The Daily Dose Recap is our way of providing to you an overview of everything that was covered during the show. Here you will have easy access to all of the news that was talked about that day.
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12yo Jaiden kicked out of class
Response from the Governor of Colorado
Labor Market Implodes: Job Openings Crater, Prior Data "Unexpectedly" Revised Sharply Lower
For months we have been warning that at a time when the US economy is careening into a hard landing recession, the manipulated, seasonally-adjusted, and politically goalseeked job openings data released as part of the DOL's JOLTS report is sheer rubbish (see "US Job Openings Far Lower Than Reported By Department Of Labor"; "Handle The JOLTS Data With Care", "Just Make it Up: Job Openings Unexpectedly Soar As Labor Department Now Guessing What The Number Is"). Today, the BLS finally got the memo.
With consensus expecting only a modest drop in the July job openings from 9.582 million to 9.5 million, what the BLS reported instead was a doozy: in July there were just 8.827 million job openings, the first sub-9 million print since March 2021. It was also the 3rd biggest miss on record!
Worse, had the BLS not drastically slashed the May number from 9.582MM to a laughable 9.165MM, the drop would have been almost 800K job openings. And yes, today's downward revision...
... continues the recent trend of every single data point in the Biden administration being revised sharply lower in subsequent month(s), in a coordinated propaganda attempt to make the economy look stronger, then quietly revise it away when everyone forgets.
And while one month does not a trend make, three months does, which is bad because the 3-month drop in job openings was 1.5 million, the second highest on record surpassed only by the total economic shutdown during the covid crash.
According to the BLS, the largest decrease in job openings was in professional and business services (-198,000); health care and social assistance (-130,000); state and local government, excluding education (-67,000); state and local government education (-62,000); and federal government (-27,000). By contrast, job openings increased in information (+101,000) and in transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+75,000)
The plunge in the number of job openings meant that in July the number of job openings was just 2.986 million more than the number of unemployed workers, the lowest since August 2021.
Said otherwise, in July the number of job openings to unemployed dropped to just 1.51, the lowest level since Sept 2021.
As the number of job openings cratered to the lowest in more than two years, the number of people quitting their jobs - an indicator traditionally closely associated with labor market strength as it shows workers are confident they can find a better wage elsewhere - also plunged by 253K to just 3.549MM (after tumbling 265K in May), the lowest since Feb 2021.
And just in case some still believe the "Bidenomics" strong jobs lie, the number of hires also crashed in July, plunging by 167K to just 5.773 million, the lowest level since Jan 2021.
So, what to make of this ugly data which as not only UBS, but also the NFIB...
... Opportunity Insights...
... and even Goldman ...
… have been warning is long overdue?
The answer is simple: while the drop was substantial, the real number of job openings remains still far lower since half of it - or some 70% to be specific - is guesswork. As the BLS itself admits, while the response rate to most of its various labor (and other) surveys has collapsed in recent years, nothing is as bad as the JOLTS report where the actual response rate has tumbled to a record low 31%.
In other words, more than two thirds, or 70% of the final number of job openings, is estimated!
And at a time when it is critical for Biden to still maintain the illusion that at least the labor market remains strong when everything else in Biden's economy is crashing and burning, we'll let readers decide if the admin's Labor Department is plugging the estimate gap with numbers that are stronger or weaker.
As for the Fed, now that the labor market has officially cracked - because a sub 9mm print means that the rate hikes are really taking their toll on the economy - no surprise that odds of a May rate hike tumbled back below 50% after the huge JOLTS miss...
... and no surprise that stonks are surging: we are now officially back into "bad news is great news" for the market mode, since the end of Biden's fiscal stimmy means that only the Fed is available to kickstart the economy when it officially slides into a recession next.
-Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge
National Archives has 5,400 Biden emails in which he uses fake names to dish government info to Hunter, others as VP: suit
The National Archives and Records Administration has admitted that it is in possession of nearly 5,400 emails, electronic records and documents that potentially show President Biden using a pseudonym during his vice presidency, it was revealed on Monday.
NARA confirmed the existence of the trove in response to a June 2022 Freedom of Information Act request by the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a nonprofit constitutional legal group.
The request sought emails pertaining to the accounts of Robin Ware, Robert L. Peters and JRB Ware — pseudonyms the 80-year-old president was known to use in the White House during his time as President Barack Obama’s vice president.
