ConocoPhillips, one of the largest independent exploration and production (E&P) companies in the U.S., told employees earlier that it plans to reduce its overall workforce by around 25%. The announcement comes as U.S. economic data show signs of softening, such as the disappointing jobs figures earlier today, which have pushed the odds of a 25-basis-point interest rate cut later this month to nearly 96%. WTI crude prices are trading lower amid increased concerns about OPEC supply. 

A company spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that ConocoPhillips will cut its workforce by 20% to 25%. At the end of 2024, the company employed 11,800 people globally. A 25% reduction would put nearly 3,000 jobs at risk.

Here’s more from Reuters:

Employees received an email this morning containing a video message from CEO Ryan Lance detailing the plans, three sources told Reuters. The company is set to hold a townhall meeting on Thursday morning at 9 a.m. central time, the sources said.

ConocoPhillips provided no details on the reasoning behind the upcoming cuts. However, JOLTS data released earlier today suggest that a 25-basis-point interest rate cut on Sept. 17 may be justified, given the continued deterioration in the labor market.

Mounting economic uncertainty, combined with the Trump administration’s push to “Drill Baby Drill” mandate to unlock America’s fullest energy potential and drive down costs, along with steady OPEC supply, has weighed on WTI prices, which dipped into the $63/bbl range by the lunch hour.

. . . 

Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Democratic leaders in the Senate and House are calling for bipartisanship to avoid a government shutdown.

Congress returned this week from its August recess, and government funding runs out at the end of the month.

“The only way to avoid a shutdown is to work in a bipartisan way, with a bill that can get both Republican and Democratic votes in the Senate,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a Sept. 2 letter to colleagues.

Schumer accused GOP lawmakers of wanting to “go-at-it-alone.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also warned of a government shutdown if Republicans don’t work with Democrats.

“House Democrats are very clear: We’re not down with that,” he said. “And so if what we see next month is simply a continuation of that reckless right-wing Republican approach, we won’t be down with it next month either.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the main fundraising and campaign arm of the House GOP, criticized Jeffries for threatening a government shutdown.

“Democrat ‘Leader’ Hakeem Jeffries admitted his radical party is plotting another government shutdown because they’d rather play politics than govern,” the group’s spokesperson, Mike Marinella, said in a statement.

“While Republicans are focused on keeping the government open and working for the American people, Democrats are threatening chaos to protect their extremist agenda.”

In his letter, Schumer criticized the Trump administration for seeking to unilaterally undo government funding.

“With the Trump Administration’s attempt of the so-called ’pocket rescission,’ it is clear that Republicans are prioritizing chaos over governing, partisanship over partnership, and their own power over the American people,” he wrote.

In accordance with the Impoundment Control Act, a rescission is when the White House requests Congress to reverse government funding that has been appropriated by Congress. It must be approved within 45 days of the request being sent to Congress, or else the money must be spent. With the fiscal year set to end on Sept. 30, a rescission request would take effect without Congress approving it.

The Trump administration sent a request to Congress to rescind $4.9 billion in foreign assistance.

“Last night, President Trump cancelled $4.9 billion in America Last foreign aid using a pocket rescission,” the Office of Management and Budget wrote on X on Aug. 29.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said that the request was a way for the administration to go around Congress.

“Republicans should not accept Russ Vought’s brazen attempt to usurp their own power,” she said in an Aug. 29 statement, referring to the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

“No president has a line item veto—and certainly not a retroactive line item veto.

“Congress should reject this request and this ridiculous, illegal maneuver—and instead insist on making decisions over spending through the bipartisan appropriations process.”

In his letter, Schumer said Democrats are ready to work with Republicans to fund the government.

“Senate Democrats have shown firsthand that we are willing to work in a bipartisan way to keep our government open by advancing bipartisan appropriations bills,” he wrote.

“However, the Trump administration is waging an all-out war against Congress’ Article I authority and the constitutional balance of power. Senate Republicans must decide: stand up for the legislative branch or enable Trump’s slide toward authoritarianism.”

Schumer said that he has spoken with Jeffries and the two “are aligned on our shared priorities for September: where Republicans obstruct, we press forward; where they sow division, we answer with unity; where they threaten shutdown, we hold them accountable.”

While US Manufacturing PMIs improved in August (after falling in July), today’s ‘hard’ data for US Manufacturing (for July) was expected to show another decline (after June’s large 4.8% MoM post-tariff-front-running drop).

