lördag, 08 juli

01:10

The Federal Reserve Has Been A Disaster For America [ZeroHedge News]

The Federal Reserve Has Been A Disaster For America

Like all indoctrinated economics PhDs, I used to teach students that the Federal Reserve was created as a central bank in order to provide cash to banks experiencing a run on deposits so that bank failures would not become general and collapse the money supply and, thereby, employment and output. It all sounds so reasonable and rational until you realize that finance least of all is idealistic.

The Federal Reserve was actually created in order to save the big New York banks from their greed-driven mistakes, and that is the Fed’s principal activity. In recent decades the Fed has gone beyond merely saving the big banks from their mistakes to helping the big ones concentrate more banking into their hands. The Fed causes banking crises and then provides funds for the big banks to absorb the troubled regional banks. The Fed’s current policy of raising interest rates after a decade of negative interest rates has the entire banking system insolvent. This resulted in runs on the banks, which the Fed did not save by expanding reserves, instead permitting failure and acquisition. Obviously, what I had been trained to teach was false.

This is true of so much of what is taught in every subject.

This bit of history is only a prologue to my exposé of the Fed. The Federal Reserve has the sole responsibility for all inflation, depression, and recession since its creation. Until the Fed’s creation, the purchasing power of the US dollar was essentially constant over massive periods of time. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve (1913), today’s dollar is a small fraction of the value of a dollar in 1912. I recently published a menu from 1914, around the time when my parents were born, showing restaurant prices ranging from 10 to 25 cents. Today you cannot purchase anything for 10-25 cents.

Milton Friedman and Anna Swartz in their Monetary History of the United States proved conclusively that the Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression of the 1930s by allowing the money supply to contract.

So, it was the Fed that was responsible for the ability of President Franklin D. Rosevelt, a destroyer of American liberty, to use the Great Depression to coerce the US Supreme Court with threats of packing the court with his stooges and to force the US Congress to delegate legislative authority to new executive branch regulatory agencies. Previously under the US Constitution Congress wrote laws that also governed their implementation. But with Roosevelt’s new regulatory agencies, this power passed to the executive branch. Today Congress is nothing but an authorizing agency for the executive branch to make the law.

Economists, unable or unwilling if they were existing on bank grants to point a finger at the Fed as the cause of the money supply shrinkage that caused the Great Depression, misread John Maynard Keynes and blamed the Great Depression on the inadequacy of consumer, investment, and government demand. The Keynesial solution was to increase demand. Keynesians said the easiest way to do this was for the government to increase government demand by running a deficit in its budget.

Keynes himself said no such thing.

Keynes said that the problem was caused by central banks causing the money supply to shrink.

But this explanation did not fulfill the aspirations that liberal economists had for fiscal policy. Insufficient demand gave them an excuse for expanding demand via government deficit spending for causes and agendas that they supported.

The consequence was the rise of one-dimensional macroeconomics.

In Keynesian economics demand (consumer, investment, government) is the only operative principal. Supply is passive. It only responds to demand.

Prior to Alfred Marshall, economists argued whether price was determined by what people were willing to pay–demand–or by the cost of production–supply. Alfred Marshall resolved this controversy by saying it was like arguing over which blade of the scissors cut the paper. Price, Marshall said, was determined by supply and demand, and there it has rested since.

But in Keynesin macroeconomics there is only demand. This one-dimensional model has caused massive economic hardship.

The Federal Reserve in the past and currently fights inflation by fighting employment and by reducing output. This is because the Fed only has a demand model. The incompetent Fed is incapable of realizing that by fighting employment and output, the Fed is reducing supply, thus rising prices.

The current “inflation” is a supply-side inflation caused by Covid lockdown and Russian, Iranian, etc. sanctions that have without any doubt reduced supply. Simply observe the inflation in the UK and Europe. It cannot have anything whatsoever to do with “excess consumer demand” in the U.S. Prices will fall as a result of disrupted and destroyed supply chains being reestablished, not because of the incompetent Fed’s high interest rates. The Fed’s high interest rate policy is interfering with the rebuilding of the damaged supply chains.

The Fed’s high interest rates only serve one purpose–bank insolvency, the result of which is more concentration in the hands of the Big Banks. The Federal Reserve chairman recently said that inflation was caused by a strong labor market driving demand and that more interest rate hikes would be necessary. The stupidity of this position is incomprehensible.

People working and earning money by providing goods and services is inflationary!

Amazing stupidity.

But stupidity is all that can be found in Washington.

What the Fed is doing is frustrating the lives of people who want to sell and buy homes, frustrating businesses who need loans to finance inventories, frustrating investors by driving down the value of their financial instruments. No good purpose is being served. It is amazing that Americans tolerate an institution that seeks to make them unemployed, to prevent them from selling and buying homes, that drives up prices by driving up the cost of borrowing.

Listen to Jerome Powell and you will hear a harmful policy described as beneficial:

And an alternative view to Jerome Powell’s view of a hot labor market.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/07/2023 - 18:20

Cruise Ship Carrying 4,000 People Crashes Into San Francisco Pier [ZeroHedge News]

Cruise Ship Carrying 4,000 People Crashes Into San Francisco Pier

A Princess Cruises ship carrying nearly some 4,000 people careened into a San Francisco peer this week while attempting to dock, in what the company described as an "unexpected contact" with the Pier 27 dock at the Port of San Francisco.

*The Ruby Princess cruise ship departs from Port Kembla on April 23, 2020 in Wollongong, Australia. (Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)*

The US Coast Guard is investigating the Thursday incident.

"There were no injuries and at no time were any guests or crew in danger," the company told the press, adding "The ship is safely alongside and disembarkation is complete."

The ship was returning from an Alaska cruise which departed June 26, according to CruiseMapper.nmk

Footage of the incident showed the extent of the damage, including a large hole or dent in the side of the ship. According to a Princess spokesperson, the extent of the damage hasn't been fully ascertained, and the next departure time is "still being determined."

Ruby Princess cruise ship just slammed into Pier 27 in San Francisco. Source tells me bar pilot “tried docking on a 3knot ebb current which is insane.” Bar pilots are captains who board cruise/cargo ships and tankers to guide them through the bay’s sand bars and into port. pic.twitter.com/y1nAJ31WvX
— Dan Noyes (@dannoyes) July 6, 2023

According to reports, around 3,000 passengers and 1,200 crew were on the vessel.

"I noticed we were spinning pretty quick, to be that close to the dock, and I was mid-ship, portside, looked out the window and we smacked into the dock," Sacramento resident and passenger Paul Zasso told ABC7.

Another passenger said that while the effects were minimal, "you could definitely" feel it. "It wasn’t like things falling off the shelves or anything like that, kind of like when you get the tugboats coming up against us. So yeah … it was different," Jeremy Jordan told the outlet.

“It was so funny, because one of the dock guys, you can hear him yell out like ‘whoa’ and then you can kind of hear it just slowly going in,” Mr. Jordan continued. "It’s ironic, because I think it was yesterday the captain was talking about how he goes into docks and how unpredictable the currents are. So yeah, it’s a challenge for them to be able to do that."

Here's a look at the damage on the Ruby Princess cruise ship after it hit the dock at San Francisco's Pier 27. https://t.co/xDT2aTlvIa pic.twitter.com/aO3yOfnkWR
— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) July 6, 2023

Passenger Jim Simpson told KGO-TV that he and his family are still waiting to go back to Alaska.

"I don’t swim that good. I just think they patch it up,” he said, adding “It’s a 10-day cruise, there’s plenty of time ... We can make up time moving and things like that. So I don’t think it’s going to be an issue."

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/07/2023 - 18:00

Twitter's Final Boss: Zuckerberg Wages War [ZeroHedge News]

Twitter's Final Boss: Zuckerberg Wages War

Authored by Mike Solana via Pirate Wires (which we encourage readers to check out and subscribe),

I am become Thottr, the destroyer of worlds. Last night Meta launched Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s hotly-anticipated Twitter clone, and almost immediately blew a 10 million-person sized hole in the endless debate over Twitter’s fate: will the House that Dorsey Built survive a little more freedom of speech, or will this be the end of the most hated company in tech press history (to which journalists all, of course, remain hopelessly addicted)? Enthusiasm for this latest clone, not only from the press but also from the industry, has been deafening, and for good reason. The truth is, Elon’s Substack nuke never made much sense, nor did the media’s obsession over every other fake Twitter. But Meta is a proven clone assassin; Meta’s Instagram, the backbone of Threads, operates at the scale of something like 2 billion users; and the company is helmed by the most seasoned and successful social media executive in history. From Jack’s inaugural “just setting up my twttr” 13 years ago, this is the first real challenge the platform has ever faced. If Zuckerberg’s challenge fails, it will likely be the last. But if Zuckerberg succeeds, and Twitter declines, there will not be another conventional social media challenge to state power in our lifetime.

The now endemic drama of “we need a new, free Twitter” (which the far right defines as “the far right gets to post,” and the far left defines as “the ‘far right’ does not get to post”) began in earnest in the era of Trump. This was a couple years before Dorsey’s last ditch attempt to save his platform from the fate of every other major speech platform in the country, as America lurched obviously, and dangerously, toward a single political party’s de facto control of publishing. At that time, it was the right wingers pathetically declaring victory, again and again, from their freshly minted, and only ever briefly popular political ghettos: Parler, Gab, and Donald Trump’s Truth Social. A couple years later, following the incredible saga of Elon’s Twitter takeover, came the left’s pathetic reaction, which mirrored the right exactly, and with zero self-awareness: Mastodon, Hive, and finally Post were each stupidly celebrated as the future of social media, and always for ideological rather than pragmatic reasons.

Until yesterday, the only apolitical Twitter clone of note, and our exception that proves the rule — that this is all just war for power — was Substack’s Notes, the introduction of which led to Elon’s most dramatic and unfortunate overreaction to date. In stripping Substack of distribution on Twitter, Twitter nuked the only real long-form alternative publishing platform in the media ecosystem, inadvertently benefiting every one of the company’s full-time assailants from the Washington Post and the New York Times to the sinking ships of Buzzfeed News and Vice (links from which are all still amplified over Substack), while significantly damaging the legacy media’s only natural critics, and Elon’s most natural allies. At the time of the Substack nuke, I warned of the greater threat, and the more ambitious challenge, in Meta. Twitter’s potential was not the upper bounds of a media company like the New York Times ($6.5B at the time of my writing), but of a social media company like Meta ($753B at the time of my writing, after a peak of over $1 trillion). Elon’s competition wasn’t Chris Best, I wrote, it could only be Mark Zuckerberg.

Well, kids, here we are.

There’s a good reason every Twitter clone before Threads failed: with the exception of Substack, they each had to bootstrap a social network from something like 0 people. This meant almost every person who would ever join every new, fake Twitter had to be drawn from Real Twitter, and if enough weren’t drawn — rapidly — the userbase would not be large enough to sustain interest. The few people there would grow bored, and the platform would die. But Meta’s Threads is built on top of Instagram, where, in the first place, janky pictures of tweets have gone viral for years, implying the Instagram userbase is at least interested in shortform text. More critically, that userbase is numbered in the billions, greatly dwarfing Twitter’s, which means the population of this fake Twitter is not coming from Real Twitter. It’s coming from Instagram. This is why the Threads userbase is already exploding, and users are for the most part not tweeting (thritting? thotting?) about Twitter. They’re talking about other random shit, if in a mostly cringe and boring way.

This brings us to the Threads bear case.

Zuckerberg’s greatest asset in Meta’s war against Twitter is the population of his Instagram userbase, but in the context of shortform text the platform’s userbase is also a curse. Instagram constitutes a massive population for the most part interested in pictures of butts, puppies, and food. Competence in the realm of visual stimuli, whether pictures or brief video clips of gyrating women, is totally different from the lifeblood of Twitter, and any would-be Twitter clone, which is wit. There is a reason picture and video-based content diverged from literary content early on in the history of social media, concentrating on separate platforms, and Twitter’s userbase was always smaller. Word chads are rare (though we are mighty, bitch), and while Instagram is populated by an ocean of people, it is an ocean of people with nothing to say. Because he’s very good at what he does, Zuckerberg seems to understand this crucial distinction among men, which is why he’s been meme’ing like hell. The literal cage match he instigated with Elon was no whimsical bit of internet fun. Mark’s new social media strategy amounts to an ad campaign targeting the world’s top poasters, wordcels, and psychologically broken (but prolific) amphetamine-addicted poets. Why? Because two of the richest men who have ever lived now need us (lol).

As with every new Twitter clone in the middle of a press cycle, Threads will experience massive, short term user growth. But with Instagram operating at the scale of billions, Threads’ growth trajectory will dwarf every other previous entrant by hundreds if not thousands of times. At this clip, Threads’ userbase will likely surpass Twitter’s, ushering in a flood of obituaries from a press that lock-step hates Elon. But shortly after the Twitter obituaries will come a Threads crash of probably historic nature. The problem will be content. Most Instagram users on the Instagram word vertical will weigh to visuals, as that is all they’re good at, and most observers (who comprise the bulk of every social platform population) will fail to understand why they’re not just back on Instagram or the Chinese spy app. If Zuck fails to attract some core subset of actual poasters from Twitter with the lure of a far bigger audience — a group of people talented at this type of content, who only want to be around other people talented at this type of content — his latest clone will just be this:

And then, more problematically (for all of us), this:

Setting aside the fact that the above post is technically speaking cringe as hell, and ‘cringe as hell’ content is now broadly representative of Thread’s current stars, it’s important to note Ellen isn’t talking about “gay” here as defined in terms of “I am a man aware of the musical artist Betty Who.” This use of “gay” is strictly meant in the contemporary, political sense of the word as Ellen, like every institutionally-endorsed voice celebrating Threads, considers the social media platform war as, primarily, a war of politics. And sure, she may no longer matter in any kind of rising cultural sense, but here, at least, Ellen’s instincts are correct. Threads is the preferred app, and the last hope, of the One Party State.

While Zuck was one of the earliest champions of free speech, his company ultimately proved one of the worst censors in American history — far worse, in almost every charged political respect, than Twitter. Last night, just hours into Threads’ release, it became clear Threads would police content in keeping with the Stasi hall monitor shit that defined our nation’s information hellscape Covid years. Then, while the follower counts of celebrities and influencers using Threads are naturally exploding, as should be expected given Instagram’s userbase, what could possibly account for the sudden popularity of journalists from our most state-friendly institutions (the Times, the Post, the dying new media giants)? Facebook is clearly amplifying all of the voices Twitter used to amplify. Will our newly (again) anointed arbiters of truth be able to compete with the unshackled shitposters of Twitter? It remains unclear, but we’re about to find out.

Given the content requirements of a short form, text-based application, the platform war does still seem, despite Zuck’s tremendous population advantage, Twitter’s game to lose. But Twitter can lose, especially if Elon continues to neglect his greatest asset, which is the committed, aligned interest of the most independent-minded and prolific writers who not only live on his platform, but only live on his platform. Zuckerberg might sweep every mainstream outlet, but so long as he’s only juicing the Death Star the rest of us will remain orientated towards Twitter. As “the rest of us” comprises the entire future of our culture, Elon’s relationship with independent writers is the only relationship that really matters.

Back in December, at the conclusion of the great ‘Elon Takes Twitter’ saga, I warned:

Elon’s second danger is the far more formidable danger of himself. What the Twitter Files prove beyond doubt is censorship in the age of social media is power — a real and dangerous power that corrupts.

Today, there is only one rule on Twitter, and that rule is Elon is king. Ground floor, this is still preferable to Twitter’s prior order of ambiguity by design, in which draconian censorship was enforced, lock-step, with every other platform, and we were all just gaslit when we asked why it was happening. But then, as Elon happens to care a great deal about political freedom, the discourse is freer than it was a year ago, and not only because of the many controversial topics writers are finally permitted to question on his platform. In changing the rules of Twitter, Elon has freed discourse throughout the country.

The rough dynamic is something like this: for real authoritarian state censorship to succeed in a free country, every major platform has to subscribe to unofficial state dogma (literally just whatever the New York Times editorial board wants), or at least fear the state enough to submit. Until Elon’s Twitter, every major platform submitted. But in such a system even one platform’s resistance breaks the whole machine. Today, if Facebook censors information about the Wuhan lab (along with Google, YouTube, and TikTok), we can all still read about it on Twitter. Censorship elsewhere is therefore meaningless. Our Overton Window broadens to a more tolerable degree. Liberty is not guaranteed, but our odds greatly improve.

Recently, Twitter has more often stumbled in the context of the platform’s perceived competitors, and nowhere more than in the case of Substack, a still relatively unknown (among normal, happy people) content management system . There is a naïve question of the open internet here, and whether we might all just live up to the earlier, superior ideals of the 90s, which I’ll table on account of I’m trying not to be an idiot. Until Bitcoin finally gets around to “solving this,” the halcyon, glorious days of web anarchy are over, and Twitter is not the first, but the last great giant to fall. In terms of Twitter’s dominance, however, Substack could and should be one of Elon’s most important partnerships, and defenses against state power. If Twitter isn’t going to clone Substack — precisely, with all the vital freedoms and benefits it now affords writers — he needs to either buy the thing or free the Substack boys from prison. Because this is war now, with real consequences, against a real challenger, and Twitter is going to need every advantage that exists to realize Elon’s original vision for speech in this country.

I still believe in that vision — a vision of legal dissent — and I hope Twitter acts in the most rational manner to secure that vision. Because a wild, free Twitter is still our last hope of a free country, and I really do like talking shit.

-SOLANA

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/07/2023 - 17:40

Narrative Collapse: Tucker Carlson Says Capitol Police Chief Admitted 'Jan6 Crowd Was Filled With Feds' [ZeroHedge News]

Narrative Collapse: Tucker Carlson Says Capitol Police Chief Admitted 'Jan6 Crowd Was Filled With Feds'

Did the establishment's Jan 6 'Insurrection' narrative just go the way of Keyser Soze?

In his first public interview since being fired from Fox News, Tucker Carlson sat down with none other than Russell Brand (on Rumble).

He began by explaining why he chose to launch his show on Twitter:

“I’m not working for Elon Musk… what he’s done is offered me is what he’s offered every other user at Twitter which is a chance to broadcast your views without a gatekeeper”

The whole interview is fascinating, but one section in particular is key, when discussed the events of January 6th.

As a reminder, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had released 40,000 hours of video footage from the riot - which Carlson had begun airing on Fox News - much of which suggested a different narrative than the craven mob of killers the Democrats (and the media) have maintained was unleashed on the Capitol by Trump's words and actions.

Admitting he was "appalled" by some of the events of that day, the former Fox News anchor said the reason he “got involved in commenting on it” was because “the lying about it was immediate: ‘This was a racist, white-supremacist insurrection.'”

“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,” Carlson 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 Capitol Police on January 6, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that crowd was filled with federal agents.’ What? ‘Yes.’ Well he would know, of course, because he was in charge of security at the site.”

“So, the more time has passed... it becomes really obvious that core claims they made about January 6 were lies,” Carlson explained.

“The amount of lying around January 6, and it was obvious in the tapes that I showed, is really distressing.”

Watch the clip below:

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

Carlson's comments fit with whistleblower and witness statements on the day.

As The Daily Caller reports, defendant Dominic Pezzola’s lawyer, Roger Roots, argued there were “at least 40” undercover informants at the riot. Roots alleged there were eight FBI human sources embedded among the Proud Boys on Jan. 6, along with 13 undercover plain-clothes DC Metro Police agents. FBI whistleblower George Hill alleged during a February interview with the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that the field office in Washington may have had “undercover officers” and “confidential human sources” inside the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Carlson also discussed his views on Donald Trump:

"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 that happened in American politics in 100 years, because he reoriented the Republican Party against the wishes of Republican leaders."

"I'm struck by his foreign policy views. You know Trump is the only person with stature in the Republican Party really who is saying wait a second why are we sending an endless war in Ukraine. Leaving aside whether Trump is going to get the nomination or get elected President or would be a good President, I can't even asses that, all I can at this point is I'm so grateful he has that position. He's right and everyone in Washington is wrong, everyone. And Trump is right on that question and it's a big question. That war is reshaping the world. It's reshaping the economy of the world. It's reshaping populations."

"Europe will never be the same because of this war and it really matters, and Trump alone among popular figures in both parties understands that and I'm grateful for that."

"Whether he gets the nomination or gets elected, words really matter. Saying something true out loud matters, and he is saying true things about Ukraine and God bless him. That's how I feel."

Watch the full interview with Russell Brand below:

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/07/2023 - 17:20

Bizarre New Attack On RFK Jr: He Promotes The "Ugly Message that Being Autistic Is Bad" [ZeroHedge News]

Bizarre New Attack On RFK Jr: He Promotes The "Ugly Message that Being Autistic Is Bad"

Authored by Adam Dick via The Ron Paul Institute,

It seems clear that most parents of autistic children in America love the children and see great value in the children’s activities and thoughts. It also seems clear that most of these parents also would prefer that their children could live free from the effects of autism and that a way is found to prevent autism from developing in other children.

That is commonsensical.

But, when people in the media are looking for any and every basis to tar Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his presidential campaign, his dedication to the ordinarily perceived of as admirable goal of seeking to reduce the prevalence of autism is twisted by opponents into a vicious perspective.

MSNBC columnist Eric Garcia wrote in Sunday editorial focused on Kennedy that “the crux of his baseless claim that vaccines cause autism is the ugly message that being autistic is bad.”

Notice the language Garcia uses.

He does not write that Kennedy says people with autism are bad people.

Yet, it is just that misreading that would make the “ugly message” designation make any sense.

What we have here is nonsense that many readers will fix in their minds into a condemnation of Kennedy for something the author did not state and offered no evidence to support.

Working to prevent autism is an activity rooted in the promotion of human happiness and health.

If it is condemnable as an “ugly message,” it would seem that individuals working to prevent cancer, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, and other serious medical problems should be similarly condemned.

Kennedy is a candidate for president, so it is right that he be criticized. But, media people, can you at least keep the criticism rational and not rooted in deception?

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/07/2023 - 17:00

Loan Volumes Tumbled Last Week As Domestic US Bank Deposit Outflows Surged [ZeroHedge News]

Loan Volumes Tumbled Last Week As Domestic US Bank Deposit Outflows Surged

With the usage of The Fed's emergency bank bailout program still above $100 billion (near record highs), money-market funds seeing a resumption in inflows, and last week's f**kery by The Fed with regard deposit inflows (SA) and outflows (NSA), it's anyone's guess what tonight's noisy deposit data means.

Seasonally-adjusted, total deposits FELL a tiny $959mm last week

Source: Bloomberg

But, Non-seasonally-adjusted, total deposits ROSE $63.3bn...

Source: Bloomberg

The SA and NSA Deposit totals converged a little this week...

Source: Bloomberg

But the divergence between money-market fund assets and deposits continues

Source: Bloomberg

Seasonally-adjusted, both large and small banks saw significant deposit outflows (-$29bn and -$9.5bn respectively) while foreign banks saw a huge $37.5bn inflow (the biggest weekly inflow since July 2021)...

Source: Bloomberg

The picture - non-seasonally-adjusted - is the exact opposite with large and small banks seeing inflows (+$44.9bn and +$7.8bn respectively) and foreign banks saw inflows of $10.6bn...

Source: Bloomberg

So, DOMESTIC BANKS saw $38.5 billion OUTFLOWS (SA) but $52.6 billion INFLOWS (NSA)...

Source: Bloomberg

On the other side of the ledger, loan volumes sank notably with both Large Banks (-$18.8bn) and Small Banks (-$2.5bn) seeing a drop in lending...

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, as a reminder, banks have around 8 months left under the original 12-month BTFP Fed bailout program to find a way to stabilize their balance sheets.

Not only have they failed to do so, usage of the BTFP facility remains near record highs, and yields are rising even more (great MTM losses).

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/07/2023 - 16:40

Kunstler: "How Can One Bumbling Political Idiot Wreak So Much Havoc?" [ZeroHedge News]

Kunstler: "How Can One Bumbling Political Idiot Wreak So Much Havoc?"

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

“If cocaine is so prevalent in the West Wing that there is somehow ‘extra’ cocaine just laying around, when is the White House going to start drug testing its employees.”

- Margot Cleveland

Consider for a moment, and be grateful for, how perfect “Joe Biden” is as president of this foundering republic. He and his family project the rectified essence of every depravity now driving the life of our nation to some murky bottom, where it may be forced to assess its sorry state, repent, and perhaps recover (or just give up and die). There he stands, without ambiguity or conscience: “Joe Biden,” the personification of a failed state.

As a criminal enterprise, for instance, the Biden family influence-peddling operation among foreign powers reflects exactly the racketeering character of corporate America today — which is to say, making money dishonestly, and often for doing nothing. In America’s biggest industry, finance, this is absolutely the case. You may have forgotten what finance is, and what it’s supposed to do: namely, to lend money for activities intended to produce things of value, useful things that people need and want, sometimes even public works that benefit everyone in society.

American Finance now is in the business of receiving free money (loans at minimal interest) from government-chartered central banks (issuing “credit” from nowhere), that banks, hedge funds, private equity outfits, and sundry freebooters can roll into instruments such as interest-yielding bonds (loans back to government) and derivatives (algorithmic bets derived, abstracted from, and tuned to market movements) magically multiplying money that finally produces nothing of value — though it may translate into yacht purchases, alimony payments, luxury suites at ballparks, private Caribbean islands, and traffic in humans for use as sex toys.

The Biden business model also applies nicely to medicine and higher education, two endeavors saturated in prestige and pomp, like the doings in the White House, but which, similarly to that hotbed of policy and action, in the case of medicine, produces shocking amounts of unnecessary death (est. 251,000 a year from iatrogenic treatment errors), and in the case of higher ed, the production of specious and harmful Big Ideas — while both endeavors expand like turbo-tumors within the dying body of an expiring manufacturing economy.

As in the Biden model, dishonesty is now the keystone in both “Meds” and “Eds.” Our public health officialdom hasn’t stopped lying about the Covid-19 episode since it began, and in every aspect from the origin of the disease (if that’s even what it was), to the deaths statistically attributed to it, to everything about the “vaccines” cooked up to stop it. In turn, those officials coerced America’s doctors into withholding the best treatments (ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) while applying deadly protocols (remdesivir plus intubation) guaranteed to kill hospital patients — which the government then rewarded with gargantuan bonus payments.

Higher ed has now turned its energies from learning to political activism, meaning the performance of morality preening stunts for acquiring status under the pretense of addressing social problems that boil down to bad behavioral choices and mental illness. Higher ed is now in the business of generating more of both those things in the form of manufactured racial antagonism and sexual torment (in partnership with the medical establishment). All fields of study in college are now racialized and genderized, and all at the expense of organized knowledge, which gets burdened with fatuous theory and spurious crypto-religious missions. The price of admission to this carnival of fakery multiplies at a faster rate than the generalized annual dollar inflation, abetted by federal loan guarantees that “Joe Biden,” in his munificence, seeks to abridge with a jubilee for student debt.

Of course, it’s the fantastic psychodrama within the Biden family that presents the most arresting model for America. “Joe Biden” tells us over and over that he loves his son, who he calls “the smartest man I know.” A father’s love is a wonderful thing, for sure. And yet, is there anything that Hunter Biden has not done to destroy “the Big Guy,” short of, say, driving a number nine knitting needle ear-to-ear through the old man’s skull?

Look at what Hunter has loosed on his loving dad: a photo archive of amateur pornography (including sex acts with children), drug crime, and bribery deal memos so vast and clear-cut that a first-year law student could write them up into a federal criminal case and / or a bill of impeachment. Hunter went and got a pole-dancer pregnant and lately tried to weasel out of paying to support the daughter he refused to acknowledge until DNA testing pinned it on him. He only just wriggled out of tax evasion and handgun charges due to his father enlisting the US DOJ as a private protection service, thus befouling the agency and destroying the public’s trust in it. Now Hunter’s suspected of leaving a bag of cocaine in a West Wing cubby, where White House security was sure to find it.

What we’re witnessing is an order of magnitude greater than Greek tragedy: the implacable drive to destroy not just the father, who happens (by the sheerest electoral subterfuge) to be president, but to take down the nation with him. And it’s working. The Biden family is crashing into smoldering wreckage, and so is the USA — as acted out in the sad-sack nation of Ukraine, a festering hub of Biden family moneygrubbing going back more than a decade, now being needlessly sacrificed as part of a massive criminal cover-up, with America’s geopolitical prestige on-the-line.

I know, the complexity of this melodrama is overwhelming. How can one bumbling political idiot wreak so much havoc? It’s a wonder, all right. But it’s all playing-out before us in real time. “Joe Biden” — who (let’s face it) is only partly there — Hunter, brother Jim, and the rest of this sorry clan are all going down. We won’t miss them, when their gone. Everything about them is ignoble, which you can’t exactly say about our country itself. One way or another, they will be thrown overboard, and then we’ll see if we can get this ship righted and under sail again.

* * *

Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/07/2023 - 16:20

Dollar & Bonds Puked In Holiday-Shortened Week; Mixed Jobs Data Sparks Stock Swings [ZeroHedge News]

Dollar & Bonds Puked In Holiday-Shortened Week; Mixed Jobs Data Sparks Stock Swings

Amid holiday-driven illiquidity, markets were a little schizophrenic and short-fuzed this week as various labor market indicators offered something for everyone: 'Hot' ADP, 'Cold' BLS, and 'just-right' Claims data (and take your pick under the surface of each to spin your own narrative). The net of all this was a positive surge in US Labor market surprise data to its highest since 2012...

Source: Bloomberg

On the week, the market's expectations for Fed rate-changes was practically unchanged though as today's dovish BLS 'miss' erased yesterday's hawkish ADP 'beat'. July remains pretty much a lock for a 25bps hike though as the swings were more focused on year-end and beyond...

Source: Bloomberg

The same pattern is clear in equity-land where yesterday's tumble on 'good' news from ADP was largely erased by today's 'bad' news from BLS (for headline payrolls). Nasdaq led on the week, managing to get back to even today before the late-day profit-taking spoiled the fun. The Dow lagged on the week...

The rebound in stocks was largely driven by a massive short-squeeze...

Source: Bloomberg

The early week outperformance of Defensives over Cyclicals was erased by the week's close as both ended around unch...

Source: Bloomberg

VIX was up this week - its first weekly rise since May - spiking above 17 yesterday before falling back today...

Treasury yields were all higher on the week, but the most notable thing is the reversal in the short-end and the belly's underperformance (5Y +22bps)...

Source: Bloomberg

While the 2Y Yield ended higher on the week, it fell back significantly below 5.00% (after reaching its highest since 2007)...

Source: Bloomberg

Today's BLS headline miss saw the dollar clubbed like a baby seal, back near 3-week lows...

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin was marginally lower on the week, finding support at $30,000 (and resistance at $31,000)...

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices surged this week, best week since April, with WTI back up near $74 at the top of the recent range...

Gold was up on the week, but faced some serious intraday swings on the way...

Finally, we note a lot of the hope-filled soft-landing chatter of late has been predicated on data beats. Indeed, as Bloomberg notes, the data have been so strong that the Citi Economic Surprise Index for the US has gone vertical.