The Southeastern Legal Foundation on Monday filed suit against NARA for the release of the records, which the group claims may show that Biden forwarded government information and discussed government business with his son Hunter Biden and others.
“All too often, public officials abuse their power by using it for their personal or political benefit. When they do, many seek to hide it. The only way to preserve governmental integrity is for NARA to release Biden’s nearly 5,400 emails to SLF and thus the public. The American public deserves to know what is in them,” Kimberly Hermann, SLF general counsel, said in a statement.
The group accuses NARA of having “dragged its feet” since the June 2022 FOIA request and says that not a single email has been produced since the government agency acknowledged their existence just days after the request.
“We have performed a search of our collection for Vice Presidential records related to your [June 9, 2022] request and have identified approximately 5,138 email messages, 25 electronic files and 200 pages of potentially responsive records that must be processed in order to respond to your request,” Stephannie Oriabure, the director of NARA’s archival operations division, wrote to the Southeastern Legal Foundation on June 24, 2022, Monday’s lawsuit revealed.
Earlier this month, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) demanded that NARA hand over any unredacted records in which Joe Biden used a pseudonym during his vice presidency as part of his probe into the role the former vice president played in Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
Emails previously released by the Archives and retrieved from Hunter’s abandoned laptop reveal that Joe Biden used the email address “Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov” while he was Obama’s second-in-command and that his aide John Flynn cc’d Hunter on 10 emails containing the elder Biden’s daily schedule between May 18 and June 15, 2016.
“Joe Biden has stated there was ‘an absolute wall’ between his family’s foreign business schemes and his duties as Vice President, but evidence reveals that access was wide open for his family’s influence peddling,” Comer said in a statement on Aug. 17.
“The National Archives must provide these unredacted records to further our investigation into the Biden family’s corruption,” he added.
-Victor Nava, New York Post
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‘You Have No Choice’: Trump Vows to ‘Lock People Up’ Upon Return to White House
Image Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump pledged he will “lock people up” if reelected for the presidency in 2024.
Radio host Glenn Beck asked Trump in an interview on Tuesday if he regretted not locking up Hillary Clinton and if he would fulfill a promise to lock up Deep State operatives this time if reelected.
“You said in 2016, you know, ‘lock her up.’ And then when you became president, you said, ‘We don’t do that in America.’ That’s just not the right thing to do. That’s what they’re doing. Do you regret not locking her up? And if you’re president again, will you lock people up?” Beck asked Trump.
Trump replied, “Well, I’ll give you an example. The answer is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us.”
“I always had such great respect for the office of the president and the presidency, and I never hit Biden as hard as I could have. And then I heard he was trying to indict me and it was him that was doing it.”
Trump elaborated on the Biden regime’s coordination with Democrat operatives prosecuting criminal cases against him in several jurisdictions in hopes of preventing him from winning the 2024 election.
“You know, I don’t think he’s sharp enough to think about much, but he was there and he was probably the one giving the order,” Trump explained. “But he was, you know, hard to believe that he even thinks about that because he’s gone. But then I said, well, they’re actually trying to indict me because every one of these indictments is him, including Bragg. But he put his top people.”
“I don’t know if you know this, he put his top person into the office of the Manhattan district attorney,” he continued. “They’ve been in total coordination with Fani Willis. The woman that I never met, that they accused me of rape, that’s being run by a Democrat, a Democrat operative, and paid for by the Democrat party.”
“You know, so many these days, I have a couple of other lawsuits all funded against me by the Democrats. But these are sick people. These are evil people,” he added.
Though it’s a shame Trump didn’t have the DOJ indict Hillary Clinton over her RussiaGate conspiracy and destruction of subpoenaed emails, perhaps he can get it right this time if he manages to win the election despite the Democrats’ blatant election interference.
-Jamie White, Infowars
Under Pressure, Pentagon Restricts Program That Allows Colleges With CCP Outposts To Receive Taxpayer Funds
Image Credit: Kevin Frayer/ Getty Images
The Pentagon has placed restrictions on a policy that would have allowed American colleges to receive taxpayer funds while hosting Chinese spy outposts, a decision that follows a congressional pressure campaign and Washington Free Beacon report exposing the funding loophole.
The Defense Department, in an Aug. 15 letter, informed Congress that it has overhauled a waiver program that would have allowed American universities to rake in taxpayer cash while hosting Confucius Institutes, a Chinese Communist Party-backed program that Beijing uses to peddle influence and steal intellectual property from American universities.
