OPEC+ agreed to push back its December production increase by one month, the second delay to its plans to revive supply as faltering demand in China and swelling supplies from the Americas pressure prices.

but… but “Reuters sources” inside the Biden oil selling department said OPEC would flood the market any second https://t.co/ICGWItFYL0

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 3, 2024

No reason was given for the delay.

“Market conditions won out,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of oil research at Onyx Commodities Ltd.

“OPEC+ showed it couldn’t ignore the current macroeconomic economic realities centered on China and Europe, which point to weaker oil demand growth.”

OPEC Plus had first announced in June that it would gradually increase production by an estimated 2.2 million barrels a day, or around 2 percent of global supplies, in October.

That had been a major source of concern for the markets.

Then, in September, the group announced a delay until at least December.

And this is how Reuters and its “sources” manipulate the oil market pic.twitter.com/YsRe1Ft2Xy

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 4, 2024

The OPEC+ move is “modestly positive,” said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS Group AG in Zurich. The market will focus instead on Iran’s response to Israel’s attacks and the outcome of US elections, he said. However, JP Morgan analysts wrote that “with geopolitical concerns temporarily set aside, attention is once again shifting back to market fundamentals.”

We suspect the election will matter… a lot.

“Given all the geopolitical tension in the Middle East and, perhaps more importantly, the upcoming US presidential elections, it makes perfect sense for OPEC+ to postpone the unwinding of the voluntary cuts for an extra month,” said Jorge Leon, senior vice president at consultant Rystad Energy AS.

These eight OPEC+ countries reiterated their collective commitment to achieve full conformity with the Declaration of Cooperation, including the additional voluntary production adjustments.

“For me, the impact is more important on sentiment than the numbers,” said Amrita Sen, director of research at consultant Energy Aspects Ltd.

“The market has been incorrectly viewing OPEC+ as wanting to flood the market to regain market share,” but instead, their “primary focus remains keeping oil inventories under control.”

Prices are headed into the $60s next year, and potentially lower if OPEC+ opens the taps, according to Citigroup and JPMorgan analysts.

That poses a financial threat for Riyadh, which needs levels closer to $100 a barrel to cover the ambitious economic plans of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to the IMF.

The market outlook the group faces ultimately hinges on the outcome of US presidential elections on Nov. 5, Currie added.  “The real geopolitical risk has yet to come, which is the shockwave from the US election,” he said. “Not only will it jar fragile flash points around the world, but it will also reveal the all-important path that Chinese stimulus takes in response.”

Via Middle East Eye

China and Russia’s response to Israel’s attacks on Iran has drawn widespread criticism, with many deeming the reactions insufficient and delayed.

The Tehran-based Ham-Mihan daily newspaper emphasized that given the extensive promotion of strategic relations between Tehran, Moscow and Beijing in recent years, there was an expectation that Russia and China would officially condemn the attacks on Iran.

The newspaper wrote: “Three days passed after the Israeli military attack on sites in three Iranian provinces before China’s foreign ministry responded. The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson also commented on the attack only hours afterwards. In the end, neither Beijing nor Moscow condemned Israel’s actions.”

The daily continued to criticize the stances of these two countries, comparing them to some European nations that have tense relations with Iran.

As western sanctions against Iran have increased in recent years, Tehran has strengthened economic ties with Moscow and Beijing, with one key outcome being the sale of cheap oil to China.

However, the expansion of these political ties has consistently faced criticism within Iran and discontent has intensified following recent direct conflicts between Iran and Israel.

Calls for direct military action against Israel

A newspaper affiliated with Iran’s so-called “hardliners” has called for direct military action against Israel, arguing such attacks are essential for ensuring regional stability.

In an article titled “Killing the Dog”, the Agaah daily emphasized the need to intensify military confrontations with Israel, saying: “Attacks on the interests of the Zionist regime worldwide guarantee the security of the region.” The report featured images of Israel’s political and military leaders alongside suggested targets, including military and economic centers.

This is not the first instance Agaah has advocated direct action against Israel. Last month, the daily released a list of sites that could potentially be targeted by Hezbollah’s missiles and drones. The list included food factories, power facilities, technology plants and chemical production sites. 

Moreover, the Dimona nuclear plant was identified as a target for Hezbollah, reportedly within range of Iran’s Fateh-110 missiles.

Ex-legislator: Iran’s diplomacy hampered by internal conflicts

The former head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission has criticized the government’s handling of “extremist” groups within the country, saying they are undermining diplomatic efforts.  

In an op-ed, Hashmatullah Falahat Pishe argued that the failure to unify domestic political forces has led to setbacks in the nation’s foreign policy. “Diplomacy is accepted and trusted globally when it reflects a unified and strong voice within a country. Therefore, the key obstacles to diplomacy here are internal,” he wrote, adding: “Mr Pezeshkian’s government must address these issues first.”

Falahat Pishe also mentioned Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s recent visits to nine Middle Eastern countries, stressing that the activities of extremist groups in Iran have undermined these diplomatic efforts.

“This shows the government has not yet resolved its internal challenges with extremist factions. The government must first prove its ability to address foreign policy issues internally. Only then can diplomacy succeed,” he concluded.

Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” last night – playing herself across from Maya Rudolph’s version of her in the show’s cold open.

Kamala Harris spent THREE HOURS rehearsing for this cringe fest on SNL.

Complete with the fake black accent.

This is a tough watch. Good Lord. pic.twitter.com/B3RbafOsH9

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 3, 2024

It was essentially an exact copy of Trump’s appearance in 2015, except not funny.

Kamala Harris SNL skit DIRECTLY copied Trump’s from 2015.

Can she do ANYTHING original at all? https://t.co/RX3zMprYfo pic.twitter.com/wwbdVJgig1

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 3, 2024

What’s more, it may have violated election laws.

As Michael Shellenberger points out, “The producer of Saturday Night Live said neither Harris nor Trump would appear on the show “because of election laws.” Last night, about 60 hours before polls open, he put Harris on the show in a warm & humanizing sketch. He and NBC violated the equal time provision of the law.”