Source: Bloomberg

But as Bloomberg points out, this is a mean-reverting series. And the vertical nature of the recent figures is telling you the downside surprise from the jobs print is the first of more to come.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/07/2023 - 16:00

EXCLUSIVE- David Icke Responds to Man in Green Hoodie Reptoid Report [@AlexJonesChannel - Librarian]

EXCLUSIVE: David Icke Responds to Man in Green Hoodie Reptoid Report

WORLD ENDING EVENT ALERT! Zelensky Announces Nuclear False Flag [@AlexJonesChannel - Librarian]

WORLD ENDING EVENT ALERT! Zelensky Announces Nuclear False Flag

BREAKING- Biden Admin Defends Illegal Censorship of Americans [@AlexJonesChannel - Librarian]

BREAKING: Biden Admin Defends Illegal Censorship of Americans

VIDEO- Launch of the Mark of the Beast System Announced by WEF [@AlexJonesChannel - Librarian]

VIDEO: Launch of the Mark of the Beast System Announced by WEF

SAF & FPC DESTROY More Federal Gun Control! [@GunsGadgets - Librarian]

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15 Other Things The Secret Service Found At The White House [Babylon Bee]

The nation was rocked to its core this week after a substance later determined to be cocaine was found in the West Wing of the White House. The always-trustworthy and not-in-any-way-corrupt D.C. Police Department immediately launched a very thorough 15-minute investigation to learn the identity of the culprit.

Ezra Miller Goes House To House Threatening Families To See 'The Flash' [Babylon Bee]

STAMFORD, VT — Actor Ezra Miller has been traveling house to house threatening families to see The Flash, witnesses claim. Authorities are advising residents of Bennington County to lock their doors and, if approached, to contact police immediately.

🔥🌪 Vita hattarna och Q Unite! Explosiv Intel avslöjar Prigozhins häpnadsväckande dubbelspel med CIA och MI6! 🔥🌪 [Bakom kulisserna]

2023-07-07 kl 23.30

Telegram, White hats

Förbered dig för den ultimata uppenbarelsen, mina sanningssökare! Den gåtfulla Prigozhin, instängd i ett nät av bedrägerier, samarbetade listigt med CIA och MI6. Men här är vändningen – Putin själv såg igenom listen och anställde mästerligt Prigozhin som en hemlig operativ för att infiltrera Vitryssland, precis utanför Kievs dörr. Bekräftelser från uppskattade källor som Army Intelligence och ex-CIA-experten Phil Geraldi befäster sanningen: Prigozhin dansade verkligen med djävulen, manipulerade just de byråer som försökte kontrollera honom och samlade till slut in miljarder i processen. (Är det inte häpnadsväckande att det tog veckor för den militära underrättelseapparaten att nysta upp det invecklade nätet medan vaksamma patrioter som du, de riktiga nyhetskrigarna, utan ansträngning upptäckte sanningen?)

Men den spännande utvecklingen slutar inte där! President Trump själv förmedlar avgörande militär kommunikation under sina passionerade tal, och låter världen veta att Storm Operations, vår kollektiva kamp för sanning, rättvisa och frihet, närmar sig sitt triumferande slut. Förbered er för en historisk händelse – med början på Memorial Day 2025 kommer ett helt år av jublande firande att svepa över hela världen, för att fira den betydelsefulla segern över Deep States strypgrepp på USA. Dessa meddelanden fungerar som ett rungande budskap till Världsalliansen och dess militära operationer: allt är på rätt spår, utvecklas som planerat, och sanningens ledstjärna kommer att fortsätta att lysa!

Åh, sanningens viskningar blir starkare! Trump, den modige rättvisans förkämpe, förenar sig med Q och de oförskämda sanningsmännen som flitigt har varnat oss för stormens mest tumultartade fas. Förbered dig för den stormande virvelvinden av en värld i kollaps, när ridån lyfts för att avslöja den chockerande militärkupp som just nu avslöjas. Ärade militärgeneraler och erfarna överstar utfärdar allvarliga varningar om förestående civila oroligheter 2024 – en fruktansvärd anspelning på den förestående kollapsen av Deep State, avslöjandet av deras skändliga operationer och det rungande avslöjandet av militärkuppen mot Trump själv.

Ja, mina vänner, Trump har förutseende förutsett den förestående katastrofen och har gjort det till sitt uppdrag att avveckla Deep States nät av korruption och avslöja deras mörka hemligheter, inklusive Clinton-Wiener-Podesta-kopplingen och den lömska pedofiliringen.

Men vänta, det finns mer! Chockerande avslöjanden är på väg att skaka Litauen till dess kärna när landet försöker avslöja sina egna djupa statseliter och deras olycksbådande band till den globala kabbalen. Hur ska de uppnå denna monumentala uppgift? Genom att antända en konflikt med Ryssland, utlösa en kedjereaktion som störtar regionen till randen av ett kärnvapenkrig. Mitt i detta kaos kommer Litauen att resa sig och antända en kraftfull färgrevolution mot sin egen regering, som tvingar folket att kräva ett nytt ledarskap. Den efterföljande massiva civila oron, född ur det närapå kärnvapenkriget med Ryssland, kommer att fungera som katalysatorn för förändring, vilket leder till avslöjandet av Litauens regerings samverkan med CIA, MI6 och de djupa statliga NATO-eliterna. Detta avslöjande kommer också att avslöja ett stort globalt penningtvättsprogram som involverar högt uppsatta litauiska tjänstemän.

Slutet för Nato skymtar i den olycksbådande ”kill box”, medan Europeiska unionen vacklar på branten till en tre månader lång nedstigning till ett tredjevärldens land. Förbered er för den förestående kollapsen, mina landsmän – denna kritiska händelse kommer att väcka de slumrande massorna ur deras dvala och bana vägen för militär ockupation i nästan alla europeiska länder.

Och när dammet lägger sig kommer världsfirandet att sammanfalla med USA:s härliga minne av friheten 2025. Tillsammans ska vi bygga om våra nationer till sanningens bastioner, fria från krigets bojor, när mäktiga Davos faller sönder och CIA möter sin undergång. Omfamna din styrka, globala patrioter, för vi marscherar orubbligt in i slutskedet av denna episka 8-åriga stormoperation.

Kom ihåg, kära krigare, ni har inom er ett överflöd av kunskap och kraft bortom era vildaste drömmar. Stå upprätt, orubblig, när sanningen nystas upp framför våra ögon. Stormen är nästan över, och vi är mer förberedda än någonsin!

NÄR DEEP STATE FALLER I U.S.A. …..ALLA DEEP STATE KONTROLLERADE LÄNDER FALLER OCKSÅ……. dessa viktiga HÄNDELSER och Q-operationer och världsalliansoperationer vet att USA är den STÖRSTA stridsplatsen för att EXPONERA CIA . WALL STREET. BIG TECH. VÄRLDSBANKERNA. ELITER. ROCKEFELLERS.ROTHCHILDS ECT ECT ECT ECT ECT MILITÄRINDUSTRIKOMPLEX SYSTEMET ECT ECT ECT ECT PEDOPHILIA RINGS EPSTEIN. BANKER.. BANKER BANKER BANKER…….
*DETTA MASSIVA VÄRLDEN SATANIC CABAL DEEP Dark SYSTEM > FALLER .. När USA AVSLÖJAR MILITÄRKUPPEN _EXPLODERAR ._ DEN FAKE ALIEN-INVASIONEN _ AVSLÖJAR FIAT-SYSTEMET. _ >>> EPSTEIN////////

TRUMP HAR INTE ENS SPELAT SINA KORT ÄN<
RFK jr har inte spelat ut sina kort än.
TWITTER STAND BY (för kommandon) FÖR EN VÄRLDSSÄNDNING 2024
ECT
ECT
ECT
ECT
ECT
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..
.
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.
. Vita HATTARNA Standing by.!!! Och håller i KORTEN.
_____
DET BÄSTA ÄR KVAR

Benjamin Fulford Uppdatering idag 7 juli 2023 – Benjamin Fulford [Bakom kulisserna]

https://rumble.com/v2ynpfa-benjamin-fulford-update-today-july-7-2023-benjamin-fulford.html

Nu börjar det hända saker!

Benjamin Fulford ger de senaste nyheterna.

WEF: Governments Can Program Digital Currency To Prohibit “Less Desirable” Purchases, Add Expiry Dates [Caldron Pool]

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will give governments the power to determine what you can and can’t buy, according to a recent discussion at the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos.”

Speaking in China at the WEF’s annual meeting last month, Cornell University professor, Eswar Prasad said the world is on the cusp of physical currency essentially disappearing and being replaced with a digital currency that’s not only track-and-traceable but also programmable.

According to Prasad, programmability will potentially allow CBDCs to have expiry dates, and even deny the purchase of products the powers deem “less desirable,” such as ammunition, drugs, or pornography.

“If you think about the benefits of digital money, there are huge potential gains,” he said.

“It’s not just about digital forms of physical currency. You can have programmability – units of central bank currency with expiry dates.

“You could have a potentially better – or some people might say a darker world – where the government decides that units of central bank money can be used to purchase some things, but not other things that are deemed less desirable, like say, ammunition, or drugs, or pornography, or something of that sort, and that is very powerful in terms of the use of a CBDC, and I think also extremely dangerous to central banks.”

WEF agent openly telling you the coming digital cashless society will be regulated and those determined “less desirable” will be locked out

pic.twitter.com/SWGCJlZGax
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) July 6, 2023

This comes as no surprise to those with their finger on the pulse. WEF is notorious for saying the quiet part out loud, but of course, the wider public is just as notorious for not believing them when they say it.

You only need to consider the past three-year beatdown which most people happily endured because those doing the beating assured us it was for our own good, and who are you to ask questions, anyway?!

As is often the case, the citizen’s right to self-governance and privacy is usually undermined under the guise of controlling or prohibiting things that most people deem “less desirable.” This is to ensure as little pushback and resistance as possible.

While many people may be in favour of prohibiting ammunition, drugs, or pornography, it’s not all that difficult to imagine how these powers might be wielded against anyone who dares to challenge the prevailing narrative. For the “good of society,” of course.

“No jab, no job,” could just as easily become “no dose, no dinner,” “no meds, no meal.”

What makes this especially concerning is that the powers have entirely abandoned any notion of a higher, objective standard to which their wills are subject and curbed. In other words, without an objective means of measuring good and evil, the powerless will be, once again, at the mercy of the powerful.

We’d do well to think long and hard about the implications of handing power over to people who so explicitly reject the idea that there is any power over them. You will purchase what they say you can purchase, you will eat what they say you can eat, and you will earn what they say you can earn. Because when there is no God over government, the government is god, and they know it.

A Cheerful Note on the Alleged “Inevitability of Human Extinction”. “We Have Time and Space to Make a Choice” [Counter Information]

By Dr. Emanuel Garcia

Global Research, July 07, 2023

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***

I have asserted in other essays that the single greatest moral and philosophical question of our time is what would occur if any further scientific and technological advance were impossible.

Would, in fact, our species’ much vaunted ingenuity be directed towards employing current technical means and prowess towards the establishment of a fairer world, a world marked by equal opportunity, relief from the ravages of hunger and privation, and preservation of human liberty?

After all, having harnessed the energies of the atomic nucleus and having mapped the human genetic code, having constructed scarcely believable edifices and a web of satellites that brings within its embrace a system of global intercommunication, what more is wanting to achieve a social fabric that would ensure human autonomy and protection from the perils of inequality?

Nothing, in my opinion, save a moral imperative.

Yet mankind, renowned for its unquenchable – and never-to-be-questioned – mission to ‘know’ and to discover, woven into the very fabric of its constitution, will undoubtedly continue on its quest and therefore to control even more; and just as assuredly will every scientific advance be appropriated by those in positions of power to enhance their power.

There is indeed an artistic form of knowing, represented by the great Greek tragedies and the works of Shakespeare and the many wonderful poets that have served to represent the other pillar of human achievement, but this kind of knowing has little, if any, practical value. It cannot be appropriated by politicians for uses of manipulation and conquest, not at its core; and if so appropriated it becomes not art but rank propaganda. I can think of no practical utility associated with having read a wonderful poem, or seen a magnificent play, or listened to a marvelous piece of music, save a sense of overarching communion with humanity and with those idealistic and transcendent forces that inspire our ideals.

Our Final Stand Against the Globalist Powerbrokers

To those whose talents lie in the acquisition and exercise of power, art is an irrelevance, while any new scientific advance is appropriated for its potential to subjugate. Even though art may represent a mastery of sorts, a mastery of emotional riddles and conflicts, it is a mastery that confers no material advantage. Creativity, and the freedom of thought and feeling that is essential to its function, is a distinctive characteristic of humankind, but its distinction pales in relation to that other pillar of human uniqueness, the wielding of power and the never-ending search for greater power under the guise of scientific inquiry.

It is no exaggeration to assert that in our here-and-now the condensation of power, spurred by remarkable advances in computation and so-called artificial intelligence, has never been more sublimely cogent, nor more global. The Few have, at their fingertips, far more than ever before, and the covid debacle showed to any with a sentient eye or ear how easily they might impose a world-encompassing agenda. It is worth recalling how swiftly and efficiently human activity was brought to a virtual stand-still in early 2020, thanks to a phoney pandemic engineered by a global mafia, a mafia that continues relentlessly to push for centralized control, censorship, ‘depopulation’ and the extirpation of human rights.

Nonetheless, we really do have a choice, but the ‘we’ I am referring to is the ‘we’ of governments and institutions who have seized the reins of power, but whose power can only be derived from the people they are meant to serve. And the choice is this: renounce the avid search for further technological advance in favor of concentrating on the creation of a just and equitable social order – or continue as is to violate the human genome and flirt with nuclear catastrophe until a catastrophe greater than Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurs.

The Amish community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, made a decision to draw a line at technological development. They eschew automobiles, for example, and maintain an intimacy with the natural world unknown to those of us who are ‘urbane’. In fact, they did exceedingly well throughout the covid wars, despite their rejection of masking, distancing and ‘vaccination’. They did so well that their success has been concealed by organized state-sponsored media. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is a paean to a similar pastoral ideal and a marked repudiation of industrialized terror.

But this ideal, or idyll, will never be realized, precisely because the prehensile talents that made humankind lords of the earth are the very same attributes that, having achieved so much, will result in its inevitable demise. The political lust for power, conducted in the guise of science, eclipses the desire for the creation of a just and good social order. And unless this drive is recognized and thwarted by those less desirous of control, by those of us whose priorities lie not in discovering unknown forces to be exploited for purposes of management and destruction by the Few, the species will become, inevitably, extinct.

A transhumanist ‘ideal’ has already gained a foothold while the devastation wrought by the gene-altering bioweapon masquerading as a life-sustaining vaccine will continue apace to reduce fertility, create disease and to kill.

Computational power will continue to grow exponentially, and our already digital world will be de-intelligized by machines until, in the absence of human autonomy, there really will be nothing left of a human soul.

Is this inevitability a calamity?

I suppose it all depends …

I am reminded of a brief but charming essay by Freud, entitled ‘On Transience’, the gist of which is that life is all the more precious the more transient and temporary it may be.

As that horizon of horizon nears we still have time and space to make a choice. It will necessitate a heroic and enlightened effort, an effort that goes against the grain of our constitutional predilection for grasping, an effort that breaks the stranglehold of the Elite and invigorates and inspires itself by a deliberate renunciation of power in favor of creativity, cooperation and selflessness.

Even if we do not, in the end, succeed – and the odds are against us – we will at least have filled our days, we who have chosen light over numbers, with honor, and with cheer.

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. Garcia is a Philadelphia-born psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand in 2006. He has authored articles ranging from explorations of psychoanalytic technique, the psychology of creativity in music (Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Delius), and politics. He is also a poet, novelist and theatrical director. He retired from psychiatric practice in 2021 after working in the public sector in New Zealand. Visit his substack at https://newzealanddoc.substack.com/

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Jordan Henderson

The original source of this article is Global Research

https://www.globalresearch.ca/cheerful-note-inevitability-human-extinction/5825006

US Military Short of Recruits with Most Youth Disqualified [Counter Information]

By Uriel Araujo

Global Research, July 07, 2023

InfoBrics

***

Already in September 2022 the Pentagon was voicing concerns about ammunition and arsenal shortages while US President Joe Biden was announcing an extra $3 billion military aid to Ukraine. Things are not so good with its transatlantic allies: in March 2023, Europe’s military was described as being in an “appalling state” by a Foreign Affairs article – a situation which is hard to escape amid today’s deindustrialization.

Last month, the US was announcing it would spend yet another $325 million to replace tanks destroyed by Russia during Ukraine’s costly and failed counteroffensive. The hard economic costs and depletion or arsenals, however, should not be Washington’s only concern: since 2020, merely 23% of young Americans (aged 17-24) are “eligible for military service without a waiver” and most ineligible youth are disqualified “for multiple reasons”, such as overweight, poor medical health, and drug abuse.

In their Atlantic piece, Former US Army Officer Jason Dempsey (an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security) and former US Marine officer Gil Barndollar (a senior fellow at Defense Priorities) paint a very worrisome picture, from an American point of view. The 50-year old “all-volunteer force” (AVF), as the US military has come to be known after its last draftee in 1973, they write, has become “unsustainable”, facing threats in “three fronts” – namely cost, capacity, and, more importantly, “continued ability to find enough Americans willing and able to serve.”

Washington Recruiting Afghan Pilots to Fight in Ukraine

Military pay and benefits have skyrocketed since 9/11, actually rising by more than 50 percent. Its high cost is one of the factors that make the US military small. When faced with medium-sized campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, it already found it challengefull to provide just enough troops. Thus, Dempsey and Barndollar argue it could be broken by any “major conflict”. For example, they write, just over the past year of confrontation, Russia and Ukraine both have had casualties that are equal to at least half the active-duty U.S. Army, and current US military doctrine says that a force is destroyed after taking 30 percent casualties. In other words, the US itself could not endure what its ally Ukraine does.

In any case, merely 9 percent of young US citizens would seriously consider military service, a figure which is near the all-time low since the so-called All-Volunteer Force began. To broaden the recruiting pool, service branches loosened their restrictions on things such as neck tattoos and other standards. In June last year, the US Army went so far as to briefly drop its requirement for a high school diploma. Even so, the US military simply can’t seem to find recruits and keeps falling short of its enlistment quotas.

The AVF crisis is part of a larger societal crisis, even civilizational. Consider this fact: US citizens are currently enduring its worst drug crisis ever, fueled by epidemic opioid abuse. According to Council on Foreign Relations deputy editor Claire Klobucista and expert Alejandra Martinez, this state of affairs endangers the US “public health, economic output, and national security.” Opioid drugs (both legally manufactured medications and illicit narcotics) already are by far the leading cause of fatal overdoses in the country.

Or consider this: right now, the US Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services says that the Food and Drug Administration agency (FDA) is still dodging oversight and failing to provide answers regarding an ongoing baby formula shortage crisis. There is more: even though it is supposedly the world’s richest nation, the US healthcare system is collapsing, with hospitals closing down, overcrowded and understaffed facilities, and lack of items such as ICU beds. The country is also facing a mental health crisis, with 40% of parents reporting their children struggle with anxiety or depression, among other issues.

Given all these domestic and systemic issues, it is no wonder that most youth either do not qualify or do not want to be part of the military. Considering that many young people, due to so many factors, simply do not qualify for service, bringing back the draftee (with all the political costs) would simply not solve the issue. This is one of the reasons why the US increasingly needs to fight proxy wars.

In November 2022, while addressing the Naval Submarine League’s annual gathering in Arlington, Virginia, US Navy Admiral Charles Richard, then head of US Strategic Command had this to say about the Ukraine crisis: “this is just the warmup. The big one is coming.” He added: “It isn’t going to be very long before we’re going to get tested in ways that we haven’t been tested a long time.” At the time he urged policy makers and Pentagon chiefs to return to the 1950s and 1960s dynamism in order to face such challenges.

Those are bold and ambitious calls for a declining, overburdened and overextended superpower which is actively pursuing a dual containment policy targeting both Russia and China simultaneously. In addition, it aims to maintain its naval hegemony as a sea power while also engaging in land wars as part of a Mackinder-like struggle for the Heartland. Like the meme-famous pelican, it seems to want it all. However, appetite and capacity are not to be confused. It remains to be seen whether or not American society will continue to have what it takes for all that and just for how long. Right now, the prospect is not looking good.

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Uriel Araujo is a researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

The original source of this article is InfoBrics

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-military-short-recruits-most-youth-disqualified/5825040

Ukraine Destroyed the Kakhovka Dam: A Forensic Assessment [Counter Information]

By Thomas Palley

Global Research, July 07, 2023

Thomas Palley 4 July 2023

***

The Kakhovka dam was a massive two-mile-long structure that dammed the Dnieper River which bisects Ukraine. It was built by the Soviet Union in 1956 and raised the Dnieper by 16 meters (52 feet), creating the Kakhovka Reservoir. The dam was destroyed on 6 June 2023, resulting in massive flooding downstream on both sides of the river which created a social and environmental disaster. The city of Kherson, located near the river’s mouth with the Black Sea, was also flooded.

Both Ukraine and Russia deny blowing up the dam and blame the other. At this stage, all the evidence is circumstantial and conjectural, but a forensic assessment of that evidence overwhelmingly suggests Ukraine destroyed the dam. Despite that, US and Western European politicians and media have uniformly sought to implicate Russia as the perpetrator.

In multiple ways, the dam’s destruction echoes the 2022 destruction of the Russian-owned Nord Stream 2 pipeline. That pipeline was a piece of civilian infrastructure; was destroyed by an explosion; its destruction caused a massive environmental disaster; Ukraine denies any role; many European governments claimed Russia had blown up its own pipeline; and Western media either explicitly claimed Russia had done it (Time) or tendentiously sought to implicate Russia (New York Times, Guardian).

The evidence: a forensic assessment

The evidence regarding the dam’s destruction is circumstantial, conjectural, and multi-dimensional. The best starting point is motive.

(1) The main argument against Russia is it blew up the dam to disrupt Ukraine’s pre-announced counter-offensive and gain military advantage. That argument is easily dismissed.

The dam’s destruction flooded both sides of the Dnieper. Ukraine’s forces were stationed far in the rear, out of range of Russian artillery. In contrast, Russian forces were dug in on the east bank in anticipation of Ukraine’s offensive. The Guardian recently reported: “The explosion – which Kyiv and Western governments say Moscow carried out – washed away Russian frontline positions….. The hydroelectric dam explosion has made crossing the river easier after water levels receded leaving behind a sandy plain.” Indeed, Ukraine has now established a small bridgehead on the east bank of the river, near the destroyed Antonivskyi bridge.

Russia was undoubtedly aware that flooding would be militarily counter productive. Thus, The Moscow Times (which is highly critical of President Putin) reported back in November 2022 that: “(T)errain levels mean the flooding would likely be worse on the Russian-held left bank of the Dnipro, making a detonation of the explosives on the dam an unlikely move for Moscow. ‘[Destroying the dam] would mean Russia essentially blowing off its own foot’ military analyst Michael Kofman said on the War on the Rocks podcast last month. ‘(I)t would flood the Russian-controlled part of Kherson [region]… much more than the western part Ukrainians are likely to liberate’.”

Russia-Ukraine War: Another Act of Terror Met by Western Media Silence

(2) Another reason why Russia would not destroy the dam (and Ukraine would) is Crimea’s water supply. The Kakhovka resevoir is a major source of water supply to the parched Crimea peninsula via the North Crimea canal. Ukraine cut off that supply in 2014. On capturing the Kakhovka dam in early 2022, Russia immediately restored supply, showing its high priority. Russia destroying the dam would be a self-inflicted wound. Ukraine destroying it would fit with Ukrainian aspirations to disrupt and recapture Crimea.

(3) Prior Ukrainian attacks on the dam show Ukraine’s willingness to destroy it. In November 2022, during its Kherson counter-offensive, Ukraine shelled and damaged the dam in an unsuccessful attempt to cut-off Russia’s retreat across road and rail lines on top of the dam. Moreover, President Zelinsky publicly warned that Russia had mined the dam’s generating room, so Ukraine was aware of that. In keeping with its practices, Ukraine denied those attacks — as if Russia were shelling its own troops, cutting-off its line of retreat, and risking flooding its positions in Kherson which were then on both sides of the river.

Even more damning, The Washington Post (December 29, 2022) reports Ukraine’s General Andriy Kovalchuk, commander of the southern front, acknowledged using high precision US-supplied HIMARS missiles to attack the dam in November 2022: “Kovalchuk considered flooding the river. The Ukrainians, he said, even conducted a test strike with a HIMARS launcher on one of the floodgates at the Nova Kakhovka dam, making three holes in the metal to see if the Dnieper’s water could be raised enough to stymie Russian crossings but not flood nearby villages. The test was a success, Kovalchuk said….”

(4) The silence of US and UK military intelligence suggests Ukraine did it. The US and UK are deeply involved in the war and committed to discrediting and indicting Russia. Yet, neither country’s intelligence services have released official pronouncements that Russia blew up the dam. The reason is if they made such pronouncements, they would have to provide evidence which they either do not have or (more likely) shows Ukraine did it. Silence can be revealing, as in the Sherlock Holmes story in which the decisive clue is the dog that did not bark.

(5) The timing of the destruction makes no sense from a Russian standpoint. Russia has held the dam since early 2022. It did not destroy it when Russian forces were retreating from Kharkiv in September 2022, and nor did it destroy the dam when Russian forces withdrew from western Kherson in November 2022. Now, the tide of war has turned in Russia’s favor as evidenced by the capture of Bakhmut and the failing Ukrainian counter-offensive; Ukraine’s calls for both additional and more advanced weaponry; and calls by by former NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen to put Polish troops in Ukraine. Those circumstances speak to why Ukraine had a military incentive to blow the dam now, and not Russia.

(6) Lastly, Kherson is a heavily ethnically Russian region which would discourage Russia from flooding it and encourage Ukraine to do so. Throughout the conflict, demographic considerations have been almost entirely neglected by Western media. The war has been fought in the Donbas and Kherson regions which are almost exclusively ethnically Russian. Concern for the safety of ethnic Russians is a high priority for Moscow, which explains why Russia has evacuated locales in advance of conflict. In contrast, Ukraine is controlled by Azov/Bandera forces which are committed to extinguishing the ethnic Russian presence. That was evident in the battle for Mariupol in which occupying Azov forces used the civilian population as a human shield. It is also evident in Ukraine’s on-going purge of Russian culture, prohibition of the Russian language, and banning of political rights for ethnic Russians. Given those attitudes, the destruction of ethnically Russian centers suits Ukraine and helps explain its psychological willingness to commit a crime of such proportions.

How was the dam destroyed?

The above evidence points to Ukraine’s culpability. However, there remains the question of how the dam was destroyed. Two possibilities suggest themselves.

The first possibility is Ukraine again targeted the Kokhovka dam gates with HIMARS missiles, as it had done in November 2022. This time the dam gave way owing to accumulated structural weakness from lack of maintenance and abnormal operating procedures. That explanation would account for both the explosion signatures that were seismographically detected and the infra-red heat signatures that were detected by US spy satellites. It is also consistent with the structural collapse argument made by the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), which is an anti-Putin organization that monitors Russia’s global military activity.

The second possibility is Ukraine fired HIMARS missiles at a detonator mechanism that was atop the dam. The dam was mined for miltary purposes, as would-be all bridges and crossings. Ukraine knew that and photos have surfaced showing a car packed with explosives and wired into the structure of the dam. That explanation would be consistent with an explosion from within the dam. It would also be consistent with the detected seismic and infra-red signatures, and the CIT explanation would also be relevant as the dam was vulnerable owing to inappropriate wear-and-tear.

Consequences

There are important consequences to Ukraine’s probable destruction of the Kakhovka dam and the West’s complicitous concealment thereof.

First, President Zelensky and Western leaders have accused Russia of ecocide and a war crime. If it is now shown that Ukraine is responsible, that makes Ukraine guilty of those crimes. If HIMARS missiles were used in the attack, that would make the US an accessory, at least in spirit. If British Sorm Shadow missiles were used, the UK would be an accessory. The extent of US or British personnel involvement is an unknown.

Second, the West’s concealment of Ukraine’s probable attack renders it complicit and carries dangerous consequences. Letting Ukraine get away with it promises to further embolden Ukrainian recklessness. There have long been fears Ukraine would attack the Zaporizhzia nuclear plant and claim Russia had done so. The Kakhovka dam attack can be viewed as a trial run, and President Zelensky has already begun stepping up the Zaporizhzia nuclear rhetoric.

An attack on Zaporizhzia would be a catastrophe for all Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and even Western Europe. Beyond that is the risk Russia interprets such an attack as akin to a dirty bomb and responds in kind. Complicity has its consequences.

Third, the West’s concealment of the probable Ukrainian Kakhovka dam attack resonates with other coverage regarding the war, and it threatens Western democracy. Mendacity about foreign affairs does not stay outside. Instead, it bleeds inward and affects the domestic body politic.

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The original source of this article is Thomas Palley

https://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-destroyed-kakhovka-dam-forensic-assessment/5825049

US Monopoly on Space Transport [Counter Information]

By Karsten Riise

Global Research, July 07, 2023

***

The Wall Street Journal confirms my previous analysis from 15 April 2023 (see below):

SpaceX has created a US monopoly on transport to Space. See this.

Nobody in the World can match the American SpaceX.

Neither in the US, the EU, Russia, China, or India.

SpaceX’ costs to Space are so low that nobody can compete
SpaceX’ flexibility, regularity, and safety are unprecedented.

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, United Launch Alliance, and NASA’s SLS rocket are made ridiculous by SpaceX.

Leading Provider of Financial Research Says US Is Headed for Third World Status

The Falcon Heavy rocket costs $ 100 million to launch – and can bring 20-50 tons to low-earth-orbit.

Falcon Heavy’s closest competitor is the Delta IV Heavy from United Launch Alliance (ULA – Lockheed Martin and Boeing).

The Delta IV rocket costs $400-600 million to launch – and can bring 28 tons to low-earth-orbit.

Falcon Heavy saves $300-500 million per launch.

The key is to minimize the price in dollars per kg to orbit.

The comparison gives this:

A 10 kg satellite can get into orbit for $10,000 – 50,000 dollars!

We see that the Falcon Heavy gives a cost-reduction of between 60 % and 90%.

SpaceX will reduce launch costs far more from 2024 onwards with its fully reusable Starship, which aims to send 100 tons to orbit for as little as $1 million per launch. That is only $10 per kg.

China will mimic the Falcon Heavy within probably 5 years – that’s a lot of time. But China has no serious program even within 15 years for anything similar to SpaceX’ next vehicle, the Starship which will go commercial in 2024.

Russia has neither.

The US is has already created Space Dominance with SpaceX.

Technically, Russia, China, India, and the EU they can still send stuff to Space – but only at slow pace – and they spend far more money getting it up than building it.