Congress in 2021 barred the Pentagon from awarding research projects to any U.S. school that hosts a Confucius Institute, citing concerns the Communist regime would use these outposts to spy on sensitive military research. Chinese spies have infiltrated a number of American schools, with the Justice Department warning earlier in February that up to 60 top colleges are vulnerable to CCP espionage operations. But the Pentagon instituted a waiver program earlier this year to help schools skirt the federal ban, the Free Beacon reported.
Following a Republican pressure campaign, the Pentagon has decided to narrow the waiver program and close loopholes that would have allowed Confucius Institute employees to access information about Defense Department research projects. The Pentagon also disclosed that, after instituting these changes, not a single U.S. school applied for a waiver, though schools can apply at a later date.
"At present, the Department has not granted, nor does the Department expect to grant, any waivers" before the federal funding ban takes effect in October, the Pentagon informed Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), who has been spearheading an investigation into the waiver program.
The Defense Department will also "terminate any existing contracts and grants to any" U.S. institution that hosts a Confucius Institute after the October deadline, according to the letter. The Pentagon says it retains the power to reassess waivers at any time for any reason.
Restrictions have also been placed on Confucius Institute employees. The employees will now have to report all foreign travel for a school to be eligible for the waiver program.
Confucius Institute employees, including those who are also employed by universities, will be restricted from accessing all information and data related to federal research projects under the revised guidance.
The Pentagon said in its letter to Banks that it originally "did not wish to interfere with the conduct of federally funded research by precluding [Confucius Institute] employees who are also employed by the host" school. It altered this carveout, however, "to avoid potential risk."
Lawmakers like Banks had been pressing for both reforms, warning that Confucius Institute employees could access sensitive research and funnel it to the Communist regime.
In an April letter to the Pentagon, Banks accused the Pentagon of "bowing to the wishes of academia and the scientific community to continue their deep ties with China, despite the growing threat of CCP propaganda and espionage."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) warned in April that he would "revoke those waivers and hold accountable any officials who issue them" if the Pentagon moved forward with plans to allocate federal funds to any school that hosts a Confucius Institute.
The changes also follow an effort by congressional Republicans in both the House and Senate to cancel the waiver program due to the concerns outlined above.
Banks, in comments to the Free Beacon, lauded the Pentagon's revisions but said the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act should include provisions that would enact an outright ban on the waiver program.
"I'm glad that the Biden administration has agreed to close its multiple loopholes that leave universities vulnerable to Communist Party espionage," Banks said. "However, regardless of any DOD guidance, the final NDAA must eliminate DOD's Confucius Institute waivers entirely. Universities that cozy up to the Chinese Communist Party shouldn't be involved in defense research, period."
-Adam Kredo, The Washington Free Beacon
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Drone attack at Russian airport
Russian air defenses repel multiple drone raids – MOD
The Russian military has prevented a series of attempted Ukrainian drone strikes, with over half a dozen unmanned aircraft shot down across five regions spanning from the Ukrainian border to Moscow, the Defense Ministry said early on Wednesday.
Russian air defense units prevented an “attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack by airplane-type UAVs on Russian infrastructure,” the military said in a brief statement.
Shortly after midnight, three unmanned aircraft were shot down in the border region of Bryansk and at least one intercepted over Oryol, some 200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Around 2am, another drone was detected and downed over Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, the Defense Ministry added in another statement.
At 2:30am a plane-type unmanned aerial vehicle was downed in Ryazan region.
At about 3:30am, another Ukrainian UAV was intercepted and crashed over the territory of the Moscow region. The hostile UAV was downed while heading towards the Russian capital, Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, adding that it caused no damage or injuries on the ground.
At 4am yet another UAV was downed over Ryazan region, according to the Defense Ministry.
There were no injuries in Bryansk, according to Governor Aleksander Bogomaz, who said on his Telegram channel that all emergency services are already working at the scene.
Earlier, the Russian aviation authority had announced the emergency closure of airspace over the Tula, Ryazan, Kaluga and parts of Moscow Region, following explosions at an airfield in northwestern Russia.
At least 10 drones had attacked Pskov, according to the regional governor. Most were brought down by air defenses, but some reportedly caused damage to at least two Il-76 transport aircraft. There were no reports of casualties.
