Like a Greek chorus, my Republican friends warn that “the America we’ve known and loved will be gone” if Kamala Harris is elected president. They are half right. Neither Harris nor Donald Trump is seeking to restore the traditional values and ideals of freedom and opportunity that have made our country exceptional. Both candidates reject our foundational ideal of a self-reliant people in favor of a politics of entitlement and grievance.
Just as hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue, the candidates pay lip service to our traditional value of opportunity – the freedom to see how far your talents might take you. That rhetoric still resonates in the American psyche. Harris speaks of an opportunity economy; Trump vows to bring more jobs back to our shores. But those words are window-dressing in their larger message that assumes success hinges less on talent and ambition than the corrupt ability to game a rigged system. Transforming conspiracy theory into conventional wisdom, both argue that if things aren’t working out, the fault is in malign dark forces, not ourselves.
Neither candidate seeks to unleash the animal spirits that made America the richest and freest country in the history of the world. Instead of inspiring us to fight for ourselves, they promise to be our champions, using tariffs, tax credits, and other powers of the state to solve our problems for us. In their view, America has become a nation of creditors owed vast debts by the government. Everyone, except maybe Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, are due reparations.
They are telling us this because it is what we want to hear. Growing numbers of Americans don’t want to take responsibility for their circumstances. They seek to blame someone else and demand that others improve their lot.
This mindset has not sprung from the ether; politicians have long promised voters a free lunch. It is not unmoored from reality; there are powerful forces that can limit individual effort. But in recent years, these elements have risen to the forefront of American politics – especially after the Great Recession of 2007-09 delivered a crippling blow to our historic belief in a brighter future.
Since then, Democrats have spoken to these fears through an identity politics that casts large swaths of the population – especially minorities and women who together constitute the vast majority of people – as victims.
Rejecting Ronald Reagan’s can-do vision of our country as a shining city on a hill, Trump’s grievance-based populism reflects the triumph of this view across the land. Yes, Americans are angry at each other, but our real beef seems to be with the entire world that refuses to give us milk and honey.
Sadly, this view seems much more prevalent among native-born citizens with deep roots in our country rather than the immigrants who flock here because hard work still pays off. Tellingly, the ability of newcomers to make a better life here, to gain admission to top schools, to build and run thriving businesses, or just find work that pays a decent wage, is largely dismissed in our culture of complaint.
The dangers of this culture are manifold. History shows that government cannot fix our problems. For all their limits, free markets and a by-the-bootstraps mentality have been the great engines of our prosperity, not state and federal programs that can only redistribute the profits of labor. The problems roiling Europe show what happens when countries run out of other people’s money. That’s the canary in the coal mine.
Ironically, victimhood and entitlement make it almost impossible to fix our problems. Massive spending, first by Trump (in fairness, as a response to COVID) and then by Biden (to buy votes and create a “legacy”), fueled the inflation that voters rail against. Yet, neither Harris nor Trump are offering serious plans to reduce our deficit, much less our soaring debt. Calls for sacrifice are off the table.
Americans are not facing a choice this November between two competing visions, but about the pace of our decline. Harris would turbo-charge the Biden administration’s push to make government the be-all and end-all of our lives, perhaps even completing our transformation from a dynamic engine of growth into a tired welfare state like those in Western Europe. This will not end the good life in America; there are plenty of happy Belgians. Well-educated professionals – the What me, Worry? liberals – are thriving, insulated in their gated communities and high-rise buildings from the consequences of the leftwing policies they support that are hollowing out the working class. But year by year, Harris will continue to deliver death blows to American exceptionalism.
Trump would slow these changes, reducing regulatory strangleholds here and there without fundamentally changing the course we are on. He won’t and can’t do that because, as necessary as a correction may be, the voters don’t want it.
This sad state of affairs recalls the journalist H.L. Mencken’s observation more than a century ago that “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
J. Peder Zane is a RealClearInvestigations editor and columnist. He previously worked as a book review editor and book columnist for the News & Observer (Raleigh), where his writing won several national honors. Zane has also worked at the New York Times and taught writing at Duke University and Saint Augustine’s University.
USS Roosevelt Carrier Heads Home After Extended Deployment In Middle East
The USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier is heading back to US shores and its home of Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia after an extended Mideast tour. This brings to an end a rare Pentagon decision to have two US carrier’s patrolling Middle East region waters, in the wake of soaring tensions between Israel and Iran following the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran this summer.