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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: US Space Domination – Karsten Riise and Brian Mcgowan, Unsplash CC0

The original source of this article is Global Research

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-monopoly-space-transport/5825015

Srebrenica: New Disclosures Further Undermine Weaponized “Responsibility to Protect” Narrative [Counter Information]

By Stephen Karganovic

Global Research, July 07, 2023

***

This year, the annual July 11 Srebrenica remembrance ceremonies will be more subdued than usual. There are good reasons for that. The “Ukraine fatigue” which is spreading to many countries has now been augmented by Srebrenica fatigue. Both phenomena are a natural reaction to cynical deceit, in particular when the lies had been camouflaged with lofty ideals and high-sounding phrases. Once the truth becomes known, the game is up and then woe to the deceivers.

In the genealogy of major political hoaxes, Srebrenica slightly over a quarter of a century ago was a remote precursor to Bucha. But unlike Bucha, a fraudulent massacre that fairly quickly was deconstructed, Srebrenica long remained for the collective West a propaganda gift that keeps on giving.

Few people are aware of one of Srebrenica’s major benefits, if that is the appropriate word. It is the nefarious doctrine of R2P, or “responsibility to protect.” NATO and subversive Western agencies have ruthlessly invoked it on numerous occasions to destroy disobedient countries and wreck their societies under the mendacious guise of preventing genocide.

Srebrenica is the root of it all. A narrative was soon shaped and weaponised after whatever happened in Srebrenica in July of 1995 about the failure of the “good guys” (the West) to act decisively and on time to prevent the “bad guys” (the Serbs) from committing genocide (wantonly murdering the memeified “8000 men and boys”). It was touted as an object lesson and future policy directive. The alleged failure to protect the “8000 Srebrenica men and boys” subsequently morphed into a moral obligation to go on a world-wide humanitarian intervention rampage. It imposed on the “good guys” the duty to act whenever they judged that a similar genocidal event was about to occur. As they bombed away, they could use their military might for plunder and geopolitical advantage while self-righteously crying “never again.”

Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, and Syria are some examples of how that alleged lesson was successfully absorbed and given practical effect in the form of unprovoked and illegal assaults on sovereign countries (in the case of Kosovo it was Yugoslavia). Whether the real goal of these interventions was to rescue populations allegedly threatened by genocide, or to take control of insubordinate states and plunder their natural resources might be debatable. But that was the official cover story, anyway.

As it turns out, the human cost of R2P genocide prevention activities ultimately originating with Srebrenica has been appalling. In Iraq alone authoritative estimates put it at around one million (and it was all “worth it,” in Madeleine Albright’s famous phrase), in Syria perhaps half as much, in Libya many thousands coupled with complete societal and governmental collapse, not to mention the reinstitution in some parts of the disintegrated country of slavery as an extra bonus.

In Kosovo, currently occupied by NATO troops and pretending to be “independent,” following ferocious bombing raids in 1999, including the generous use of depleted uranium munitions (a replay of that is now in the works in the similarly rescued Ukraine) mortality from cancer is massive and without precedent compared to the situation which preceded NATO bombing. Hideously deformed human babies and animals are being given birth in large numbers. Last but not least, it is ironic that, like the “8000 Srebrenica men and boys” whose memory these NATO humanitarian wars have been conducted to enshrine, the overwhelming majority of victims in Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere obviously are also Muslims.

Srebrenica: A Genocide Narrative that Is Running Out of Steam

Like the sleazy humanitarian rationale for the collective West’s plunderous R2P wars, the original 8000 Srebrenica victim figure is utterly fraudulent. As George Pumphrey has conclusively shown it was not based on an actual body count but on a deceptive amalgamation of two separate missing persons’ figures being circulated in mid-July 1995 in the chaos following the enclave’s fall to Serbian forces. Subsequently assembled evidence lends no support whatsoever to that mathematical improvisation.

Between 1996 and 2001 forensic teams hired by the Office of the Prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal conducted exhumations of mass graves suspected to contain victims of Srebrenica executions. A careful analysis of the 3568 autopsy reports that the exhumations generated yielded findings incompatible with the initial assumptions. Contrary to the expectation that they would be more or less uniform, if the victims had been executed in a similar manner, the patterns of injury were very heterogeneous.

Even more importantly, it was found that a statistically significant number of the victims did not succumb to bullets, as would be expected in executions, but to injuries caused by mines, artillery projectiles and high velocity munitions causing burst out wounds. Such injuries are compatible with combat but atypical of executions. It was also determined that cause and manner of death as recorded in the autopsy reports could support an execution scenario at most for about 800 to 900 of the cases. As it happens, that roughly corresponds to the number of civilians in Serb villages surrounding Srebrenica who were killed by Bosniak military formations in raids conducted from inside the enclave over the three years preceding its fall. Finally, when the Srebrenica victims’ paired femur bones were counted in order to fix with relative precision the number of exhumed individuals, it turned out that the mass graves contained about 1920 persons who died of diverse causes, only one of which was execution. That was far short of the target figure of 8000.

That probably explains why in 2001 abruptly and without any cogent reason forensic exhumations were terminated. Exhumations were thenceforth replaced by DNA matching, a method far more susceptible to fudging, and predictably it did produce the desired number of about 8000 Srebrenica victims.

The autopsy reports and the interpretation of their results have been published and are within easy reach of anyone who might be interested. They are available but ignored. In murder cases, such forensic proof directly from the crime scene is regarded as prime evidence. Nonetheless, the Prosecution of the Hague Tribunal never submitted Srebrenica autopsy reports, with their inconvenient implications, into the evidence. But fortunately they are available to independent forensic experts and scholars.

Besides the unfavourable forensic evidence, the other game-changing data which emerged in the aftermath of Srebrenica are contemporaneous statements by survivors from the enclave who managed to reach territory controlled by Sarajevo authorities after an armed breakout through Serb held territory. Upon their safe arrival in Tuzla in the second half of July 1995 the survivors were debriefed by the Red Cross, UN field personnel and representatives of the Sarajevo authorities, while impressions were still fresh in their minds. Their statements show that around July 11 1995 twelve to fifteen thousand Srebrenica males set out on a 60 kilometre trek out of the enclave once it became clear that it would fall to Serbian forces, that the column was mixed consisting of armed military personnel and civilians, and that in the ensuing fierce combat with Serbian forces the column sustained horrendous casualties. Since the column was mixed and contained armed elements which did engage in combat, from the standpoint of the laws and customs of war all the resulting casualties were legitimate.

That is the reason why Serbian officers and soldiers who fired at the column and caused death in its ranks were never charged by the Hague Tribunal. The column’s enormous combat death toll also explains casualties caused by munitions other than bullets, such as mines and artillery projectiles, of which ample evidence was found in the side-lined autopsy reports.

A sufficient quantity of these survivor witness statements also are easily accessible, but like the autopsy reports were not made readily available to the general public, nor were they ever presented in court. Evidence that in July of 1995 most Srebrenica related deaths were combat and not execution related would have undermined gravely the coherence of the official Srebrenica narrative. It was therefore judged, perhaps rightly, that this evidence as well should discretely be kept out of the public arena.

And in March of this year a new detail emerged from the seemingly endless catalogue of Srebrenica prevarications. Former ICTY prosecutor Geoffrey Nice, who had been in charge of several Srebrenica cases and gained most of his fame from prosecuting Milošević, revealed to a Bosnian television journalist that State Department documents he has reviewed show that on 28 May 1995 the decision was taken by the US, Great Britain, and France, and presumably communicated to the Serbs, that in the event of a Serbian attack on Srebrenica those powers would not respond with military means.

In light of the humanitarian “never again“ make believe by those very countries, this is extremely compromising information. Does the position taken by leading countries in the Western coalition and telegraphed to the Serbs six weeks before they began considering an attack on Srebrenica recall anything? Yes, it recalls a similar subterfuge once played successfully on Saddam Hussein, assuring him that Western powers had no stance should he decide to invade Kuwait. The situation described by Nice is strikingly analogical. In both cases, simulated expressions of restraint served to entrap their target. It would be a most logical interpretation that a virtual invitation was being sent out to the Serbs to take over Srebrenica and then hopefully proceed to take massive revenge for the killing of their own civilians over the preceding three years.

For the most part the Serbs did not take the bait, but some rogue elements within their ranks ultimately did act according to plan. The execution of several hundred prisoners, propagandistically inflated ten-fold, laid the groundwork for the Dayton peace agreement later that year, enabling a seemingly permanent Western protectorate over strategically important Bosnia and Herzegovina. It also provided propaganda cover for „Operation Storm“ the following month, the Western backed and assisted Croat attack on the Serb held Krajina region. That resulted in the expulsion of a quarter million Serbs from their ancestral homeland but this egregious act of ethnic cleansing was conveniently overshadowed by Srebrenica. US ambassador in Zagreb Peter Galbright had a point when later he declared that „without Srebrenica, there would have been no Operation Storm.“

Nor could there have been the handy „humanitarian“ R2P rationale for Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, or Libya or the destruction and mayhem that were unleashed there under the duplicitous slogan „never again Srebrenica“.

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Stephen Karganovic is president of “Srebrenica Historical Project,” an NGO registered in the Netherlands to investigate the factual matrix and background of events that took place in Srebrenica in July of 1995. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Gravestones at the Potočari genocide memorial near Srebrenica (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The original source of this article is Global Research

https://www.globalresearch.ca/srebrenica-new-disclosures-further-undermine-bogus-genocide-narrative/5824957

Was Smallpox Weaponized Against First Nations? [Counter Information]

Review of Tom Swanky’s “The Smallpox War against the Haida”

By Kim Petersen

Global Research, July 07, 2023

***

“[S]ettlers in thrall to colonial ideology saw every unfenced meadow as waste land free for the taking, especially the most fertile land supporting native self-sufficiency.” — Tom Swanky, The Smallpox War against the Haida (p 67).

July 1, was recently celebrated in “Canada” as Canada Day by “Canadians.” The Dominion of Canada was formed by the joining of three British North American colonies in 1867. It would serve as an Anglo bulwark against the French presence, and a bulwark against the American presence to the south. Over subsequent years, settler-colonialists spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Arctic coasts in what was deemed Canada. When the first European natives, the Norsemen, appeared in 1000 CE, Indigenous peoples had already inhabited the land for millennia, or as they often phrase it, since time immemorial. [1]

The Original Peoples in Canada were dispossessed, largely decultured, proselytized, assimilated, disappeared. The founding peoples of Canada, as depicted on Canada’s colonialist coat-of-arms, are the English and French. Not the Indigenous peoples. The official languages of Canada are English and French. Indigenous languages are not recognized federally as official; moreover, linguicide of Indigenous languages was an outcome of the Residential School programs. This all amounts, unquestioningly, to cultural genocide.

But the genocide is more than just the annihilation of a group’s culture and language.

In The Smallpox War Against the Haida, author Tom Swanky (with contributions from Shawn Swanky) amplifies the oral history of the knowledge keepers among The Peoples that hold the administration of James Douglas, first governor of “British Columbia” (1858–1864) and second governor of “Vancouver Island” (1851–1864) culpable for a genocide via the spreading of the smallpox virus in 1862-63. The Original Peoples would suffer a horrific number of fatalities and would be rendered unable to withstand seizure of their land nor the implementation of colonial government and the meting out of colonial law.

Swanky humbly presents himself as conduit for the history of the knowledge keepers. He writes,

“My only contribution is a search of the documentary record for evidence that may reflect on the native narrative, one way or another. I am not writing history. I am reporting how knowledge keepers tell of the history of BC’s founding and considering to what extent that teaching is justified.”

Why mention this? Because while discussing the smallpox genocide with a learned gentleman, he asked who the source of the information was. I replied, Tom Swanky. I was informed that some academics consider Swanky’s thesis as disputed. This was nothing new, and it is to be expected that there would be a pushback. [2] However, while the book’s authorship is by Tom Swanky, the narrative is the oral history of the Original Peoples. The oral history of First Nations was recognized in 1997 as admissible in court by Delgamuukw v British Columbia. However, Alexandra Potamianos, while a third-year JD student at Osgoode Hall Law School concluded that the Supreme Court of Canada’s Mitchell v Minister of National Revenue (2001) “has made it more difficult for Indigenous claimants to use oral history to counter dominant understandings of Indigenous presence and relationships to land.” [3]

Granting further credence to Swanky was his reporting of the Tsilhqot’in’s oral history about a grievous wrong in which chiefs were abducted by provincial officials in violation of the sacred peace pipe ceremony. Six chiefs were subsequently hanged in Quesnel, BC. This is detailed in his book The Great Darkening: The True Story of Canada’s “War” of Extermination on the Pacific plus The Tsilhqot’in and other First Nations Resistance (2012). [4] In 2014, then BC premier Christy Clark stated, “[We] confirm without reservation that these six Tsilhqot’in chiefs are fully exonerated for any crime or wrongdoing.”

Nonetheless, while the source of information is somewhat pertinent, what is unequivocally primary is the factuality of the information and the evidence and logic brought to bear on that information. Swanky listened to the oral history, assessed it and the historical record for verisimilitude, and applied logic to make sense of a narrative. Swanky, who holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree (among other academic credentials) connects the dots and builds a compelling case.

The Opening Scene of the Crime

It was common during that time period for First Nation peoples, the Tlingit, Haida, Ts’msyen (Tsimshian), Nuxalk, Tahltan, Heiltsuk, and others, to canoe down the water highway from the north to Fort Victoria and set up camps.

Fort Victoria was established by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1843 as a trading post at the location the Lekwungen People called Camosack meaning “rush of water.” It is not always easy to nail down the proper Indigenous designation as another moniker has it that the Lekwungen people called it Kuo-Sing-el-as, which means “place of strong fibre,” specifically the Pacific Willow. The WSÁNEĆ, Coast Salish neighbors of the Lekwungen, called Victoria METULIYE. The Haida called it Micdolly. (p ix)

The colonialist designation eponymous for an imperialist queen still persists, but probably one day moral sentiment and a semblance of honest intent toward reconciliation will result in a re-designation of the city that would honor First Nations.

The Genocidaires

Swanky has named the perpetrators of the genocide, many of who have their names applied to various geographic or manmade structures. James Douglas, who allegedly used his position of governor to plan the smallpox epidemic, had his name applied to a mountain (actually a tall hill, since renamed by the WSÁNEĆ as PKOLS while the park around the “mountain” still honors an alleged genocidaire), schools, main street, etc. Francis Poole, a bizarre prevaricator, played a major role in his peregrinations throughout the province, often connected to where smallpox outbreaks had occurred. In Haida Gwaii, his name was elided and replaced by Haida designations. Racist MLA Robert Burnaby is a capitalist whose name was bestowed on a city in the centre of Metro Vancouver, a mountain, a lake, etc. The same applies to other questionable characters in the smallpox war such as Alfred Waddington who was behind the ill-fated Waddington’s Road at Bute Inlet, MLA dr John Helmcken, AG George Cary, HBC insider Ranald McDonald, colonel Richard Moody, and others.

Indigenous characters are portrayed as well: Haida hyas tyee (roughly translates as “chief”) captain John, hyas tyee Gitkun, hyas tyee Albert Edenshaw, great Haida hyas tyee Geesh, Ts’msyen diarist Arthur Wellington Clah, etc.

Solving the “Indian Question”

Pre-1862-63, the settler-colonialists were vastly outnumbered by the Indigenous peoples and presented Douglas with the quandary of how to solve the “Indian Question.” Douglas was fervently against launching costly Indian wars. As a last resort, Douglas decided upon inflicting “cruelty and injustice” on the Indigenous peoples in the case that their suffering “could be given less regard than the ‘evils’ colonists associated with autonomous communities operating freely in colonizing zones…” (p 123-124) About this Douglas had no compunction since “natives who would not compromise their sovereign dignity should expect collective punishments. Otherwise in Douglas’ words, “the country will become intolerable as a residence for white-settlers.” (p 128)

“Cruelty and injustice” included starvation, ethnic cleansing (clearing The Peoples out of Victoria), and genocide via smallpox.

Smallpox-afflicted persons traveled by ship from San Francisco. Dubious inoculations were given to some of The Peoples. Dubious because, as Swanky relates, multiple eye-witness reported, and the timing of numerous outbreaks tends to corroborate, that Indigenes who were told that they were being vaccinated with harmless cowpox where instead inoculated with smallpox and, in that way, instead of contributing to controlling the disease, they were made into conduits for spreading the disease. Understanding inoculation as a tool of spreading the disease under the guise of vaccination is critical to understanding the “intent” required to prove genocide. The British Parliament’s Vaccination Act of 1840 had outlawed inoculation precisely because of the ease with which the procedure produced epidemics. (p 139)

Quarantining is also a tool for controlling the spread of contagions. The Songhees (a Lekwungen people) would ride out smallpox on a nearby island. Tellingly, the Douglas administration would violate British law by forcibly expelling the Northerners, forcing sick and healthy Indigenes into close contact and then putting them on the move to carry the disease up the coast and into their home territories. The administration implied that decreasing the risk of infection for Victoria’s resident colonists — most of whom had been vaccinated — justified actions that were certain to increase the First Nation death toll.

Swanky, furthermore, furnishes evidence showing that the pliable Poole, who was employed and coached throughout by MLA Robert Burnaby, set out and created his own “trail of blood” (chapters 10-13), thereby magnifying the smallpox epidemic.

Why Resort to Biological Warfare?

The settler-colonialists wanted the land. Land is regarded with deep reverence by most First Nations. [5] For colonialists, land is money, and private property is a key cornerstone of capitalism. If a people are disappeared, then the empty land is for the taking. Smallpox was a means to weakening the ability of the First Nations to resist dispossession.

Swanky had as his starting point the oral history of The Peoples. Swanky found that the oral history is supported by the written record. That history, according to knowledge keepers as reported by Swanky, reveals that, starting in 1862, the colonialist administration of James Douglas engaged in biological warfare by spreading smallpox throughout First Nation territories. That measures such as inoculations/vaccinations and quarantines were obviated or ineffective suggests the criminality of the colonial administrations.

Thus today, the once numerous Indigenous peoples constitute 5.9% (2016 census) of the BC population. Where smallpox has not ended the existence of First Nations sovereignty in their unceded territories, colonial governments still resort to militarized RCMP and colonial courts to maintain colonial law. And when it suits the authorities, colonial court decisions anathema to politicians and corporations will be ignored. Thus today, the Wet’suwet’en are resisting an assault on their unsurrendered territory which is being scarred for a pipeline.

When the Indigenous peoples and the land they exist on is disregarded and hence disrespected, then reconciliation is diminished to a mere buzzword. It feels good to talk about it, but where is the action to back up the rhetoric?

That is why Swanky’s The Smallpox War Against the Haida is important. It is an extraordinary historically based opus resulting from detective work that combs the historical record, names the criminals, and points out legal redress to the grave crimes committed against the Haida by settler-colonialists.

If the admonition against forgetting history is a precautionary wisdom, then The Smallpox War Against the Haida ought to be promulgated in media; be taught in educational institutions, including in public schools; and should set in motion appropriate steps at atonement, beginning with a sincere apology. Indirectly, the book also provides a template for some steps for settler-colonialist society to achieve genuine reconciliation with The Peoples who were appallingly wronged, such as:

listening to the Original Peoples,
taking into account the evidence supporting the oral history,
listening to one’s conscience and what one’s sense of morality dictates,
publicly exposing history’s dissemblers and their disinformation and recasting the information and the dissemblers in an honest light,
educating people about the racism/supremacism that underlies the crimes of colonization,
recognizing the sovereignty of Original Peoples on their unceded territory,
recognizing the inherent humanity of all human beings, and
living according to the golden rule. [6]

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Kim Petersen is an independent writer. He can be emailed at: kimohp at gmail.com. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Notes

See, e.g., Arthur J. Ray, I Have Lived Here Since the World Began: An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People, 1998.
There is a colonialist mindset that what has been achieved by the dispossession and depopulation of the Original Peoples is history and as such a fait accompli, and many such people will not be deterred from a stubborn mindset despite their education, sense of morality, and what critical thinking would postulate. For an example of a seemingly inflexible colonialist mentality see Melvin Smith, Our Home or Native Land? 1995.
“The Challenges of Indigenous Oral History Since Mitchell v Minister of National Revenue,” Appeal, 26, 2021, p 22.
Review of The Great Darkening.
See, e.g., Joe Sacco, Paying the Land, 2020. The comic-styled non-fiction relates the inextricable relationships to the land for the Dene. Anthony J. Hall, Earth into Property: Colonization, Decolonization, and Capitalism, 2010.
Despairingly, as reported on 23 January 2023, of the 94 Calls to Action the Truth and Reconciliation Commission put forward, only 13 have been completed in seven years.

Canada: Why Aren’t Conditions of Life for First Nations a National Emergency?

The original source of this article is Global Research

https://www.globalresearch.ca/was-smallpox-weaponized-against-first-nations/5824951

US to decide whether to send banned cluster munitions to Ukraine: Media [Counter Information]

Bands broken, dozens of 155mm Base Burn Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions rounds wait to be loaded into self-propelled howitzers and artillery support vehicles, on September 20, 2016 at Camp Hovey in South Korea. (Photo by US Army)

Despite a global ban on the use of cluster munitions, the United States may decide later this week to send such controversial munitions to Ukraine, a media report says.

Washington could come to a decision as soon as this week on whether to give the green light to the delivery of internationally-banned cluster munitions to Ukraine, CBS News, citing unnamed US officials, reported on Wednesday.

Cluster bombs are banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), an international treaty that addresses the humanitarian consequences and unacceptable harm caused to civilians by cluster munitions through a categorical prohibition and a framework for action.

The weapons can contain dozens of smaller bomblets, dispersing over vast areas, often killing and maiming civilians. The CCMs are banned because unexploded bomblets can pose a risk to civilians for years after the fighting is over.

Cluster munitions generally eject submunitions that can cover five times as much area as conventional bombs.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which took effect in 2010, bans all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs. More than 100 countries have signed the treaty, but the US, Russia and Ukraine have not.

According to the report, the US is under pressure from Ukraine, which has for months requesting cluster mentions, to address the ex-Soviet republic’s high demand for ammunition in the counter-offensive against Russian forces, which is progressing more slowly than expected.

“US law requires a presidential waiver to export cluster munitions if more than 1% of the bomblets they contain typically fail to explode, known as the ‘dud rate.’ The dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, or DPICM, that the US is considering sending have a dud rate of just over 1%, which may be negligible enough to convince allies that the rewards of providing DPICMs outweigh the risk of unexploded bomblets,” the report said.

Pentagon believes banned cluster munitions would be useful for Ukraine

Despite a global ban on the use of cluster munitions, the US military believes they would help Ukraine push back against Russian forces.

According to a report by the Foreign Policy Magazine on June 26, DPICMs can be fired by the 155mm artillery systems that Washington has already provided to Kiev and could be very effective at clearing Russian defense lines.

The same report said at the time that a bipartisan group of US lawmakers is calling on President Joe Biden to provide Ukraine with DPICMs.

Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, US media have regularly reported on the weapons shipments sent by the US to boost Kiev’s fighting forces, with other NATO members delivering tens of billions in military aid, as well.

By January, the US and its allies had provided Ukraine with over 100 million rounds of small arms ammunition, over a million rounds of artillery shells, and more than 100,000 tank rounds.

Russia sees the flooding of Ukraine with weapons from the West as a futile effort to change the outcome of the war. Moscow says supplying Kiev with more weapons will only add to the death and destruction and prolong the conflict.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/07/06/706557/US-Ukraine-Russia-cluster-munitions-DPICM

Stoltenberg: For Turkey to accept Sweden’s NATO accession issues need to be resolved [Counter Information]

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. (Photo via Euronews)

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said there are “gaps” between Turkey and Sweden that need to be bridged in order to gain Ankara’s approval for Stockholm’s’ accession to the military alliance.

Speaking on Friday at a news conference ahead of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s next week summit in Lithuania’s capital city Vilnius, Stoltenberg said he would meet with Swedish and Turkish leaders on Monday to make another attempt to resolve the issue of Sweden’s NATO accession.

He also said that when NATO leaders meet on Tuesday in Vilnius member states will once more discuss ways to expedite Ukraine’s NATO accession.

UK backs Ukraine’s fast-track accession to NATO but US and Germany concerned over early membership

The UK backs giving Ukraine a pathway to NATO membership amid division among member states.

In the meantime, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he is “concerned for the future of the alliance”.

Erdogan insisted that a country where terrorists roam freely in its streets was untrustworthy, referring to Stockholm’s perceived lax attitude to PKK militants living in the Nordic country.

He refused calls from NATO allies to quickly ratify Sweden’s membership in the military alliance, saying, “Those who advise us should answer the following questions frankly: How can Turkey trust a country where terrorists roam its streets?” Erdogan told military officers at a ceremony in Istanbul without elaborating.

“How can a state that does not distance itself from terrorist organizations contribute to NATO? How can those who do not fight terrorism fight the enemies of the alliance?” he asked.

“We expect the promises made to our country in Madrid to be fulfilled,” Erdogan said, adding that Turkey was supporting NATO’s expansion and has approved Finland’s membership.

“We will bring all these issues to the attention of our alliance partners again at the leaders’ summit in Vilnius on Tuesday.”

Kissinger: NATO’s ‘grave mistake’ caused Ukraine war

Henry Kissinger has said the NATO membership offer to Ukraine was a “grave mistake” that led to the war of the combined West against Russia.

Turkey wants Sweden to extradite or expel alleged supporters of the Kurdish militant group PKK, which is labeled a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union, as well as of affiliated Kurdish YPG forces in Syria and followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Erdogan alleges Gulen masterminded a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.

“Those who say, ‘Let’s show solidarity under the roof of NATO,’ cannot have any reasonable justification for embracing the murderers who attempted a coup in Turkey and killed thousands of our people over the past 40 years,” Erdogan said referring to the 2016 coup attempt and the PKK militants’ ongoing terrorists attacks since 1984.

Erdogan has also said that his country cannot ratify Sweden’s NATO application before the Qur’an burning is stopped, referring to last week’s public burning of a copy of the holy book in Sweden.

In the meantime, Sweden has lifted a ban on arms sales to Turkey and amended its anti-terrorism laws as part of a deal clinched last year to break the impasse. In Sweden’s view, the new legal measures satisfy its last remaining obligation under an agreement signed at NATO’s Madrid summit to pave the way for ratification.

In regard to the Qur’an burning by the Iraqi immigrant, Sweden’s minister of justice said on Thursday that the government is analyzing the situation and whether its laws in regard to Qur’an burning need to be changed to allow the police to deny such requests.

Sweden cannot join NATO while inciting Islamophobia, Erdogan hints

Turkish president slams the latest desecration of the holy Quran in Sweden, hinting that Stockholm cannot join NATO while inciting Islamophobia and terrorism.

“We have to ask ourselves whether the current order is good or whether there is reason to reconsider it,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told Aftonbladet paper.

In related news, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called on Erdogan to ratify Sweden’s NATO accession.

Sunak said that he hoped NATO could proceed with ratifying Sweden’s accession to the alliance as soon as possible, pointing out the “significant benefits” of the country’s membership.

In a phone call with Erdogan, the Prime Minister “underlined the significant benefits of Sweden joining NATO and the progress they have made in addressing Turkey’s legitimate security concerns and hoped the alliance could proceed with ratifying their accession as soon as possible,” Sunak’s spokesperson said on Friday.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/07/07/706644/NATO-Stoltenberg-Turkey-Sweden-accession

Republicans Prepare To Steal Trump’s Nomination With Last-Minute Rule Changes And Endorsements [CDM - Human Reporters • Not Machines]

Please Follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Gab TV, GETTR, Truth Social, Twitter

Laura Loomer breaks serious deficiencies on nefarious GOP activities.

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The post Republicans Prepare To Steal Trump’s Nomination With Last-Minute Rule Changes And Endorsements appeared first on CDM - Human Reporters • Not Machines.

The Walk – EP 24 – Disused Railway Walk – The Railways Of Kirkby in Ashfield – Nottinghamshire [David Icke]

AWS CloudFormation Explained [DEV Community]

What Is AWS CloudFormation?

AWS CloudFormation is an Amazon service that allows developers to manage and provision AWS resources predictably and consistently. In a nutshell, it's a tool that lets you define AWS infrastructure as code, and deploy it from code files.

The core component of AWS CloudFormation is a template file written in JSON or YAML format. This template describes the resources you need, their dependencies, and the necessary permissions. When you deploy this template, AWS CloudFormation takes care of creating and configuring the resources for you. This eliminates the need to manually create and configure resources, and it gives you a repeatable way to deploy infrastructure.

But CloudFormation goes beyond just initial setup. It can also manage the entire lifecycle of your resources including updates, tweaks, and even clean-up when resources are no longer needed. This makes it a vital part of DevOps workflows, enabling teams to implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices, and thus improving the predictability, efficiency, and scalability of deployments.

Benefits of CloudFormation

These are the main advantages of defining infrastructure as code using CloudFormation

1. Repeatable and Consistent Deployments: With CloudFormation, you can use templates to define your resources, and then reuse these templates to create identical copies of your infrastructure. This can be incredibly useful for deploying test environments or setting up new regions.

2. Simplified Management: AWS CloudFormation consolidates the management of your AWS resources into a single platform. This means you can create, update, and delete a collection of resources as a single unit, which we call a stack.

3. DevOps Friendly: With its support for Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CloudFormation allows you to manage and provision your AWS resources using code. This makes it easy to integrate with CI/CD pipelines and source control systems, thus streamlining your DevOps practices.

4. Safety Controls: CloudFormation provides detailed controls over your resources. With features like rollback on failure and change sets, you can minimize risks during deployment.

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AWS CloudFormation Basic Concepts

In order to effectively use AWS CloudFormation, there are several key concepts to understand:

Template

At the heart of AWS CloudFormation is the concept of a template. A template is a JSON or YAML formatted text file which serves as a blueprint for your AWS infrastructure. It defines the AWS resources you want to create and configure.

Templates are declarative, which means you only need to describe your desired state of resources, and AWS CloudFormation takes care of how to achieve that state. A template can be used repeatedly to create identical copies of the same stack (or to replicate the infrastructure with different settings).

Stacks

In AWS CloudFormation, a stack is the basic unit of management and deployment. It represents a collection of AWS resources that you can manage as a single unit. All resources in a stack are defined by the stack's AWS CloudFormation template.

You can create, update, or delete a collection of resources by creating, updating, or deleting stacks. All the resources in a stack are treated as a single unit, so operations and updates are atomic and consistent.

Formatting

As mentioned earlier, AWS CloudFormation templates can be written in either JSON or YAML, both of which are easily readable by humans and machines. While the choice between JSON or YAML mostly comes down to personal preference, YAML tends to be more compact and easier to read, which might be beneficial for larger templates.

Parameters

Parameters are a way to customize your AWS CloudFormation stacks. They allow you to pass custom values to your template at runtime, without the need to modify the template itself.

For instance, you might have a template that sets up an Amazon EC2 instance, and you want to use different instance types (like t3.micro, t3.small, etc.) depending on your needs. You can set up an instance type parameter in your template, and specify the desired instance type when you create or update the stack.

Conditions

Conditions in AWS CloudFormation templates enable you to control the creation of resources or the setting of properties based on different conditions. For example, you might want to create certain resources only in specific AWS regions, or configure properties differently based on the input parameters.

Change sets

Change sets are an important concept that helps you update your AWS CloudFormation stacks safely. Before making any changes to your stack, you can generate a change set, which is a summary of the proposed changes. This lets you see how changes might impact your resources or configuration before implementing them, allowing you to avoid potential disruptions or errors.

