dive into data science? Setting clear objectives will help you stay focused and motivated throughout the learning process. Break down your goals into smaller milestones, making them more achievable and measurable.
Find Learning Resources 📚
The internet offers an abundance of learning resources for programming. Online platforms like Codecademy, Udemy, and Coursera provide structured courses designed for beginners. YouTube tutorials and coding blogs are also valuable sources of information. Experiment with different resources to find the ones that suit your learning style and preferences.
Practice Regularly ⏰
Consistency is key when learning programming. Allocate dedicated time for practice each day or week. Start with simple exercises and gradually tackle more complex problems. Challenge yourself with coding puzzles and participate in coding competitions to enhance your problem-solving skills. Regular practice will reinforce your understanding and make programming concepts second nature.
Join Online Communities 🌐
Connecting with like-minded individuals is an excellent way to accelerate your learning. Join online communities and forums dedicated to programming. Engage in discussions, ask questions, and seek advice from experienced programmers. Platforms like Stack Overflow and GitHub provide opportunities to collaborate on open-source projects and learn from industry professionals.
Build Projects 🏗️
Applying your knowledge to practical projects is crucial for reinforcing your skills and gaining hands-on experience. Start with small projects that align with your interests and gradually work your way up to more complex ones. Building projects not only enhances your programming skills but also serves as a valuable addition to your portfolio when showcasing your work to potential employers.
Seek Guidance and Mentorship 👨🏫
Seeking guidance from experienced programmers or mentors can greatly accelerate your learning progress. Join coding bootcamps or enroll in mentorship programs where you can receive personalized guidance and feedback. Having someone knowledgeable to provide insights, review your code, and offer advice will help you overcome challenges and avoid common pitfalls.
Keep Learning and Stay Updated 📖
Programming is a continuously evolving field. Stay updated with the latest trends, frameworks, and technologies. Follow influential programmers on social media, read tech blogs, and attend webinars or conferences. Continuous learning will expand your knowledge and keep you relevant in the dynamic world of programming.
Conclusion
Embarking on a programming journey can be both exciting and challenging. By understanding the basics you can lay a strong foundation for your programming skills. Remember, perseverance and dedication are key to becoming a successful programmer.
Connect with me 🙍
-
Mail -
akashpattnaik.github@gamil.com -
Github -
iAkashPattnaik -
Twitter -
akash_am1
Develop .NET Core 3.1 Inside a Container [DEV Community]
Distros lile Ubuntu 22.04 only supports OpenSSL 3, so users can only install .NET 6 SDK, it does not support .NET Core 3.1 or 2. Fortunately, Microsoft officially provides image files for development, and we don't even need to write Dockerfile to set up the environment.
Setup Environment
Here are the instructions to start a container named dotnet31 locally using devcontainers/dotnet:dev-3.1:
$ mkdir -p dev-container/dotnet31
$ cd dev-container
$ docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/dotnet:dev-3.1
$ docker run -it --name dotnet31 --volume ./dotnet31:/workspace:cached --network host mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/dotnet:dev-3.1 sleep infinity
Notice that we use --network host, that makes the container share the host’s networking namespace. So be careful to do any network change inside the container. You can omit the option if you don't need to access localhost from the container.
Next, enter the container to test whether the program can be compiled and executed:
$ docker exec -it dotnet31 bash
Inside the container:
# dotnet --list-sdks
3.1.425 [/usr/share/dotnet/sdk]
# mkdir /workspace/test && cd /workspace/test
# dotnet new console
# dotnet run
Hello World!
Then use your favorite IDE or editor to enter the container development, I personally use VS Code's Dev Containers.
Other settings
Notice that you may need to manual use --environment=Development to tell the compiler using development settings.
# dotnet run --environment=Development
You may also need to set up Entity Framework.
# dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef --version 3.1.3
Finally, you can also install other packages.
# sudo passwd root
# sudo apt install neofetch
Hope this to be helpful for who annoyed at developing old .NET projects in new Ubuntu host systems.