Pskov is about 700 kilometers north of Ukraine, but only 30 kilometers from the Estonian border. Latvia is about 60 kilometers southwest. Both are NATO member states. To reach the city, drones launched from Ukraine would have to fly over eastern Belarus.
Ukraine has previously used “drone swarms” to attack Crimea, but has not sent more than a handful of UAVs in the direction of Moscow, where they caused minor property damage to the city’s financial district. The Kremlin had dismissed the attacks as an “act of desperation,” intended to distract from Kiev’s failure on the battlefield.
-RT News
Zelensky demands Western money to hold elections
Westerners calling for Ukraine to hold elections during the conflict with Russia should be prepared to pay millions of dollars and “take risks” on the front line to ensure that ballots are legitimate, President Vladimir Zelensky has said.
Speaking during a TV interview on Sunday, Zelensky addressed criticism in the West over the suspension of democratic processes in Ukraine and suggested a price tag for holding a presidential election next year. The Ukrainian leader specifically referenced comments by US Senator Lindsey Graham during his visit to Kiev last week.
“I asked him: are you prepared to give me five billion?” Zelensky said, describing his conversation with the US politician.
Zelensky did not clarify the currency he was referring to, but the value in Ukrainian hryvnia would equate to around $135 million. The amount would also tally with a recent estimate by the Ukrainian authorities on how much it would cost to hold a presidential election next year. Zelensky further suggested that the level of assistance required may be even higher.
“I am not asking for anything. I will not conduct an election on credit. Neither will I take money out of [funding for] arms and hand it out for an election,” the Ukrainian leader insisted.
“The most important thing is: let us take risks together then, how else? Observers [of the election] will have to be in the trenches,” he added.
Ukraine cannot legally hold elections under martial law. Graham discussed the situation during a press briefing in Kiev, saying: “I want to see this country have a free and fair election even while it is under assault.”
Zelensky claimed he had explained the situation to the US senator, who supposedly agreed with his reasoning. The Republican is a vocal advocate of arming and funding Kiev, and stated last year that with support, Ukraine “will fight to the last person” against Russia, describing it as the right “structural path.”
Zelensky said he would not oppose an election, provided that Western nations are willing to extend the necessary funding and risk lives, and if the Ukrainian parliament amends the law accordingly.
Ukraine faced accusations that its democratic institutions were being eroded long before hostilities with Russia broke out in February 2022. Zelensky’s government has cracked down on opposition parties and media, claiming the steps were necessary to curb Moscow’s influence inside the country.
During his TV interview on Sunday, the Ukrainian leader suggested that criticism over the absence of elections was a ploy to undermine US support for Kiev.
-RT News
Kim Jong Un calls for boosting North Korea’s navy
Image Credit: Pixabay
Kim Jong Un has called for boosting North Korea’s navy, saying the country’s waters brimmed with “the danger of a nuclear war,” state media reported Tuesday, as Seoul, Washington and Tokyo carried out joint naval drills.
Kim slammed growing trilateral cooperation between the “gang bosses” of the United States, South Korea and Japan, saying they had recently “closeted with each other”, the official Korean Central News Agency reported, in an apparent reference this month’s Camp David summit.
He accused Washington of being “more frantic than ever before” by conducting joint naval exercises and deploying nuclear strategic assets in the waters around the Korean peninsula on a permanent basis, the report said.
“Owing to the reckless confrontational moves of the US and other hostile forces, the waters off the Korean Peninsula have been reduced into the world’s biggest war hardware concentration spot, the most unstable waters with the danger of a nuclear war,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
“To achieve the successes in rapidly developing the naval force has become a very urgent issue in view of the enemies’ recent aggressive attempts.”
Kim acknowledged that the North’s navy “had not been armed with up-to-date weapons and combat equipment” but said that even so, it had managed “great achievements of more weighty significance” than the country’s better-funded army.
He also promised that the navy would be given new weapons as part of North Korea’s policy for “expanding the tactical nuclear weapons operation”.
The navy will become a “component of the state nuclear deterrence,” he added.
Photos carried by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed Kim, accompanied by his young daughter, inspecting the navy command and taking photos with scores of naval officers.
“South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed to strengthen military cooperation and decided to conduct joint military exercises on a regular basis at the Camp David summit,” Cheong Seong-chang, researcher at the Sejong Institute, told AFP.
“Therefore, North Korea may feel an urgent need to strengthen its naval power,” he said, adding that some intelligence reports suggested Russia and the North were considering holding joint naval training.