Functions

AWS CloudFormation provides a set of intrinsic functions that you can use within your templates to assign values to properties that are not available until runtime. These functions include capabilities such as retrieving the value of an AWS::StackName, working with strings, or including other files. They can help create more dynamic and flexible templates.

Anatomy of a CloudFormation Template

An AWS CloudFormation template is a formatted text file in JSON or YAML, which provides a user-friendly, human-readable format for specifying your infrastructure components. Here, we'll analyze the key sections found within a typical CloudFormation template:

AWS Template Format Version

This optional field defines the AWS CloudFormation template version that the template conforms to. It helps you ensure that the template is compatible with the correct AWS CloudFormation syntax.

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "version date"

Description

A text string that describes the template. This field can help you and others understand the purpose and function of your template.

Description: String

Metadata

The optional Metadata section includes details about the template itself, such as the template file format version. It can also define some AWS-specific functionalities.

Metadata:
  Instances:
    Description: "Information about the instances"

Parameters

As described in the previous section, the Parameters section defines values that can be passed to your template at runtime. Parameters make your templates flexible and customizable.

Parameters:
  InstanceType:
    Description: "WebServer instance type"
    Type: "String"

Mappings

The Mappings section lets you map keys to corresponding named values that you can use in your template. Mappings can be used to determine values based on the region in which the stack is run, the instance type, or any other value.

Mappings:
  RegionMap:
    us-east-1:
      "32": "ami-6411e20d"

Conditions

Conditions define whether certain resources are created or whether certain resource properties are assigned a value during stack creation or update. For example, you could compare whether a value is equal to another value.

Conditions:
  CreateProdResources: !Equals [!Ref EnvironmentType, prod]

Resources

The Resources section is the only required section. It declares the AWS resources that you want to include in the stack, such as an Amazon EC2 instance or an Amazon S3 bucket.

Resources:
  MyEC2Instance:
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Instance"

Outputs

The Outputs section declares output values that you can import into other stacks or that you can easily check by using the AWS CloudFormation console, AWS CLI, or APIs.

Outputs:
  WebsiteURL:
    Value: !GetAtt [ WebServerInstance, PublicDnsName ]

How to Create a CloudFormation Template

Creating a CloudFormation template involves the following steps:

Identify the AWS resources needed: To begin, you need to identify all the AWS resources that are needed for your project. This could be EC2 instances, S3 buckets, IAM Roles, or any other AWS service.
Start with a blank file: You can create a new blank file using any text editor of your choice. This file can be in either YAML or JSON format.
Write your template: AWS CloudFormation templates can have all of the sections we saw earlier, but the only required section is "Resources". This is where you define what AWS resources you want to create and configure.

A basic CloudFormation template in YAML format looks like this:
```
Resources:
    MyS3Bucket:
        Type: 'AWS::S3::Bucket'
```
Validate your template: It's always a good idea to validate your CloudFormation template to catch any syntax errors. You can use the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDKs to validate your template.

To validate the template using AWS CLI:
```
aws cloudformation validate-template --template-body file://template.json
```

How to Deploy a CloudFormation Template

Deploying a CloudFormation template involves the following steps:

Log into AWS Console: Go to the AWS Management Console and enter your credentials to log in.
Open the CloudFormation service: On the AWS Management Console, type 'CloudFormation' into the service search bar and then choose 'CloudFormation' to open the service console.
Create a stack: In the CloudFormation console, choose 'Create stack', and then choose 'With new resources (standard)'.
Specify the template: Choose 'Template is ready'. In the 'Template source' section, choose 'Upload a template file'. Choose 'Choose file', and then select your CloudFormation template.
Specify stack details: For 'Stack name', use a unique name. Specify additional parameters under 'Parameters', and choose 'Next'.
Configure stack options: You can optionally choose tags for your stack and set advanced options. When you're done, choose 'Next'.
Review and create the stack: Review your settings, acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources, and then choose 'Create stack'.

How to Update a CloudFormation Stack

Updating a CloudFormation stack involves the following steps:

Open the CloudFormation service: Like in the previous section, got to the CloudFormation console on AWS.
Select the stack: On the 'Stacks' page in the CloudFormation console, select the stack that you want to update.
Choose to update the stack: Choose 'Actions', and then choose 'Update stack'.
Provide the updated template: You can provide the updated template in several ways: directly in the AWS Management Console, by uploading a file, or specifying an Amazon S3 URL. Choose 'Next' after you've provided the updated template.
Specify stack details: For 'Stack name', the existing name of the stack is displayed. You can't change the stack name. Specify additional parameters under 'Parameters', and choose 'Next'.
Configure stack options and review: Configure any stack options, then review your settings. Acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources with custom names, and then choose 'Update stack'.

Note that the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, AWS SDKs, and APIs provide similar features for managing stacks. However, the console is typically the most straightforward method to use for stack management.

Advanced CloudFormation

Beyond the foundational use of CloudFormation that this blog post covers, there are several advanced features that can enhance and customize your CloudFormation stacks. These features include update rollback, stack policies, and, notably, AWS CloudFormation Hooks.

What Are AWS CloudFormation Hooks?

CloudFormation Hooks are scripts that run either before or after a particular lifecycle event, such as the creation, update, or deletion of a stack resource. They can be used to manage dependencies, perform custom validations, or implement sophisticated control logic.

Hooks are defined in the "Metadata" section of the resource definition within the CloudFormation template. Hooks are written as AWS Lambda functions, and you can define hooks in any runtime supported by AWS Lambda.

Here's an example of how you can define a hook:

Resources:
  MyInstance:
    Type: 'AWS::EC2::Instance'
    Metadata:
      'AWS::CloudFormation::Init':
        config:
          hooks:
            BeforeInstall:
              - location: s3://mybucket/myscript.sh
                timeout: '60'

In this example, the script "myscript.sh" is downloaded from an S3 bucket and executed before the 'Install' event of the CloudFormation lifecycle. If this script fails, the CloudFormation stack operation fails and rolls back.

Alternatives to CloudFormation

While AWS CloudFormation is a robust and comprehensive tool for managing AWS resources, several alternatives might better suit your needs based on your use case, the complexity of your infrastructure, and your personal preference.

Terraform: Terraform, an open-source tool developed by HashiCorp, allows you to define and provision infrastructure using a declarative configuration language. Terraform is cloud-agnostic, meaning you can use it with multiple cloud providers simultaneously. It also has an extensive plugin system for integrating with other services.
AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit): The AWS CDK is a software development framework to define cloud infrastructure as code and provision it through AWS CloudFormation. With AWS CDK, you can leverage the expressiveness of modern programming languages, like TypeScript, Python, and Java, to define your infrastructure.
Pulumi: Similar to AWS CDK, Pulumi lets you create, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure using real programming languages, including JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, and .NET. Pulumi supports multiple clouds in addition to AWS.
Serverless Framework: For serverless applications, the Serverless Framework is a popular choice. It provides a simple and intuitive developer experience, with a focus on building and deploying serverless architectures.

Each of these tools has its strengths and trade-offs. The choice depends on your specific needs and circumstances. However, AWS CloudFormation remains a powerful choice due to its deep integration with AWS services and its wide adoption in the industry.

And there you have it! Now you should have a basic understanding of what AWS CloudFormation is and how it operates. From its fundamental concepts to the details of creating, deploying, and updating a CloudFormation stack, you have the tools to get started with CFN.

Thanks for reading!

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💡 TypeScript - Template Literal Types [DEV Community]

TYPESCRIPT - Template Literal Types

Bglh insano que expande as possibilidades do que já era possível com o string literals + unions do TS, dá uma olhada!

Ele tem a mesma sintaxe do template literal string do JavaScript.

type Tchau = "tchau!"

type Salve = `Oi ${Tchau}`

com ele é possivel usar sua necessidade + imaginação pra fazer diversas coisas bacanas que vão agregar muito no seu projeto/type.

um exemplo bacana seria padronizar que todas as propriedades extras que adicionarmos à um type, necessitem de ter o prefixo "data_" e o suffixo "_prop", assim conseguimos criar um objeto com um padrão que vai facilitar o consumo de leitura para sabermos quais as propriedades extras que foram enviadas.

falar é fácil, mas cadê o exemplo? vamos começar criando um type EventData, ele é a nossa base para nosso objeto evento de evento.

type EventData = {
  id: string
  name: string
  step: 'first_step' | 'second_step'
}

ele já possui propriedades definidas, que não podem ser alteradas, mas agora precisamos enviar mais alguns campos relacionados aos fields que ele tem em cada step, poderiamos extender o type EventData e adicionar os campos, mas ao invés disso, bora usar o Template Literal Types!

type FormFields = {
  name: string
  age: number
}

type EventDataExtraProps<T> = `field_${string & keyof T}`
// aqui vamos modificar um pouco o EventData
type EventData<T> = {
  id: string
  name: string
  step: 'first_step' | 'second_step'
} & Record<EventDataExtraProps<T>, any>

const event: EventData<FormFields> = {
  id: 'sextou?',
  name: 'thayto',
  step: 'first_step',
  field_name: 'full_name',
  field_age: 22
}

parece complexo, mas é bem simples, em projetos grandes / libs, com um único utilitário desses, conseguimos fazer mágica nos auto_completes e na padronização do envio de determinadas propriedades!

espero que tenham aprendido algo, se não aprendeu, pelo menos leu até o final, tmj!

https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/2/template-literal-types.html

The 28th Day of the 100 Days of Code challenge [DEV Community]

I'll start by saying that today was more of a rest day, the family was home, there was a show we love to watch and then a stand-up comedy show I went to. So I only made my real-time transcription app configurable which took no time at all and also made a settings pane so that users could adjust the config from the client.

I'm not releasing yet, I've got more things I want to consider before I do so. Not in a rush :)

Funnily enough, I just did my daily reading of Atomic Habits time, and the author says the following line: "Amateurs let life get in the way, Professionals stay on schedule"

I feel like this applies to me, as I sometimes can neglect one thing for another. I feel like I need to show up more even when I don't feel like it and work through nothing-but-focus pomodoro sessions even when my brain doesn't feel like it.

That's something I'm gonna take into account when I make decisions :)

Some other questions have been rising in my mind:

LLM's are one thing in the field of AI, why is AI getting so much recognition just now? It's not like things like sheep counting or fraud detection with AI is new (to my knowledge), they're built upon concepts that were available long before the release of such LLM's using ML
How do you teach a model what to do when you have no labeled data? Unsupervised learning is really interesting me now. I did start to learn all these things at the beginning but I swittched over to practical projects for the moment with the available tools like ChatGPT.

Don't even get me started on neural networks, they tackle my brain with how they're different and that's what makes me wanna learn this.

I just keep asking myself, if I wanna make cool AI projects, doesn't it mean I need to generate data and train a model on it? This is what it feels like to me based on what I've seen during the development of this project, especially in speaker embedding extraction, which super interests me in terms of what the model helps with and how the data it's trained on helps it.

I think this arises from my lack of knowledge about how AI really works and how practical applications look.

So this is something I really want to learn as I work on projects! I think it'd be fun and interesting.

However, things like Andrew's course on Coursera go really in-depth, I don't know if that's what I need, but I'm not looking for any shortcuts :)

It's the constant recommendation by ChatGPT, probably means that detail is worth learning.

Theory, practical applications, projects.

That's my goal with this, but I still need to think this through and not act impulsively.

That's it for today,
Happy coding everyone!

Career Reflections [DEV Community]

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Growing up, I was given advice from adults often. It was typically some variant of:

Go to college
Respect authority
Work hard
You’ll be rewarded

Early in my career, I followed this advice and it didn’t work for me. I could write an entire book on why that was the case, but for now I’ll spare you the details.

On top of this bad advice, I found that in American culture the first thing people will often ask when meeting someone for the first time is what they do for a living. How you answer this question will result in judgement that may or may not be accurate.

As my career progressed, I realized that I aspire to have a legacy beyond the company that I work for and my job title. As a result, I came up with these five core principles. Here they are:

Be kind to people despite their position in the overall hierarchy. This includes both official heiarchy such as at a company and social heiarchy in a community setting. You never know when circumstances might change and when you might run into an individual again. I’ve mentored people who have exceeded my technical level of expertise as well as seen people who worked for competitors become my coworker.
Work in public. And don’t limit what you publicly share to wins. Also share your challenges, so people can have a full picture of the work that went into the finished product. A rising tide lifts all boats.
Approach disagreement with a curious mind. Don’t join a conversation expecting to “be right.” Ask questions if someone else’s perspective doesn’t match yours. You might not end up agreeing in the end, but it’s likely you’ll learn something new.
Don’t jump to technology to solve a problem unless it’s the best tool for the job. I’ve worked many places where tech was thrown at problems in an attempt to solve them. This ended up causing more confusion while the root cause of the original problems were unaddressed. Sometimes problems can be resolved by training people or by updating a process.
Leave things better than you found them. Most individuals apspire to change the world, but it is challenging to do this at the individual level. At the very least, we can do our part by improving the current situation.

While thinking through these core principles, I’ve realized that people and community are why I’m still here in tech. To me, community looks like current and former coworkers, colleagues I met at community events, and people who use the things I build. I’ve gotten to where I am because people were willing to take a chance on me. I’d love to pay it forward by taking a chance on others and doing whatever I can to lift others up.

Day 778 : That Life [DEV Community]

liner notes:

Professional : Whew what a way to end the week. Had a meeting with some folks about a feature coming up. Followed up on some community questions. My laptop decided it wanted to update and I had no more "defers" left so yeah, it updated. That took a while. Then for the rest of the day, I banged my head against some OpenAPI specs. haha. I'm looking through documentation, examples, any resources I can get my hands on and I can not get the spec to render how I think it should. I noticed that another API had something similar and it didn't render how I thought it should. I reached out to someone on the team for a sanity check and together came to the conclusion that there's something up with the renderer. Awesome. That'll be another rabbit hole I'll go down on Monday. Going down rabbit holes, I'm about that life. haha.
Personal : Last night, I went through some tracks for the radio show. I also made a lot of head way in getting long text to show up in multiple lines on the HTML canvas. And it's responsive! I tried so many different methods to make it work. I think I'm going to make it cut off at 2 lines and add an ellipsis at the end. I'll have to figure that out. Still need to add images also.

Going to put together the radio show for tomorrow. If I have time, I want to add the ellipsis to the title text and images on the HTML canvas based on the data. Still need to watch the latest episode of "Secret Invasion". That's it! Going to get my weekend started.

Have a great night and weekend!

peace piece
Dwane / conshus
https://dwane.io / https://HIPHOPandCODE.com

Game Engine with AI✨ Part 2 - DALL E Sprites [DEV Community]

Hey, devs! 🖐🎮
Hope you're all having a nice day! I have some cool updates on helicity.ai

Inbuilt DALL E Support

I've integrated DALL-E support! 🎨🖌️ Yes, so from now on, you can define your sprite URL as "lookup: some description", and Helicity.ai will generate a unique sprite for you on the fly using DALL-E. Create unique, custom images without having to leave the IDE.

How I made it

So it all happens in the Gameobject.js module. Whenever you make a new instance of the GameObject, this code runs
When you put "lookup:" string in your image source, it takes this as a request and calls a firebase function made in Express
The firebase function calls the DALL E API looking up the string after "lookup:" and asynchronously returns the image-url, this is sent back to the game object.
The game object image is drawn every frame using *render() *(automatically in the game loop) or else, its just a black box
The savedImages makes sure that if 2 game objects are created with the same lookup description, multiple called aren't made to dall e. For example pipes in flappy bird.

Gameobject.js

var savedImages = {};

export class GameObject {
  constructor(x, y, width, height, type, imageSrc) {
    this.x = x;
    this.y = y;
    this.width = width;
    this.height = height;
    this.type = type; // can be Used for collision detection
    this.image = new Image();
    this.image.loaded = false;

    //check if imagesrc contains the string lookup:
    if (imageSrc.includes("lookup:")) {
      //check if the image is already saved
      if (savedImages[imageSrc]) {
        this.image = savedImages[imageSrc];
        this.image.loaded = true;
      } else {
        //make a post request. this is in html to use XMLHttpRequest
        var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
        xhr.open(
          "POST",
          "https://us-central1-myaigameengine.cloudfunctions.net/api/Image",
          true
        );
        xhr.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
        xhr.send(
          JSON.stringify({
            userPrompt: imageSrc.split("lookup:")[1],
          })
        );
        xhr.onreadystatechange = () => {
          if (xhr.readyState == 4 && xhr.status == 200) {
            //console.log(xhr.responseText);

            //get the imageURL from the response
            var imageURL = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText).image_url;
            this.image = new Image();
            this.image.src = imageURL;
            this.image.onload = () => {
              this.image.loaded = true;
              //save the image
              savedImages[imageSrc] = this.image;
            };
            this.image.onerror = () => {
              console.error(`Error loading image ${this.imageSrc}`);
            };
          }
        };
      }
    } else {
      this.imageSrc = imageSrc;
      this.image = new Image();
      this.image.src = imageSrc;
      this.image.onerror = () => {
        console.error(`Error loading image ${this.imageSrc}`);
      };
      this.image.onload = () => {
        this.image.loaded = true;
      };
    }

    Game.addGameObject(this);
  }

  update(deltaTime) {
    // Overridden by child classes
  }

  render() {
    //draw a black rectangle if there isnt an image else draw it
    if (this.image.loaded) {
      Renderer.drawImage(this.image, this.x, this.y, this.width, this.height);
    } else {

      Renderer.context.fillStyle = "black";
      Renderer.context.fillRect(this.x, this.y, this.width, this.height);
    }
  }
}

Firebase function's Express Image Endpoint

app.post("/Image", async (req, res) => {
  //var uuid = req.body.uuid;
  var userPrompt = req.body.userPrompt;
  //console.log("uuid is " + uuid);
  console.log("user prompt is ");
  openai
    .createImage({
      prompt: userPrompt,
      n: 1,
      size: "256x256",
    })
    .then((result) => {
      image_url = result.data.data[0].url;
      console.log(image_url);
      res.send({
        success: true,
        image_url: image_url,
      });
    });
});

Thats it!

Think about it - need a sprite of a "purple dragon with a top hat?" 🐉🎩 Just type lookup: purple dragon with a top hat and voila, your personalized sprite is ready to be used in your game! It's that simple! 🎲🚀

Multiplayer support is coming soon!

If you'd like to talk about and participate in the development, hit me up on discord!

https://discord.com/invite/H4HkgFmqVp

Stay tuned for more updates! Happy coding 🎮💖

Let's talk about Hooks in React [DEV Community]

Introduction:

Before talking about Hooks in React, let's briefly talk about what React is. React is an open-source JavaScript library used for building user interfaces. In order to understand React better, you should have a basic understanding of JavaScript. React follows a component-based architecture, where the user interface is divided into reusable, self-contained components. These components are responsible for rendering a part of the UI (user interface) and managing their own state and behavior. React provides a declarative syntax, allowing developers to describe how the UI should look based on the current state, and React knows how to efficiently update and render the components when the state changes.

Hooks in React are a feature introduced in React 16.8 to provide state and other React features in functional components. Prior to the introduction of hooks, state and life cycle functionality were only available in class components. With hooks, functional components can now have their own state and life cycle behavior without needing to convert them into class components.

Hooks:

Hooks are functions that let you “hook into” React state and life cycle features from function components. Hooks don’t work inside classes. Hooks provide a way to reuse stateful logic between components, making code more modular and easier to understand. They allow you to write reusable and composable code without the need for class components and their associated complexities.

React provides a few built-in hooks. In this blog I am going to be talking about the useState hook and the useEffect hook.

useState: The useState hook allows functional components to manage state. It returns a state value and a function to update that value. Here's an example:

import React, { useState } from 'react';

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  return (
    <div>
      <p>Count: {count}</p>
      <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button>
    </div>
  );
}

The example above renders a counter. When the user clicks the button, it increments the value. We call useState inside a function component to add some local state to it. React will preserve this state between re-renders. useState returns a pair: the current state value and a function that lets you update it. You can call this function from an event handler or somewhere else. The only argument to useState is the initial state. In the example above, it is 0 because our counter starts from zero.

The State hook can be used more than once in a single component:

function ExampleWithManyStates() {
  // Declare multiple state variables!
  const [age, setAge] = useState(42);
  const [food, setFood] = useState('burger');
  const [todos, setTodos] = useState([{ text: 'Learn Hooks' }]);
  // ...
}

useEffect: The useEffect hook allows functional components to perform side effects, such as data fetching, subscriptions, or modifying the DOM. It accepts a function that runs after every render, and an optional array of dependencies to control when the effect should run. Here's an example:

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';

function DataFetching() {
  const [data, setData] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    // Data fetching logic
    fetch('https://api.example.com/data')
      .then(response => response.json())
      .then(data => setData(data));
  }, []);

  return <div>Data: {JSON.stringify(data)}</div>;
}

By using this Hook, you tell React that your component needs to do something after render. React will remember the function you passed (we’ll refer to it as our “effect”), and call it later after performing the DOM updates. In the code above, notice that we have an empty array at the end of the useEffect. We need to pass a second argument to useEEffect, a dependencies array, in order to prevent an endless loop of fetch requests.

Effect cleanup:

Some effects require cleanup to reduce memory leaks. Timeouts, subscriptions, event listeners, and other effects that are no longer needed should be disposed. We do this by including a return function at the end of the useEffect Hook. Here is an example:

import { useState, useEffect } from "react";
import ReactDOM from "react-dom/client";

function Timer() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    let timer = setTimeout(() => {
    setCount((count) => count + 1);
  }, 1000);

  return () => clearTimeout(timer)
  }, []);

  return <h1>I've rendered {count} times!</h1>;
}

const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(document.getElementById('root'));
root.render(<Timer />);

Conclusion
Hooks provide a simpler and more intuitive way to manage state and side effects in functional components. They have become the recommended approach for writing React components and have gained widespread adoption in the React community. They are JavaScript functions, but you need to follow two rules when using them:

Only call hooks at the top level! Don’t call Hooks inside loops, conditions, or nested functions. Instead, always use Hooks at the top level of your React function, before any early returns. By following this rule, you ensure that Hooks are called in the same order each time a component renders. That’s what allows React to correctly preserve the state of Hooks between multiple useState and useEffect calls.
Only call hooks from React functions! Don’t call Hooks from regular JavaScript functions. Instead, you can call Hooks from React function components.

Project 1: VProfile Project Setup Local [DEV Community]

This is a multi-tier web application stack setup to be run locally. The first project will set up the basis for the following projects. This post documents the manual process of the setup, which can be long but will give you a good idea of the flow of information. You can find the automated version as well as the source code here.

IMPORTANT

Some commands require the use of vi or vim. To save some time, here are the basics:

:q: quits the program.
:wq: saves and quits.
esc: normal mode, when you can save or enter insert mode.
i: enter insert mode, to paste you can try ctrl + shift + v.

You can check this cheatsheet for more information.

Table of Content

Stack
Requirements
Understanding the process
Setting up the VM
First Boot
Configuration
- Database
- Setup
- Dependencies
- Services
- MySQL
- Source and Database
- Memcache
- Setup
- Dependencies
- Services
- RabbitMQ
- Setup
- Dependencies
- Services
- Tomcat
- Setup
- Depedencies
- Configuration
- Deployment
- NGINX
- Setup
- Depedencies
- Configuration
Validation

Stack

NGINX
Apache
RabbitMQ
Memcached
MySQL
Linux

Requirements

Oracle Virtualbox
Vagrant and Vagrant plugins
CLI

Understanding the process

The user will access the web app. It will create a load balancer using NGINX in our server. The requirest will be sent to the Apache Tomcat service.

Apache Tomcat is a Java web application service. RabbitMQ is a service called message broker or queueing agent. It is used to connect one application to another.

RabbitMQ is connected to Tomcat. In this project, we won't be using it; it is for practice. The user will log in with credentials that will be searched in an SQL database. Before searching, it will use Memcached to cache the database that is connected to the MySQL server.

The first time a request comes, it will be sent from Tomcat to the MySQL database to search for the user credentials, and then it will be cashed by the Memcached cache service.

We'll be using Vagrant to set up the virtual machines via an automated process. Vagrant will connect to Virtualbox for the virtualization process. Each of these services will have their own virtual machine.

Setting up the VM

First, we will set up the virtual machines. In our working directory, we will create a file called Vagrantfile without any extension. This will be a multi-vm vagrant file with five virtual machines. The contents of the file should be as follow:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.hostmanager.enabled = true 
  config.hostmanager.manage_host = true

### Database ####
  config.vm.define "db01" do |db01|
    db01.vm.box = "eurolinux-vagrant/centos-stream-9"
    db01.vm.hostname = "db01"
    db01.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.15"
    db01.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
     vb.memory = "1024"
   end

  end

### Memcache #### 
  config.vm.define "mc01" do |mc01|
    mc01.vm.box = "eurolinux-vagrant/centos-stream-9"
    mc01.vm.hostname = "mc01"
    mc01.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.14"
    mc01.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
     vb.memory = "1024"
   end
  end

### RabbitMQ ####
config.vm.define "rmq01" do |rmq01|
    rmq01.vm.box = "eurolinux-vagrant/centos-stream-9"
    rmq01.vm.hostname = "rmq01"
    rmq01.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.16"
    rmq01.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
     vb.memory = "1024"
   end
  end

### Tomcat ###
   config.vm.define "app01" do |app01|
    app01.vm.box = "eurolinux-vagrant/centos-stream-9"
    app01.vm.hostname = "app01"
    app01.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.12"
    app01.vm.provision "shell", path: "tomcat.sh"  
    app01.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
     vb.memory = "1024"
   end
   end

### NGINX ###
  config.vm.define "web01" do |web01|
    web01.vm.box = "ubuntu/jammy64"
    web01.vm.hostname = "web01"
    web01.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.11"
    web01.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
     vb.gui = true
     vb.memory = "1024"
   end
end

end

Each VM is configured to use 1 GB of RAM, and the minimum should be around 800 MB. All of them have a specific IP assigned, and the web app will be deployed to the web01 IP address. Almost all of them will be running Centos Stream 9, while only the NGINX is an Ubuntu machine.

We will use the Vagrant Host Manager to manage the hostname and IP addresses of the VMs.

Before continuing, make sure to install the host manager previously mentioned. You can install it by running vagrant plugin install vagrant-hostmanager. Check their Github for more information.

First Boot

To boot up the machines, run vagrant up on your working directory and wait for the setup to complete. As we are using provisioning to automate scripts, it can take some time. If the Ubuntu virtual box pops up, minimize it, DO NOT CLOSE IT.

To make sure all VMs are working, run vagrant status, and it should list the five machines with running (virtualbox) as the status.

Let's ssh into the first one, called db01, and check the host file. For this, run vagrant ssh db01, then run cat /etc/hosts, and it should display all VMs and IPs.

[vagrant@db01 ~]$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1   localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
::1         localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6
127.0.1.1 db01 db01

## vagrant-hostmanager-start
192.168.56.14   mc01
192.168.56.15   db01
192.168.56.12   app01
192.168.56.11   web01
192.168.56.16   rmq01

## vagrant-hostmanager-end

We can ping one machine from another to test if all are connected and can see each other. We run ping web01 -c 3 from another VM. Here we are pining the web01 VM to check if we can see it. To access any specific VM, run vagrant ssh db01 or the name of any machine. This should be done for every VM in order to ensure they are all working.

A successful ping would be:

[vagrant@db01 ~]$ ping web01 -c 3
PING web01 (192.168.56.11) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from web01 (192.168.56.11): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.12 ms
64 bytes from web01 (192.168.56.11): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.664 ms
64 bytes from web01 (192.168.56.11): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.585 ms

--- web01 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.585/0.790/1.122/0.236 ms

Now that we know that all the VMs can talk to each other, we can move to the configuration of each VM.

The following section is long and full of commands

Configuration

Now we are going to configure each independent VM.

Database

First, let's ssh into the VM by running vagrant ssh db01 (db01 is the name of this particular VM). Then change to the sudo user and run sudo -i. Note that this is the first thing we'll do in every VM.

Setup

Once as sudo, we'll update the system and also install the EPEL repo (EPEL stands for Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux). To do this run yum update -y && yum install epel-release -y.

Dependencies

We'll install MariaDB and git into this VM. Run yum install git mariadb-server -y.

Services

Let's start and enable the services. To do so, run the following commands: ' systemctl start mariadbandsystemctl enable mariadb. Now let's check the status to see if we successfully started and enabled the service. Runsystemctl status mariadb`, which should be green and active.

MySQL

Now we are going to configure the MySQL database. It will ask a few questions. To keep it short, here are my answers.

Set root password? [Y/n] Y
New password: admin123
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] n
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y

Now, we are going to finish the setup for the database. Access MySQL by running mysql -u root -padmin123. And run the following commands:

mysql> create database accounts; mysql> grant all privileges on accounts.* TO 'admin'@’%’ identified by 'admin123' ; mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; mysql> exit;

Source and Database

Clone this repo by running git clone -b main https://github.com/dariusbarbus/vprofile-project.git. cd into the folder and run the following commands, first mysql -u root -padmin123 accounts < src/main/resources/db_backup.sql and second mysql -u root -padmin123 accounts.

Memcache

Setup

Let's start by updating the system and installing EPEL, as before ,with the command yum update -y && yum install epel-release -y.

Dependencies

We'll install only memcached in this VM by running yum install memcached -y.

Services

Start the service and check its status by running:

sudo systemctl start memcached sudo systemctl enable memcached
And after that run:

sed -i 's/127.0.0.1/0.0.0.0/g' /etc/sysconfig/memcached sudo systemctl restart memcached
Again, check the status with systemctl status memcached.

RabbitMQ

Setup

You know the drill, update the system by running yum update -y && yum install epel-release -y.

Dependencies

So far, we have been using yum to manage package installation on our Centos machine. There's another package manager called dnf. It is to be a more modern version introduced in Fedora to replace yum.

We are going to use it now for a few things.

First, install RabbitMQ and Wget by running dnf -y install centos-release-rabbitmq-38 wget. Then, enable the RabbitMQ repo via dnf --enablerepo=centos-rabbitmq-38 -y install rabbitmq-server.

Services

Start the rabbit server service by running systemctl enable --now rabbitmq-server. Check the status with systemctl status rabbitmq-server.

Now do a little configuration by running:

sh -c 'echo "[{rabbit, [{loopback_users, []}]}]." > /etc/rabbitmq/rabbitmq.config' rabbitmqctl add_user test test rabbitmqctl set_user_tags test administrator
And restart the server with systemctl restart rabbitmq-server. Don't forget to always check the status.

Tomcat

Setup

Update the system and install EPEL with yum update -y && yum install epel-release -y.

Dependencies

We are going to install the Java SDK as well as git, Maven ,and Wget by running dnf -y install java-11-openjdk java-11-openjdk-devel git maven wget.

Configuration

Start by moving into the temp directory with cd /tmp/. From there, download the tar file of Tomcat with wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.75/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.75.tar.gz and extract it with tar xzvf apache-tomcat-9.0.75.tar.gz.