On October 1, 2024, Hollywood Reporter published this article. It said, “In a recent interview ahead of the show’s 50th season, SNL creator and long-running maestro Lorne Michaels revealed that he hadn’t reached out to the real-life candidates, and he didn’t intend to before the… pic.twitter.com/3olU8qMmeT

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) November 3, 2024

Continued:

That article linked to a September 19 interview between Michaels and SNL cast members, Colin Jost and Michael Che. Weirdly, however, the September 19 does not contain the Lorne Michaels quote referred to in the October 1 Hollywood Reporter article. Even more weirdly, neither does the WayBack Machine’s first capture of the article on September 19.

The reason that’s weird is that many media outlets reported on Michaels’ statement in early October.

NBC clearly violated the law. In a 2022 fact sheet, FCC writes, “FCC rules seek to ensure that no legally qualified candidate for office is unfairly given less access to the airwaves – outside of bona fide news exemptions – than their opponent.”

I will interview @BrendanCarrFCC about this at 11:45 ET on an X Spaces— please tune in https://t.co/PaCiLoVUfP

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) November 3, 2024

Authored by Lawrence Wilson, Allan Stein, John Haughey, Nathan Worcester, Jackson Richman, Arjun Singh, Jeff Louderback, Joseph Lord, Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

The 2024 presidential election on Nov. 5 likely hinges on the outcome in seven battleground states.

Battlegrounds—also called swing or purple states—are where support for Democratic and Republican candidates has been split in recent presidential elections. Current swing states are Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Most other states consistently break for the same political party and aren’t considered competitive.

The battleground states account for 93 of the nation’s 538 electoral votes. The winner needs at least 270 electoral votes—more than half—to win.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris appear nearly tied in those seven states, according to current polling averages. And all of those states currently are considered tossups that could go either way, according to Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan elections rating group.

How long it will take for Americans to know the results in the seven swing states depends on the individual states’ laws.

State Election Laws Differ

Under the U.S. Constitution, elections are conducted by each state.

Unofficial results often are reported soon after polls close, sometimes within hours. News organizations often announce presumed winners of national races within hours or by the early morning of the next day.

But the official result takes longer for several reasons.

State laws vary regarding when to count ballots that are mailed in, dropped off, or cast during in-person early voting.

Though they go by different names, all seven battleground states allow some kind of absentee or mail-in voting. And all offer early in-person voting, which is now underway throughout most states.

Some state laws allow for early ballots to be tallied before Election Day. Others prohibit counting before polls close.

Mailed ballots received after Election Day still will be counted in some states, as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 5. The deadline for receiving them varies by state.

Poll workers demonstrate how ballots are are received, processed, scanned, and securely stored on Election Day during a press tour by the Philadelphia City Commissioners, at the Philadelphia Election Warehouse in Philadelphia on Oct. 25, 2024. Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images

Verifying Voters

Counting ballots not cast in person can take more time.

Some states—Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan—require a voter’s signature on a mail-in ballot to be verified.

In Georgia, officials must verify that the driver’s license number or state-issued identification number included on the returned ballot matches what’s on file for the voter.

In Wisconsin, an adult witness must sign the ballot being returned, verifying the voter filled out his or her own ballot.

In North Carolina, a voter using an absentee ballot must sign a certificate witnessed by a notary or two adults who also provide their addresses.

Pennsylvania requires proof of identification to be submitted when requesting an absentee or mail-in ballot. But no challenges may be made to mail-in or absentee ballots at any time based on signature analysis, the commonwealth’s rules stipulate.

Provisional ballots can complicate the process further.

A provisional ballot usually is used when a voter shows up at a precinct to vote and his or her name doesn’t appear on the list of registered voters.

After being marked, a provisional ballot is slipped into a secrecy envelope and kept separate from the regular ballot box. After the polls close, that ballot will be counted only if the voter is confirmed as eligible to vote.

But even after all ballots have been tallied, the results still aren’t official.

Each state has a canvass period and certification process in which officials formally certify their state’s results, which usually takes place around three weeks after Election Day.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission lists each state’s certification deadline online.

Voters cast their ballots during Michigan’s early voting period in Dearborn, Mich., on Oct. 29, 2024. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Arizona

Arizona has 11 electoral votes and about 4.4 million registered voters.

Candidate Joe Biden flipped Arizona in his favor in 2020, besting incumbent Trump by fewer than 10,500 votes or 0.3 percent.

The deadline in Arizona to register to vote in this election cycle was Oct. 7. In-person early voting began two days later and continued through 7 p.m. on Nov. 1.

Voters on the state’s Active Early Voting List automatically receive a ballot by mail. Those can be returned by mail or at drop boxes at the state’s polling places.

Counties can begin tabulating those ballots after early voting begins. Early ballots that come in on Election Day will be tabulated in the days immediately following the election.

But before any are counted, election officials must compare the signature on the ballot envelope to the voter’s signature on file.

If the signatures match, the ballot is counted immediately. If the signature is in question, election officials are to try to contact the voter to confirm the ballot’s validity. 

Military members and other overseas citizens can cast their ballots by fax or by uploading to a secure system maintained by the secretary of state. Ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Voting in person in Arizona requires valid identification.

Anyone who attempts to vote on Election Day has “the right to cast a ballot,” according to the Arizona secretary of state. But provisional ballots only will be counted if the county recorder can verify the voter’s eligibility.

On Election Day, polling locations in the 15 Arizona counties close at 7 p.m. Anyone in line at that time is allowed to vote.

After polls close, ballots are either tabulated at the polls or at a county’s central counting location.

Arizona provides livestream viewing of county vote-tabulation rooms and publishes details online about measures used to keep electronic voting equipment secure.

Maricopa County is home to about 2.4 million registered voters—more than 60 percent of the state’s electorate.

A glass-enclosed room, which is open to the public for observing the verification process, is located at the electoral center in Pinal County, Ariz., on Oct. 18, 2024. Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images

Maricopa counts votes at its own centralized location, the Maricopa County Tabulation and Elections Center (MCTEC) in Phoenix. The facility provides livestream viewing of signature verification, early-ballot processing, and ballot tabulation.

Officials there warned on Oct. 22 that it may take between 10 and 13 days to tabulate the results of the Nov. 5 election.

In the aftermath of the 2020 contest, Trump and other Republicans alleged that Arizona’s election was rife with voter fraud. Ultimately, lawsuits against Arizona and Maricopa County officials were dismissed. In 2020, county officials certified the results 17 days after Election Day.

Election Day voters in Maricopa County usually make up 10 to 15 percent of the vote in the county. To vote in person, Arizonans must present identification, get a new ballot printed, fill it out at the voting location, and feed it into a tabulator.