Headline factory orders fell 1.3% MoM (as expected) as the hangover from the massive tariff-front-running in May lingers, dragging orders down to just a 1.6% YoY gain…

Source: Bloomberg

As a reminder, May’s tariff-front-running surge up 8.3% was the second biggest monthly jump in 69 years.

Core orders (ex-Transports) rose 0.6% MoM (the third monthly rise in a row)

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, on the bright side, is the pick up in ‘soft’ Manufacturing data signaling a silver lining in August factory data?

Source: Bloomberg

No matter, The Fed meets before the next print.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s massive military parade in Tiananmen Square marking the end of World War II, and attended by world leaders, mostly notably so-called ‘pariahs’ Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, hasn’t disappointed – and even elicited a quick response from President Trump.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping declared that China’s rise is “unstoppable” and showcased over 10,000 troops marching in perfect synchronicity – and a notable lack of ‘diversity’ so elevated in the West – along with hundreds of advanced weapons. Most notably, Xi also for the first time showcased the PLA military’s land, sea, and air-based nuclear force – a complete and deadly triad.

I must say, the Chinese parade really lacks diversity! pic.twitter.com/lO47to5i7L

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) September 3, 2025

The whole thing was also an opportunity to prove to the world that the process of modernizing the world’s largest standing army is well underway and that there are growing ties – or a “special relationship” even – between China and other major nuclear armed powers Russia and North Korea.

Xi’s opening speech featured the words, “Humanity is again faced with a choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, and win-win outcomes or zero-sum games.”

Air-defense laser systems were showcased during the parade, including a large laser that, according to state-run television, is intended for deployment on naval warships. A ground-based version of was also displayed.

Additionally, two oversized undersea drones made their first appearance, with images revealing their massive scale compared to nearby soldiers.

Massive sea drones.

Trump couldn’t resist weighing in on the provocative images…

The president wrote ironically, “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.”

Trump also underscored America’s WW2 defeat of Japan, which ultimately secured lasting peace for China. No, Xi did not give a shoutout to the United States for this, but instead Xi stood proudly with his US-sanctioned allies…

What a line up! Xi has made a come back that no one could have predicted 5 years ago.

pic.twitter.com/yJynTn5yYb

— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) September 3, 2025

Kim’s arrival showed he brought two family members with him to Beijing – his sister, Kim Yo Jong, among one of his closest advisors, and a young girl believed to be his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, whose presence has raised the question over a possible future successor.

Wednesday’s events presented the unprecedented spectacle of three leaders Western mainstream press has dubbed the “axis of upheaval” overlooking these nuclear toys as they drive past…

The DF-5C ICBM comes in 3 parts on 3 vehicles, carries up to 12 nuclear warheads, and has a range of 13,000–20,000 km, enough to reach any global target.

Concerning Trump and US-China relations, the timing of all of this is very significant, given the White House recently indicated that President Trump might be in the region by late October and is open to meeting with Xi.

Among major issues remains the hoped-for long-anticipated deal on tariffs, the potential sale of TikTok in the US, as well as the question of Beijing’s influence Putin related to the future of the Ukraine war, especially the question of a ceasefire or broader resolution in Ukraine.

Below: An unexpected conversation among the three…

In an extremely rare hot mic moment at the China parade, Xi and Putin discussed how organ transplants(!) and other advances may allow people to live to 150 this century.

Quite a hot mic moment on CCTV in Beijing today as Putin and Xi, both 72 years old, are caught casually talking about living to 150 and maybe forever thanks to organ transplants. (As picked up by Bloomberg.) pic.twitter.com/kC4VTRaobq

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) September 3, 2025

“Peace through strength” appears to be Xi’s message in this parade, to use what’s actually a longtime phrase used by American leaders.

China’s hypersonic anti-ship missiles, including YingJi-19, YingJi-17 and YingJi-20, passed through Tian’anmen Square in Wednesday’s V-Day parade. The formation also included YingJi-15 missile. pic.twitter.com/oyZKJQD47t

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) September 3, 2025

As for Kim, he’s obviously gone much deeper in Russia’s corner in Ukraine, even having sent over 10,000 North Korean troops as par of the war effort – an estimated 2,000 of which have come back home in coffins – signifying a deepening Moscow-Pyongyang alliance which Xi has not joined on such a level, and likely wants no part of.

Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the White House has plenty of tools at its disposal to implement President Donald Trump’s global tariffs if the Supreme Court does not uphold his use of a 1977 emergency powers law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled 7–4 on Aug. 29 against the current administration’s decision to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as justification for levies on foreign goods unveiled in April. The court’s decision does not take effect until Oct. 14, allowing the White House ample time to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

The IEEPA grants the president broad authority to regulate international economic transactions—regulating imports and exports, freezing foreign assets, or halting financial transactions—after declaring a national emergency.

In a Labor Day interview with Reuters, Bessent stated that while he is confident the high court will uphold the president’s reciprocal tariff agenda, the administration has various options available.

“I’m confident the Supreme Court … will uphold the president’s authority to use IEEPA. And there are lots of other authorities that can be used—not as efficient, not as powerful,” Bessent said.

He referred to Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, also known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. It contains a trade provision that authorizes the president to impose new tariffs or additional duties of up to 50 percent on foreign products entering the United States for a period of five months if they are determined to threaten domestic commerce.

Bessent said he is planning a legal brief for the U.S. Solicitor General to highlight the urgency of stopping the flow of fentanyl into the country. Pointing to the approximately 70,000 fentanyl-linked deaths per year in the United States, he questioned what would be considered an emergency.

“If this is not a national emergency, what is?“ he said. ”When can you use IEEPA if not for fentanyl?”

The senior administration official also intends to argue that persistent trade imbalances will ultimately reach a critical threshold, triggering more immense consequences for the U.S. economy.

“We’ve had these trade deficits for years, but they keep getting bigger and bigger,” he said. “We are approaching a tipping point … so preventing a calamity is an emergency.”

The last time the United States registered a trade surplus was in 1975.

In July, the U.S. goods trade deficit widened by $18.7 billion to $103.6 billion, the largest gap in four months. Imports rose by more than 7 percent to $281.5 billion while exports dipped 0.1 percent to $178 billion.

Long-term U.S. Treasury yields popped on Sept. 2, driven by concerns that the federal government will be forced to repay tariff income and forego potentially trillions of dollars in tariff revenues.

Yields on the 20- and 30-year government bonds surged about 5 basis points to around 4.92 percent and 4.98 percent, respectively.

“Global trading partners will no doubt find it premature to be celebrating just yet, but we’ll be interested in seeing whether the Treasury market comes under any further pressure if the US has to hand back already received tariff revenues,” ING economists said in a Sept. 1 note.

In this fiscal year, the federal government has collected $183.1 billion in tariff revenues, including $31 billion in August.

Looking ahead, according to projections from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, tariff revenues could rise to as much as $50 billion per month, or 1.5 percent of GDP, “before declining some as supply chains adjust.”

The Yale Budget Lab estimates the effective U.S. tariff rate is 18.6 percent, the highest since 1933.

‘Performative’ Relationships

Bessent also shrugged off the apparent cordial relations between China, India, and Russia at the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization as “performative.”

“It’s more of the same,” Bessent said, adding that Beijing and New Delhi are “fueling the Russian war machine.”

“I think at a point we and the allies are going to step up,” he said.

Last week, the president’s additional 25 percent tariff on India went into effect, bringing the total import duty to 50 percent on many imports entering the United States. The administration doubled down on punitive levies over India’s enormous purchases of Russian crude oil.

Trump, writing in a Sept. 1 Truth Social post, stated that India has offered to reduce its tariffs to zero percent.

“India buys most of its oil and military products from Russia, very little from the U.S.,” Trump said. “They have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago. Just some simple facts for people to ponder!”

He noted that the United States does “very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us.”

According to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, the U.S. goods trade deficit with India was $45.8 billion last year, up 5.9 percent from 2023.

India, the only nation slapped with secondary tariffs for Russian oil purchases, has been surpassed by China as the world’s largest buyer of discounted petroleum products from Moscow.

Bessent defended the administration’s decision not to impose secondary tariffs on Beijing. In an Aug. 19 interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Bessent stated that China was already the Russian energy sector’s client.

“China importing it is suboptimal,” Bessent said. “But if you go back and look pre-2022, pre-invasion, 13 percent of China’s oil was already coming from Russia. Now it’s 16 [percent]. So, China has a diversified input of their oil.”

India, on the other hand, dramatically accelerated its purchasing following the breakout of the war in Ukraine, Bessent noted.

In 2021, India imported $2.31 billion of Russian crude oil, according to United Nations COMTRADE data. By 2024, imports surged to almost $53 billion.

The tariff pause between the United States and China, meanwhile, was extended last month until Nov. 10.

 Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

Ilhan Omar: Preaching Socialism, Practicing Capitalism 

I am so f**kng sick of watching politicians on both sides of the aisle get rich while they’re in office. But when politicians rail against millionaires and billionaires while quietly joining their ranks, it’s even worse, because it’s hypocrisy dressed up as virtue.

Few examples are as glaring as Rep. Ilhan Omar’s latest financial disclosure.

Just months ago, Omar dismissed rumors about her personal wealth as “ridiculous” and “categorically false,” insisting she was just a working mom with student loan debt.

Now, according to filings reported by the New York Post and Washington Free Beacon, Omar and her husband, Tim Mynett, are sitting on a net worth of up to $30 million. That’s a 3,500% jump in a single year.

Either her financial situation changed at the speed of light, or her earlier denials weren’t worth much. And the hypocrisy runs even deeper when it comes to those who spend their careers railing against capitalism, wealth, and inequality. Which is to say nothing of Omar’s critiques of the U.S., calling it “one of the worst countries” in a recent interview.

Her net worth didn’t come from thriftiness on a congressional salary. It came from her husband’s businesses: a California winery and a Washington, D.C.–based venture capital firm, Rose Lake Capital.

The winery was valued at a measly $15,000 to $50,000 last year but is now worth up to $5 million. Normal.

Rose Lake Capital went from essentially worthless to being valued between $5 million and $25 million, while the company boasts of managing a staggering $60 billion in assets.

Not bad for a family that supposedly embodies the struggles of everyday Americans.

And lets just say Omar’s net worth surge was legitimate for a second. She married into wealth — or her husband is just a resounding success — that’s not what bothers me.

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What bothers me the most is that Omar has built her career thundering against the wealthy and declaring capitalism a system rigged against the little guy. She lectures about inequality, demonizes people who accumulate fortunes, and paints millionaires as morally compromised. Yet here she is, supposedly reaping the rewards of venture capital and luxury wine—two industries not exactly known for their devotion to socialist ideals.

It’s not that Americans resent success. It’s that Omar’s success makes her rhetoric look like a cheap costume. Don’t preach about tearing down the capitalist system while sipping wine financed by it. Don’t rail against millionaires while marrying one.

The contradiction is laughable. Condemn the rich in speeches, then quietly become one of them. Call the American economic system exploitative, then ride it to a lifestyle most of your constituents will never experience.

As I suggested on X today, people who both hate our country and actively preach socialism and communism in politics should have their net worth capped at $999,000 so they don’t become “evil millionaires,” and they must cut checks for any overages to the IRS or Treasury to help “solve inequity.”

If Omar truly believes wealth is corrosive, exploitative, and immoral, then shouldn’t she model the lifestyle she prescribes for everyone else? At the very least, she owes voters an explanation for how a self-described working mom with student loan debt turned into one of the wealthiest members of Congress almost overnight.

If nothing else, Omar’s financial disclosure is proof of one thing: the capitalist system she claims to despise is working just fine—for her.

Now read: 

• 6 Dividend Payers I Like With Low PEs
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• The Fed Bubble Meets The Bill Collector

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The German government has launched a public campaign warning about Russian attempts to recruit so-called “disposable agents” through social media for espionage and sabotage, AFP reports.

The accusation comes after years of a shadow war which has involved apparent tit-for-tat sabotage attacks and assassinations both in Europe and in Russia. Mystery fires have erupted, for example, in defense sector manufacturing plants on the European continent and in the UK. Also, similar potential sabotage events have been observed inside Russia. Many observers see it as a behind the scenes ‘dirty war’ which parallels the Ukraine conflict.

German police and intelligence services allege these operations often involve untrained individuals committing acts like arson, property damage, or photographing or monitoring sensitive installations.

People are at first unwittingly recruited through online forums and popular social media sites, and as conversations proceed, targeted individuals are offered sums of money in return for carrying out criminal acts.

According to AFP’s reporting on the fresh statements from Berlin authorities:

The campaign warns that suspected Russian spies aim “to destabilize Germany with the help of people in Germany”.

“This gives them a decisive advantage: they don’t have to ‘get their hands dirty’ themselves.”

Chief of Germany’s BND foreign spy agency Bruno Kahl, warned this week, “Sabotage, espionage and propaganda activities carried out by foreign intelligence services deliberately undermine the stability of free societies.”

“They are an attack on our democracy through deception, intimidation and subversion,” he added. The Czech Republic has reportedly issued a similar public alert.

Telegram is one specific platform named by European authorities as being used by Russian intelligence to recruit unwitting actors. Interestingly, it was of course Telegram which lately came under suspicion and a far-reaching crackdown by French authorities, especially during last year’s Pavel Durov arrest saga.