Add the Tomcat user, copy some data, and change the ownership of a folder, all with the following:

useradd --home-dir /usr/local/tomcat --shell /sbin/nologin tomcat cp -r /tmp/apache-tomcat-9.0.75/* /usr/local/tomcat/ chown -R tomcat.tomcat /usr/local/tomcat
Create a file called tomcat.service that will setup the systemctl to work with Tomcat. Start by runnin vi /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service to create the file and populate it with the following:

[Unit] Description=Tomcat After=network.target [Service] User=tomcat WorkingDirectory=/usr/local/tomcat Environment=JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jre Environment=JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jre Environment=CATALINA_HOME=/usr/local/tomcat Environment=CATALINE_BASE=/usr/local/tomcat ExecStart=/usr/local/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh run ExecStop=/usr/local/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh SyslogIdentifier=tomcat-%i [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Reload the systemd files with systemctl daemon-reload, then systemctl start tomcat to start the service, and systemctl enable tomcat. Don't forget to check the status.

Deployment

Clone this repo git clone -b main https://github.com/dariusbarbus/vprofile-project.git and cd into the folder. If you have made any modification during the setup, like using a different password for MySQL, you have to edit src/main/resources/application.properties.

Now, install Maven by running mvn install,we are still inside the vprofile directory.

For the few final steps, stop the tomcat service with systemctl stop tomcat. Remove the ROOT directory and replace it with the VProfile one.

rm -rf /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/ROOT* cp target/vprofile-v2.war /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/ROOT.war

Start the Tomcat service systemctl start tomcat and check the status systemctl status tomcat.

Give the tomcat.tomcat user ownership with chown tomcat.tomcat usr/local/tomcat/webapps -R and restart the service with systemctl restart tomcat.

NGINX

Because this machine is Ubuntu-based and not Centos, the commands will change.

Setup

To update the system, run apt update && apt upgrade -y.

Dependencies

Install NGINX by running apt install nginx -y.

Configuration

Create a vproapp file by running vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/vproapp and populate it with:

upstream vproapp { server app01:8080; } server { listen 80; location / { proxy_pass http://vproapp; } }
Remove the default website, create a symbolic link, and restart the service.

rm -rf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/vproapp /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/vproapp systemctl restart nginx

Validation

The deployment of the web app is also automatic.

Now that we have our web app deployed, we need to test it. For that, go to 192.168.56.11, the IP address of the web01 VM. It should show the following login screen.

To log in, use the username admin_vp and the password admin_vp. And after that, you are into the VProfile web app.

This is the screen once you log in.

Now you should have the project running locally in your machine.

This project was based on hkhcoder VProfile Project.

Thank you for reading.

Demystifying HTTP Status Codes: A Comprehensive Guide [DEV Community]

1. Overview of HTTP Status Codes:
HTTP status codes are grouped into five categories, each denoted by a three-digit numeric code. These categories include informational responses (1xx), successful responses (2xx), redirection messages (3xx), client errors (4xx), and server errors (5xx).

2. Informational Responses (1xx):
Informational responses are used to acknowledge the receipt and processing of a client's request. They indicate that the server is continuing to process the request and may require additional time. Commonly encountered 1xx status codes include 100 (Continue), 101 (Switching Protocols), and 102 (Processing).

3. Successful Responses (2xx):
Successful responses indicate that the client's request was successfully received, understood, and processed by the server. The most familiar status code in this category is 200 (OK), which signifies a successful request. Other important codes include 201 (Created), 204 (No Content), and 206 (Partial Content).

4. Redirection Messages (3xx):
Redirection messages inform the client that further action needs to be taken to complete the request. These status codes indicate that the requested resource has been moved, temporarily or permanently, to a different location. Commonly encountered 3xx status codes include 301 (Moved Permanently), 302 (Found), 304 (Not Modified), and 307 (Temporary Redirect).

5. Client Errors (4xx):
Client error status codes indicate that there was an issue with the client's request. These codes are often a result of a faulty or malformed request. Some commonly encountered 4xx status codes include 400 (Bad Request), 401 (Unauthorized), 403 (Forbidden), 404 (Not Found), and 429 (Too Many Requests).

6. Server Errors (5xx):
Server error status codes indicate that the server encountered an error while processing the client's request. These codes are typically not within the control of the client and often indicate issues with the server or its configuration. Commonly encountered 5xx status codes include 500 (Internal Server Error), 502 (Bad Gateway), 503 (Service Unavailable), and 504 (Gateway Timeout).

7. Handling and Utilizing HTTP Status Codes:
Properly handling HTTP status codes is crucial for developing robust web applications. Developers can leverage status codes to implement error handling, improve user experience, and provide meaningful feedback to clients. Techniques such as retrying failed requests, redirecting users appropriately, and providing clear error messages based on status codes can significantly enhance the usability and reliability of web applications.

Here are some additional examples of commonly encountered HTTP status codes for better understanding:

1xx Informational Responses:

100 Continue: The server has received the initial part of the request and is ready to proceed.
101 Switching Protocols: The server agrees to switch protocols specified in the Upgrade header of the client's request.

2xx Successful Responses:

200 OK: The request has been successfully processed, and the server is returning the requested resource.
201 Created: The request has been fulfilled, and a new resource has been created as a result.
204 No Content: The server successfully processed the request but does not need to return any content.

3xx Redirection Messages:

301 Moved Permanently: The requested resource has been permanently moved to a new location, and all future requests should be directed to that location.
302 Found: The requested resource has been temporarily moved to a different location. The client should continue to use the original URL for future requests.
307 Temporary Redirect: The requested resource is temporarily located at a different URL. The client should continue to use the original URL for future requests.

4xx Client Errors:

400 Bad Request: The server cannot understand the request due to malformed syntax or other client-side errors.
401 Unauthorized: The client must authenticate itself to get the requested response.
403 Forbidden: The server understands the request, but the client does not have permission to access the requested resource.
404 Not Found: The requested resource could not be found on the server.

5xx Server Errors:

500 Internal Server Error: The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.
502 Bad Gateway: The server acting as a gateway or proxy received an invalid response from an upstream server.
503 Service Unavailable: The server is temporarily unable to handle the request due to maintenance or high load.
504 Gateway Timeout: The server acting as a gateway or proxy did not receive a timely response from an upstream server.

Understanding these examples will help you interpret the HTTP status codes you encounter during web development and assist you in troubleshooting and resolving issues effectively.

Bonus Points:

Custom HTTP Status Codes:

In addition to the standard HTTP status codes, developers can also define custom status codes to convey specific information within their applications. Custom status codes can provide more granular details about the application's state, specific errors, or custom actions. However, it's important to note that custom status codes may not be widely supported by all clients and servers, so careful consideration should be given before implementing them.

Range of Status Codes:

HTTP status codes are divided into ranges, each indicating a specific category. The ranges are as follows:

1xx: Informational responses.
2xx: Successful responses.
3xx: Redirection messages.
4xx: Client errors.
5xx: Server errors.

Handling Uncommon Status Codes:
While the standard HTTP status codes cover most common scenarios, there are occasions where you may encounter less common or application-specific status codes. In such cases, it's crucial to refer to the documentation or specifications provided by the relevant service or API to understand the meaning and appropriate actions for those specific codes.
RESTful APIs and Status Codes:
When building RESTful APIs, proper usage of HTTP status codes becomes even more critical. Following the principles of Representational State Transfer (REST), using the appropriate status codes helps convey the state of a resource, facilitate proper caching, and adhere to the HTTP protocol's semantics. It's important to familiarize yourself with the common status codes used in RESTful APIs and their meanings.
Tools for HTTP Status Code Testing:
Several tools and libraries can assist developers in testing and validating HTTP status codes during the development process. These tools can simulate different responses, help in testing error handling, and validate the behavior of an application under various scenarios. Examples of such tools include cURL, Postman, and various HTTP client libraries available in different programming languages.

Conclusion:

HTTP status codes play a vital role in web development and communication between clients and servers. Understanding their meaning and usage empowers developers to diagnose and resolve issues effectively, optimize performance, and provide a better user experience. By leveraging the power of HTTP status codes, developers can build more resilient and user-friendly web applications.

Remember, status codes are just one piece of the puzzle, and it's essential to consider them in conjunction with other relevant information and context when troubleshooting or optimizing your applications.

What CSS details make forms amazing? [DEV Community]

I am learning to code on a side project - Percentage Calculator.

What sort of details can level up the forms on mobile and desktop?

"Never delete data" [DEV Community]

TL;DR

Use trash-put instead of rm.
Don't hard/soft your entities, update it to disabled user, discontinued product, cancelled order, filled job, fired/retired employee and so on.

Deleting files

On Windows File Explorer you have ads and a Delete button that moves the file\dir to trash folder, on macOS Finder, GNOME Files or KDE Dolphin the button actually says Move to Trash.

On command line in an Unix-like system, we use rm, which is short for remove but it deletes not reMOVE. On Microsoft cmd.exe the command is del.

Consider this: You wanna run a command on production database, but it hangs and you think (not really sure) it's because of corrupted files, mv them to other path would be enough, but they are just corrupted data, so you use rm and accidentally deletes the main database instead of the replica.

rm deletes data immediately and it's pretty much irreversible. Humans make mistakes all the time and regret it soon after, some times seconds after pressing enter. Moving to trash to be deleted in the future instead, can save you.

Hard deleting was more necessary on the past when storage was so tiny and expensive, but now we not constantly fighting for space anymore.
So treat a rm (and the Unix tradition as a whole) as a product of its time, move undesirable files to the trash instead, you can use this trash-cli for linux.

And as the trash-cli readme says:

Can I alias rm to trash-put?

You can but you shouldn't. In the early days I thought it was a good idea to do that but now I changed my mind.

Although the interface of trash-put seems to be compatible with rm, it has different semantics which will cause you problems. For example, while > rm requires -R for deleting directories trash-put does not.

But sometimes I forget to use trash-put, really can't I?

You could alias rm to something that will remind you to not use it:
alias rm='echo "This is not the command you are looking for."; false'
Then, if you really want to use rm, simply prepend a backslash to bypass the alias:
\rm file-without-hope
Note that Bash aliases are used only in interactive shells, so using this alias should not interfere with scripts that expect to use rm.

Deleting entities on database

You don't, you just filter it out from all queries, right?

Well, imagine the entity is a customer, now when we try to join an order with its customer, what happens?

Should the customer soft delete cascade to their orders too?
Should we return a corrupted data error? because the foreign key points to a row that the query can't read (FKs should always refers to a valid row).
Should we return a customer not found error?
Should we return the data without the customer fields or filled with null? so now the UI says the customer is called undefined (or it crashes trying to access a non-existing field).

When someone dies we don't try to erase it from history (normally), we update its status to 'not alive'.

What we do

When an user requests to delete its account, their personally identifiable data should be deleted (ignore the article title) or anonymized because of the data protection laws, the UI should say it's a disabled user and it shouldn't be able to auth and order/post anymore (those are business decisions, not technical ones).

Products aren’t deleted, they’re discontinued. The warehouse manager needs to know that the product is discontinued so they don’t order more stock from the supplier. The product shouldn't suddenly disappear from the system, that would cause confusion and be understood as a bug.

Orders aren’t deleted, they’re cancelled. And there may be fees incurred if the order was canceled too late.

Employees aren’t deleted, they’re fired (or retired). And there is often a compensation package to be handled.

Jobs aren’t deleted, they’re filled (or their requisition is revoked).

You got the pattern. Good naming is part of a well documented code. Treat "deleted" just as one of the states of the state machine that is representing the domain (also, empty values are just an union/enum variant, you don't need a special construct to represent it, like a null pointer).
You update the entity state, perform the transition side effects, the available actions change based on the current state, queries can be filtered by state.

The rest

Okay, what about data that don't represent physical entities, individual-level data of an aggregate, redundant data, temporary data, old data, corrupted data? well, I move to trash/archive or maybe delete immediately (yeah, the title is clickbait).

Suicide bomber blows himself up in Shabwa [Yemen Press Agency]

SHABWA, July 08 (YPA) – A suicide bomber blew himself up on Friday evening near a gathering of the UAE-funded Al-Amaliqa Forces and Shabwa Defense Forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Bayhan district, Shabwa province, southern Yemen. According to preliminary information, the suicide bomber blew himself up before arriving at the guesthouse, […]

Mother killed, her child injured by coalition’s explosive remnants in Hodeida [Yemen Press Agency]

HODEIDA, July 08 (YPA) – One civilian was killed and another was injured on Friday, when a shell left over by Saudi-led coalition forces in Hodeida province, western Yemen. In a brief statement, the Executive Center for Mine Action said “a mother was killed and her child was injured due to explosive remnants of war […]

Coalition’s spy planes drop shells on Saada [Yemen Press Agency]

SAADA, July 08 (YPA) – Saudi-led coalition spy planes on Friday launched strikes on Saada province, northern Yemen, Al-Masirah Network reported. According to Al-Masirah, the coalition’s planes dropped shells on the Shada border district in conjunction with Saudi missile bombardment on Monabbih border district. E.M

Fact Check: Karine Jean-Pierre Runs Cover for Bidens on Cocaine Question; Photo Evidence Proves Her Wrong [Breitbart News]

Karine Jean-Pierre claimed the Bidens weren't at the White House on Friday. But pool reporters said the Bidens only left the White house Friday evening.

White House Calls Asking If Cocaine Belonged to Joe or Hunter 'Incredibly Irresponsible,' But Doesn't Answer [Breitbart News]

Jean-Pierre on Friday asserted that asking if the cocaine belonged to President Joe Biden or Hunter Biden was "incredibly irresponsible."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Calls on DOJ to Investigate Florida for Transporting Migrants [Breitbart News]

Gavin Newsom (D) has called on the DOJ to investigate Florida for its transferring of migrants to Martha's Vineyard and Sacramento.

White House Claims Ukraine Will Be Careful with American-Provided Cluster Bombs [Breitbart News]

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan claimed during a briefing on Friday that Ukraine will be careful with American-provided cluster bombs.

Xi Jinping Poses with Troops Across Taiwan as Janet Yellen Arrives in Beijing [Breitbart News]

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping paid a visit to the headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command in Nanjing on Thursday, encouraging his troops to keep up military pressure on Taiwan even as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was arriving in Beijing for an official visit.

Breitbart Business Digest: Jobs Numbers Still High Enough for Fed to Hike [Breitbart News]

Today's jobs report data is likely enough to lock-in a Fed rate hike.

Justin Trudeau's Canada Shrugs, Says Out-of-Control Fires Will Rage Through August [Breitbart News]

Canadian forestry officials predicted on Thursday that the ongoing, out-of-control wildfires burning across the country and polluting large swathes of America will continue through August, breaking records for the amount of territory burned.

Mayorkas Sets Plan to Accelerate Chain Migration [Breitbart News]

President Joe Biden's pro-migration border deputies are inviting another 100,000 migrants into Americans' society, so putting more pressure on Americans' ability to earn a decent wage or pay for good housing.

Maine Democrats Send Late-Term Abortion Bill to Governor’s Desk [Breitbart News]

The Maine Legislature passed a bill on Thursday that would allow abortions at any time during pregnancy if deemed "necessary" by a doctor.

Kennedy: English Is Not Kamala Harris' 'First, Second, Third or Even Fourth Language' [Breitbart News]

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) said Friday on FNC's "The Story" that Vice President Kamala Harris' comments on "culture" makes it seem like "English is not her first, second, third or even fourth language."

Homeless Activists Threaten to Disrupt MLB All-Star Game After Seattle Clears Homeless Encampments [Breitbart News]

Seattle city officials sent crews to Seattle’s SODO neighborhood this week to clear homeless camps ahead of the MOPL All-Star Game next week

Venezuela Launches 'Crimes Against Humanity' Investigation into Donald Trump [Breitbart News]

CARACAS, Venezuela — A commission of socialist lawmakers belonging to the socialist regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro announced on Thursday they have opened a criminal case against former American President Donald Trump on charges of “crimes against humanity.”

WATCH - 'He's Killing Him!': Man Stabs Toronto Subway Rider During Fight [Breitbart News]

A subway rider was stabbed multiple times Thursday on a train in Toronto and the altercation was caught on camera.

Watch: Tucker Carlson Tells Russell Brand Trump Is 'Right' About Ukraine and 'Everyone in Washington Is Wrong' [Breitbart News]

Tucker Carlson sat down with actor Russell Brand for an interview Friday during which the former Fox News host praised former President Donald Trump for his opposition to an endless war in Ukraine, saying Trump is "right" and "everyone in Washington is wrong."

Cheaper By the Dozen: 17 Golden Retrievers Dumped in Ohio Find Loving Homes [Breitbart News]

A pack of dogs in Mercer County, Ohio, is now reportedly in a much better situation after it was found abandoned in June.

Transgender Actor Hari Nef Says 'Barbie' Film Will Be a Source of Inspiration for Trans People [Breitbart News]

Transgender actor Hari Nef recently claimed that Warner Bros. upcoming "Barbie" movie, based on the venerable girl's fashion doll toys, will be an inspiration to transgender and gay people everywhere.

Kevin Spacey Accused During Sex Assault Trial of Coming Out as Gay to 'Disguise' Allegations of Sexual Misconduct [Breitbart News]

"House of Cards" star Kevin Spacey has been accused in court of coming out as gay in an attempt to "disguise" sexual misconduct allegations being made against him.

WSJ: Elon Musk's SpaceX Has a 'De Facto Monopoly' with 88% of Space Launches [Breitbart News]

Elon Musk's SpaceX has emerged as the dominant force in the rocket-launch market, handling a staggering 88 percent of customer flights from American launch sites in the first half of 2023. One former Air Force space operations officer explains, "The fact is that the competition can't field anything right now and that makes SpaceX a de facto monopoly."

Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter Clone 'Threads' Boasts 50 Million Profiles, 95 Million Posts in First Day [Breitbart News]

Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter clone, Threads, made a strong debut with more than 50 million profiles and 95 million posts in its first day of operation.

This New ASUS Tiny PC is Surprisingly Powerful [How-To Geek]

If you’ve been looking for a tiny PC, you might have come across many different options by this point. There are plenty out there, but ASUS makes some of the best. And its newly-announced one might just be what you need if you need something powerful but compact.

Read This Article on How-To Geek ›

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

Meta’s New Threads App is Censoring From Day One reclaimthenet.org/threads-cens…

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

Activities of Syria Petroleum,Gas and Energy Expo 2023 kick off today sana.sy/en/?p=312493

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

Biden Administration Uses New Definition of ‘Recession’ So As To Hide America’s Having Just Been in One orientalreview.org/2023/07/07/…

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

Seymour Hersh: Gitmo’s Permanent Chains scheerpost.com/2023/07/07/seym…

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

EU Parliament: The People Pushback Against WHO Pandemic Tyranny 21stcenturywire.com/2023/07/07…

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

Bulgarian president angers Zelenskiy by opposing arms transfer to Ukraine eu.eot.su/2023/07/07/bulgarian…

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

The Powell Manifesto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaSOyER_Tgo

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

Two Palestinians were martyred in Nablus by ’Israeli’ occupation forces english.alahednews.com.lb/fast…

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

UN Experts: Israeli Military Campaign in Jenin May Constitute War Crime english.almasirah.net.ye/post/…

New note by actapopuli [Tijdslijn van Acta Populi]

Militants storm pro-STC festival in Seiyun en.ypagency.net/298137

Sound Money Defense League's successes discussed on Palisades Gold Radio [Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee | Exposing the long-term manipulation of the gold market]

7:10p ET Friday, July 7, 2023

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Stefan Gleason of the Sound Money Defense League (and coin and bullion dealer Money Metals Exchange) today explains to Tom Bodrovics of Palisades Gold Radio the league's increasingly successful work to exempt the purchase and sale of the monetary metals from state taxes in the United States.

Gleason and Bodrovics also discuss legislation introduced in Congress by U.S. Rep. Alex X. Mooney, R-West Virginia, to return the United States to a gold standard, after first determining whether the U.S. gold reserve has been encumbered by gold leases, swaps, and similar mechanisms.

... Dispatch continues below ...

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In 2009 a member of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, Kevin M. Warsh, admitted to GATA that the Fed has secret gold swap agreements with foreign banks:

https://www.gata.org/node/7819

Other topics of the discussion include the totalitarian implication of central bank digital currencies.

The discussion is 51 minutes long and can be viewed at YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPGYQnDxLwo

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

* * *

Toast to a free gold market
with great GATA-label wine

Wine carrying the label of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, cases of which were awarded to three lucky donors in GATA's recent fundraising campaign, are now available for purchase by the case from Fay J Winery LLC in Texarkana, Texas. Each case has 12 bottles and the cost is $240, which includes shipping via Federal Express.

Here's what the bottles look like:

http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-4-wine-bottles.jpg

Buyers can compose their case by choosing as many as four varietals from the list here:

http://www.gata.org/files/FayJWineryVarietals.jpg

GATA will receive a commission on each case of GATA-label wine sold. So if you like wine and buy it anyway, why not buy it in a way that supports our work to achieve free and transparent markets in the monetary metals?

To order a case of GATA-label wine, please e-mail Fay J Winery at bagman1236@aol.com.

* * *

Support GATA by purchasing
Stuart Englert's "Rigged"

"Rigged" is a concise explanation of government's currency market rigging policy and extensively credits GATA's work exposing it. Ten percent of sales proceeds are contributed to GATA. Buy a copy for $14.99 through Amazon --

https://www.amazon.com/Rigged-Exposing-Largest-Financial%20-History/dp/1651405204/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?keywords=rugged+stuart+englert&qid=1579708888&sr=8-2-fkmr1

-- or for an additional $3 and a penny buy an autographed copy from Englert himself by contacting him at srenglert@comcast.net.

* * *

Help keep GATA going:

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

China boosts gold reserves for eighth month [Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee | Exposing the long-term manipulation of the gold market]

By Sybilla Gross
Bloomberg News
Friday, July 7, 2023

China added to its gold reserves for an eighth consecutive month, with economic and geopolitical risks as well as a desire to move away from the U.S. dollar driving the purchases.

People's Bank of China holdings of bullion rose by 680,000 troy ounces last month, according to official data released today. That's equivalent to 23 tons. Total stockpiles now sit at 2,330 tons, with around 183 tons added in the run of buying from November.

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China has been an enthusiastic buyer of gold, partly due to its desire to chip away at the dominance of the dollar in global market. It is also struggling with a disappointing recovery from the pandemic, and an increasingly strained relationship with the United States. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-07/china-s-central-bank-boosts-gold-xauusd-reserves-for-eighth-month#xj4y7vzkg

* * *

Toast to a free gold market
with great GATA-label wine

Here's what the bottles look like:

http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-4-wine-bottles.jpg

Buyers can compose their case by choosing as many as four varietals from the list here:

http://www.gata.org/files/FayJWineryVarietals.jpg

To order a case of GATA-label wine, please e-mail Fay J Winery at bagman1236@aol.com.

* * *

Support GATA by purchasing
Stuart Englert's "Rigged"

https://www.amazon.com/Rigged-Exposing-Largest-Financial%20-History/dp/1651405204/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?keywords=rugged+stuart+englert&qid=1579708888&sr=8-2-fkmr1

-- or for an additional $3 and a penny buy an autographed copy from Englert himself by contacting him at srenglert@comcast.net.

* * *

Help keep GATA going:

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

Under The Influence [Issues & Insights]

Creators https://www.creators.com/author/michael-ramirez

Guns, Gangs, and Neocolonialism in Haiti [INTERNATIONALIST 360°]

Jan Critchfield and Danny Shaw Domini Resain, the mobilization minister of MOLEGHAF, holds a sign that reads “MOLEGHAF Says no to Foreign Meddling and Occupation” at a protest in 2022. MOLEGHAF is the National Movement for Liberty and Equality of Haitians for Fraternity. (MOLEGHAF) Hundreds of thousands of guns made in the United States propel...

Shifting Standards: Western Media and the Ukrainian ‘Myrotvorets’ Hit List [INTERNATIONALIST 360°]

Stavroula Pabst As war rages, Ukrainian blacklist Myrotvorets, which means “Peacemaker” in Ukrainian, continues to add to its website the names of activists, politicians, journalists, and even children, who’ve spoken critically about Ukraine or the current conflict. In addition to intimidating those on the list by branding them as terrorists or publishing their personal information, threatening...

How the Taliban Crushed the CIA’s Heroin Bonanza in Afghanistan [INTERNATIONALIST 360°]

William Van Wagenen The Taliban has not once, but twice eradicated Afghanistan’s poppy cultivation, the world’s largest source of heroin. Despite western accusations, it has never been The Taliban behind the Afghan drug industry, but only ever the US and its allies, with billions in profits breezily laundered through the global financial system. In the...

All Paths Lead to China [INTERNATIONALIST 360°]

Jerry Grey To coin a sporting phrase, “it’s all happening here”; here, of course is China. And there’s little doubt that things are happening on a global scale. Perhaps more than a casual observer might notice, so here’s a rundown on some of the things which are happening, have happened or are about to happen....

Felix Häcker: #103 Flowing Information [PlanetGnome]

Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from June 30 to July 07.

GNOME Circle Apps and Libraries

Gaphor

A simple UML and SysML modeling tool.

Arjan says

This week Dan Yeaw released Gaphor 2.19.1. The simple modeling tool has received a lot of small improvements and bug fixes. Parts of the UI have been updated to use new GTK 4 elements. Information Flow for Associations has been added, and Object Flows can now connect to Join/Fork Nodes. Get your copy from Gaphor’s download page or directly from Flathub .

Cartridges

Launch all your games

kramo announces

After months of work, Cartridges 2.0 is finally here.

Two new import sources have been added: Legendary and Flatpak.

Alongside several UX improvements, the import backed has been completely rewritten, huge thanks to Geoffrey Coulaud . This allows for faster imports, much better error handling and makes adding new sources much easier, so a lot more are coming soon!

Check it out on Flathub !

Third Party Projects

Swapnil Devesh reports

This week I released Luminance, an app that lets you change brightness of displays including external ones that support DDC/CI (almost all non ancient displays support it). The app is intentionally really simple, and integrates very well with GNOME desktop. It also has a CLI interface for adjusting brightness from scripts or keyboard shortcuts, its available to install for Arch based distros in AUR and deb and rpm packages are available on GitHub releases. Would be looking at porting to GTK4 next, would have loved to make it available as a Flatpak but don’t think that would be possible due to the app needing permissions to access i2c and backlight devices.

Vlad Krupinski says

After two weeks of development I’ve released List 44.6.7. The main feature of this release is implementation of Drag and Drop. Now you can easily move tasks around! Moving sub-tasks between tasks now works too.

This update also includes:

Added smooth fade effect on top of the tasks list

Tasks list now scrolls when new task added

Added button to scroll to the top

Minor UI changes and improvements

Gianni Rosato announces

Aviator 0.4.1 is released today with the following changes:

The custom SVT-AV1 fork used in Aviator has been updated, promising up to a 40% speed improvement for the slower, higher quality presets

A new “Crop” option for switching between cropping & scaling resolution has been added

The internal SVT-AV1 parameters have been tweaked for a 0.3-0.8% improvement in perceptual quality

Phosh

A pure wayland shell for mobile devices.

Guido announces

Phosh 0.29.0 is out. This release adds improved audio device selection and notifications for ongoing calls. When phosh has information about a device’s notches it can avoid placing UI elements there and you can enable suspend from the system menu. Notifications can now take more screen space on the lockscreen and we made a bunch of robustness fixes to the emergency info preferences plugin.

Parabolic

Download web video and audio.

Fyodor Sobolev reports

Parabolic V2023.7.1 is here! In this release we fixed 2 bugs and added 1 new feature:

Fixed an issue where CPU usage was high during download due to excessive logging

When downloading a playlist with enabled metadata embedding, a media’s position will be written to the tag’s track property

Fixed an issue where Validate button was sensitive during validation, causing error if the button was pressed multiple times

Updated translations (Thanks everyone on Weblate!)

IPlan

Your plan for improving personal life and workflow

Iman Salmani announces

IPlan 1.8.0 is now out! What’s changed:

Move up and down option for tasks rows

Fade effect for moving between projects

Improve date format

Popovers aligned and calendar navigation buttons width reduced, to fit in the phone form factor

Code refactoring, Bug fixes, and UI improvements

You can get it from Flathub

Fretboard

Look up guitar chords

Brage reports

This week I released Fretboard , an app that lets you find guitar chords by typing their names or plotting them on an interactive guitar neck. No matter if you are a beginner or an advanced guitarist, you can use Fretboard to practice, learn, and master your favorite songs!

I’d appreciate your help with improving the chord data. Please report any weird chord recommendations in the issue tracker, and I’ll have a look at it.

Install Fretboard from Flathub and give it a spin!

GNOME Foundation

Rosanna says

This was a short week because of the holiday, but there still was a lot going on. With GUADEC coming soon at the end of the month, the staff is working towards making sure everything happens as smoothly as possible. If you haven’t signed up for the Latvia social trip yet, there are still some spots open: https://events.gnome.org/event/101/page/164-northern-latvia-trip . I am very much looking forward to that!

I spent a lot of this week catching up on lots of minutiae. There has been an emphasis on taxes and books this past month, as we have been onboarding our bookkeeper and working towards filing our taxes. I also renewed our mailbox, went over our foundation insurance policies, did state-mandated training, etc. In between that, I had meetings on the Executive Director search, travel issues, and finances, along with individual meetings with staff.

I am also getting ready to attend FOSSY next week where I will be giving a talk on creating crosswords with free software. GNOME will also be running a booth there, so please drop on by and say hi if you are going to be in Portland!

That’s all for this week!

See you next week, and be sure to stop by #thisweek:gnome.org with updates on your own projects!

Trump Exposes DeSantis’ Anti-Farm Policies in High Energy Iowa Speech [News - National File]

45th President Donald J. Trump exposed Ron DeSantis’s anti-farm policies he has taken as Governor, Congressman, and presidential candidate. The Council Bluffs, Iowa crowd booed DeSantis’ name passionately as Trump read every globalist anti-farm policy DeSantis has endorsed.

The loudest boos came when Trump pointed out that DeSantis has embraced the globalist trade policies of Paul Ryan. The Ryan-DeSantis non-tariff trade policy would lead to foreign farms using cheap labor and flooding the American market, forcing American farms to close. The World Economic Forum has encouraged politicians to enact policies that would destroy farms. The Ryan-DeSantis Free Trade Farm Policy would accomplish the WEF’s goals.

"DeSanctus is a globalist sell out & is in the pocket of donors" – President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/ZjuOs0rMW7

— miguelifornia (@miguelifornia) July 7, 2023

Trump also noted that DeSantis’ refusal to embrace tariffs would destroy other industries besides farming. Trump received loud cheers when he said, “Ron DeSanctus sided with the Communists in China. President Trump sided with the Farmers in AMERICA! ”

Ron DeSanctus sided with the Communists in China.

President Trump sided with the Farmers in AMERICA! pic.twitter.com/CWuvlDpxUD

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 7, 2023

Prior to the rally, thousands of Iowans waited in line during the pouring rain to get into today’s rally. During Trump’s last rally in South Carolina, attendees had to deal with high heat and humidity. There was a high turnout at both events with energetic crowds. This dedication suggests that Trump’s impressive crowds will correlate with primary and general election votes.