After polls close, rules direct bipartisan employees of Maricopa County to put memory drives from tabulators into tamper-proof packages and take them to MCTEC. There, workers verify they’ve been kept secure and load election results into the election server, periodically releasing updated race results.

On Election Night, Arizona’s election results will be available online after 8 p.m. and will be updated sporadically.

State statute requires that bipartisan appointees validate the accuracy of the vote-tabulation system through a random hand-count audit of 1 percent of early ballots and 2 percent of votes cast at a voting center.

Canvassing begins on Nov. 11. Canvassing is the process of accounting for every ballot cast. It ensures each valid vote is included in the official results.

During the canvass, election officials resolve discrepancies and check for accuracy before certifying the results as final.

If a county hand-count audit is held, each recognized party on the ballot appoints representatives to participate. County officials have until Nov. 21 to certify their results.

A statewide canvass will be conducted on Nov. 25. The deadline for Arizona to certify election results is Dec. 2.

Election workers open envelopes and sort ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix on Oct. 23, 2024. Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images

Nevada

Nevada has six electoral votes and nearly 2.4 million registered voters.

All active registered voters were sent ballots by mail, unless they opted out. And most Nevadans traditionally vote early or by absentee ballot.

In 2020, a little more than 77 percent of the state’s voters cast ballots. Only about 11 percent voted on Election Day. The rest voted early in person or returned absentee ballots.

To be counted in Nevada, mailed ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received by the county no later than four days later, on Nov. 9.

Early in-person voting in Nevada began on Oct. 19 and runs through Nov. 1. On Day 1 of early voting, 42,237 Nevadans cast ballots.

Tallies of those early ballots can’t be released before polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Under Nevada law, “compromising the secrecy of the ballot by releasing results early is a crime,” according to Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar.

Even on Election Day, eligible citizens can register to vote and cast a ballot in the state.

In the hopes of speeding up results, new guidance from Aguilar instructs election officials to start tabulating early voting returns and mail ballots at 8 a.m. on Election Day.

By 6 p.m., county clerks and registrars are to provide their first election results to the secretary of state’s office for verification.

“This year, the country will be looking to Nevada to determine the winner of the presidential election,” Aguilar stated in a news release.

A banner marks a voting site on the first day of in-person early voting at the Thunderbird Family Sports Complex in Las Vegas on Oct. 19, 2024. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

“Voters deserve available results on Election Night; releasing results sooner will increase transparency, help us combat misinformation, and alleviate pressure on election officials … [and] this change is a win for our entire state.”

Clark County—home to Las Vegas and 71 percent of Nevada voters—has 132 polling and drop box locations.

Once county clerks and registrars confirm all polls are closed and the last voter has voted, the secretary of state’s office plans to release unofficial results online. Results are expected to be updated routinely until the final update after the canvass of the vote by the counties.

Ballots are tabulated on voting devices and saved on removable media that are taken by two election board members to a receiving center or counting place, according to Nevada law.

“If practical,” the law stipulates, those election board “members must be of different political parties.”

Members of the general public are allowed to observe the delivery of those voting components in sealed containers and watch vote-counting.

Nevada’s electronic voting system isn’t connected to a network or the Internet, and it can’t connect wirelessly. All components go through a series of tests and audits before they can be used.

And components have a chain of custody, with “tamper evident” security seals. Access to them is limited to authorized personnel.

City or county clerks supervise the operation of the central counting places.

As soon as the returns from all the precincts and districts have been received by the board of county commissioners, the board shall meet and canvass the returns.

Counties have up to 10 days to certify elections.

In 2020, the Nevada GOP sued, citing claims of fraud. So the election was not officially finalized until the state’s Supreme Court certified the results on Nov. 24.

This year, Nevada’s deadline to certify its election results is Nov. 26, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Clark County Election Department poll workers check in voters at a table as people vote at the Meadows Mall in Las Vegas on Oct. 21, 2024. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Wisconsin

Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes and more than 3.5 million active registered voters.

As of Oct. 29, more than 1.1 million absentee ballots had been sent out, and a little more than 511,000 had been returned.

The ballots must be returned by mail or in person at a ballot drop-off location by 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, when polls close.

Absentee ballots are counted by being put through a tabulator at polling places on Election Day. To be counted, the envelope must include a signature from the voter along with one from a witness and the witness’s address.

They also can be processed at what’s known as a “central count” location, common in larger municipalities, such as Milwaukee.

To vote on Election Day, Wisconsin residents must show a photo ID that meets state standards when checking in at a polling place. State law does not authorize or require a voter’s signature to be verified.

At each polling place, there normally are seven election inspectors led by a chief inspector who is coordinated by the municipal clerk. Municipal clerks also can appoint tabulators to help count votes.

The group of inspectors normally includes Democrats and Republicans. Under state law, the party that garnered the most votes in the territory covered by the polling place during non-presidential election years “is entitled to one more inspector than the party receiving the next largest number of votes at each polling place.”

Wisconsin has a three-step process for certifying elections.

After polls close and ballots have been entered into the machines for voting, poll workers convene their “board of local canvassers.” Anyone, including the media, may observe and record the proceedings from a designated area.

Municipal clerks transmit results to Wisconsin’s 72 county clerks, who are required to post unofficial results on their websites. Wisconsin doesn’t have a statewide system for reporting unofficial results on Election Night, and there isn’t a central official website where results will be reported.

People vote early at a polling site at the Warner Park recreation center in Madison, Wis., on Oct. 30, 2024. Scott Olson/Getty Images

“The municipality, or the county, on behalf of the municipality, is responsible for ballot retention post-Election Day,” a spokesperson for the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission told The Epoch Times. “The two entities would need to work together to determine which option is best.”

Counties have 14 days to transmit their certified results to the state.

This year, that’s Nov. 19.

The state elections commission will canvass the election and report the state’s official results by Dec. 1.

Michigan

Michigan has 15 electoral votes and more than 8.4 million registered voters.

The state uses all paper ballots, which are fed into a tabulator in each precinct to calculate the results, Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini told The Epoch Times.

Michigan law allows so-called “poll watchers” to be present in a designated public viewing area where they can observe the process at a polling place, early voting site, or place where absentee voter ballots are being processed. 

Early in-person voting is open at regional sites within each county for a minimum of nine days and for up to 28 days ending on Nov. 3.