“For that North Korea would need a naval vessel but the country’s navy is very weak, so I think Kim Jong Un is showing off his will to strengthen the naval forces,” Cheong added.
The United States, South Korea and Japan held a joint naval missile defence exercise on Tuesday to counter Pyongyang’s growing nuclear and missile threats.
The exercise in international waters off South Korea’s southern island of Jeju involved destroyers equipped with Aegis radar systems from the three countries, the South Korean navy said in a statement.
Tuesday’s trilateral naval exercises marked the first such drills since the Camp David summit and followed similar ones in July, April, and February this year, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Seoul, Washington and Japan have beefed up their defence cooperation in recent months in response to increasing missile provocations by the North.
The United States and South Korea are also holding their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, which always infuriate Pyongyang.
North Korea has conducted a record number of weapons tests this year, and last week carried out its second attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit, although it ended in failure.
Kim has declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear power and has called for ramped-up arms production, including tactical nuclear weapons.
-Insider Paper
India issues ‘strong protest’ to China over map
Image Credit: Pixabay
India issued a “strong protest” to China on Tuesday after a Beijing map claimed land that New Delhi says is theirs, including territory close to where the neighbours battled in 2020.
“We have today lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so-called 2023 ‘standard map’ of China that lays claim to India’s territory,” foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.
“We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question.”
India has been wary of its northern neighbour’s growing military assertiveness and their 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) shared frontier has been a perennial source of tension.
New Delhi said two areas on a map released on Beijing’s state-owned Global Times newspaper belong to India.
One was India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China considers to be part of Tibet, and where the Asian giants fought a full-scale border war in 1962.
The second was Aksai Chin, a high-altitude strategic corridor linking Tibet to western China.
Fighting in 2020 that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops took place in the Galwan river valley, which abuts Aksai Chin.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have since been massed along both sides of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that divides the rivals.
They remain despite 19 rounds of talks between top military officials of both countries.
India’s protest comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a rare face-to-face meeting in South Africa.
Beijing called last week’s meeting a “candid and in-depth exchange of views”, but India said Modi had stressed that “observing and respecting” the LAC was essential.
Modi’s government has pumped billions of dollars into connectivity projects on its side of the border to boost civilian presence, and establish new paramilitary battalions.
It is also seeking to develop closer ties with Western countries, including fellow Quad members the United States, Japan and Australia, which are themselves wooing India as an alternative to China.
-Insider Paper
Zelensky threatened by possible military coup – former CIA analyst
Failures on the battlefield could push the Ukrainian military to move against President Vladimir Zelensky, retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson has said.
“Zelensky very well could be ousted in a coup within the next three to four weeks, because of the great disgruntlement among troops on the eastern front,” Johnson told Redacted host Clayton Morris in an interview posted over the weekend.
Ukraine’s grand offensive in Zaporozhye, launched in early June with Western-trained troops and NATO-supplied tanks and armored vehicles, has failed to achieve a breakthrough anywhere. Additional brigades, intended to exploit the intended breach, have been deployed to continue the frontal attacks instead, to the point that the US and its allies are publicly airing their frustrations with Ukrainian tactics.
Johnson is not the first American analyst to speculate about the military turning on Zelensky. Earlier this month, former US Marine officer Scott Ritter said the likelihood of a military coup was growing with each destroyed Ukrainian brigade.
“We could be reaching a Kerensky 1917 moment, where the military just says ‘We’re done’,” Ritter told MOATS host George Galloway. He also brought up a recent Politico article, which laid out who would run Ukraine if Russia somehow assassinated Zelensky. According to Ritter, however, Moscow has no intention of going after Zelensky, as he might be replaced by someone even more hardline.
Johnson told Redacted that the way the conflict is going, Ukraine’s survival as a country was “in great doubt.” Kiev is already entirely dependent on the West, and its needs will only grow while its capabilities will continue to shrink, the former CIA official said.
The US strategy for the conflict was to trap Russia in an unwinnable war and induce regime change in Moscow, according to Johnson. Instead, “that’s going to happen to Ukraine,” and Washington will have to figure out how to “back away” from the conflict, because it has massively underestimated Russia’s economic and military strength.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reasoned along similar lines earlier this month, saying in an interview that Ukraine’s Western patrons are publicly committed to “fight until the last Ukrainian” but have a history of abandoning their allies and proxies, from South Vietnam to “Ashraf Ghani’s regime in Afghanistan in 2021.”