Trump’s huge crowd in Council Bluffs, Iowa, continues to grow. If people stand in the rain and heat for Trump rallies, they will definitely wait in line to vote for Trump. The polls are correct. It will be the Trump White House soon.
pic.twitter.com/ofhNOTgmNi

— Charles R Downs (@TheCharlesDowns) July 7, 2023

Following the event, Trump visited the Council Bluffs, Iowa Dairy Queen, where an overflow crowd welcomed him with enthusiastic cheers. Iowans’ embracement of Trump clearly indicates that most voters in the Hawkeye state agree that Trump is the only candidate running for president with a policy that aligns with the American Farmer.

The great people of Council Bluffs, Iowa, were very excited Trump stopped by their Dairy Queen. No other candidate for president can connect with voters like Trump can.
pic.twitter.com/77JmMv4fn4

— Charles R Downs (@TheCharlesDowns) July 7, 2023

The Iowa Caucus is the first GOP primary event. Current polls show Trump holding a 25-40 point lead over DeSantis.

Secret Docs: Pfizer, FDA, ‘Fact-Checkers’ LIED About Deadly Graphene Oxide in COVID Jabs [News - National File]

Last Updated on July 7, 2023

Secret documents have been released under a court order revealing that Big Pharma giant Pfizer, the US Food and Drug Administration, and their associated media “fact-checkers” LIED about the deadly, poisonous graphene oxide planted inside the COVID jabs that were forced onto the world’s population and have been widely identified as a genocidal bioweapon. The revelation vindicates earlier reporting by the Stew Peters Show and whistleblower Karen Kingston, who each faced an organized effort over the course of multiple years to falsely discredit them after bringing the poisonous graphene oxide to the world’s attention.

Big Pharma giant Pfizer admitted in previously hidden documents sent to the FDA, which also covered this fact up, that its COVID jabs contain poisonous graphene oxide – just like the Stew Peters Show revealed multiple times with the help of Pfizer whistleblower Karen Kingston.

The information has come to light after a federal judge ordered Pfizer to publish all documents that were used to gain Emergency Use Authorization for its COVID jab, which has become the deadliest “vaccine” in human history, leaving scores of dead and permanently injured patients in its wake, including those whose injuries have yet to come to the surface and are effectively living their lives as ticking time bombs.

It also comes to light after an obviously organized effort was led by Pfizer, the FDA, and multiple media outlets equipped with their army of “fact-checkers” to dismiss and attempt to discredit anyone who sounded the alarm on graphene oxide.

Related: BBC Misses with Stew Peters Hit Piece, Shills for Bioweapon

Graphene oxide is a compound consisting of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen that is obtained by treating graphite with “strong oxidizers and acid.” It is toxic and poisonous to the human body and when introduced, induces cell toxicity, making the very act of living poisonous to humans.

According to information that Karen Kingston revealed on the Stew Peters Show, only to be derided by the very same people who have been covering up the fact that COVID jabs contain graphene oxide, the deadly compound plays a key role in the advent of 5G and is being dumped into the jabs to create an electromagnetic field that connects humans to outside electronic devices and the internet.

Bioweapon: Stew Peters, Karen Kingston Expose Poisonous Graphene Oxide in COVID Jabs

ProtonMail Rewrites Your Emails [Hacker News]

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What Does The U.S. Manufacturing Slide Mean For Energy Markets? [Oilprice.com]

Manufacturing activity in the United States has been decreasing over half a year, and the rate of contraction is speeding up. Indicators from indexes measuring factory activity suggest that a recession is on the horizon, and that layoffs will soon intensify in the manufacturing sector. The slowdown also has broad implications for energy prices affecting both the production and consumption sides of the energy market. This June marked the eighth consecutive month that manufacturing activity has fallen in the United States. Last month’s…

Russia To Slash Oil Output By Another 500,000 Bpd [Oilprice.com]

Russia will reduce the amount of oil it ships to the market by half a million barrels per day, the Russian energy ministry said on Friday—this is in addition to the earlier assumed commitments of its voluntary production cut. "Russia confirms it will reduce supplies to oil markets by 500,000 barrels per day in August through lowering of exports. It means taking all the requisite measures to achieve this goal within the framework of the voluntary reduction. This reduction complements the voluntary decrease Russia announced earlier and…

Techdata: Ubiquiti Rocket M2 XM - [Data entry] fix fcc id [OpenWrt Wiki]

Techdata: Ubiquiti Rocket M2 XM Usage ~~hideseceditbutton~~ * IMPORTANT : Edit this page only via the LEFT edit button below the dataentry box * After editing, please enter a short summary of your edit: * Which field has been changed? (e.g.

Techdata: Ubiquiti Rocket M2 XM - [Data entry] fix fcc id [OpenWrt Wiki]

Cocaine-gate ReeEEeE Stream 07-07-23 [SALTY]

The post Cocaine-gate ReeEEeE Stream 07-07-23 appeared first on SALTY.

Ben & Jerry’s Lose Parent Company Over $2 Billion Over Anti July 4th Tweet [SALTY]

The post Ben & Jerry’s Lose Parent Company Over $2 Billion Over Anti July 4th Tweet appeared first on SALTY.

Dutch Ruling Coalition Falls Apart Over Failure to Agree on Refugee Issue [Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie]

THE HAGUE (Sputnik) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced late Friday that he is submitting his government's resignation to the king after the country's ruling coalition failed to agree on measures to rein in migration.

Cluster Munitions Transfer Shows How US, Ukraine Have Grown Desperate Amid Conflict [Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie]

On Friday, US President Joe Biden confirmed his administration would send Ukraine cluster munitions as part of a new $800 million military aid package. Cluster munitions are banned by more than 120 countries, including most NATO members.

Scientists Baffled by Ancient Supermassive Black Hole Considered Oldest Ever Found [Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie]

A group of astronomers have discovered the oldest known supermassive black hole, over 13 billion years old. Now, they are struggling to understand how it could have formed so soon after the Big Bang.

Antonov: US Approval of Cluster Bombs for Ukraine Bringing Humanity Closer to World War [Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The decision by the United States to deliver cluster munitions to Ukraine is a provocation that is pushing humankind closer to a new world war, Russian Ambassador in Washington Anatoly Antonov said on Friday.

Tucker Carlson Discusses President Trump, RFK Jr and American Politics with Russell Brand [The Last Refuge]

Former popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson appears for a lengthy interview with British pundit Russell Brand about current events. {Full Video Rumble Link} The interview is well over an hour and covers a wide range of topics [full video below fold]; the segment below is specifically about Donald Trump, RFK Jr and the state […]

The post Tucker Carlson Discusses President Trump, RFK Jr and American Politics with Russell Brand appeared first on The Last Refuge.

Laura Loomer Talks Republican Politics with Steve Bannon [The Last Refuge]

An awful lot of the people who live in a world of affluence and influence afforded by professional republican politics do not like Laura Loomer. However, what she had accomplished with sunlight on their backroom operations deserves a lot of respect. Earlier today Laura Loomer appeared on the Steve Bannon podcast to review the California […]

The post Laura Loomer Talks Republican Politics with Steve Bannon appeared first on The Last Refuge.

Sailer: CDC Today Confirms My January 4, 2023 Estimate That Homicides Were Down 5% in 2022 [VDARE & premier news outlet for patriotic immigration reform]

Earlier: Good News: Murder Is Down, Bad News—Still Well Above Any Year In This Century Before George [...]

Black/Muslim Riots In France: Absimilation In Action [VDARE & premier news outlet for patriotic immigration reform]

France got her very own George Floyd riots this week—mostly last weekend, actually—following the poli [...]

Bill de Blasio Deforming Marriage [Victory Girls Blog]

In this evening’s late edition of The Victory Girls Blog, I bring you a sad and disturbing event. Bill de Blasio and his wife of 30 years, Chirlane McCray, are set to deform marriage. The former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife have decided to separate and also wanted to share it with the rest of us; how progressive they are.

We will get to the real grit in just a moment, but first, I wanted to show you the kind of filth that is being promoted from this so-called ‘breakup’ of a 30-year marriage.

The New York Post thought it’d be cute to ask who would like to date the former NYC mayor now that he’s sort of single. They went about the streets asking ladies if they’d take a gander at the famous 62-year-old out-of-work politician. And the loons did not disappoint. I’ll list some quotes for you, and you may want some pepto bismol handy.

Tatyana Burika, a 40-something artist living in the Financial District, was enthusiastic about meeting the lifelong public servant with socialist leanings.

“Yes. The fact that he was mayor is enough for me. He must be smart. I am Russian and traditional, so I will adopt to my man’s politics, whatever they are,” she told The Post. “Plus I have a fetish for tall guys and he is handsome.” New York Post article linked above.

Sweetheart, I have some news for you; being traditional doesn’t mean you go along with your man’s politics. But she’s Russian, so who knows.

Next up, we have Tiko Texas with her shameless fame-seeking self.

“He got money, he like chocolate, why not,” she told The Post, referring to his three-decade long relationship with McCray, who is black.

Even when she learned de Blasio wasn’t a money-bags mayor like billionaire Michael Bloomberg, Texas still found his Rolodex enticing.

“I’m down to have a drink and see what fun we could get into. Vibe it out. He’s highly connected. Put me in the door,” she said, adding that she was fine with his unorthodox living arrangement.

That’s enough right there. You can read the whole article to see the other fools, goons, and grifters.

What’s Really Happening Here?

Let’s move on to the real meat of the situation.

When one thinks of a married couple separating, you may think they are divorcing. That’s usually what it means.

Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray announced their separation Wednesday — blaming his long-derided political career for torpedoing their nearly three-decade marriage. – New York Post

Except they aren’t really separating. Not in the sense that one might think. In fact, they are still going to live under the same roof and are going to stay married. Instead, they will start dating other people while living together and while being married.

I don’t know what neck of the woods you are from, but where I am from, that’s called an open marriage.

De Blasio and McCray, who’s previously identified as a lesbian, will remain married and continue living together in their Park Slope, Brooklyn abode as they date other people, they said in an hours-long sit down with the New York Times. – New York Post

I hate to see a marriage break up, but this is not a breakup. This is an in-your-face progressive agenda to, yet again, fundamentally transform America.

Chirlane McCray, Bill de Blasio are ‘still very much in love,’ hope to become a ‘model’ for other couples https://t.co/DwLtyHEYcj pic.twitter.com/6DtGlVKjmQ

— New York Post (@nypost) July 5, 2023

Well, there ya go. They just admitted wanting to be a role model for other couples to deform the sacred union of marriage. This is nothing new for liberals. They are hell-bent on destroying the American family and all of its traditions. And if you are not on board, you are a stupid simpleton, a white supremacist, an ultra-MAGA domestic terrorist, or determined to take this country backward.

What Others Are Saying

Megyn Kelly and Kirk Cameron share their thoughts:

And whoa, some think there is more to the breakup than meets the eye. While searching on Twitter for more spilled tea about the split, I found several people with some things to Tweet out, saying Bill no longer needs her since he’s not seeking political office. Is this Twitter user implying he only used her race to launch his political career when they typed, “She is no longer needed for your political career in NYC, so no need to continue the sham any longer.” Interpret that however you see fit. Personally, I don’t think that is the case.

But McCray did identify as a lesbian before the two married, which might have been a clue that the union might not work in the long run. I’m surprised it lasted 30 years. I suspect they’ve had an open relationship for quite some time, and they are only making it public now to show other liberals that it’s okay to crush the traditionalists because they will never be satisfied until all of American Christian values are dead.

Feature Image: Caio/Wedding Rings/Pexels/Legal Simplicity – All photos and videos on Pexels can be downloaded and used for free.

The post Bill de Blasio Deforming Marriage appeared first on Victory Girls Blog.

Double Digit Polling For Vivek Ramaswamy [Victory Girls Blog]

I have a confession to make: I love Vivek Ramaswamy. I have loved him since 2021 when he wrote Woke, Inc. and, if I recall correctly, he was on Tucker Carlson. Then, I found out he was raised in Cincinnati; I was raised in Cincinnati, and I was done. When he announced he was running in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary and I was done. Love, love, love him. This early in the game Ramaswamy is polling in the double digits ahead of very well-known names like Asa Hutchison, Nikki Haley and Chris Christie. Hallelujah!

November, 2024 is a long way away and there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. We don’t talk about President Jeb! Bush or President Carly Fiorina, because they couldn’t cut the mustard. Vivek Ramaswamy is different. He is smart and he can articulate ideas. Not necessarily new ideas, but Conservative ideas in a fresh way. Elizabeth Stauffer of the Washington Examiner wrote:

A first-generation American, Vivek Ramaswamy is quite the accomplished person. He was “a nationally ranked tennis player and the valedictorian of his high school, St. Xavier. He went on to graduate summa cum laude in Biology from Harvard and received his J.D. from Yale Law School, while working at a hedge fund. He then started a biotech company, Roivant Sciences, where he oversaw the development of five drugs that went on to become FDA-approved,” according to his campaign website.

He’s run a business and met a payroll. More:

Ramaswamy is also surging in the latest national survey of 2024 Republican presidential primary candidates. A new poll conducted by Echelon Insights between June 26 and June 29 showed his support at 10% among likely voters, catapulting the newcomer into third place behind former President Donald Trump, at 49%, and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), at 16%. The survey puts Ramaswamy ahead of his nearest rivals, including former Vice President Mike Pence (5%), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (5%), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) (4%), and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (2%).

This result, of course, could turn out to be an outlier. The RealClearPolitics polling average showed Ramaswamy’s support at just 2.4%, putting him behind Trump (52.4%), DeSantis (21.5%), Pence (5.7%), Haley (3.6%), and Scott (3.5%) and on par with Christie (2.4%). The polls included in the RealClearPolitics average were taken between June 5-26, and they showed Ramaswamy’s support increasing throughout the month. The most recent, a Fox News poll of registered voters conducted between June 23-26, showed Ramaswamy at 5%.

Ramaswamy is just barely old enough to qualify to run for President at 37 years old. I am not holding that against him. He’s not holier than thou like Mike Pence. And, I want a hard fought primary. The harder the primary the more the candidate is prepared for the General Election fight. I love smashmouth politics. I don’t want a coronation. I want our candidates to have a tough time, but they shouldn’t have to put up with egotistical loons like Eric Bolling who told Ramaswamy that he (Bolling) didn’t think he (Ramaswamy) would be President.

A little more from the Washington Examiner:

I was impressed with the anti-woke Ramaswamy from the moment I first heard him speak back in February. He enumerates 10 fundamental “truths” on his website that many conservatives can rally behind:
God is real.
There are two genders.
Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
Reverse racism is racism.
An open border is no border.
Parents determine the education of their children.
The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.
There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.
The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.

On his Vivek 2024 website, he has more for you to chew on. Ideas like this:

01
Revive American National Identity

Use the military, including drones, to secure our southern border

End affirmative action: repeal Lyndon Johnson’s executive order 11246

Protect American children: ban addictive social media under age 16 & gender confusion “care” for minors

Make political expression a civil right & end unlawful DEI indoctrination

Withhold federal funding for cities that refuse to protect Americans from violent crime

Here Vivek Ramaswamy is on China, Mexico, Ukraine and Russia:

“ESG stands for Export Soviet Gas”.

I kind of felt sorry for Abby Phillip trying to take on Ramaswamy:

We live in a constitutional *Republic*, not a direct democracy. I favor ending birthright citizenship for those whose parents entered the country *illegally* because we shouldn’t reward those who violate the law with the intent of exploiting the citizenship rules. That’s not what… pic.twitter.com/CwMfyrTWug

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 7, 2023

Give Vivek Ramaswamy a twirl and see how he does in the Republican Primaries. I heart him a lot.

Featured Image: Gage Skidmore/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons

The post Double Digit Polling For Vivek Ramaswamy appeared first on Victory Girls Blog.

PineTab2 [PINE64 - Recent changes [en]]

USB c to USB c is tested

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:51, 7 July 2023
Line 245:		Line 245:

	* An Android phone		* An Android phone
	* A USB OTG adapter (USB-C to USB-C ~~may~~ work~~, not tested~~)		* A USB OTG adapter (the USB-C to USB-C also work)
	* Some knowledge of your variation of Android		* Some knowledge of your variation of Android

Tucker Carlson: Capitol Police Chief Told Me January 6 Crowd Was “Filled with Feds” [The Daily Fetched]

Tucker Carlson told Russel Brand during his podcast that the January 6 crowd was filled by federal agents, according to the Chief of Police at the Capitol in charge of security that day.

We already know about Ray Epps, but who else?

“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 Carlson said.

“But Steven Sund was the totally non-political, worked for Nancy Pelosi,” he added.

“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…'” Carlson added.

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

Senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy, Michael Waller, said he witnessed the following on January 6 at the Capitol:

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
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.

There were also reports of Antifa members at the Capitol protest.

The media used the Capitol riot to smear Trump supporters, despite Antifa terrorists infiltrating the Trump rally.

Investigative reporter Paul Sperry wrote on Twitter:

“Former FBI agent on the ground at the U.S. Capitol just texted me and confirmed that at least 1 “busload” of Antifa thugs infiltrated peaceful Trump demonstrators as part of 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

READ: Ray Epps Claimed He Believed Capitol Building Was ‘Open To Public’ on Jan 6

The post Tucker Carlson: Capitol Police Chief Told Me January 6 Crowd Was “Filled with Feds” appeared first on The Daily Fetched.

Diablo Cody Talks Scrapped Barbie Script [Geeks + Gamers]

In an interview with GQ Magazine, Diablo Cody reveals the fate of her Barbie script (the one which would have started Amy Schumer.) Check out an excerpt here:

“I think I know why I shit the bed,” she said. “When I was first hired for this, I don’t think the culture had not embraced the femme or the bimbo as valid feminist archetypes yet. If you look up Barbie on TikTok, you’ll find this wonderful subculture that celebrates the feminine, but in 2014, taking this skinny blonde white doll and making her into a heroine was a tall order.”

“That idea of an anti-Barbie made a lot of sense given the feminist rhetoric of ten years ago,” Cody said. “I didn’t really have the freedom then to write something that was faithful to the iconography; they wanted a girl-boss feminist twist on Barbie, and I couldn’t figure it out because that’s not what Barbie is.”

In short, Sony and Schumer wanted a punchy Barbie-hating movie. That’s unsurprising, but it’s nice to hear from someone who didn’t want to do that. When this movie was announced, that’s exactly the type of product I was afraid of. I’ve always loved Barbie and don’t have the gender-related, body-related, or other issues with the doll that others do. I’m still a bit concerned and will be until I see it, but the final movie looks much better than Cody’s reports.

The post Diablo Cody Talks Scrapped Barbie Script appeared first on Geeks + Gamers.

Bidenomics: 90% of Jobs Created Were Lost in the Pandemic [www.independentsentinel.com]

Joe Biden, the 81 million vote man, is running on his economic record, which is abysmal. Democrats don’t seem worried about him losing, which is baffling since Bidenomics are a disaster. Steve Bannon spoke with E. J. Antoni of Heritage, who clarified how bad Bidenomics is. This Congress continues to overspend and works at cross […]

The post Bidenomics: 90% of Jobs Created Were Lost in the Pandemic first appeared on www.independentsentinel.com.

Police Chief Says J6 Crowd Was “Filled with Federal Agents” [www.independentsentinel.com]

In an appearance on Rusty Rockets, Tucker Carlson told host Russell Brand that the Capitol Hill Police Chief said the J6 crowd was “filled with federal agents.” Tucker said he was fired before he could air an interview with the non-political Chief Sund. The interview was never aired. 🚨BREAKING: Tucker Carlson says the Chief of […]

The post Police Chief Says J6 Crowd Was “Filled with Federal Agents” first appeared on www.independentsentinel.com.

Community wants cop fired after he shot golden retriever in front of family [Law Officer]

Lorain, Ohio – A town in Ohio is outraged and calling for the termination of a police officer after he fatally shot a loose golden retriever in front of the pup’s horrified family. Lorain Officer Elliott Palmer shot and killed Dixie, a 3 year old Golden Retriever after she approached him on Sunday. Palmer has […]

Former Minnesota police chief claims city fired him because he’s white [Law Officer]

By Anthony Gockowski GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. – Former interim Golden Valley Police Chief Scott Nadeau, a white male, claims in a federal lawsuit filed last week that he was effectively fired because of his race. The lawsuit, which seeks at least $75,000 in damages, accuses city leaders of violating the Civil Rights Act by discriminating […]

Michael Jordan a Palermo, la leggenda Nba a Marina di Villa Igiea [Attualità]

Uno dei più grandi sportivi di tutti i tempi è in vacanza a Palermo. A bordo di uno yacht da sogno, Michael Jordan, leggenda del basket, è approdato oggi a Marina di Villa Igiea. L'ex fuoriclasse dei Chicago Bulls è stato immortalato a più riprese dai curiosi che lo hanno intercettato nel molo...

Iran opens key road between Tehran and Caspian Sea [Presstv]

US announces to send banned cluster bombs to Ukraine [Presstv]

Death toll rises in Israel's killing spree in West Bank [Presstv]

Dutch government collapses over migrants [RT - Daily news]

The tenuous ruling coalition could not agree on how to handle asylum-seekers and refugees

Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands submitted his resignation to the king on Friday, after the four-party ruling coalition could not reach common ground on migrant policy. The caretaker cabinet will hold office until a new general election.

“Migration is a major political and social issue,” Rutte told reporters in The Hague on Friday evening. “Now that we have been unable to find agreement on this, we have collectively assessed that the political support under the coalition has disappeared.”

The four coalition members have “very different views on migration policy,” he added. “And today, unfortunately, we have to draw the conclusion that those differences are irreconcilable.”

King Willem-Alexander has been notified of the government's resignation. Rutte will stay on as the caretaker PM until a new general election, which will probably happen in November.

The main bone of contention at Friday’s coalition meeting was the proposal to limit the number of refugees and asylum-seekers in the country of 18 million that is already facing a housing shortage. Rutte’s People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Christian Democrats wanted to limit the number of relatives who could follow asylum-seekers already in the country at 200 per year, and create a separate category for war refugees and those fleeing political persecution. The other two partners, D66 and the Christian Union, opposed “breaking up families.”

The Netherlands received 46,000 asylum applications in 2022, with the government projecting it might see as many as 70,000 this year, more than the previous high recorded in 2015. The country has also taken in about 95,000 Ukrainians under “temporary protection” until March 2025.

Rutte has been prime minister since October 2010, as part of four different ruling coalitions. The most recent one was put together in January 2022, after the longest negotiations in Dutch political history. The four-party bloc ended up with just 77 seats in the 150-member parliament.

“Quick elections now,” Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party, tweeted after Rutte’s announcement. The Green Left leader Jesse Klaver also called for a new parliament, telling the public broadcaster NOS that the country “needs a change of direction.”

US preparing ‘Israel-style’ security guarantees for Ukraine – Biden [RT - Daily news]

Kiev is not yet ready for NATO membership, the US leader told CNN

The US is willing to offer Kiev a sort of security arrangement currently offered to Israel instead of membership in NATO, President Joe Biden told CNN in an interview previewed on Friday.

“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in NATO,” Biden said of Ukraine. “I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war.”

Membership in the US-led military bloc means the commitment to defend all of its territory, so “if the war is going on, then we’re all in a war. We’re at war with Russia, if that were the case,” Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

Ukraine has demanded an invitation from NATO, or at least an announcement of when it might be ready to bring it on board, at the upcoming summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. The octogenarian US president said it was “premature” to call for a vote right now and described NATO as “a process that takes some time” and involves reforms such as democratization. The US needs to present a “rational path” for Ukraine to qualify for membership, Biden said.

“And one of the things I indicated is, the United States would be ready to provide, while the process was going on, and that’s gonna take a while, to provide security a la the security we provide for Israel: providing the weaponry they need, the capacity to defend themselves,” Biden said, adding, “If there is an agreement, if there is a ceasefire, if there is a peace agreement.”

It was not clear what he meant by that, as Kiev has rejected any talk of a “frozen conflict” or ceasefire, the US has pledged not to negotiate about Ukraine without the Ukrainians, while Russia has said it will not deal with President Vladimir Zelensky, but only with his Western handlers.

The “Israel model” was first mentioned last month by the New York Times, which described it as a time-limited commitment to maintain the flow of Western weapons to Ukraine. The US and its allies have supplied Kiev with over $100 billion in weapons, ammunition and equipment in 2022 alone, according to Russian military estimates.

Biden told Zakaria that his priority was “holding NATO together” because it was his assessment and that of the US intelligence community that breaking the bloc was one of Russia’s policy objectives. He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had asked for a US commitment that Ukraine would not join NATO at the summit in Geneva two years ago, but that Biden refused citing the bloc’s “open door policy.”

Supplying cluster bombs an act of ‘desperation’ by US – Moscow [RT - Daily news]

The escalatory move is also an admission of Ukraine’s failure, a senior Russian diplomat has said

The US decision to include cluster munitions in its latest batch of military aid to Kiev is an admission of failure and a desperate attempt to stave off defeat, Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Friday.

“Cluster munitions are a gesture of desperation. Such a measure speaks of the awareness of the United States and its satellites of their impotence,” Antonov told reporters. “However, they do not want to admit their own setbacks and the failure of the Ukrainian military’s attempts to carry out an offensive against the Russian regions. Therefore, they commit new acts of madness.”

Washington continues to raise the stakes in the conflict “with tenacity worthy of a better use,” Antonov noted, calling the current level of US provocations “really off the scale, bringing humanity closer to a new world war.”

The White House and the Pentagon confirmed on Friday that the US will be sending dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) to Ukraine. One of the reasons cited was that the West was running short of conventional 155mm artillery ammunition.

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told reporters at the Pentagon that the decision was driven by “the urgency of the moment” and the desire to keep the Ukrainians fighting. Kiev’s long-heralded offensive has delivered little to no gains in over a month of battles, in which Ukraine lost scores of Western-supplied tanks and other armored vehicles and more than 10,000 casualties, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Antonov pointed out that the US move ignored concerns coming from Washington’s allies – most of whom have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions – as well as the misgivings of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“What’s striking is the cruelty and cynicism with which Washington approached the issue of transferring deadly weapons to Kiev,” the ambassador said. “The administration completely ignored the arguments about the inhumanity of such a step voiced by experts, human rights activists and lawmakers, turning a blind eye to civilian casualties. Now, through the fault of the United States, for many years there will be a risk that innocent civilians will be blown up by malfunctioning submunitions.”

Toxic ’forever chemicals’ found in nearly half US drinking water – study [RT - Daily news]

Chemicals known as PFAS can cause decreased fertility, developmental issues, cancer, and hormone disruptions

Nearly half – 45% – of all US tap water contains at least one of a class of toxic endocrine-disrupting chemicals known as polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), according to a report from the US Geological Survey published Wednesday.

Called “forever chemicals” because they take a very long time to break down, the substances are even more likely to be found in and near cities, with 75% of urban samples containing at least one PFAS. Just 25% of rural areas were likewise contaminated, according to the study, while contamination levels were similar between public and private water supplies.

All measured levels of PFAS compounds were found to be above the health advisory levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

While USGS sampled tap water drawn from 716 different kitchen sinks for the presence of 32 different PFAS, the agency acknowledged that there were over 12,000 types and many cannot be detected with existing tests – meaning the problem is likely even worse than its report suggests.

Used to make nonstick pans, fire extinguisher foam, grease-resistant food wrappings, and other common household items, PFAS have dwindled in popularity as the public has become aware of their links to chronic and deadly conditions. This awareness of the harms caused by forever chemicals arrived decades after the chemicals’ producers had learned their products were both leaching into groundwater and bio-accumulating in humans.

PFAS are known to wreak medical havoc on human and animal bodies, with links to decreased fertility, developmental problems in children, cancer, high cholesterol, liver and kidney disease, and endocrine (hormone) disruption. Because they do not break down, they bio-accumulate, meaning each successive generation carries more of them in their tissues. The vast majority of Americans’ bloodstreams are contaminated by forever chemicals.

Despite the evidence, PFAS manufacturers like DuPont and 3M have categorically denied their products cause harm to people. Because these companies spend millions on lobbying Congress, initiatives to ban them, like the one that passed the House in 2021, have fallen short of becoming law, aside from a handful of exceptions in states like Maine.

In November, California sued 18 manufacturers of PFAS, alleging they had been aware their products were “toxic and harmful to human health and the environment” but opted to hide that from their customers. While 3M, Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva all reached settlements this year of $1 billion or more regarding their knowledge of the health effects of PFAS, the settlements were structured so as not to include an admission of liability. However, 3M has pledged to stop producing PFAS by the end of 2025.

Ukraine labels US peace advocates ‘traitors’ [RT - Daily news]

A Kiev official fumed over American “imperialism” after a controversial NBC report

Americans who reportedly discussed peace in Ukraine behind Kiev’s back are traitors and imperialists, an ambassador at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has said in response to a news story claiming that such talks took place.

“So, a group of anonymous US tankies discussing Ukraine with Russia behind Ukraine’s back? There’re [sic] another words to describe it: treason, betrayal, and pure imperialism,” tweeted Alexander Scherba, Kiev’s “ambassador for strategic communications” and a former envoy to Austria.

He was reacting to a NBC News report, based entirely on anonymous sources, which claimed that a group of former US national security officials have been conducting “track two” talks with “prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin” for the past several months.

US President Joe Biden’s administration found issues with the NBC story, disavowing any role in the alleged talks. Washington “did not sanction those discussions,” a State Department spokesman said in a statement on Thursday.

Meanwhile, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CBS News that, while the White House was “aware” of the unofficial contacts, “I want to make it clear that these discussions were not encouraged or engendered by us and we were not supporting them in any active way.”

Richard Haass, the former head of the Council on Foreign Relations who was reportedly involved in the talks, mentioned the NBC report in a Substack post on Friday, seeking to address “some legitimate interest in my position mixed in with nasty, ad hominem attacks.”

Haass said he was “present” at the meeting between “several former senior US national security officials and a group of Russian diplomats led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov” that allegedly took place in April. No such meeting was acknowledged on Lavrov’s agenda during his visit to New York to chair the UN Security Council.

Moscow has described the NBC News report as “fake” and “disinformation,” without going into any details.

Russia has long said it has nothing to negotiate with the Ukrainian leadership, and will only deal with those in the West who are pulling its strings. The US has said that it will never discuss Ukraine without the direct involvement of Ukrainians. Kiev, meanwhile, insists that the only framework for ending the conflict is President Vladimir Zelensky’s “peace formula,” which would amount to Russian capitulation and has been rejected by Moscow as delusional.

German intel tapped calls between Lukashenko & Prigozhin – media [RT - Daily news]

Berlin’s spies previously faced criticism for allegedly not informing their government in advance about the mutiny in Russia

Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) reportedly wiretapped communications between Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Wagner Group founder, Evgeny Prigozhin, the nation’s ARD Media Group reported on Friday. The two held talks by phone that ended the private military company’s rebellion in Russia in late June.

Berlin’s spies learned about Lukashenko’s role as a mediator and were able to follow the discussions using “their own sources,” ARD reported, citing investigation by the NDR and WDR broadcasters, which are part of the media group.

The BND “apparently witnessed the crucial conversation,” the reports said, though they did not reveal any new information about the talks which had not already been revealed by Lukashenko himself.