Just this summer, ‘Russian saboteurs’ were alleged to be behind a suspected arson attack at a Bundeswehr facility in Erfurt, Germany – which destroyed half a dozen large military trucks. NATO and the Ukrainians have been suspected of doing their own dirty war sabotage operations inside Russia as well.

German authorities also just days ago charged that Russian intelligence has been utilizing small drones in order to monitor weapons shipments routes in German border states.

Authored by Juan Galt via BitcoinMagazine.com,

Android’s new rule requires all app developers to submit personal information to Google, even for apps outside the Play Store. Critics argue this threatens user freedom and ignores solutions…

Android, Google’s mobile operating system, announced on August 25 that it will be requiring all app developers to verify their identity with the organization before their apps can run on “certified android devices.”

While this might sound like a common-sense policy by Google, this new standard is not just going to be applied to apps downloaded from Google Play store, but all apps, even those “side-loaded” — installed directly into devices by side-stepping the Google Play store. Apps of the sort can be found online in Github repositories or on project websites and installed on Android devices directly by downloading the installation files (known as APKs). 

What this means is that, if there is an application that Google does not like, be it because it does not conform to its policies, politics or economic incentives, they can simply keep you from running that application on your own device. They are locking down Android devices from running applications not with their purview. The ask? All developers, whether submitting their apps through the Play store or not, need to give their personal information to Google. 

The decision begs the question, if you can not run whatever app you want on your device without the permission of Google, then is it really your device? How would you respond if Windows decided you could only install programs from the Microsoft app store?

The move has of course made news in tech and cybersecurity media and caused quite a stir as it has profound consequences for the free and open web. For years, Android has been touted as an open source operating system, and through this strategy has gained massive distribution throughout the world with users in developing countries where Apple’s “walled garden” model and luxury devices are not affordable.

This new policy will tighten up controls over applications and its developers, and threatens the freedom to run whatever software you like on your own device in a very subversive and legalistic way. Because of Google’s influence over the Android variety of phones, the consequences of this policy are likely to be felt by the majority of users and devices, throughout the world.

Android justifies the policy change with concerns about the cybersecurity of their users. Malicious apps side-loaded into devices have led to “over 50 times more malware,” Android claims in their announcement blog. As a measure of “accountability,” and with the council of various governments throughout the world, Android has decided to take a “balanced approach,” and the language couldn’t be more Orwellian. 

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”

– Benjamin Franklin

Put in simpler terms, Google is looking to collect the personal information of software developers, centralizing it in its data centers alongside that of all of its users, in order to “protect” users from hackers that Google can’t seem to stop today in the first place.

After all, if Google and Android could actually keep personal user data secure in the first place, this would not be a problem, right?

Google’s solution to user data leaks is to collect more user data, ironically enough, in this case the data of developers who use the Android platform. A remarkable leap of logic, lazy and fundamentally decadent, a sign that they’ve lost their edge and arguably truly forgotten their now scrubbed “don’t be evil” motto.

Information Wants To Be Free

The reality is that Google finds itself trapped by a dilemma set up by the nature of information and the digital age, to quote the 90s cypherpunk Steward Brand, “information almost wants to be free.”

Every hop that personal data — like your name, face, home address or social security number — makes throughout the internet is an opportunity for it to get copied and leaked. As your information moves from your phone, to a server in your city to another server in a Google datacenter, every hop increases the likelihood that your data gets hacked and ends up on the dark web for sale. A thorny problem when user data is the primary business model of a giant like Google who processes it and sells it to advertisers who, in turn, create targeted ads. 

We can measure the truth of Brand’s information principle by looking at two fascinating statistics, which not too many people seem to talk about, oddly enough. The first is the absurd amount of data hacks that have taken place in the last 20 years. For example, the Equifax Data Breach in 2017 affected 147 million Americans, and the National Public Data Breach of 2024 affected over 200 million Americans, leading to leaked data that included social security numbers, likely ending up for sale on the dark web.

While legendary hacks like that of the Office of Personal Management of the U.S. government, compromised a large number of the U.S. Government officials at the time, including everything from social security numbers to medical records.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that a majority of Americans have had their data hacked and leaked already, and there’s no easy way to reverse that. How does one change their face, medical history or social security number after all?