Counties were allowed to start the early-voting period as late as Oct. 26.

Early votes are tabulated when cast, Forlini said.

Absentee ballots are received and stored securely by township clerks, he said.

Workers process absentee ballots for the 2024 general election at Huntington Place in Detroit on Oct. 29, 2024. Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

To be counted, mailed absentee ballots must be received by the voter’s local clerk by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Ballots returned by military and overseas voters must be postmarked by Nov. 5 and received within six days after Election Day.

As of Nov. 2 at 7 a.m., nearly 2.8 million voters—about 38 percent of the electorate—had voted early or returned an absentee ballot. The numbers are updated online daily by the state.

Cities and townships can provide written notice to the secretary of state and begin processing and tabulating absentee ballots early. But totaling the vote count and generating, printing or reporting election results isn’t allowed before 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Some counties have a centralized absentee-vote-counting center, according to Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown. 

Polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.

At that time, precinct officials—including at least two Republicans and two Democrats—will canvass the election to ensure that the number of ballots cast matches the number of voters who received a ballot, Forlini said.

Precinct officials then print results from the tabulator, remove the computer memory stick that was locked into the tabulator, and seal both, along with their paperwork, in three tamper-proof envelopes. 

One is directed to the county clerk. One goes to a probate judge. And one remains with the local clerk, according to Forlini.

Ballots are placed in sealed containers, and the serial number of the seal is recorded in the ballot book. Ballots remain with the local clerk, Forlini said.

Precinct results are then delivered to the county clerk.

Some counties, such as Macomb, deliver them in person. Others, including Oakland, do so by modem, using an air-gap computer that has not been connected to the internet.

In an October interview on CBS, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson estimated that unofficial election results for her state will be available by the end of the day on Nov. 6.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson speaks during a House Administration Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 11, 2024. Bonnie Cash/Getty Images

But Michigan’s results remain unofficial until the Board of State Canvassers audits them and certifies the election.

That county-level canvass process begins the day after Election Day and must be completed within two weeks. This year, the deadline is Nov. 19.

The Board of State Canvassers meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Nov. 22. The meeting will be livestreamed.

Under Michigan law, the state must canvass and certify the election results no later than the 20th day after the election, which falls on Nov. 25 this year.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes and a little more than 9 million registered voters.

Oct. 21 was the last day to register to vote in Pennsylvania. In 2020, slightly more than 76 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in the presidential election.

The period for “early on-demand voting” differs by county. The deadline to apply for a “no-excuse mail-in” or absentee ballot was Oct. 29 at 5 p.m. Some locations accepting those ballots in person had already closed before Oct. 29.

The deadline to return a mail-in or absentee ballot is 8 p.m. on Nov. 5. Pennsylvania law requires voters to return their own ballots. A voter with a disability may use a form to designate someone else to deliver his or her ballot.

Unlike many other states, Pennsylvania law prevents counties from opening any ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day, when voting starts at more than 9,100 polling places.

On the morning of Election Day, Pennsylvania poll workers can begin counting mail-in ballots.

They’ll begin counting in-person ballots when polls close at 8 p.m. Poll workers will continue counting into the next day, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Poll watchers from political parties with candidates on the ballot can observe the counting. The locations for vote tabulation vary by county.

In Philadelphia County, home to more than 1.1 million voters, ballot tabulation will take place at the Philadelphia City Commissioners Office & Election Warehouse, a spokesman for the Philadelphia City Commission told The Epoch Times in an email. The Philadelphia County Board of Elections, led by three city commissioners, will count the ballots, he said.

A person drops off a mail-in ballot in Doylestown, Pa., on Oct. 15, 2024. Registered voters in Pennsylvania can vote “on demand” by requesting a mail-in or absentee ballot, filling it out, and dropping it off all in one visit to their county election office or other designated location. Hannah Beier/Getty Images

Each county must submit the initial results to Pennsylvania’s Department of State by 3 a.m. on Nov. 6.

Unofficial results will be published online starting after 8 p.m. on Election Night and will be updated periodically.

The county boards will meet to canvass the election results by 9 a.m. on Nov. 8. During that process, they’ll reconcile results to ensure the number of people who voted in each precinct matches the number of ballots.

Election officials also will check provisional ballots and process those that are eligible to be counted. By 5 p.m. on Nov. 12, counties must submit their results to the Department of State. Military-overseas ballots must be delivered by that time.

By Nov. 25, counties must certify their election results. After reviewing them, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt will certify election results statewide.

By Dec. 11, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro must sign a certificate of ascertainment, appointing electors. At noon on Dec. 17, those electors meet at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg to vote for the new president and vice president.

North Carolina

North Carolina has 16 electoral votes and almost 7.8 million registered voters.

As of Nov. 1, more than 4.1 million ballots had been cast. That’s about 53 percent.

In-person early voting started in all 100 counties on Oct. 17 and ended on Nov. 2 at 3 p.m.

On the first day, a record 353,166 ballots were accepted at polling sites statewide, according to preliminary North Carolina State Board of Elections data.

That surpassed the previous first-day record set in 2020 by 1.3 percent.

A long line of potential voters wait outside an early voting site in Asheville, N.C., on Oct. 17, 2024. Several counties affected by Hurricane Helene had a large voter turnout on the first day of early voting. Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

By Election Day in 2020, when the state went for Trump, about 65 percent of North Carolinians had cast their ballots.

That was up from 62 percent of voters casting early ballots in 2016. Trump won the state’s electoral college votes that year, too.

This year, the state’s official voter registration deadline was Oct. 11. But any voters providing acceptable photo identification will be allowed to register and vote during early voting.

North Carolinians were able to request absentee ballots online or in person through Oct. 29. The deadline was extended until 5 p.m. on the day before Election Day for active military families or U.S. citizens outside the United States.

North Carolina absentee voting has been adjusted since Hurricane Helene ravaged the western part of the state on Sept. 28. Now, voters from the 25 counties hit hardest by Helene’s flooding and mudslides can return absentee ballots to any early voting site during early voting.

Those counties are Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yancey.

The State Board of Elections website offers detailed information for voters affected by the disaster.

North Carolina also provides detailed information online about the state’s voting procedures designed to protect election integrity, including the staffing of two “judges” from at least two different political parties at each site. Additionally, the chair of each political party in a county can appoint observers to monitor early voting and Election Day voting.