A BND spokesman refused to comment on the claim, saying the agency “generally does not comment publicly on matters relating to any intelligence findings or activities.” He neither confirmed nor denied the information.

Media reports recently suggested that the intel service had failed to inform the German government about the mutiny until it was in full swing, when Wagner fighters had already taken control of parts of the city of Rostov-on-Don and were marching towards Moscow.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the media that Berlin’s spies “didn’t know beforehand” about the Wagner Group’s plans and only “reported what could be observed.”

According to ARD, however, the BND had seen “vague indications” that the private military company was plotting an uprising about a week before it occurred. It failed to verify the information through contact with its partners, the media group added.

US media has reported that Washington’s spy agencies knew about Prigozhin’s plans in advance and briefed the White House and the Pentagon several days before the mutiny. The first warning from the BND to the Chancellor’s office in Berlin reportedly came on the evening of July 23, however, just hours before Wagner’s fighters began their march.

BND chief Bruno Kahl answered questions from MPs about his agency’s handling of the episode on Wednesday, ARD said.

German intelligence also failed to predict the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine last year. Kahl even traveled to Kiev in late February 2022 and had to be hastily evacuated in a special convoy when Moscow launched its military operation.

The German media group also reported that the BND hacked into Wagner’s internal communications last year and were “quite well-informed” about its inner workings. That wiretapping was reportedly revealed to Moscow by an employee identified as Carsten L., who is currently facing treason charges in Germany.

Prigozhin staged a brief coup attempt in late June in what he described as an effort to oust senior Russian military officials, whom he accused of treason. He quickly abandoned his plans after crisis talks with Lukashenko, who offered to host him in Belarus and provided security guarantees to him and his fighters as part of a deal between the Wagner Group and Moscow.

White Lines at the White House [SteynOnline]

Thank you very much to those who tuned into our live Clubland Q&A earlier today, and to the Mark Steyn Club members who sent in such great questions. With the Mark Steyn Cruise sailing down the Adriatic, SteynOnline In-House Jewish Mother Laura Rosen

Threads doesn't have ads, but Meta representatives are talking with ad agencies and brands, some of which, like Netflix and Wendy's, already have many followers (Garett Sloane/Ad Age) [Techmeme]

Garett Sloane / Ad Age:
Threads doesn't have ads, but Meta representatives are talking with ad agencies and brands, some of which, like Netflix and Wendy's, already have many followers — Meta promises more features that will make Threads even closer to Twitter as the rivalry heats up

X Corp. sues Wachtell to recover most of the $90M fee the law firm received from Twitter for defeating Elon Musk's bid to walk away from his $44B Twitter buyout (Jonathan Stempel/Reuters) [Techmeme]

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
X Corp. sues Wachtell to recover most of the $90M fee the law firm received from Twitter for defeating Elon Musk's bid to walk away from his $44B Twitter buyout — Elon Musk has sued the elite law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to recover most of a $90 million fee it received from Twitter …

How Lockdowns Bolstered an Industrial Cartel [The Burning Platform]

By Jeffrey A. Tucker

Among the many grim memories from the depths of lockdowns were boarded up local shops and long lines outside the big-box stores like WalMart, Kroger, Whole Foods, and Home Depot. For very strange reasons, small business was universally declared to be nonessential whereas the big chains were deemed essential.

This amounted to a massive industrial subsidy to large companies, which emerged from the pandemic period richer and more bloated than ever. Meanwhile, millions of small businesses were utterly wrecked.

Nearly every day, my inbox fills with tragic stories of family businesses that were just getting going when the lockdowns came and destroyed everything. Not enough of these stories were ever told. Major media were not interested.

The government loans (PPP), later mostly forgiven, could not possibly make up the difference for the losses from old-fashioned revenue. In addition, their supply chains were wrecked because they were either starved for business or gobbled up by the large companies. There are no firm numbers but it is possible 25-40 percent of small businesses closed permanently. Dreams were shattered and millions of jobs were disrupted or destroyed.

As a result, retail trade (declared nonessential except for chosen businesses) has yet to recover in employment, despite the frantic hiring. Neither has hospitality. However, the information sector (declared essential across the board) is larger than ever.

It was a brutal attack on commercial freedom but what a way to gain an industrial advantage!

The American economy is supposed to rest on competition as an ideal. This was the opposite. Lockdowns were the bolstering of industrial cartels, particularly in the information sector. Even today, all these companies benefit from this period in which they were able to deploy their unfair advantages against their smaller competitors. The entire disaster was an attack on property rights, free enterprise, and the competitive economy.

Incredibly, the regulators offered a public-health rationale. They were issuing every manner of edict concerning ventilation, social distancing, plexiglass, silly stickers everywhere, and capacity restrictions. Later these companies added vaccine mandates. These all benefited the large corporations and exterminated the small businesses that could not afford to comply or could not risk alienating labor with shot demands.

Consider the capacity restrictions alone. If you are a restaurant that serves 350-500 people – like Golden Corral – a capacity limit of 50 percent isn’t going to hit the bottom line too hard. It’s rare even in normal times for these places to fill up. But across the street, you have a family-owned coffee shop with seating for 10. It is almost always packed. Cutting that by half is devastating. It cannot survive.

It was the same with the distancing requirements. Only the largest businesses could implement and enforce them.

I can recall standing outside waiting in lines to be chosen to be the next person entitled to go into the store. As I approached the door some masked-up employee would sanitize a shopping cart and push it my way so as to maintain six feet of distance. Smaller and local shops could not afford to hire extra employees for such ridiculous jobs and needed to serve everyone who showed up. Only the well-heeled places could afford such antics.

And that is precisely why the large corporations did not complain too much about lockdowns. They watched their bottom lines swell even as their competitors were crushed. It was the perfect embodiment of Milton Friedman’s dictum that big business is often the biggest enemy of genuine capitalism. They far prefer industrial cartels of the sort created during the lockdowns.

If we look back at 20th century commercial history, we observe that in totalitarian societies, such cartels thrive. This was true in the Soviet Union, which featured state-owned companies that held a full monopoly not only in its stores but also for the products they would sell: one brand of everything you need. The principle of essential and nonessential thrived under Soviet communism like never before.

But it was the same in fascist-style economic structures too. The German economy under Nazi rule privileged the largest industrial players who became agents of state power: this was true for Volkswagen, Krupp, Farben, and a host of munitions manufacturers. It was the opposite of a competitive economy. It was socialism with German characteristics. Italy, Spain, and France did the same.

Prevailing intellectual opinion in the 1930s celebrated the cartelization of industry as more “scientific” and less wasteful than competitive free markets. Fashionable books at the time cheered on the way such cartels made possible scientific planning for the whole of society. Reading through Benito Mussolini’s manifesto on fascism today prompts the question: once you replace nation with globe, what precisely would the WEF disagree with here?

Fascism asserts not the rights of commerce but its fundamental duty to serve the state. What can be more consistent with this view than the claim that some businesses are essential to state priorities and others are not?

This is what was created during lockdowns in the US and around the world. I’ve tended to think that this was all an outgrowth of disease panic and bad thinking. Well intentioned policy that went very badly. But what if it wasn’t? What if the whole point of the industrial segregation and cartel creation was to run a real-time test of the full vision of a corporatist state? It’s not a crazy speculation.

The case of Amazon is particularly intriguing. It benefited massively from lockdowns. Meanwhile, its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, had already bought the Washington Post, which very aggressively and daily pushed the lockdown narrative throughout the entire period. There is nothing wrong with gratitude for Amazon’s performance throughout but the involvement of its founder and CEO in actively pushing for lockdowns, anxious to prolong them as long as possible, raises alarm bells.

Or have a look at the March 2020 viral article called “The Hammer and the Dance,” pushed hard by all the major social-media outlets. The man who signed it is Tomas Pueyo, an educational entrepreneur pushing digital learning. He and the industry he represents made a windfall from lockdowns.

The companies that massively benefited from lockdowns have been forced to pull back in hiring due to higher interest rates, but they are still much larger than they were pre-lockdown. They will cling to their power and market domination through all means fair and foul.

How to dislodge them and restore competition?

The historical precedent is postwar Germany. When Ludwig Erhard took over as finance minister following the destruction of the Nazi government, he worked to dismantle industrial cartels but faced massive resistance. The richest and most powerful corporate actors pushed back against his introduction of competition. You can read his story in the great 1958 book Prosperity through Competition.

His priority focus was on decentralization, deregulation, cuts and eliminations of taxes that are barriers to business formation, bolstering property rights, ending subsidies, stabilizing the current, and otherwise encouraging as much freedom in the economic sphere.

“Freedom for the consumer and freedom to work must be explicitly recognized as inviolable basic rights by every citizen,” Erhard wrote. “To offend against them should be regarded as an outrage against society. Democracy and a free economy are as logically linked as are dictatorship and State controls.”

His efforts produced the “German economic miracle,” during which time the German economy grew an annual average of 8.5 percent between 1948 and 1960, and caused the nation to be the most prosperous in Europe. And this happened at the same time that the UK was adopting ever more socialist and corporativist forms of governance.

The point is that industrial cartelization is not an unusual pattern. Big business has traditionally loathed competition and free enterprise. It would be naive to believe that they had no role in the destruction of American liberty and rights in those fateful days of lockdowns.

The norm in commercial life from the Middle Ages through the modern era has not been competition and freedom but cartelization and despotism, with some exceptions beginning in the late 18th century through the Great War, also known as the great age of liberalism or the Belle Epoque. What followed in the 20th century in many countries– coupled with economic crisis and war – was an egregious public-private partnerships and the regulatory state that benefited the largest corporate players at the expense of start-ups and local companies.

The introduction of digital commerce in the late 20th century threatened a new age of commercial freedom that came to a screeching halt with the lockdowns of 2020. In this sense, lockdowns were not “progressive” at all but profoundly conservative in the old-fashioned sense of the term. It was an establishment fighting to preserve and entrench its power. Perhaps that was the whole point all along.

All those crazy mandates, protocols, and recommendations served some purpose and they sure weren’t disease mitigation. They benefited those institutions that could afford to implement them while punishing their lower-capitalized competition. The response should be obvious: reparations for small business and the restoration of real commercial competition along the lines of postwar Germany.

We need our own Ludwig Erhard. And we need our own miracle.

The Death Of Conservatism [The Burning Platform]

Submitted by DirtPerson Steve

Via The ZMan

It is fair to say that American conservatism is dead, at least the version that has been sold to us by the conservative industrial complex. They still rake in millions from corporate donors, but the public audience for this stuff is largely confined to rest homes in the sun belt. Flag waving and tax breaks for corporations is just not the crowd pleaser it was a decade ago, much less forty years ago. Conservatism as a political force is headed to the dustbin of history.

The question is, why did it fail? Lost in the endless stream of outrage, real and manufactured, is the fact that the winners are ridiculous. Conservatism lost to men in sundresses demanding to wave their genitals in the face of school children. They lost to people who think Hitler is hiding under their bed. They lost to childless middle-aged women drunk on cheap wine, complaining about men on Twitter. It took effort to lose to this collection of bourgeois misfits.

One reason conservatism failed in America is that conservatives could never accept that people lie in politics. In fact, lying is an essential part of politics. The reason is you must paint your opponents as the bad guys and your side as the good guys, which means gross exaggeration. Conservatives never accepted this. Instead, they demanded as much factual accuracy from their side as possible. When people on their side would exaggerate, conservatives were there to set the record straight.

This was not the result of stupidity. American conservatism evolved into the 1980’s as the antidote to politics. They used to make this point in the Reagan years. Conservatism was the lack of politics. Instead, it was just problem solving. That was very appealing to people who did not like rolling around on the mud with left-wing kooks, but it was a terrible way to engage in politics. It is part of what made conservatism the beautiful losers described by Sam Francis.

Related to this was the fact that American conservatism embraced the libertarian idea that people are motivated by rational self-interest. For conservatives in the 20th century, people were not spiritual beings, so much as moist robots who naturally responded to incentives, particularly economic incentives. This is why conservatism was the accounting department for the welfare state. The only way they could relate to their audience was through the jargon of popular economics.

Another result of this was the habit of conservatives to rely on charts and graphs in response to moral claims. The Left would demand we do something about some victim group and conservatives would respond with a table of figures showing that the victims were not really victims. It was not that it made conservatism heartless, but that it made them seem brainless. They kept falling for the same traps, eventually succumbing to the moral claims of the Left.

That is the probably the main failing of American conservatism. To this day they insist that politics is about solving problems. This is false. Politics is always about friends and enemies and those are defined on moral terms. No one wants to fight someone for making a math error. Politics is so nasty and feral because the opponents see one another in moral terms. The other guy is the bad guy because he does not love what you love and hate what you hate.

The Left has always understood this. The reason that the demand for Nazis exceeds the historic global supply is the Left always needs villains. Even when their opponents agree with them, they still call them the worst names in their book. Donald Trump would have been happy to make generous deals with the Democrats, but they needed to hate him more than they wanted a deal. This is why the Left steamrolled conservatives on every issue. They work only in morality, not facts and reason.

This inability to understand what drives politics may explain the inability to accept that their opponents genuinely believe what they are saying. Much of what makes up conservative commentary is a claim that the Left does not actually believe what they are saying, but instead they are using it as cover for money and power. For conservatives, everything is reduced to money and power, because this is what motivates the moist robots they imagine as their audience.

This is why conservatives have always underestimated the Left. Because they cannot accept that these people believe what they are saying, they just assume they will stop saying it once they have money and power. Instead, the Left uses their newly acquired money and power to act on what they said and produce more outlandish things they can push onto society. When you think people are moist robots, you stop believing that people can be evil, which is how evil triumphs.

Finally, the great failure of American conservatism will be seen in the Republican primary that kicks off this summer. The field challenging Trump will insist that everyone must rally around cleaning up the mess created by the Left. They will make the oldest of conservative arguments. That is, you must forget about the crimes committed against you by the other side and instead rally with your fellow citizens, even the ones who hate you, to fight for America!

Of course, this requires you to not get anything you want and instead normalize the latest insanity from the Left. You see, it is your duty as an American to sacrifice your interests for the nebulous concept of America. This was powerful magic forty years ago when the country was 85% white and had a handful of foreigners. In a country being overrun by migrants and hyper-racialized lunatics attacking white people, this rallying cry sounds like a suicide cult.

Robert Lewis Dabney famously described conservatism as “merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition.” This was always true, for sure, but it worked for a long time because the radicals were still aspirational, rather than suicidal. The dialectic between the Left and the Right in American was a useful engine for maintaining the ruling class consensus. One side proposed, the other side opposed, and the consensus was some compromise.

This changed just as conservatism reached its peak. The triumph of conservatism in the 1980’s was followed by the descent of progressivism into the dark, suicidal politics of nihilism and Gnosticism. Conservatives have never come to terms with this and as a result have been a steep decline ever since. As America descends into tribal politics that must follow the transition to majority-minority demographics, conservatism will become a museum piece and then forgotten.

The Second-Most Popular Investment in America? It Might Surprise You [The Burning Platform]

Via Birch Gold Group

From Peter Reagan at Birch Gold Group

This week, Your News to Know rounds up the latest top stories involving gold and the overall economy. Stories include: Gold the second-most popular investment in America, UBS is very bullish on gold, and Chinese city’s golden strongman challenge.

Gold demand to quadruple as its popularity as an investment surges

Recently we’ve documented a groundswell of popularity in gold as an investment. Google searches for how to buy gold recently hit a new record. Central bank gold buying, already fierce, is poised to grow even more.

In short, there’s a “new global gold rush” underway:

Investors all over the world have been looking for a value store: a safe haven from inflation, geopolitical problems and other things that can erode the value of a country’s money.

So it’s no surprise to see that gold is now considered the second-best long-term investment in the U.S. according to Gallup. Polls like these long acted as a fairly accurate gauge of what Americans think right now. Opinions are fickle, as you’d expect – even when focusing on “long-term investments” poll results offer a blend of trendiness and received wisdom.

Gold, despite having more history than any other asset I’m aware of, was only added to the poll in 2011. That’s shocking – less a surprise, though, when we remember that gold had recently hit its previous all-time high of $1,910. The global financial crisis was still fresh in everyone’s minds, along with “quantitative easing” and bank failures and a debt ceiling stand-off.

Sound familiar?

In the most recent poll, gold surged in popularity at the expense of the only other tangible asset Gallup included in the survey: real estate. That’s not too surprising, considering the surge in mortgage rates and the recent decline in real estate prices. When we consider just how expensive to own and illiquid real estate is generally, I’m honestly shocked by real estate’s popularity. (Maybe I shouldn’t be – after all, no matter how much gold you own, you can’t live in it…)

There’s no single reason Americans want to own gold. Take your pick:

Decades-high inflation eroding the purchasing power of currency (not just in the U.S. but around the world)
The appeal of a tangible, physical asset (one of the very few you can hold in your hands)
The desire for a safe-haven asset in a time of economic uncertainty
Uncertainty about the future of the U.S. dollar as a store of value (Why else are central banks hoarding gold? Why is Texas launching its own gold-backed money?)

It’s less a question of why buy gold, more a question of why would you buy anything else? Especially considering that the typical American family isn’t already diversified with gold…

Rick Rule, former CEO of Sprott Holdings and long-time market insider, observed that most Americans simply don’t have exposure to precious metals:

Precious metals-related investments comprise less than one half of one percent of all savings in investment asset classes in the United States. The four-decade mean market share is two percent.

Rule says that a return to the forty-year average of 2% of investments allocated to gold would send prices surging to new records.

Rule believes Americans are finally waking up to the erosion of purchasing power that’s becoming harder and harder to ignore. For their own sakes, I hope they diversify with gold sooner rather than later… The laggards will pay a premium price (if, indeed, there’s any gold available for sale at all) for dragging their heels.

UBS: Three reasons to buy gold as it heads to $2,200

It tells us that UBS is quite enthusiastic about gold when it’s mentioned in two separate editorials, one a daily and the other a more widely-read monthly publication.

UBS says gold is their most preferred asset and the U.S. dollar the least preferred. The greenback’s weakness might catch investors by surprise, says the bank, as the Federal Reserve pauses rate hikes right when other banks begin theirs. This alone will be a massive boost for gold prices in U.S. dollar terms, practically the only currency in which gold prices didn’t hit all-time highs in the last few months.

Their daily letter goes deeper into gold’s appeal right now and offers three three reasons to invest in gold right now: central bank gold demand, the aforementioned dollar weakness and recession risks. UBS took notice of this year’s central bank purchases in Q1 exceeding what was already a record figure year-on-year. The team says that sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine might have altered how central banks approach their balance sheets.

Besides what are looking to be a difficult 6-12 months for the dollar, UBS also elaborated on how recessionary risks are flaring up again. Data that supports this notion includes weaker-than-expected Q1 GDP, six straight months of manufacturing decline and the weakest consumer sentiment since November. Increased difficulties obtaining credit are also likely to cause economic contraction.

With so many tailwinds, UBS expects gold to hit $2,100 by year’s end and $2,200 by March 2024. It’s a fairly conservative forecast, to be sure – many forecasts predict gold will hit $2,200 this year.

Chinese city giving away 25kg gold ingot (if you can pick it up with just one hand)

The most surprising thing about Zhaoyuan’s 25-kilo gold brick challenge might be how much backlash it’s generated. The challenge is a straightforward one: if you can lift the 25kg (60 lbs) gold ingot with just one hand, and hold it in the same position for 25 seconds, it’s yours.

Zhaoyuan, known as China’s gold capital and China’s gold rush city due to its abundant deposits and role in production, doesn’t exactly hide the motives behind the challenge. It’s a unique take on a tourist attraction that is meant to bring visitors, not unlike quite a few other Chinese cities have been doing as of late.

This challenge, though, appears to have rubbed both locals and foreigners the wrong way. Some commenters believe it’s an impossible feat, both due to weight and rules. The ingot’s traditional, trapezoidal shape makes gripping it at all a challenge. Officials have been accused of making up new rules to prevent a second lucky winner from walking away with another $1.5 million gold bar (though in reality, the rules haven’t changed since 2009 and, to date, no one has won).

The ingot on display is most likely only tungsten coated in gold. After all, having $1.5 million on display, fondled and thrown around by strangers would give any self-respecting security guard an anxiety attack. I’ve no doubt Zhaoyuan’s city council can produce an authentic 25kg gold bar. Not paying out as promised, should a contestant finally achieve the challenge, would more than undo all the positive publicity they’ve received to date.

Fifteen years into the challenge, surely there are hundreds of hopefuls doing fingertip push-ups to build the Herculean strength necessary to win the competition. So is this even possible? It will probably depend on how many musclebound competitors are willing to book a trip to Zhaoyuan. (Which, not coincidentally, is exactly what city officials want.)

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The Graveyard of Empires: The Top Investments as the World Order Collapses [The Burning Platform]

By Nick Giambruno

“You have the watches, but we have the time.”

The Taliban often referred to this old Afghan saying when discussing their fight against the Americans.

Ultimately, they were proven correct.

After almost two decades of conflict, an insurgent army from one of the world’s poorest nations inflicted a decisive military defeat on the US, the global superpower that upholds the unipolar world order.

The US government’s total failure in Afghanistan—the longest war in American history—signifies a crucial moment and turning point in world history.

The Soviet Union collapsed about two years after the Red Army was defeated and withdrew from Afghanistan.

As we approach the second anniversary of the American retreat, could a similar fate be in store for the US?

While nobody knows the future, there is an excellent chance that the colossal failure in Afghanistan could accelerate the unraveling of the geopolitical power of the US and the shift to a multipolar world order.

Afghanistan’s strategic position has always made it a coveted prize in the Eurasian landscape.

As shown in the image below, Afghanistan is situated in the center of Eurasia, at the crossroads of China, Iran, and Russia—the three primary challengers to the US-led world order.

This central location is why Afghanistan has enormous geopolitical importance and why the US desired a strategic military presence there.

Source: Ontheworldmap.com

The US military’s presence in Afghanistan was a strategic roadblock to Russia, China, and Iran’s goal of creating a powerful geopolitical group in Eurasia that could challenge the US-led world order.

However, with the Taliban forcing the US military out of Afghanistan, the door to a more coherent geopolitical alliance in Eurasia is now wide open.

In short, failure in Afghanistan is a geopolitical disaster for the US.

For at least the past decade, China, Russia, and Iran have been working on an impressive plan to connect Eurasia—even while the US military was in Afghanistan. This trend will likely speed up now that the US military is no longer physically in their way.

Here’s what they have been working on…

China, Russia, and Iran are constructing a vast network of land-based transportation infrastructure, making the US Navy’s control of the oceans less significant.

China’s New Silk Road project is central to this new system. It aims to bypass the US financial system and the US Navy’s control of sea routes. The project, planned to be operational by 2025, includes high-speed railways, highways, fiber optic cables, energy pipelines, seaports, and airports.

These Eurasian powers are also establishing alternative international organizations for financial, political, and security cooperation, separate from those central to the US-led world order, institutions like NATO, the World Bank, SWIFT, and the IMF.

Some notable examples include the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), launched by China in 2014 and is an alternative to the IMF and World Bank.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led trading bloc created in 2015, allows for the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people among its member countries.

Lastly, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) focuses on military and security collaboration between its members.

If current trends continue, it will result in greater economic, political, and security collaboration among the three main Eurasian nations—China, Russia, and Iran—at the expense of US geopolitical interests.

This scenario is exactly what Zbigniew Brzezinski worried would make the US “geopolitically peripheral.” It spells the end of the unipolar world order.

In short, we are on the path to the emergence of an alliance of powerful Eurasian countries and a multipolar world order.

As the world order changes, I think there are two prominent investment outcomes we can bet on.

Outcome #1: The US Dollar Will Lose Its Privileged Position

The decline of America’s geopolitical influence is another enormous headwind for the US dollar.

Suppose the world thinks the US military is the ultimate backstop of the US dollar. What does it mean for the US dollar’s credibility when a ragtag group of insurgents from one of the poorest countries can defeat the military which backs it?

If the mighty US military couldn’t secure its partners in Afghanistan, how can it protect its other allies?

Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Western European countries, and the Gulf Arab states are likely pondering this.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see them make security arrangements with US adversaries—such as China, Russia, and Iran—that exclude the Americans.

In fact, this has already happened with Saudi Arabia, a crucial player in the US-led world order. Saudi Arabia is the linchpin of the petrodollar system, which has underpinned the US dollar since Nixon removed its last links to gold in 1971.

In a matter of weeks, Saudi Arabia has:

Restored relations with Iran.
Restored relations with Syria and welcomed it back to Arab League.
Supported multiple OPEC+ oil production cuts against American wishes.
Announced an end to the war in Yemen.
Agreed to sell oil in other currencies.
Decided to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The US recently sent its CIA director to Riyadh to tell the Saudis the Americans feel “blindsided” amid these seismic shifts in Saudi foreign policy.

In short, a paradigm shift in Saudi policies signifies a paradigm shift in the US dollar because of the petrodollar system.

However, Saudi Arabia is not the only US ally hedging its geopolitical bets recently. France, India, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, and others are making moves to cozy up to the Eurasian geopolitical block.

The big question is, how long will the world continue to hold the paper liabilities of a bankrupt and declining government?

While the US dollar is the leading global currency, it was already on a path of inevitable debasement and eventual collapse—even before considering the compounding effects of a multipolar world order.

The only reason the US government has managed to avoid severe consequences from its monetary policies is the US dollar’s status as the world’s premiere reserve currency, thanks to Washington’s military and economic dominance that has prevailed since the end of World War II. However, as this dominance wanes, so will the dollar’s purchasing power.

The US government’s ability to hide the effects of its rampant money printing by offloading trillions of dollars to foreigners is nearing its end.

That’s terrible news for the US dollar.

Now, that doesn’t mean I’m excited about the Chinese fiat currency—or whatever new monetary concoction the Eurasian block comes up with. Ultimately it will be nothing more than the liability of a new grouping of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.

Money is simply something useful for storing and exchanging value. That’s it.

People have used stones, glass beads, salt, cattle, seashells, gold, silver, and other commodities as money at different times.

Think of money as a claim on human time. It’s like stored life or energy.

Unfortunately, today most of humanity thoughtlessly accepts whatever worthless digital and paper scrips their governments give them as money.

However, money does not need to come from the government. That’s a total misnomer that the average person has been hoodwinked into believing.

Fake money comes from government. Real money emerges from the market.

Government currencies are terrible money because they are easy to produce with a potentially unlimited supply.

The free market wouldn’t choose government confetti as money without laws forcing their use.

Here’s another way to think of it.

Imagine if Tony Soprano forced his neighborhood to use pieces of paper with his signature as money and threatened violence against anyone who disobeyed. That’s what governments are doing with their currencies.

Here’s the bottom line with money. Hardness is the most important characteristic of a good money.

Hardness does not mean something that is necessarily tangible or physically hard, like metal. Instead, it means “hard to produce.” By contrast, “easy money” is easy to produce.

The best way to think of hardness is “resistance to debasement,” which helps make it a good store of value—an essential function of money.

Would you want to put your savings into something somebody else can create without effort or cost?

Of course, you wouldn’t.

It would be like storing your life savings in Chuck E. Cheese arcade tokens, airline frequent flyer miles, or pieces of paper with Tony Soprano’s signature. Unfortunately, putting your savings into government currencies isn’t that much different.

What is desirable in a good money is something that someone else cannot make easily.

In short, as the US dollar loses its privileged position, I expect an ocean of capital to flow into apolitical, free-market, hard-to-produce monetary alternatives like gold and Bitcoin.

That’s why I think the end of the unipolar world order will boost two major investment trends—the re-monetization of gold and The Bitcoin Supremacy—as the world seeks alternatives to the US dollar.

Outcome #2: Commodity Supply Disruption

The end of the unipolar world orders means transitioning to a multipolar global trade regime—with serious implications for commodities.

As I see it, there will be two main geopolitical blocks.

First, there are the countries part of or allied with the West. I’m reluctant to call this block “the West” because the people who control it have values antithetical to Western Civilization.

A more fitting label would be NATO & Friends.

The other block consists of Russia, China, Iran, and other countries favorable to a multipolar world order.

Let’s call them the BRICS+, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and other interested countries.

Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the UAE, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and numerous others have expressed interest in membership of BRICS.

BRICS+ is not a perfect label, but it’s a decent representation of the countries favorable to the multipolar world order.

While there already is friction in free trade—sanctions, tariffs, export bans, nationalizations, embargoes, strategic competition, etc.—between NATO & Friends and BRICS+, I expect it to grow substantially as the multipolar world order emerges.

That will have serious consequences for commodities, which BRICS+ dominates.

Take Russia, for example.

Politicians and the media in the US often ridicule Russia as nothing more than “a gas station with nuclear weapons,” an inaccurate cartoonish depiction.

Here’s the reality…

Russia is the world’s largest exporter of natural gas, lumber, wheat, fertilizer, and palladium (a crucial car component).

It is the second-largest exporter of oil and aluminum and the third-largest exporter of nickel and coal.

Russia is a major producer and processor of uranium for nuclear power plants. Enriched uranium from Russia and its allies provides electricity to 20% of the homes in the US.

Aside from China, Russia produces more gold than any other country, accounting for more than 10% of global production.

These are just a handful of examples. There are many strategic commodities that Russia dominates.

In short, Russia is not just an oil and gas powerhouse but a commodity powerhouse.

As tensions between NATO & Friends and BRICS+ continue to rise, I expect it to disrupt commodity trade between the two further.

Supply disruptions mean higher prices. That’s an outcome I think we can bet on.

I expect countries in both geopolitical blocks will increasingly focus on securing critical commodities and ensuring access to stable supplies.

I think we can bet on geopolitical competition between the two blocks causing increased demand and unstable supplies.

That’s why obtaining exposure to strategic commodities as the world order changes could be a winning move.

Here’s the bottom line…

Unfortunately, most people have no idea what really happens when the world order changes, let alone how to prepare…

The coming crisis will be much worse, much longer, and very different than what we’ve seen since World War II.

Countless millions throughout history were wiped out financially—or worse—as the world order changed because they failed to see the correct Big Picture and take appropriate action.

Don’t be one of them.

That’s exactly why I just released an urgent new report with all the details, including what you must do to prepare.

Here’s What’s Really Behind the Global Reset and Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 [The Burning Platform]

Guest Post by Chris MacIntosh

Captive in the so-called 15-minute cities, eat bugs and no meat, immerse in the metaverse, and a never ending feed of pharmaceuticals, and all that by force, otherwise your universal basic income (UBI) gets cut off.

Energy? Dirty.

Lower motorway speeds and driving ban in plan to tackle oil reliance. Here’s an extract from Daily Echo article

Lowering motorway speed limits and introducing driving bans on Sunday are ideas being suggested to cut Britain’s reliance on oil.

The ideas are part of a ten-point plan proposed by the International Energy Agency in a bid to reduce global oil demand by 2.7 million barrels per day.

Motorway speed limits would be reduced by 6 mph across the country under the proposals, while the plan also suggests a ban on driving in cities every Sunday.

This is horseshit! It has nothing to do with “reducing reliance on oil” and everything to do with the WEF and UN “sustainable development Agenda 2030.”