The second statistic, which no one seems to connect to the first, is the rise of identity theft and fraud in the United States. Did you know that in 2012, 24 billion dollars’ worth of identity theft were reported? Twice as much as all other forms of theft combined that same year. Business Insider reported at the time from Bureau of Justice statistics that “identity theft cost Americans $24.7 billion in 2012, losses for household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and property theft totaled just $14 billion.” Eight years later that number doubled, costing Americans $56 billion in losses in 2020. Both of these trends continue to grow to this day. It may indeed already be too late for the old identity system, which we still rely so heavily on. 

Generative AI adds fuel to the fire, in some cases trained on leaked user data with examples of image models able to create high-quality images of humans holding fake IDs. As AI continues to improve, it is increasingly capable of fooling humans into thinking they are talking to another human as well, rather than a robot, creating new attack vectors for identity fraud and theft.

Nevertheless, Google insists that if we just collect a bit more personal user data, maybe then the problem will just go away. Convenient for a corporation whose main business model is the collection and sale of such data. Has any other corporation done more damage to civilian privacy than Google, by the way? (Facebook, I suppose.) 

In Cryptography We Trust

To be fair to the 2000s Web2 tech giants, the problem of secure identity in the digital age is not easy to solve. The legal structures of our societies around identity were created long before the internet emerged and moved all that data to the cloud. The only real solution to this problem now is actually cryptography, and its application to the trust that humans build in their relationships in the real world, over time.

The 90s cypherpunks understood this, which is why they invented two important technologies, PGP and webs of trust. 

PGP

PGP invented in 1991 by Phil Zimmermann, pioneered the use of asymmetric cryptography to solve this fundamental problem of protecting user data privacy while also enabling secure user authentication, identification and secure communication.

How? It’s simple, actually, by using cryptography in a similar way as Bitcoin does today to secure over a trillion dollars of value. You have a secure “password” and keep it as secret as possible, you don’t share it with anybody, and your apps use it carefully to unlock services but the password never leaves your phone. We can do this, it works, there’s even custom-made hardware to lock down precisely this kind of information. The person or company you want to connect with also creates a secure “password,” and with that password we each generate a public address or digital pseudonymous ID. 

The company encrypts a message with their password and your public address and sends you a message. Well, thanks to the magic of cryptography, you can decrypt that message with your password and the company’s public address. That is all we need to secure the web. These public IDs do not have to reveal any information about you and you could have one for every brand or identity you have online. 

Webs Of Trust

But there is also the question of reputation: How do you know that the company you are trying to connect with is who they claim to be? In cybersecurity, this is called a man-in-the-middle attack, where a malicious third party impersonates who you actually wish to connect to. 

The way cypherpunks solved this problem in the 90s was by developing the concept of webs of trust, through real-world ceremonies called “signing parties.”

When we meet in person, we decide that we trust each other or affirm that we already know and trust each other enough to co-sign each other’s public IDs. We give each other a cryptographic vote of confidence — so to speak —  weighed by our brand or publicly known nym. This is similar to giving a follow to someone on a public forum like Twitter; it is the PGP equivalent to saying “I’ve met Bob, I recognize XYZ as his public ID, and I vouch that he is real.”

While this sounds tedious, antiquated and like it would never scale to the whole world, technology has advanced a great deal since the 90s; in fact this fundamental logic is how the internet is sort of secured today.

Remember that green lock that used to be displayed on every website? That was a PGP-like cryptographic handshake between your computer and the website you were visiting, signed off by some certificate authority or third party out on the internet. Those certificate authorities became centralized custodians of public trust and like many other institutions today probably need to be decentralized.

The same logic can be applied to the verification and authentication of APKs, by scaling up webs of trust. In fact, in the open source world, software hashed into a unique ID derived from the data of the software, and that hash is signed by developer PGP keys to this day. The software hashes, PGP public IDs and signatures are all published alongside software for people to review and verify. 

However if you don’t know whether the PGP public ID is authentic, then the signature is not useful, since it could have been created by an impersonator online. As users we need a link that authenticates that public ID belongs to the real-world developer of the app.

The good news is that this problem can probably be solved without having to create a global surveillance state giving all our data to the Googles of the world. 

For example, if I wanted to download an app from a developer in Eastern Europe, I likely won’t know him or be able to verify this public ID, but perhaps I know someone who vouched for someone who knows this developer. While I may be three or four hops away from this person, the likelihood that they are real suddenly goes up a lot. Faking three or four hops of connection in a web of trust is very expensive for mercenary hackers looking to score a quick win. 

Unfortunately, these technologies have not been adopted widely, beyond the high-tech paranoid world,  nor gotten as much funding as the data mining business model of most of the web. 