On Election Day, voters without the required photo ID still can vote by filling out a form explaining why they don’t have identification, or by casting a provisional ballot and showing valid identification at their county board of elections office by 5 p.m. on Nov. 14.

After the polls close in North Carolina on Election Night at 7:30 p.m., the counting of all received ballots begins. Results are updated every 5 to 10 minutes online as they are approved by county boards of elections.

But results still will be unofficial.

A voter checks her information while checking in for early voting in Hendersonville, N.C., on Oct. 17, 2024. Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

The day after the election, bipartisan teams at every county board of elections will conduct an open-to-the-public hand-count audit to ensure voting equipment recorded voters’ choices accurately, according to the state board of elections.

The state board of elections chooses two groups of ballots to count from each county, either from individual precincts or early voting sites, or all the absentee ballots cast in a county. The state tells each county which groups to count. Examined in the audit is always the top contest on the ballot—this year, the presidential race.

Also counted are absentee by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 5 and those received from military members serving overseas. They can arrive as late as 5 p.m. on Nov. 14.

Each county board is scheduled to certify results in open-to-the-public meetings 10 days after the election on Nov. 15. The State Board of Elections is scheduled to meet on Nov. 26 at 11 a.m. to certify the election results.

Georgia

Georgia has 16 electoral votes and more than 8.2 million registered voters.

The deadline to register to vote was Oct. 7.

Early voting began on Oct. 15 and ended on Nov. 1. And Day 1 smashed records, according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

More than 310,000 cast ballots, he said, up from 136,739 on the first day of voting in the 2020 presidential election and up from 134,962 on Day 1 of voting in the 2022 midterms.

As of Nov. 2, more than 4 million ballots had been cast either in person or by mail and numbers were being updated periodically online. That’s 55.3 percent turnout.

On Election Day, polls will be open in the state from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Voters not able to show valid identification to poll workers can vote by provisional ballot and will have three days to resolve questions of eligibility. Any voters in line by 7 p.m. still will be allowed to vote.

Georgia’s State Election Board voted 3–2 on Sept. 20 to establish a rule requiring ballots to be hand-counted on the evening of the election after the polls close. But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney blocked that rule on Oct. 15, saying the change was “too much, too late.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger holds up a mobile device during a news conference at the State Capitol in Atlanta on Oct. 23, 2024. Alex Wong/Getty Images

McBurney also repeated criticisms that others, including Raffensperger, had leveled at the change—that there were no procedures in place under the new hand-count rule, and that the counting process would result in delays that would undermine voter confidence in the results.

Absentee ballots are verified in Georgia by elections workers as they are received. Information on each ballot is cross-checked with an official photo ID on file with the state, according to a spokesman for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

On Election Day, elections workers will begin tabulating early and absentee ballots at 7 a.m., the spokesman said. Absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 to be counted, he said.

When the polls close, each poll station manager, accompanied by two poll officers serving as witnesses, will record the number of ballots scanned and generate three paper “tapes,” receipts with election results from each scanner. 

One tape is affixed to the polling station’s door for public view. Another is stored in an envelope, along with the memory card with scanning machine data to be sent to the county election superintendent. The third tape is stored in an envelope along with a polling recap form. 

All the voting data—the scanner memory card, the paper ballots, the voting machine access cards voters use to operate voting machines, and electronic poll books with voter information—are placed in sealed containers.

These are delivered to the county election superintendent by the poll manager and at least one other poll worker or law enforcement officer.

Georgia state law requires that results from precincts are consolidated by the county election superintendent and counted in public view.

The rules say that the counting “shall not cease” until the results are all tabulated, barring an emergency. The results are then reported to the secretary of state.

Lee County poll workers look for watermarks on voting paper during poll worker training in Leesburg, Ga., on Oct. 2, 2024. Becca Milfeld/AFP via Getty Images

In 2020 a water leak, originally reported as a burst pipe, led to a counting delay of several hours at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena polling station in Fulton County.

After the election, paper ballots are stored by the clerk of the county superior court with other county records. If there is no contest to the election they may be destroyed after two years.

State rules require each county election board to meet by 3 p.m. the Friday after the election, this year on Nov. 8, to conduct a review of precinct returns.

The election must be certified by 5 p.m. on the Monday after Election Day. This year, that Monday is Veterans Day. So the deadline will be extended to the next day, Nov. 12.

But even the certification deadline is the subject of a legal battle in Georgia.

McBurney ruled on Oct. 15 that election officials cannot refuse to certify results by the required deadline, even if they suspect fraud.

In the digital era video games are the most consumed form of entertainment by far, and gamers who spent their formative years playing the first generation Nintendo, Sega and Playstation are all now adults with careers, businesses, families and voting status.  A lot of them still play. 

While surveys suggest that this demographic is made up almost evenly of men and women, the reality is that most women who do play games do so casually, focusing predominantly on less intensive and non-competitive media.  Meanwhile, the vast majority of competitive gamers are men.  “Competitive” generally means combat games featuring combat mechanics and weapons.  In other words, they are the same demographic that Democrats have been demonizing as “toxic incels” for the past ten years.   

The 2024 election is perhaps the first election in which both major political parties are vying for the attention of gamers for votes.  Trump has done live events with popular video game streamers and the group is increasingly leaning conservative.  Let’s not forget the “Gamer Gate” controversy in which gamers were attacked relentlessly by the mainstream media for pointing out that the gaming industry had been invaded by woke activists.  In 2024 this agenda is thoroughly exposed but in those days the culture war was just a tiny spark.

At the time the political left denied that they were infiltrating and controlling pop media.  Gamers were one of the first groups outside of the alternative media to openly challenge the political left’s subversive dominance in the entertainment space.

True to form, even when Democrats court gamers for their affections the party does so with nefarious intentions.  Kamala Harris in an odd campaign stunt has partnered with the company behind the popular Fortnite franchise; an online third person shooter which requires players to eliminate all their competition on a map and be the last person standing.

Harris’ map, ironically labeled “Freedom Town”, set the players on a mission to “squad up, go vote and fight for freedom.”  However, the combat game lacks one important item in Freedom Town: Guns.

That’s right, Harris banned guns in her own virtual video game world.  Players no longer fight competitively; rather, they scour a city covered in Kamala propaganda while they collect items like lost Harris campaign posters “scattered by the wind.”  Hopefully the game is a portent of the Harris campaign being scattered to the winds instead of a representation of the world to come.