Faced with Western concerns about his legitimacy if he cancels the 2024 presidential election, Zelensky has proposed holding the vote – but demanded funding from the West to do so.
The Ukrainian leader has also voiced fears that he might be abandoned by the West if Ukraine goes too far in attacking Russia. His aide Mikhail Podolyak has since argued that the US and its allies have given their blessing for attacks on “occupied territories” – meaning Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson. Since Crimea voted to rejoin Russia in 2014 and the four regions did the same last September, Moscow considers them no less Russian territory than Belgorod or Kursk, which have also been targeted by Ukraine.
-RT News
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Smuggler linked to terrorist group helped people cross border
The United States government confirmed Tuesday that a human smuggler with connections to a terrorist group helped migrants cross the nation’s southern border.
National Security Council officials say the smuggler has been arrested. The migrants have no known connection to terrorism, officials added. CNN, the first outlet to report the situation, said the smuggler has ties to ISIS.
Republicans, however, blame the episode on the border policies under President Joe Biden’s administration.
It’s unclear when the Uzbek nationals arrived, but U.S. officials say intelligence later discovered the smuggling network and the connection of one smuggler to a terrorist organization. The FBI is working with the U.S. government to track down the migrants and determine whether they pose an ongoing threat to national security. There is no indication the individuals are plotting an attack on the U.S.
Still, former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official Chuck Marino says the U.S. should have been able to predict the event.
“We should have known that this was a possibility with our border from the very beginning,” Marino said. “Adversaries are paying attention very closely to what goes on here in the United States, and if there’s a gap in our homeland and national security, they are going to exploit it.”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Senate Republicans account used the situation to slam Biden.
“From terrorism to fentanyl to child trafficking — Biden’s open border is dangerous,” the account posted.
The National Security Council is working to identify people who fit a profile similar to those the network brought to the U.S., vet, detain them and send them into expedited removal proceedings.
-Evan Lambert, News Nation
TECH BILLIONAIRES BUY 55,000 ACRES OUTSIDE SAN FRANCISCO TO START NEW CITY
SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE
The New York Times revealed a group of Silicon Valley billionaires are behind the $800 million in land purchases, or about the size of two San Franciscos, around Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, California.
We previously covered the mysterious Flannery Associates, which has quietly amassed a staggering 55,000-acre farmland portfolio encircling three sides of the military base. The landowners weren't previously known until now:
Billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, venture capitalist and Democratic donor; Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, investors at the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm; Patrick and John Collison, the sibling co-founders of the payments company Stripe; Laurene Powell Jobs, founder of the Emerson Collective; and Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, entrepreneurs turned investors. --NYT
Brian Brokaw, a representative of Flannery Associates, stated the investor group is mainly "Californians who believe that Solano County's and California's best days are ahead." He said the group will begin talking with Solano County leaders, residents, and Air Force officials next week.
ABC7 News I-Team learned Flannery Associates has purchased a total of 55,000 acres of dry farmland that have been acquired since 2018.
ABC7's Stephanie Sierra asked a local official: "Have you seen anything like this in your career?"
"No, I definitely haven't," responded Glenn Zook, Solano County's Assessor.
Zook continued, "We see a lot of investors. There's usually a target, a plan, but there doesn't seem to be that in this case, other than targeting the specific area, which happens to be around the Air Force Base."
One local rancher told the San Francisco Chronicle that Flannery Associates' buying spree "was like a hostile takeover ... it was Shakespearian, a 'Game of Thrones' kind of thing."
NYT said in 2017, one of the venture capitalists sent a pitch deck to potential investors, describing: "A chance to invest in the creation of a new California city."
As San Francisco implodes under the weight of crime and Democrat dysfunction, tech billionaires are pivoting, setting their sights on building a new 'smart city' on the outskirts of the Bay Area. Perhaps it's cheaper to build a new metro area rather than salvage the sinking ship that is San Francisco.
-Blacklisted News
Hundreds of Staten Island Residents Rally Against Illegals Being Housed in Shuttered School
Image Credit: Faith Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Upwards of 400 local residents of the Arrochar neighborhood of northeast Staten Island rallied on August 28 to oppose the arrival of illegal border crossers after a shuttered Catholic school building was quietly designated as a migrant shelter without consulting the neighborhood.