Modern Solutions

Some modern software projects recognize this logic and are working to solve the problems at hand, making it easy for users to leverage and scale cryptographic webs of trust. Zapstore.dev, for example, is building an alternative app store secured by cryptographic webs of trust using Bitcoin-compatible cryptography, the project is funded by OpenSats, a nonprofit that funds open source, Bitcoin-related software development.

Graphene, an Android operating system fork that’s become popular among cybersecurity enthusiasts, has also implemented an alternative app store that addresses many of these issues without having to DOX app developers, and serves as a high-security operating system, looking to solve many of the privacy and security issues in Android today.

Far-fetched as it may seem, cryptographic authentication of communication channels and digital identities is the only thing that can protect us from personal data hacks. Entropy and the security created from randomness via cryptography are the only things AI cannot fake. That same cryptography can help us authenticate ourselves in the digital age without having to share our personal data with every intermediary out there, if we use it right.

Whether this new policy by Android is sustained, or whether enough public outcry can stop it and better solutions do get popularized and adopted remains to be seen, but the truth of the matter is clear. There is a better way forward, we just have to see it and choose it.

For years, globalists pushed “climate crisis” propaganda across Western countries, directly attacking the fossil-fuel industry in favor of unreliable “green” energy, while orchestrating a heist on the U.S. Treasury through climate legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act that plowed billions into dark money-funded NGOs.

There was a war on your mind, a war against humanity through climate propaganda.

These radical leftists used children like Greta Thunberg to scare the public into submission and indoctrinate multiple generations into believing a looming climate disaster would wipe out humanity, with the only “solution” being de-growth, nation-killing policies, such as attempting to ban petrol-powered cars, cow farts, and gas stoves – yet leaving private jets and mega yachts untouched, long with more and more and more carbon taxes. 

A newly uncovered U.S. State Department award from the Biden-Harris regime years, found by the X account Alladdin, has many scratching their heads, further suggesting that Greta could’ve been a globalist puppet, or an indoctrination weapon aimed at the youth. 

“Greta Thunberg: The U.S. State Department funded a $16,633 translation of Greta Thunberg’s book No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference into Kyrgyz for distribution in Kyrgyzstan,” Alladdin said. 

He continued, “What other reason could there be for this expenditure besides the department actively promoting her environmental ideology to sow discord and amplify her global reach?“

Greta Thunberg:
The U.S. State Department funded a $16,633 translation of Greta Thunberg’s book No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference into Kyrgyz for distribution in Kyrgyzstan. What other reason could there be for this expenditure besides the department actively promoting… pic.twitter.com/VRmgttVttI

— Alladdin (@Alladdin1983) September 2, 2025

Mike Benz commented… 

The book “No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference” compiles Greta Thunberg’s very scripted speeches, delivered at the United Nations, the European Parliament, and the World Economic Forum, all centered on an alleged climate crisis. Its core theme was the urgent warning about imminent dangers to the planet.

Yet years later. We’re still here, and it was just one of the coldest Augusts in some parts of the Lower 48 in decades.

Remember her 2018 prediction?

Why the State Department under the Biden-Harris regime wanted to rile up the youth in Kyrgyzstan about some climate crisis is beyond us – but it certaintly seems as if globalist elites hid behind the child to project their powerful and malevolent green political agenda of power consolidation worldwide.

Greta has moved on from climate to Palestine. Follow the money… 

The truth is, our planet is resilient. It’s endured volcanic eruptions, cosmic events, and ice ages. Yet we’re pitched that corrupt globalists bent on centralizing power will “save” the planet through banning cow farts and taxing the working class into submission. The period of bullshit is over – folks have caught on.

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

For far too long, entrepreneurs and employee representatives have silently accepted the ecological crash course of politics. Now, the chemical union IG BCE is demanding a shift in climate policy. Slowly, the penny seems to be dropping.

A storm is brewing in Berlin. The faint rumble that barely drew attention weeks ago has now grown into unmistakable thunderclaps: After Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius sent an urgent letter to the Chancellor calling for a return to reality and a rethink of strict CO₂ targets, the chemical union IG BCE has voiced sharp criticism. Their message to policymakers is clear: the destructive climate policies from Brussels and Berlin are pushing industry to the brink of collapse.