If Harris is banning virtual guns in her video game, what would she do with real guns in the real world as President…?

Not surprisingly, the gaming gimmick was a complete failure.  The number of players participating?  A maximum of 383.  To put this embarrassment in perspective, Fortnite has over 400 million registered players worldwide and the average established map has over 300,000 participants in a 24 hour period.  Harris couldn’t even break 400 players in 24 hours.

The amount of money put into the stunt must have been sizeable.  Securing a partnership with Fortnite, paying for the programmers that created the special map, renting the server space, and the background music is a track from Megan Thee Stallion.  All for nothing.  

The woke movement’s relentless mission to inject progressive ideology and LGBT messaging into video games has not helped to endear gamers to Democrats – It’s done the opposite.  A majority of these video games are now imploding, with development studios shutting down after  losing hundreds of millions of dollars on AAA titles.  Get woke, go broke.

Kamala Harris may end up being the ultimate get woke go broke allegory if she loses the election on November 5th.  It’s difficult to find a demographic (beyond childless cat ladies and Hollywood celebrities) that actually respects the candidate.  Gamers have shown she’s certainly not popular with them.            

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Corporate buybacks have become a hot topic, drawing criticism from regulators and policymakers. In recent years, Washington, D.C., has considered proposals to tax or limit them. Historically, buybacks were banned as a form of market manipulation, but in 1982, the SEC legalized open-market repurchases through Rule 10b-18. Although intended to offer companies flexibility in managing capital, buybacks have evolved into tools often serving executive interests over broader shareholder value.

This article explores the mechanics of buybacks, how they impact markets, and whether they truly return capital to shareholders—or merely enrich insiders.

The Rise of Corporate Buybacks: By the Numbers

Since 2003, U.S. corporations have spent over $11 trillion on share repurchases. Corporate buyback activity has surged in recent years, even in volatile markets:

• 2021: $881 billion

• 2023: $795 billion

• 2024 (Projected): Expected to exceed $988 billion

Introducing a 1% excise tax on corporate buybacks in 2023 has barely slowed the trend. Companies prioritize repurchases over reinvesting in business growth, raising wages, or developing new technologies. Apple and Meta, among others, regularly allocate billions toward buybacks, supporting their stock prices and meeting shareholder expectations.

How Buybacks Affect Markets

The impact of buybacks extends beyond individual companies. Since 2000, net corporate buybacks have accounted for 100% of the equity market’s net asset purchases—a reflection of the diminished participation from pensions, mutual funds, and individual investors:

• Pensions & Mutual Funds: –$2.7 trillion

• Households & Foreign Investors: +$2.4 trillion

• Corporations (Buybacks): +$5.5 trillion

• Net Flow: +$5.2 trillion

There are often statements made that corporate buybacks have only a limited impact on stock prices. However, the evidence is pretty overwhelming to the contrary since 2012, when corporations became very aggressive about buybacks.

This trend raises important concerns. While buybacks temporarily support share prices, they can crowd out investments in innovation, capital expenditures, and employee compensation, contributing to long-term economic stagnation and inequality.

Who Benefits Most from Stock Buybacks?

Many analysts argue that buybacks return excess capital to shareholders. However, the reality is more complicated. Buybacks primarily benefit insiders through carefully timed stock sales, inflated earnings metrics, and compensation triggers:

1. Timing Insider Sales with Buybacks

   • Insiders, aware of buyback schedules, can sell shares during repurchase periods when prices are temporarily elevated.

   • This practice boosts insider profits without triggering price declines or regulatory scrutiny.

2. Boosting Earnings Per Share (EPS) to Unlock Bonuses

   • Buybacks reduce the number of outstanding shares, artificially inflating EPS.

   • Since many executive compensation packages tie bonuses to EPS growth, buybacks help executives meet targets and secure stock awards.

3. Offsetting Dilution from Stock Options and RSUs

   • Buybacks reabsorb shares issued through stock options and restricted stock units (RSUs), preventing dilution and keeping share prices elevated for insiders.

Despite these benefits to executives, the average shareholder sees little return unless they sell their shares during buyback periods. This creates an uneven distribution of profits, favoring insiders and short-term traders over long-term investors.

Companies often market corporate buybacks as a “return of capital to shareholders,” but this framing is somewhat misleading. Unlike dividends, which distribute cash to all shareholders equally, buybacks benefit those who sell their shares. As a result, buybacks:

• Prioritize short-term stock price gains over long-term investments.

• Signal a lack of business reinvestment opportunities—or a deliberate choice not to pursue them.

• Concentrate benefits among insiders and executives, whose compensation is tied to stock performance.

A study from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found that executives often sell significant amounts of stock shortly after buybacks are announced, reinforcing the idea that buybacks serve insiders more than ordinary shareholders.

Alternatives to Buybacks: Real Ways to Return Capital

To promote sustainable growth and equitable returns, companies could shift their focus from buybacks to more transparent and shareholder-friendly strategies.

1. Tender Offers

   • Tender offers involve buying back shares at a pre-determined premium, ensuring all shareholders have a fair opportunity to participate.

   • This process reduces the risk of manipulation and aligns better with shareholder interests.

2. Dividends

   • Dividends provide predictable income to all shareholders, promoting financial stability, especially for retirees and long-term investors.

   • Regular dividend payments encourage companies to focus on profitability rather than temporary stock price boosts.

3. Long-Term Investment in Growth

   • Companies can create sustainable value over time by reinvesting profits into research, innovation, and employee compensation.

   • This approach aligns corporate management with broader economic growth rather than short-term financial engineering.

While corporate buybacks can support stock prices in the short term, they do little to enhance long-term business performance. Studies, including the Bank for International Settlements research, have shown that buybacks prioritize EPS manipulation over actual value creation. This emphasis on stock price gains discourages investment in productive assets and innovation, weakening companies’ ability to grow sustainably.

William Lazonick, in his seminal article “Profits Without Prosperity,” highlighted how stock buybacks divert corporate resources away from economic growth and into executive compensation. Between 2003 and 2012, S&P 500 companies allocated 54% of their earnings to buybacks and another 37% to dividends (91% of total earnings), leaving little for business expansion, wages, or job creation investments.