The hundreds of neighbors are unhappy that the building, formerly housing the St. John Villa Catholic school, has been declared a shelter for 300 illegals, a designation that locals accuse Mayor Eric Adams of making “in a cloud of secrecy.”
“It’s a clusterf**k,” an alarmed resident told the New York Post. “The city really screwed it up. Before we even talk about whether I want migrants here or not, the way it was handled was terrible.”
Residents unfurled a large banner ahead of the rally reading, “NO F%*KIN WAY!” as they gathered to voice their opposition to the shelter being opened in a building that is flanked by two active elementary schools.
“The message is that here in Staten Island, we love immigrants,” rally organizer John Tobacco added. “We’re the most Italian-American congressional district in the country, and all our ancestors came here legally. We love anyone who comes here legally.”
Tobacco also called the avalanche of illegals “unsustainable.”
“This isn’t our problem,” he continued. “I think people are fed up. We want answers from people that we voted for.”
The decision was made so quietly that local GOP state Assemblyman Michael Tannousis said that he was never told about the move.
“I found out about this location when it was already out in the newspaper,” he said. Worse, he said he was told that Adams’ office was not going house migrants in his area at all.
The rally was just one of several that have sprung up outside the Arrochar school shelter. Last week a rally grew to nearly 1,000 angry residents, the paper reported.
One resident wondered why she has been forced to get a coronavirus vaccination, but the illegals streaming across the border and being dumped in New York City don’t have to get one. “We don’t even know the first thing about them. You’re letting everybody into the country,” she added.
“I think they should come the same way my ancestors came through — Ellis Island. Make them come [into the U.S.] the right way,” the woman told the paper.
“It’s a f–k you to Staten Island,” resident Tony Banks told the Post during Sunday’s rally.
“This is possibly the worst site picked in New York City,” Banks exclaimed. “Why would they pick this particular site other than just trying to say to the [Staten Island] politicians involved, ‘F–k you. This is what we can and will do.'”
GOP city Councilman David Carr told residents that he has been working to oppose the St. John Villa shelter. But it seems unlikely his efforts will see any results.
Organizers protesting the shelter plan to continue holding rallies.
-Warner Todd Hutson, Breitbart News
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NYC's Crumbling Infrastructure On Full Display As Century-Old Water Line Floods Times Square
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is dealing with yet another problem: A century-old water pipe broke early Tuesday, flooding midtown streets and the city's busiest subway station.
Rohit Aggarwala, commissioner of NYC's Department of Environmental Protection, told AP News the 20-inch water line erupted around 0300 ET under 40th Street and Seventh Avenue. The pipe was installed 127 years ago. Videos uploaded on X, formerly known as Twitter, show water flooding into the Times Square subway station.
Aggarwala said DEP crews found the leak about an hour after the break and were able to stop the flow. Crews are working on 40th Street and Seventh Avenue to fix the century-old pipe. The disruption has led to a suspension in subway service in much of Manhattan, including on the 1, 2, and 3 lines, which run underneath the construction area.
This water main break draws more attention to the financial capital of the world's aging infrastructure, such as bridges, roads, and sidewalks.
Besides crumbling infrastructure, NYC finds itself in a migrant crisis, surging violent crime, and a commercial real estate downturn in office towers that might unleash a doom loop threatening to impede the local economy, erode municipal tax inflows, and stifle an economy recovery.
-Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge
Greece wildfires: 79 people arrested for arson
Image Credit: Residents check the rooms of a destroyed house in Acharnes, north of Athens/ Getty Images
Greece has called out "arsonist scum" after police made 79 arson arrests over wildfires ravaging the country.
Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said there had been several attempts by arsonists to start new fires on Mount Parnitha, north-west of Athens.
The blaze is one of hundreds in the nation where wildfires have already killed at least 20 people this week.
"You are committing a crime against the country," Mr Kikilias said.
"Arsonist scum are setting fires that threaten forests, property and, most of all, human lives," Mr Kikilias told Greeks during a televised emergency briefing on Thursday.
"You will not get away with it, we will find you, you will be held accountable."
Summer wildfires are common in Greece and scientists have linked the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including heatwaves, to climate change.
Stefan Doerr, who directs the Centre for Wildfire Research at Swansea University, says that more flammable landscapes - due to hot weather or poor vegetation management - mean that arson and other incidents can more easily turn into fast-moving wildfires.