End of the German Special Path 

The IG BCE calls for abandoning Germany’s national goal of climate neutrality by 2045. Union leader Michael Vassiliadis emphasized that many companies are fighting for survival. 40,000 jobs are at risk, and 12,000 employees are already on short-time work. Regarding climate targets, even aligning with the EU goal by extending the deadline five years to 2050 could help—but even that is not enough, says Vassiliadis, speaking for 570,000 members. Many companies need immediate support; otherwise, stagnation and job losses are inevitable.

The union is particularly critical of CO₂ pricing. This instrument doesn’t work as intended—it kills businesses, Vassiliadis says. And nowhere else in the world is it applied as harshly as in Germany. While Asia and the U.S. ignore European guidelines, German companies face massive competitive disadvantages. Technologies, infrastructure, and energy sources for climate-neutral production at reasonable costs simply do not exist.

Germany’s “special path” keeps standing out. In the land of devout climate activists, the aim is to set a good example. Realism, global perspectives, and climate facts are ridiculed and dismissed as much as possible by climate proselytes in the media, NGOs, and politics.

The Consequences Are Real 

The hardest hit are energy-intensive sectors—chemicals, plastics, rubber, glass, paper. Production is falling everywhere; entire value chains are disappearing. Vassiliadis’ words send a clear signal: even in traditionally SPD-aligned unions, long conditioned to ecological orthodoxy, open resistance to green climate policy is growing.

The Dam Has Broken 

The dam seems broken; the vow of silence by business and unions has ended. The crisis of the German economy—now in its third year of recession—cannot be ignored. The country has become a location from which capital flees rather than settles. Last year alone, €64.5 billion in net direct investment was withdrawn. These are real investments that create jobs and secure the future.

Across party lines, ecological zeal has caused irreparable social damage. Since 2019, some 250,000 industrial jobs have been lost; in Q2 2025, industrial employment fell 2.1 percent, about 4.3 percent over six years. Currently, 5.43 million people still work in industry, but they sit on a melting iceberg—over 100,000 positions vanished in 2024, including 45,400 in the automotive sector.

Construction is also in retreat: bankruptcies rose 17 percent last year—high interest rates, declining orders, and Kafkaesque bureaucracy paralyze investors and builders.

Industry Raises Sails 

Chemical and steel production, among others, have dropped over 15 percent since pre-COVID times—Germany’s economic decline is absolute, accelerating, and eroding the foundations of society.

Depression, Not Recession 

The numbers describe an economic depression. Calling it a recession would be euphemistic, masking the damage green fanaticism and unbridled regulation have caused. The state has been captured by green-socialist ideologues, turning it into a weapon against the heart of the German economy.

It is regrettable that it took so long for leading economic figures to oppose this destructive course, fulfilling their civil responsibility. The elite has so far failed to meet its rightful high standards. Respect is due to Källenius and Vassiliadis, who now stand against the powerful climate lobby and must hope for allies.

Dealing With the New Command Economy 

Germany—and by extension all EU states—will soon be forced by economic realities to a regulatory pivot: Brussels and national planners are running out of money for further experiments. The same will soon affect the defense industry.

The Argentine model seems paradigmatic: bureaucracy and regulation must be compressed with a shock moment. “Economy before politics” must prevail; all attacks on private wealth and economic freedom—minimum wages, rent caps, heat pump mandates, or the combustion engine ban—must be buried in the swamp of socialist experiments.

That the IG Metall seems ready to convert struggling civilian production into a wartime economy with state aid would be a step from the frying pan into the fire.

We need consensus that state-managed economies fail and cannot work. Agreement is essential to politically and narratively break Brussels’ front.

Brussels in Heavy Turbulence 

Green transformation and the attempted European wartime economy must be understood together. The political aim is to revive idle industrial capacity, control basic industry and energy sectors, and establish a green-socialist command economy. Power is prioritized over societal prosperity and individual freedom—a Brussels minor key.

But the Eurocrats’ score ends abruptly. Public debt, permanent recession, job losses, and growing criticism of Brussels’ ideological course threaten the centralization project. German criticism cannot be ignored; international business representatives will join German “strikebreakers.” The clock is ticking for Brussels.

President Ursula von der Leyen and her EU Commission face a multi-front battle, with the U.S. increasing pressure on Brussels’ regulatory and censorship policies. The coming weeks will be challenging.

Possibly, the last week of August 2025 marks a groundbreaking wake-up call from the German economic elite, finally stirring the sluggish Berlin coalition. Anything less than a complete break with planned climate policy signals either political incapacity or unwillingness to reform. Given deep entanglements with the climate complex, a hard clash between ideology and civil society seems inevitable.

* * *

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.