How to add Concern in Ruby on Rails? [DEV Community]
Overview:
In this article, we will discuss the usage of ActiveSupport::Concern. We will delve into what it is, why we need it, and the problems it can solve. Additionally, we will explore the pros and cons associated with its usage. To illustrate its practical implementation, we will provide three examples.
Definition:
In simple terms, Concern allows you to extract common logic from different models into a reusable module. You may ask, "Why can't we just use a module? Why do we need to define something else?" Here are the main differences: Essentially, Concern is an ordinary module, but it allows you to include any ActiveRecord behaviors that you can define on the model. Therefore, we can consider it as a module for encapsulating and reusing ActiveRecord methods.
Advantages:
- Code Reusability: ActiveSupport Concern allows us to follow the DRY principle by extracting common logic into reusable modules.
Problems:
- Complex Dependencies: Overusing concerns can result in a complex web of dependencies, making the code harder to understand and maintain.
- Difficulty in Code Search: Finding the definition of a specific behavior or functionality can be more challenging due to the dispersed nature of concerns.
In essence, concerns are well-suited for storing technical components, such as:
- Adding file helpers to facilitate handling files with a clear interface.
- Creating wrappers for existing attributes and values to enhance interface clarity.
- Implementing technical features like change history tracking, logging, and more.
- etc...
However, concerns are not well suitable for storing business logic.
Implementation
In the following section, we will discuss the key elements of concerns. To understand concerns, we only need to know what a module is and the included and class_methods methods from ActiveSupport::Concern.
Module
A module in Ruby is a container that groups together related methods, constants, and other module or class definitions. It provides a way to organize and reuse code in a modular manner. And Сoncern is just a module, so we need to know how to create it.
# app/models/concerns/concern_sample.rb
# frozen_string_literal: true
module ConcernSample
def hello_world
puts 'Hello World!'
end
end
ActiveSupport::Concern methods
So, what is the main difference between a simple Ruby module and a concern? The main differences are that when you include ActiveSupport::Concern in a module, two new methods are added. These methods are:
included
This method enables us to add Active Record logic directly to the module and reuse it at the model level. For example:
# app/models/concerns/concern_sample.rb
# frozen_string_literal: true
module ConcernSample
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
included do
# Define class methods here
def self.my_class_method
# Class method logic
end
# Define instance methods here
def my_instance_method
# Instance method logic
end
# Define associations here
has_many :comments
belongs_to :category
# Define validations here
validates_presence_of :name
validates_uniqueness_of :email
# Define callbacks here
before_save :do_something
after_create :do_something_else
# Define scopes here
scope :active, -> { where(active: true) }
scope :recent, -> { order(created_at: :desc) }
end
end
class_methods
This method allows us to add methods that can be called from the class itself:
# app/models/concerns/concern_sample.rb
# frozen_string_literal: true
module ConcernSample
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
class_methods do
def my_class_method
# Class method logic
end
end
end
Let's consider three examples to gain a better understanding of this concept.
Example 1: FullDescription.
In the first example, we will consider a very basic scenario to gain an understanding of how this actually works. For instance, let's assume we have the following model:
# app/models/animal.rb
class Animal < ApplicationRecord
end
Then we decided to add a method to the model that would provide the full description of this animal.
# app/models/animal.rb
class Animal < ApplicationRecord
def full_description
"Name: #{name}. Kind: #{kind}. Status: #{status}."
end
end
Here's how it works:
animal = Animal.first
animal.full_description
# => "Name: Simba. Kind: Cat. Status: Adopted"
animal = Animal.second
animal.full_description
# => "Name: Rocky. Kind: Rabbit. Status: Available"
What do we need to do if we want to move this logic to the concern? First of all, we need to create a new concern:
# app/models/concerns/full_description.rb
# frozen_string_literal: true
module FullDescription
def full_description
"Name: #{name}. Kind: #{kind}. Status: #{status}"
end
end
And include this concern at the model level:
# app/models/animal.rb
class Animal < ApplicationRecord
include FullDescription
end
So the same interface is still available:
animal = Animal.first
animal.full_description
# => "Name: Simba. Kind: Cat. Status: Adopted"
We didn't include ActiveSupport::Concern here just to highlight that for simple methods without ActiveRecord logic, it will still work fine. However, it will also work with ActiveSupport::Concern:
# app/models/concerns/full_description.rb
# frozen_string_literal: true
module FullDescription
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
included do
def full_description
"Name: #{name}. Kind: #{kind}. Status: #{status}."