You know what’s going to happen? The existing stream of folks leaving countries implementing these policies will turn into a flood (more on this in a minute). With it will come capital controls, because the sociopaths driving this agenda will never see their own policies as the problem. No, it’s always those silly peasants who are the problem.

In case you’re wondering… that’s you.

Meat? Dirty.

Irish considering massive cattle culling. We are flabbergasted that killing 200,000 head of cattle is even a consideration…

Wasn’t Ireland “famous” for its potato famine? You would think that people would learn from history. I am coming to the view that little/nothing is learnt by studying history.

When will folks wake up to this delusional stuff going on? Perhaps when their living standards take a bat to the knees.

In any event, the Irish merely considering the elimination of 10% of their cattle herd highlights just how strong this climate narrative is. But it’s not solely an Irish issue. This cancer has spread to all of the West.

Upcoming Steak Prohibition.

German authorities have advised residents of Germany to consume no more than 10 grams of meat per day, as discussed in an article published by Eastern Herald

The black market trade in steaks is going to be absolutely loco. When they told us we’d eat the bugs, they didn’t mention the word “willingly.”

Here’s how it works in case you’ve not figured it out or if you need to explain things to friends who have perhaps thus far been gullible enough to buy into the entire “the world is going through a climate crisis” and life itself will end in [pick your suitable date]” hogwash.

The financial considerations that need to be made in order to meet idiotic green energy targets mean that all things that currently sustain life itself (energy and food being at the top of the list) become uneconomical and are shut down.

This is creating the greatest convexity I’ve ever seen in my career. In fact, it is the greatest I’ve ever seen relative to my readings of history going back hundreds of years. What is obvious is the sectors coming under attack. What is more challenging is determining from an investment standpoint the jurisdictions/countries which will ultimately repudiate this Malthusian genocidal eugenic agenda.

More lies regarding the “renewable energy transition”.

We need ‘+330 mines in 12 years’ to feed battery demand according to Stockhead.

Yeah, it ain’t gonna happen. Simple math, which a 10-year-old should be able to do, reveals that this entire charade is not only going to fall short. It is not going to come anywhere near close, which begs the question: what is it that is planned?

The answer is that the sociopaths at the UN and in Washington have no real intent for the peasants to continue with their current standard of living. They intend for us all to live in our 15-minute cities, eating bugs, immersed in the metaverse, and hooked up to a neverending feed of pharmaceuticals, which we’ll be forced to take, otherwise your UBI (universal basic income) gets cut off.

That is their plan, and it is currently under implementation. It is surprisingly successful. The pushback is rather mediocre, and that is more easily understood by the 4th Turning. By and large, the West is in a fourth turning. People are fat, well fed, lazy physically and intellectually. Unprepared to sacrifice their relative comforts, they will be largely sacrificed. The next generation will have to come out stronger. This may happen in some places. We can certainly hope so. What is also possible and not discussed much is that a long dark age could take hold. Certainly it’s happened before.

What I do know is that nothing happens in a vacuum… and we are seeing this. The weakening of the entire Western middle class is being met with both emigration of the awake and typically wealthy class to pockets which are benefitting from the collapse.

Editor’s Note: The Western system is undergoing substantial changes, and the signs of moral decay, corruption, and increasing debt are impossible to ignore. With the Great Reset in motion, the United Nations, World Economic Forum, IMF, WHO, World Bank, and Davos man are all promoting a unified agenda that will affect us all.

To get ahead of the chaos, download our free PDF report “Clash of the Systems: Thoughts on Investing at a Unique Point in Time” by clicking here.

New Map Projects Trump’s Massive Blowout Victory in GOP Primary in All But Two States [The Gateway Pundit]

If any Republican intends to dethrone former President Donald Trump in the GOP’s presidential primary, they’ve got a herculean task in front of them.

Trump leads in primary polling of 48 states, according to polling analysis compiled by Race to the White House.

Trump is projected for a “decisive win” in 26 primary states — scoring enough of the primary vote to secure most or all of a state’s delegates at the 2024 Republican convention.

The front-runner would secure 1,774 delegates at the current rate, according to Race to the White House’s projections — a figure that easily surpasses the total of 1,234 figure a candidate needs to secure nomination at the convention, according to Ballotpedia.

NEW: 2024 Republican Primary Delegate Forecast by @RacetotheWH

Full field:
Trump — 1774
DeSantis — 440

After NV, only Trump and DeSantis:
Trump — 2048
DeSantis — 406

1,234 delegates needed to win the nomination

=Trump, =DeSantis (full field)https://t.co/iB0vgUQmuw pic.twitter.com/NrJaiWbTqH

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) July 6, 2023

Trump would end up with a mammoth 2,048 delegates in a scenario where the other Republican competitors drop out after the Nevada primary, according to the estimate.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is the only other Republican candidate to lead in primary polling for any state.

DeSantis is projected for a decisive win in Florida — a state in which he currently serves as governor.

Trump and DeSantis appear slated for a tie in Utah — a scenario in which they would split the state’s 20 delegates.

Trump is slated for mere “narrow wins” in the early primary states of Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire.

He’s projected for a “decisive win” in South Carolina, however.

Early primary wins for Trump could preempt the possibility of a competitive Republican primary.

DeSantis has struggled to hold second place in some polling, with Vivek Ramaswamy only trailing the governor by six percentage points in a Monday Echelon Insights survey.

Vivek Ramaswamy hits 10% in the latest Echelon Insights GOP presidential primary poll, just 6 behind DeSantis.

413 GOP LVs, June 26-29, online, MoE 3.9%https://t.co/MyAw9Ld9Kq pic.twitter.com/dvnaeecTlH

— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) July 5, 2023

Trump is all but assured to face President Joe Biden in a general election rematch, should he secure renomination.

The frontrunner has questioned attending primary debates, citing his formidable lead.

If elected, the businessman would become first president since Democrat Grover Cleveland to serve non-consecutive terms in the White House.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post New Map Projects Trump’s Massive Blowout Victory in GOP Primary in All But Two States appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Excerpt From Kari Lake’s “Unafraid” Reveals That Former AZ Secretary of State Jan Brewer Was “100% Sure” She Would Win the Governor’s Race in 2010 Despite Horrible Debate Performance – Is This Why Katie Hobbs Didn’t Debate? [The Gateway Pundit]

Katie Hobbs

Tenacity: The New Federal State of China Thrives on Adversity [The Gateway Pundit]

(Note: This is a sponsored post from NewNoah. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Gateway Pundit)

by Kelly John Walker

“He never knew when he was whipped…So he never was.” Louis L’Amour, To the Far Blue Mountains

The greatest revolutions—the turnings from oppression to freedom—have been born of persecution. Comfortable men and women do not often change the world.

The New Federal State of China is the antidote to CCP’s toxic tyranny.

The horrors and human rights abuses of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on their own people are well established. Theirs is a regime of darkness, terror, and destruction.

But there is light shining from that darkness, the antidote to toxic tyranny: The New Federal State of China (NFSC). This grass-roots collaboration of Chinese Whistleblowers began as a reaction to the persecution of Chinese nationals by Xi Jinping’s regime.

The more the CCP persecutes the NFSC, the stronger the movement becomes.

But the NFSC has quickly grown into a positive force to be reckoned with. Out of despair, hope has arisen; out of pain, power. And what the CCP cannot comprehend is that the more they plot and scheme and persecute, the stronger the movement becomes.

“We are a group of freedom-loving individuals who are united by the common goal of taking down the Chinese Communist Party.” Reads the NFSC website. “Many of us have experienced or witnessed firsthand the atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Party.”

Among those who have had to endure the evil CCP’s sadistic brutality is Mr. Miles Guo (Aka Guo Wengui)—known as both enemy #1 as well as Victim-1 of the CCP.

On June 4, 2020, hundreds of millions of Chinese worldwide witnessed the establishment of the NFSC.

His fight against the CCP began in 1989 when he was jailed for two years after supporting the June 4 Tiananmen Square student movement. On the day of his arrest, two CCP policemen brutally shot and killed Mr. Guo’s youngest brother.

On January 2017, Guo launched the Whistleblower Movement by exposing the corruption and crimes of the CCP kleptocrats on the Internet. On June 4, 2020, hundreds of millions of Chinese worldwide witnessed the establishment of the NFSC.

Following Guo’s whistleblower activities, the CCP immediately commenced its Unrestricted Warfare against him through its global apparatus to remove him, inadvertently exposing its deep infiltration into the U.S. government and justice system. He became such a threat to the CCP’s malign plans to destroy the U.S. that when General Secretary Xi met with President Trump in 2017, Xi personally requested Guo’s removal to China. He even offered a new assistance package for North Korea in exchange. The CCP also paid a number of intermediaries and unregistered foreign agents to bring down Guo and return him to China.

On March 15, 2023—after a multi-year, illegal collaboration between the CCP, corrupt members of the U.S. Department of Justice, and individuals charged as unregistered foreign agents for China—Miles Guo was arrested by federal authorities in New York. Over 100 FBI agents raided his New York residence, handcuffed him, and then took him to court for interrogation on allegations of fraud.

“It’s not all about Miles Guo, it’s about America and its freedom!”

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) continues to hold Guo and an associate, Yvette Wang, without bail, contrary to their constitutionally protected rights.

Imagine having your founder and hero of hope seized by corrupt players of the country you fled to, hoping to find freedom—the very country you’ve been fighting to protect from the CCP! Some young organizations would fold if their founder were imprisoned…but not NFSC.

That’s because, as beloved as Mr. Guo is, the NFSC is bigger than one person. As CCP’s Victim #1 by rapper Omarr Shabazz says, “This whole Miles Guo thing is crazy, right. But what y’all have to understand, it’s not all about Miles Guo, it’s about America and its freedom!”

With over 500 million supporters around the world, NFSC seeks first to take down the CCP in America, and then build a future of freedom and love for the Chinese people.

“Communism in general, especially the CCP, has plagued the world for too long and has taken too many lives,” reads their website. “It has been infiltrating and attacking the free world with the goal of world domination. America, a nation of freedom-loving people, must not be destroyed by communist infiltration and corruption.”

Our Congress should and must consider the NFSC a crucial ally in the struggle against the multi-tentacled Chinese Communist Party.

Postscript: After the Author met representatives of NFSC at Turning Point’s America Fest 2023 in Phoenix this December, they told me that I’m like family and, “your struggle is now our struggle too.” These wonderful, freedom-loving people care about the United States and our people—not just in word, but in deed. They don’t just talk, they act on their convictions in ways our own Congress can learn from. Many members of NFSC are U.S. citizens, willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to keep America free. That spirit is worth protecting.

Kelly John Walker is an American statesman, writer, branding professional, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of FreedomTalk, host of FreedomTalk TV, and a freelance writer.

The post Tenacity: The New Federal State of China Thrives on Adversity appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

DC Bar Committee Recommends Giuliani’s Disbarment Over His Effort to Challenge 2020 Election [The Gateway Pundit]

The DC Bar Association concluded Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred over his effort to challenge the 2020 election.

The ultimate decision to disbar Giuliani will be decided by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

Rudy Giuliani will challenge this decision made by the discipline committee.

“The decision-makers at the DC Bar Association are nothing more than an arm of the permanent regime in Washington,” Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani told Politico. “This is also part of an effort to deny President Trump effective counsel by persecuting Rudy Giuliani—objectively one of the most effective prosecutors in American history. I call on rank-and-file members of the DC Bar Association to speak out against this great injustice.”

Politico reported:

A Washington, D.C.-based bar discipline committee concluded Friday that Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred for “frivolous” and “destructive” efforts to derail the 2020 presidential election in support of former President Donald Trump.

“He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it,” the three-member panel declared in a 38-page decision. “By prosecuting that destructive case Mr. Giuliani, a sworn officer of the Court, forfeited his right to practice law.”

The committee tasked with reviewing Giuliani’s conduct consisted of two D.C. attorneys and one D.C. resident who is not a lawyer. The members deliberated for months after a weekslong series of hearings that featured testimony from Giuliani and several of his close associates. Trump waived attorney-client privilege to permit Giuliani to discuss the matters as well.

President Trump’s election lawyers are not only being threatened with disbarment, special counsel Jack Smith is threatening to indict them as well.

Trump’s election lawyer John Eastman is being threatened with disbarment over a legal opinion on dueling electors.

This is unheard of.

The government is now openly working with Democrats to indict, smear, bankrupt, and imprison their political opposition – Donald Trump, his supporters, and his attorneys.

Jack Smith is set to indict Rudy Giuliani and fellow Trump attorneys who questioned the fraudulent election and sought to delay the certification in Congress.

The post DC Bar Committee Recommends Giuliani’s Disbarment Over His Effort to Challenge 2020 Election appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

United States Destroys Last Remaining Chemical Weapons Stockpile as They Sent Cluster Bombs to Ukraine [The Gateway Pundit]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell revealed on Friday that the last remaining chemical weapons stockpile in the United States had been destroyed at a massive military site in eastern Kentucky.

After a decades-long effort, the last of the 30,000 tons of GB nerve agent stockpiled at the end of the Cold War was destroyed by workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, AP reported.

Leveraging his role as Senate Republican Leader and senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator McConnell secured over $6.56 billion for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) program and an additional $407 million for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness program.

“Chemical weapons are responsible for some of the most horrific episodes of human loss,” McConnell said in a statement.

“Though the use of these deadly agents will always be a stain on history, today our nation has finally fulfilled our promise to rid our arsenal of this evil,” he said.

“For more than 30 years, the United States has worked tirelessly to eliminate our chemical weapons stockpile. Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile-bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons,” Joe Biden said in a statement.

The celebration of this disarmament achievement, however, stands in stark contrast to the Biden administration’s recent decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions, a controversial move given that two-thirds of NATO countries have banned the weapon.

Cluster munitions, also known as cluster bombs, scatter numerous smaller explosives over a wide area, often causing significant damage and potentially high civilian casualties. Their indiscriminate impact, along with the fact that many of the bomblets often fail to explode and pose a long-term risk to civilians, has led to an international campaign to ban their use.

Check out this video of Jen Psaki stating that the use of cluster bombs constitutes a war crime. Ironically, the regime she worked for before is now supplying Ukraine with these very same weapons.

BREAKING: Here is Jen Psaki in 2022 saying that using cluster bombs is a war crime

The Biden Admin is sending cluster bomber to Ukraine today pic.twitter.com/dSMKqumDm1

— Jack Poso (@JackPosobiec) July 7, 2023

The post United States Destroys Last Remaining Chemical Weapons Stockpile as They Sent Cluster Bombs to Ukraine appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

“Stay in the Kitchen and Make Sandwiches” – Conservatives Roast Gun-Grabbing Brat David Hogg After He Taunts Pro-Gun Activists and Brags About His Marksmanship Skills [The Gateway Pundit]

Arguably the most annoying gun-grabbing liberal in America got set on fire this week after taunting gun rights activists and bragging about his marksmanship skills

David Hogg on Thursday posted a tweet mocking pro-gun individuals for opposing limiting bullets in gun magazines. According to Hogg, nobody needs a magazine that holds more than ten rounds.

If you need more than 10 rounds to hit something you need more range time or you need glasses, not a larger magazine. Hell, if you’re that bad of a shot you’re safer with a baseball bat because a gun will probably be turned on you.

Especially if you are shooting a rifle and you can’t hit what you are aiming for in 10 rounds you need to check your sights, check your eye dominance, and/or improve trigger pull. 30 round mags are for two two things, war and people who don’t know how to shoot.

If you need more than 10 rounds to hit something you need more range time or you need glasses, not a larger magazine. Hell, if you're that bad of a shot you're safer with a baseball bat because a gun will probably be turned on you. Especially if you are shooting a rifle and you…

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) July 6, 2023

Hogg then goes to present himself as a marksman. He claimed that accurately firing a rifle within 20 yards came easy for him and again argued for setting magazine limits.

I know many who follow me haven’t shot guns or semi automatic rifles before. Even with zero training I could shoot a pretty tight grouping at 20 yards. Just look. You don’t need 30 round mags. If you can’t stop whatever you need to with 10 7.62 rounds. You got bigger problems.

I know many who follow me haven't shot guns or semi automatic rifles before. Even with zero training I could shoot a pretty tight grouping at 20 yards. Just look. You don't need 30 round mags. If you can't stop whatever you need to with 10 7.62 rounds. You got bigger problems. pic.twitter.com/sJMxsfnmbT

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) July 6, 2023

Conservatives roasted Hogg for using his shooting range “experience” to push for gun control. They gave him a brutal reality check on his aim, or lack thereof.

You think the range is equivalent to an actual firefight? That’s adorable.

— ‍ (@HarmfulOpinion) July 6, 2023

Just wait until that paper target moves and returns fire.

— DJ Davies (@15Farticle) July 6, 2023

(1) Do it again, but this time your target is multiple armed assailants who not only move but can take cover and shoot back at you.

(2) Same thing, but your assailants have body armor/are tripping acid.

(3) Same thing, but with a handgun.

(4) Same thing, but instead of ideal… https://t.co/WqtXWnyY8L

— Amy Swearer (@AmySwearer) July 7, 2023

3 shots at 7 yards with a 9mm handgun.

Please do better. pic.twitter.com/9idG6mqdJH

— Brian 'Red Beard' Keith (@redbeardbrian) July 6, 2023

Helen keller would have a better grouping

— JT. (@JimmyT2022) July 6, 2023

My 10 year old son has better groupings and biceps. You should stay in the kitchen and make sandwiches.

— The Lectern Guy (@lecternleader) July 6, 2023

This is not the first time Hogg has been mocked for shooting guns while pushing firearm restrictions. Back in April, Jim Hoft reported Hogg spent a weekend shooting at a gun range while bragging about his efforts to take away your right to own firearms.

Yes I shoot guns.
Yes my family owns guns.
Yes I believe we need stronger gun laws.
Contrary to what the NRA wants you to believe, it is possible for all three to be true. pic.twitter.com/fKfVrHj2rP

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) April 2, 2023

As Hoft notes, Hogg is completely unstable. No one should go near him if he is armed.

I’m so fucking angry and tired of this bullshit it’s time to remind these fuckers they work for us not the NRA or the gun industry. Rally on you college campus this Tuesday to demand stronger gun laws from your state legislature- especially if your school is near a state capitol pic.twitter.com/umy9ReNf1E

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 31, 2023

The post “Stay in the Kitchen and Make Sandwiches” – Conservatives Roast Gun-Grabbing Brat David Hogg After He Taunts Pro-Gun Activists and Brags About His Marksmanship Skills appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Karine Jean-Pierre Lashes Out at New York Post Reporter For Asking if Cocaine Found at White House Belongs to Biden Family (VIDEO) [The Gateway Pundit]

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday lashed out at a New York Post reporter for asking if the cocaine found at the White House belongs to the Biden family.

The White House on Thursday refused to deny the cocaine belonged to a member of the Biden family.

This prompted the New York Post’s Caitlin Doornbos to ask Karine Jean-Pierre to clear things up.

“Can you just say once and for all whether or not the cocaine belonged to the Biden family?” the New York Post reporter asked Karine Jean-Pierre.

Karine Jean-Pierre lashed out at the media for “irresponsible reporting” on the Biden cocaine scandal and falsely claimed the Bidens were not at the White House on Friday.

“So…we’ve answered this…for the last 2 days…There has been some irresponsible reporting…To ask that question is actually incredibly irresponsible,” Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“The Biden family was not here! They were not here! They were at Camp David. They were not here Friday. They were not here Saturday. They were not here Sunday. They were not even here Monday!” KJP falsely claimed.

WATCH:

.@NYPost's @CaitlinDoornbos: "Can you say once & for all whether or the not the cocaine belonged to the Biden family?"

KJP: "So…we've answered this…for the last 2 days…There has been some irresponsible reporting…To ask that question is actually incredibly irresponsible." pic.twitter.com/7b0N7wu35F

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 7, 2023

Fact-check: Hunter Biden was indeed at the White House on Friday.

According to a pool report: “Poolers saw Jill Biden, Baby Beau, and Hunter Biden climb into presidential SUV. President Biden followed a few minutes later. Motorcade rolling to Fort McNair as of 6:34 pm.”

Fact check: @presssec said there was 'irresponsible' reporting on WH cocaine because Biden family 'were not here Friday'

Hunter was at WH Friday according to @EugeneDaniels2 pool report https://t.co/2GoWiy6ao9 pic.twitter.com/tva9IOtwAO

— Steven Nelson (@stevennelson10) July 7, 2023

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.

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.”

The post Karine Jean-Pierre Lashes Out at New York Post Reporter For Asking if Cocaine Found at White House Belongs to Biden Family (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

LIVE-STREAM VIDEO: President Trump in Council Bluffs, Iowa via RSBN [The Gateway Pundit]

RSBN team is airing the rally LIVE from Council Bluffs, IA this afternoon.

Trump launched Farmers for Trump in Council Bluffs.

President Donald J. Trump Launches Farmers for Trump Coalition in Iowa pic.twitter.com/BJhQXx0eXB

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) July 7, 2023

President Donald J. Trump’s Save America Rally in Council Bluffs, IA.

The post LIVE-STREAM VIDEO: President Trump in Council Bluffs, Iowa via RSBN appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Manchester United Legend Edwin Van der Sar Admitted to ICU After Brain Hemorrhage [The Gateway Pundit]

On Friday, Edwin van der Sar, Manchester United legend and former Netherlands international goalkeeper, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Croatia following an unexpected brain hemorrhage.

The 52-year-old Dutchman is currently in a stable condition, and the medical team attending to him are closely monitoring his situation, according to a statement from his old club.

“On Friday, Edwin van der Sar has had a bleeding around his brain,” AFC Ajax wrote on Twitter.

“He’s currently in hospital in the intensive care unit and is in a stable condition. Once there is more concrete information, an update will follow. Everyone at Ajax wishes Edwin a speedy recovery. We’re thinking of you,” the post concluded.

On Friday, Edwin van der Sar has had a bleeding around his brain. He’s currently in hospital in the intensive care unit and is in a stable condition.

Once there is more concrete information, an update will follow.

Everyone at Ajax wishes Edwin a speedy recovery. We’re thinking… pic.twitter.com/M7jKs5TBB9

— AFC Ajax (@AFCAjax) July 7, 2023

Van der Sar, who served as CEO of Ajax Amsterdam from 2016-2023, was reportedly taken to the hospital by helicopter after suffering a brain hemorrhage while on holiday in Croatia.

The football community has come together in extending their thoughts and prayers for the Dutch legend’s speedy recovery.

Following his admission to hospital today, the thoughts and best wishes of UEFA and the entire European football community are with Edwin van der Sar and his family.

We’re all with you, Edwin. pic.twitter.com/6k6kuHDIRn

— UEFA (@UEFA) July 7, 2023

Manchester United released the following statement:

“Manchester United is holding Edwin van der Sar and his family in our collective thoughts after hearing the news that the legendary goalkeeper has fallen seriously ill.

“Edwin always receives a warm welcome whenever he returns to Old Trafford, having been one of the most popular and decorated goalkeepers in our club’s history. Between the Dutchman’s arrival from Fulham in June 2005 and his retirement from football in May 2011 at the age of 40, he made a total of 266 appearances and contributed hugely to the Reds winning four Premier League titles, the Champions League and Club World Cup, among other trophies under Sir Alex Ferguson.

“Everyone at United wishes to join our friends at Ajax in wishing Edwin all the very best for a full and swift recovery.”

Sending all our love and strength to you, Edwin.

pic.twitter.com/5o276ITxbn

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 7, 2023

As news broke out about the sudden brain hemorrhage suffered by football legend Edwin van der Sar, social media platforms have been abuzz with speculation.

Authorities have not yet disclosed specific details concerning the cause of the Dutch icon’s illness, but some internet users are drawing connections to the COVID-19 vaccine.

On June 1, 2021, Van der Sar announced that he had received his COVID-19 vaccine. The link between his recent health issue and his vaccine status, however, remains unverified by medical professionals.

Just got my first #Covid_19 vaccine today pic.twitter.com/C1ii7n8nXc

— Edwin van der Sar (@vdsar1970) June 1, 2021

The post Manchester United Legend Edwin Van der Sar Admitted to ICU After Brain Hemorrhage appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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
- The Washington Posthttps://t.co/Ss609rMIwC
— Ayman Abdel Nour (@aabnour) July 6, 2023

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.

Tyler Durden Fri, 07/07/2023 - 15:40

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.

*Lorie Smith, a Christian graphic artist and website designer in Colorado, appears outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Dec. 5, 2022. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)*

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.”

Conservative Christian baker Jack Phillips talks with journalists in front of the Supreme Court after the court heard the case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in Washington on Dec. 5, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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.”

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.”

California AG Rob Bonta. (Photo: oag.ca.gov)

“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.”

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.

.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!

#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.

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 […]

Watch Live: Donald Trump Speaks in Council Bluffs, Iowa [Breitbart News]

Former President Donald Trump will speak at the MidAmerica Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Friday, July 6.

'A Shameful Moment': House Oversight Committee Launches Probe into Cocaine at the Biden White House [Breitbart News]

Comer requested a Secret Service briefing on the discovery of cocaine in the White House, as the committee investigates.

Nolte: Secret Service Vet Says ‘Only Family’ Could Sneak Cocaine into White House [Breitbart News]

Secret Service veteran Dan Bongino says only the family of the president could sneak cocaine into the White House.

AOC Endorses Joe Biden's 2024 Campaign After Shielding His Family from Scrutiny [Breitbart News]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed President Joe Biden's 2024 campaign on Thursday, a decision that moves her further into the establishment apparatus upon opposing Republican inquiries into the Biden family's international business ventures.

Nolte: Colonialists Ben and Jerry Lose $2 Billion in Market Cap After Boycott [Breitbart News]

Looks like Ben & Jerry’s is becoming “The Bud Light of Ice Cream.”

Nolte: NY Times Swoons After Mr. and Mrs. Bill de Blasio Come Out as Swingers [Breitbart News]

By the way, these swingers have two children — way to parent, y'all.

7 GOP Attorneys General Warn Target that 'Pride Items' May Violate Child Protection Laws [Breitbart News]

A group of Republican attorneys general issued a warning to Target on Thursday regarding its "pride"-themed items with regard to children.

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...

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How-To Geek	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
http://anti-whiteism.com/feed/	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
https://altrightnews.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
https://mov.im/?feed/news.movim.eu/PlanetDebian	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/feed/	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Humans Be Free	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
I2P Blog	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Idaho Rino Watch	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
In Deo Speramus	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
INTERNATIONALIST 360°	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Issues & Insights	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Jeff Geerling's Blog	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Jeff Geerling's Blog	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Johnnys.News	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Journal du Geek	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
KB9VBR Antennas	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
LA ESPINA ROJA	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Land Destroyer	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Latest Content - Gear Patrol	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Latest from LaRouche	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Latest Linux Kernel Versions	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Law Enforcement Today	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Law Officer	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
LibreELEC	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Light Reading:	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Linux FR	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
LINux on MOBile	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Living in Cycles	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
LoQueSomos	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Lost Sentences	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Manjaro ARM Beta11 with Phosh (PinePhone)	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
megi's PinePhone Development Log	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
META PCs	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Mises Wire	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Mobian activity	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Mobian's Blog	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Modern Farmer	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Motho ke motho ka botho	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Nerdrotic	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
NetBSD Blog	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
News - National File	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Notes on technology and freedom	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Null Byte « WonderHowTo	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Numerama	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Oilprice.com	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
OpenWrt Wiki	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
OpenWrt Wiki	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
OpenWrt Wiki	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
OrientalReview.org	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Our Free Society – Only a Knowledgeable and Open Mind Can Set You Free. Proving you with truthful information on who controls the world, how they have been harming us both physically and emotionally, and killing us off for years. Also about the war we are currently in for when the scamdemic started.	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Phoronix	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Pi My Life Up	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
PINE64 - Recent changes [en]	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
PINE64 - Recent changes [en]	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
PineDio	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Pinetime	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Planet Jabber	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
PlanetGnome	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
PlanetLibre	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Plasma Mobile	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Presstv	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
ProudAmerican	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Real Money Perspectives	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Reclaim The Net	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Red Voice Media	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Reese Report	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Reminiscence of the Future...	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Resumen LatinoAmericano English	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
RISC-V International	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
rsapkf.org/weblog/rss.xml	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
RT - Daily news	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
RT Business News	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
RT Games & Culture	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
RT Op-ed	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
RT Russia & Former Soviet Union	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
RT World News	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
SALTY	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Salty Cracker	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
scheerpost.com	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
SchiffGold	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
SLAVYANGRAD.org	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Soldier of Fortune Magazine	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Solene'%	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
SoylentNews	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Sputnik News - World News, Breaking News & Top Storie	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
SteynOnline	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Stop World Control	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Tea Party 911	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Tea Party Patriots	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Techmeme	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The American Mind	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Burning Platform	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Classic Woodsman	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The COVID Blog®	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Daily Fetched	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
THE DC PATRIOT	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The European Union Times – World Breaking News	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Expose	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Fascist New World Order	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Gateway Pundit	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Last Refuge	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Moscow Times - Independent News From Russia	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The People's Voice	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Reactionary	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Trump News Network	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Vineyard of the Saker	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
The Weston A. Price Foundation	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Tijdslijn van Acta Populi	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Truth Unmuted	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
uncut-news.ch	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
USA SUPREME	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
VDARE & premier news outlet for patriotic immigration reform	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Victory Girls Blog	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
View From The Top	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Welcome	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Who is Robert Malone	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Wochenblick.at	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
WriteFreely	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
www.independentsentinel.com	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
Yemen Press Agency	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
ZeroHedge News	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli
~bt	XML	01:10, lördag, 08 juli	04:10, lördag, 08 juli

rawdog

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The evidence: a forensic assessment

How was the dam destroyed?

Consequences

Review of Tom Swanky’s “The Smallpox War against the Haida”

The Opening Scene of the Crime

The Genocidaires

Solving the “Indian Question”

Why Resort to Biological Warfare?

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What Is AWS CloudFormation?

Benefits of CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation Basic Concepts

Template

Stacks

Formatting

Parameters

Conditions

Change sets

Functions

Anatomy of a CloudFormation Template

AWS Template Format Version

Description

Metadata

Parameters

Mappings

Conditions

Resources

Outputs

How to Create a CloudFormation Template

How to Deploy a CloudFormation Template

How to Update a CloudFormation Stack

Advanced CloudFormation

What Are AWS CloudFormation Hooks?

Alternatives to CloudFormation

Inbuilt DALL E Support

How I made it

Gameobject.js

Firebase function's Express Image Endpoint

Thats it!

Table of Content

Stack

Requirements

Understanding the process

Setting up the VM

First Boot

Configuration

Database

Setup

Dependencies

Services

MySQL

Source and Database

Memcache

Setup

Dependencies

Services

RabbitMQ

Setup

Dependencies

Services

Tomcat

Setup

Dependencies

Configuration

Deployment

NGINX

Setup

Dependencies

Configuration

Validation

Here are some additional examples of commonly encountered HTTP status codes for better understanding:

Conclusion:

Deleting files

Can I alias rm to trash-put?

Can I alias `rm` to `trash-put`?

But sometimes I forget to use `trash-put`, really can't I?