Conclusion: A Shift Away from Buybacks Is Necessary

While corporate buybacks are marketed as a “return of capital,” they primarily benefit insiders and short-term traders. Their rise reflects a broader shift in corporate priorities—from investing in growth and innovation to maximizing executive compensation through financial engineering.

To promote long-term shareholder value and economic prosperity, companies should adopt more transparent capital return strategies, such as tender offers and dividends. These methods distribute profits more equitably and encourage sustainable growth. A shift in focus could rebuild trust between corporations and shareholders, aligning business strategies with broader economic health.

With the news cycle dominated by election coverage, let’s shift gears and focus on developing tropical activity in the southwestern Caribbean. Forecast models are already showing a potential landfall along the US Gulf Coast.

The National Hurricane Center has designated the weather disturbance in the southwestern Caribbean as Invest97L.

“Disorganized showers and thunderstorms continue in association with a broad area of low pressure over the southwestern Caribbean Sea,” NHC wrote in a Sunday morning update. 

NHC noted, “Gradual development of this system is expected, and a tropical depression is likely to form within the next couple of days while moving generally northward to northwestward over the central and western Caribbean Sea.” 

Invest97L’s formation odds are very high for the next couple of days:

• Formation chance through 48 hours…high…80 percent.
• Formation chance through 7 days…high…90 percent.

Computer forecast models show the storm will likely be organized in the coming days and will track northwest over Cuba, potentially making landfall across the US Gulf Coast.

“There is a general consensus in the computer forecast model projections that the system will be at or near tropical storm strength when it reaches the southern Gulf on Wednesday or Thursday,” FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross wrote in a note. 

Norcross said, “A dense plume of tropical moisture is forecast to rotate north with the potential storm. This will enhance the flooding threat on the Caribbean islands west of Puerto Rico beginning Monday. Some of the moisture could reach South Florida by midweek.”

The potential impact area is home to major offshore oil/gas platforms across the Gulf Coast and about 60% of the US refining capacity. 

The track and intensity of Invest97L are still subject to change and should be monitored into the new week. 

Authored by Matt Margolis via PJMedia.com,

The Harris-Walz campaign claims late-deciding voters are breaking their way, and by a lot.

Former Obama campaign manager and current senior advisor to the Harris-Walz campaign made a rather bold claim on X/Twitter on Friday.

It’s helpful, from experience, to be closing a Presidential campaign with late deciding voters breaking by double digits to you and the remaining undecideds looking more friendly to you than your opponent.

Close race, turnout and 4 days of hard work will be key. But good mo.

— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) November 1, 2024

According to Politico, Plouffe’s comments “echo[ed] those shared by senior campaign officials earlier Friday on a call with reporters.”

“We have believed all along that there were still undecided voters here, and that the close of this race was really, really important,” said one of the senior campaign officials, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the state of the race. “And we are seeing that be the case as we are closing out in the last week.”

The official said that a recent focus group with undecided voters in a battleground state showed that the racist, misogynistic and vulgar language at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York over the weekend isn’t just impacting Puerto Rican and Latino voters, but undecided voters as a whole.

“It really kind of crystallized for them the choice in their minds between the vice president, who they’re seeing talk about being a president for everyone, someone focused on them and solving their problems, and Trump, and these really kind of dark, divisive language and events and activities,” the official said. “We don’t always see, when we’re talking to swing voters, anything that you can really see them kind of finalize their point of view or finalize their opinion.”

According to the Harris campaign, we’re supposed to believe that a comedian’s joke holds more significance than pressing issues like the economy, immigration, and foreign policy.

During a 2WAY livestream, Mark Halperin took aim at the media for uncritically accepting David Plouffe’s claims, saying the assertion “seems questionable on the face.” He argued that proving whether undecided voters were truly swayed by the Madison Square Garden event would require precise analytics, but that hasn’t stopped the media from treating Plouffe’s statements “like it’s a fact” despite lacking hard evidence. Halperin also shared that, based on his conversations with the Trump campaign, they believe undecided voters lean 2-to-1 in Trump’s favor. He may not believe that’s entirely true, but was clearly less convinced by Plouffe’s suggestion, which Halperin believes was intended to create a “bandwagon effect” for Kamala, shifting the narrative to portray her as gaining momentum.

Consider this: if the Access Hollywood tape couldn’t derail Trump’s campaign in 2016, there’s little reason to believe that a comedian’s joke at one of his rallies would, either. Americans recognized Trump’s comments as “locker room talk” back then, just as they understand that a comedian known for crude humor is simply aiming for laughs.

When Halperin asked Trump’s campaign advisor, Chris LaCivita, for his take, LaCivita responded bluntly: “What the hell is he going to say? He’s losing? Fact of the matter is David can’t do anything but bulls**t until Tuesday because we are kicking his a**. The only thing the Harris campaign has functional at this point is a bulls**t machine that is dutifully repeated by the legacy media as if fact.”

In the end, both campaigns believe, or are at least claiming, that they have the edge with late-deciding voters. Ignore it all. Just get out there and vote, and make sure every Trump supporter you know votes.

The majority of official surveys monitoring American and European support for Ukraine are many months old now.  The last time we saw a flurry of polling on the issue was this summer and the media has been rather quiet on the issue since.  Why?  Because public support for the proxy war is in steep decline. 

The last numbers show that 52% of Americans no longer want additional funding for Ukraine.  With Donald Trump increasingly likely to return to the White House in 2025 the Ukrainians are already preparing for steep cuts to military aid (the US provides the vast majority of arms to Ukraine).  This leaves the EU to pick up the slack.

However, Europe simply doesn’t have the capacity to provide enough military aid to make a difference in the war and is currently discussing schemes to transfer frozen Russian assets to the effort while simultaneously scaling back their own funding.  Central EU nations like Germany are already cutting their contributions in half in the coming year.  

The decline in aid follows two important factors:  Public support for the war in America and Europe is waning.  And, Ukraine is clearly losing the conflict with their defensive lines in the east collapsing.