Police and Greek intelligence service EYP are investigating the incidents, AFP reported.
Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis told Greek public broadcaster ERT that of 140 wildfire-related arrests, 79 were related to arson.
Hundreds of firefighters across Greece have been battling deadly wildfires.
The large fire front which erupted on Saturday near the port city of Alexandroupolis has become the EU's largest on record, according to European commissioner Janez Lenarcic.
Meanwhile, on Mount Parnitha near Athens, fires have been raging in a forest adjoining the capital, threatening a national park.
Earlier this week, the bodies of 19 people believed to be migrants, with children among them, were found near the Evros region of north-eastern Greece.
A shepherd also lost his life in the fires in the Boeotia region on Monday.
Mr Kikilias said on Wednesday the country was going through the worst summer since fire-risk maps were introduced in 2009.
Just last month, thousands of people were forced to flee fires on the Greek island of Rhodes after wildfires broke out there and in other parts of the country.
-Andre Rhoden Paul, BBC News
Study calls for a shareholder-based carbon tax as 69,700 of the wealthiest US households are found to be “super emitters” of CO2
A new study that analysed US household income data over the last three decades found that the bottom 90 per cent of households’ share of emissions has fallen, while the top 10 per cent’s share has increased.
The wealthiest 10 per cent are the source of 40 per cent of US national greenhouse gas emissions, according to research published in the journal PLOS Climate on 17 August 2023.
Researchers, led by Jared Starr of the University of Massachusetts, analysed emissions associated with businesses owned by the households they analysed and also factored in revenues relating to their investments. For the top 10 per cent, investment income makes up a large share of those households’ emissions – between 38 per cent and 42 per cent in the case of the wealthiest 10 per cent.
The researchers also found that the wealthiest 1 per cent of households were responsible for between 15 per cent and 17 per cent of national emissions.
69,700 of the wealthiest households – representing 55% of the top 0.1% – were what the researchers dubbed “super emitters,” or those responsible for more than 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per year. They had average incomes in 2019 of between $10.6 million and $11.5.
“While super emitting households can also be employed in any sector of the economy, they are markedly overrepresented in finance, real estate, and insurance; manufacturing; mining and quarrying; and services,” the study authors wrote.
The results indicate that policymakers may have been looking at potential carbon taxes and their structure from the wrong angle.
Simply measuring according to consumption gives a misleading picture of who is responsible for the bulk of emissions, Starr said, and any tax on carbon that is consumption-based would reflect that.
“Consumer-facing carbon taxes would hit poor Americans hardest because the emissions intensity of their purchases tends to be higher than higher-income groups because they’re buying things related to necessities,” whereas upper-income groups tend to be based around services, he said.
“These low-income groups basically spend all that comes in, whereas as you move up the income ladder, the higher-income groups have really high savings rates, [and] money that they save or re-invest are not reflected in consumer-facing carbon taxes,” he added.
“Results suggest an alternative income or shareholder-based carbon tax, focused on investments, may have equity advantages over traditional consumer-facing cap-and-trade or carbon tax options,” the researchers wrote while acknowledging that this would likely face pushback from the disproportionate amount of the wealthiest Americans in politics.
As Marc Morano tweeted:
-Rhoda Wilson, The Expose
Very deep and strong M7.1 earthquake hits off Bali and Lombok coasts, Indonesia – No tsunami threats
A strong earthquake of 7.0 magnitude struck deep in the sea north of Bali and Lombok islands in Indonesia early on Tuesday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, sending residents running out of buildings.
The quake’s epicentre was 203 km (126 miles) north of Mataram, Indonesia, and very deep at 516 km below the Earth’s surface, EMSC said.
Indonesian and U.S. geological agencies pegged the magnitude at 7.1, with no threat of a tsunami.
The quake was felt just before 4 a.m. (2000 GMT) across coastal areas in Bali and Lombok and was followed by two quakes of magnitude 6.1 and 6.5, according to the Indonesian geological agency.
Guests at Bali’s Mercure Kuta Bali ran out of their rooms after feeling the tremor for a few seconds, hotel manager Suadi told Reuters by phone.
“Several guests left their rooms but were still in the hotel area,” he said, adding they have since returned and there was no damage to the building.
There were no immediate reports of damage, Indonesian disaster agency BNPB said.
“The quake is deep so it should not be destructive,” BNPB spokesperson Abdul Muhari said. [USGS]
-Strange Sounds