end
end
end
Like this:
animal = Animal.first
animal.full_description
# => "Name: Simba. Kind: Cat. Status: Adopted."
And if you want to add class methods, we can do the following:
# app/models/concerns/full_description.rb
# frozen_string_literal: true
module FullDescription
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
class_methods do
def full_description
all.map { _1.full_description }.join(' ')
end
end
end
Now the full_description method is available on the Animal class:
Animal.full_description
# => "Name: Simba. Kind: Cat. Status: Adopted. Name: Rocky. Kind: Rabbit. Status: Available."
Example 2: UUID
In the second example, we will create a concern that generates and saves a unique UUID value before creating a new database record. To achieve this, we will define a new concern as follows:
# app/models/concerns/uuid.rb
# frozen_string_literal: true
module UUID
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
included do
before_create :set_uuid
private
def set_uuid
self.uuid ||= SecureRandom.uuid
end
end
end
And we will include it at the model level:
# app/models/animal.rb
class Animal < ApplicationRecord
include UUID
end
Then, every time we create a new Animal record in the database, the UUID will be automatically generated for us:
animal = Animal.create
animal.uuid
# => '7f934646-bc67-446c-920d-ca5415d28b94'
P.S. To use the UUID acronym, you need to add the following code to config/initializers/inflections.rb:
# config/initializers/inflections.rb
ActiveSupport::Inflector.inflections do |inflect|
inflect.acronym 'UUID'
end
Example 3: PredicateMethods
In the last example, let's consider adding a concern that allows us to simplify the interface for attributes with a fixed number of available values. For instance, if an animal record has a status attribute with the following available values: ['available', 'adopted', 'pending'], then we would like to have the following interface:
animal = Animal.create(status: 'available')
animal.available?
# => true
animal.adopted?
# => false
animal.pending?
# => false
# or with prexix
animal.status_available?
# => true
animal.status_adopted?
# => flase
# etc ..
What do we need to do to implement it? Let's create a new concern called PredicateMethods and add its method to the model:
# app/models/animal.rb
class Animal < ApplicationRecord
include PredicateMethods
define_predicate_methods attribute: :status,
available_values: ['available', 'adopted', 'pending'],
prefix: false
end
So how is this concern implemented? It's quite simple. We just need to define a new method called define_predicate_methods, and this method will generate new methods on the model for every available value that you pass as an argument. Inside this method, we will check if the current status value is equal to the given value or not. Here's the implementation:
# app/models/concerns/predicate_methods.rb
# frozen_string_literal: true
module PredicateMethods
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
MethodAlreadyDefined = Class.new(ArgumentError)
class_methods do
def define_predicate_methods(attribute:, available_values:, prefix: false)
available_values.each do |value|
method_name = [(prefix ? "#{attribute}_" : ''), value, '?'].join.to_sym
raise MethodAlreadyDefined, "#{method_name} already defined" if instance_methods.include?(method_name)
define_method(method_name) do
public_send(attribute) == value
end
end
end
end
end
Now our interface works as desired:
animal = Animal.last
animal.available?
# => true
animal.adopted?
# => false
If you'd like to add the status prefix, you just need to change the value of the prefix attribute from false to true:
animal = Animal.last
animal.status_available?
# => true
animal.status_adopted?
# => false
That's it! Now we can add this concern to any of our models and make their interfaces more readable and simplified.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in this article we delved into the usage of ActiveSupport::Concern in Rails. We explored what it was, why we needed it, and the problems it could solve. We examined the pros and cons of utilizing this approach, considering different perspectives. Furthermore, to enhance our understanding of the concept, we provided three examples that illustrated its practical implementation.