Ukraine has received well over $200 billion in the past two years from NATO nations, which eclipses Ukraine’s annual GDP of around $160 billion.  In other words, the war cannot continue without NATO.  The disconnect between US and European governments vs the desires of the general public could not be more obvious.  Even the Washington Post admits:

“As they signaled enduring support for Ukraine last week, European leaders worried about how long they can sustain it…”

“European leaders promise to support Ukraine “as long as it takes,” but they are increasingly threatened by public fatigue, a weakening of the political center and the prospect of Trump’s return…”

“More than 2½ years into Russia’s war, public fatigue risks taking hold in some countries. Some European leaders are now in politically precarious positions and more constrained in what they can do. And across the continent, parties from the hard right to the hard left are pushing narratives against sending cash or arms…”

In the UK and Europe, protests have erupted over a number of problems, most importantly the threat of mass immigration from third world countries and the deliberate agenda to erase traditional European culture.  Some of the unrest has also been related to the Ukraine war and ongoing discussions about “conscription” among government officials. 

The UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is one of many bureaucrats that are trying to lump all civil actions together, labeling them a “threat to democracy.”  The narrative also seeks to tie these events to “Russian disinformation.”  In other words, according to David Lammy the public is being brainwashed by Vladimir Putin into protesting and this is a strategy by the Kremlin to sow discord within Europe.

The Kremlin’s disinformation is a desperate attempt to undermine our democracy.

I’m taking action to tackle it. pic.twitter.com/JvjNp3MEnU

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) October 29, 2024

The U.K. government sanctioned three Russian agencies and their senior executives this month, accusing them of orchestrating disinformation campaigns and seeking to fuel anti-Ukraine protests across Europe. 

The Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technologies, and Ano Dialog, alongside their directors, are accused of spearheading a “vast malign online network” commonly known as “Doppelganger.”  The network used “deceitful tactics… to mask the truth around Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and distract from the true nature of the war,” the U.K. Foreign Office said in a statement Monday.

Lammy and others claim this constitutes a “threat to democracy” and he says he will take action to shut down all sources of disinformation.  To be sure, Russia is involved in psy-ops as any country at war would be.  That said, so is David Lammy and his ilk and they aren’t only at war with Russia, they’re also at war with the UK and EU populace.

It should be noted that Lammy is becoming a regular fixture at The Atlantic Council, which has been deeply involved in the escalation of Ukrainian tensions with Russia for over a decade.  He is also on the advisory board for the European branch of the Council On Foreign Relations.  His relationships with globalist institutions helps to explain his hostility to conservative and anti-progressive movements.  

As Lammy argues in his recent conference with Ukrainian officials, any sense that allies are not united ‘only benefits Putin.’  Clearly this “unity” must also extend to the civilian population (by force if necessary), otherwise Lammy and his cohorts look rather ridiculous.

The tactic of attaching all civil dissent to the schemes of a foreign adversary is a tale as old as oligarchy.  It’s a way for governments to negate or dismiss public opposition to policy without losing face, because they can claim all the dissent is astroturf created by malicious foreign agencies. 

China did this with the Hong Kong protests in 2019, seeking to blame western governments after the citizens of Hong Kong opposed being placed under total control of the CCP.  In this way, the communist regime marginalized millions of people and their right to self determination simply by painting the protests as engineered.  This is exactly what David Lammy is doing with UK and EU citizens that want a reckoning for government trespasses.      

This brand of propaganda has been utilized regularly in the US as well, with Democrats consistently blaming Putin and Russia for the rise in conservative movements and the success of the Trump campaign.  If the elites were to ever admit that public dissent is legitimate, they would lose the illusion that they are the “protectors of the realm.”  Without a foreign enemy to blame, these same officials are exposed as the true enemies of “democracy”, and they certainly don’t want that.

Authored by Stephen Green via PJMedia.com,

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

– George Orwell

We interrupt today’s important election coverage for a story that could have impacts even longer-lasting than President Kamala Harris’s first ten-trillion-dollar budget.

I’ll wash my keyboard out with soap later for typing the phrase “President Kamala Harris.”

When the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine was hacked in early October, it looked at first like just another email-and-password smash-and-grab. But that was followed up by repeated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that crippled the service. The Internet Archive was hit again on Oct. 20, “this time with the threat actors gaining access to their Zendesk support email system.”

The Wayback Machine came back but as a read-only service.

What that means is, while you can search archived webpages from before the attacks, “you can’t currently capture an existing web page into the archive.”

That matters bigly. When the New York Times, Washington Post, or anyone else stealth-edits a news report to hide the truth, you could still find the original on the Wayback Machine. That’s no longer true. “For the first time in 30 years, we have gone a long swath of time – since October 8-10 – since this service has chronicled the life of the Internet in real time,” the Brownstone Institute reported this week.

As of this writing, fully three weeks of web content have not been archived. What we are missing and what has changed is anyone’s guess. And we have no idea when the service will come back. It is entirely possible that it will not come back, that the only real history to which we can take recourse will be pre-October 8, 2024, the date on which everything changed.

But it gets worse.

Google killed off its cache feature — similar to the Wayback Machine — right around the time the Internet Archive got hacked. Coincidence? Probably. But I’m making a tinfoil hat, just in case.

The White House just got caught altering Presidentish Joe Biden’s “garbage” remarks. “Nothing to see here,” Sean Davis quipped, “just the Biden-Harris administration deliberately falsifying federal records.”

They got caught this time, and sources like X still have the original video. But what happens next time, when some politician or MSM editor waits until the furor dies down before making their stealth edit — and there’s no Wayback Machine to catch them?

Wikipedia is the defacto internet encyclopedia but has proven time and again to be biased at best and subject to stealth edits at worst. 

More people are using AI to perform their web searches and summaries for them, but the large language models are scraping data from sources increasingly subject to manipulation. 

Reason’s Nick Gillespie wrote in 2019:

Is Donald Trump’s vision of what is wrong with America and how to fix it true or is Bernie Sanders’? I’d say neither is. But what the internet does (especially platforms like Facebook and Twitter) is enable more of us to directly enter the discussion—the argument over who is right and who is wrong. That’s a great and liberating development.

Indeed, it is. But our ability to have that argument — to sift through the raw data, past articles, news photographs, etc. — depends on having sources that are both shared and reliable. We used to settle arguments by pulling out a dictionary or a volume from the nearest encyclopedia. Or maybe the Guinness Book, which has reportedly settled more bar bets than any other resource.

But now everything has moved online and, despite what people believe, the internet is not forever.

“We can fact-check your a**,” pioneer blogger Ken Layne reminded Big Media back in 2001. We built an entire alternative media based on “navigating this thicket of censorship and quasi-censorship,” as Brownstone put it.