There are still smaller US warships currently in the Eastern Mediterranean, at a moment Israel and Iran-linked Hezbollah continue daily exchanges of fire. Additionally, the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier remains in the Gulf of Oman.
The Lincoln arrived only a few weeks ago, meant to overlap with the Roosevelt before it was pulled from the theater of operations.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower nuclear-powered carrier had also previously been called home, following several months in the Red Sea. Yet as far as these attempts at keeping a strong ‘deterrent’ force in the region, the Houthis have not stopped their attacks on Red Sea shipping, though the attacks have slowed over the last several weeks.
Pentagon leaders have claimed that a carrier and warship presence near Israel has served to deter a possible major Iranian retaliation attack in response to the July 31st Haniyeh assassination.
According to fresh details of US naval movements in the Times of Israel:
US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements, said the San Diego-based Roosevelt and the USS Daniel Inouye, a destroyer, are expected to be in the Indo-Pacific Command’s region on Thursday. The other destroyer in the strike group, the USS Russell, had already left the Middle East and has been operating in the South China Sea.
The Lincoln, which is now in the Gulf of Oman with several other warships, arrived in the Middle East about three weeks ago, allowing it to overlap with the Roosevelt until now.
Reports say that the the guided missile submarine USS Georgia is still operating in the Red Sea. The US Navy has previously acknowledged the Red Sea fight against the Houthis to be the biggest running sea battle it has faced since WW2.
Yet still, there’s been no official declaration of war by Congress, and the American public has by and large ignored it. “I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” Cmdr. Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon described in June.
The #Pentagon’s rare move to keep two Navy aircraft carriers in the #MiddleEast over the past several weeks has now finished, as the #USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading home, according to #US officials.https://t.co/u52AFystqT
Iran continues to tout that it might strike Israel at any moment, and the White House has already pledged to use its regional assets to help intercept any inbound ballistic missiles or drones. Again, this comes without any Congressional war authorization or oversight whatsoever.
A tiny device, no bigger than a paper clip, may be improving the lives of heart failure patients.
Implanted in the pulmonary artery, this wireless sensor allows doctors to detect fluid buildup weeks before symptoms appear. When the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs, fluid builds up in the surrounding tissue. For millions suffering from congestive heart failure, this early warning system may mean fewer emergency room visits, reduced hospitalizations, and improved quality of life.
“I think it’s huge,” Dr. Liviu Klein, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, told The Epoch Times. “We have something now to avoid hospitalizations. If people are healthier at home, they live longer.”
Though the term “heart failure” sounds like the heart has stopped working, the condition is chronic and can drag on for years, draining patients physically, emotionally, and financially. But the constant fear of the next crisis can overshadow everything else, Klein said.
While CHF can not be cured, it can be managed with multiple medications, diet restrictions, and daily weight checks. Still, sometimes the patient struggles to breathe.
“By the time they realize what’s happening, it’s already too late to take a pill,” Klein said. “They need an IV.”
Small Sensor, Big Impact
The CHAMPION trial, a clinical study, beginning in 2007, marked a significant milestone in heart failure treatment, Klein said, because before this trial, the remote hemodynamic management of heart failure did not exist. This trial showed that the device reduced repeat hospitalizations in heart failure patients by nearly 40 percent. Klein participated in the multi-center trial, involving 550 subjects across 64 U.S. sites, as a site co-investigator at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and as the principal investigator at the University of California at San Fransisco in the post-approval study.
The study’s results, published in 2010 in the Journal of Cardiac Failure, led to the development of a microelectromechanical system, called CardioMEMS. Interventional cardiologist, Dr. Jay S Yadav, founded the CardioMEMS company in 2001 to develop new devices for treating chronic cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure.
The CardioMEMS heart failure monitoring device was co-invented by Dr. Yadav and Mark Allen, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the director of the school’s MEMS research group. Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2014, CardioMEMS has since been implanted in over 35,000 heart failure patients.
The UCSF Medical Center was among the first in the United States to adopt the technology, according to Klein. “I have placed hundreds since [2014],” he said. “We have seen in our own patients what clinical studies have shown,” he added. “We have seen a reduction in clinic visits.” This is particularly beneficial for older patients who often travel long distances for doctor visits, Klein noted.
Early Warning System
The CardioMEMS is a dime-sized sensor implanted into a heart failure patient’s pulmonary artery through a minimally invasive procedure. This device measures and records pulmonary artery pressure, providing crucial information about the heart’s performance and blood flow to organs. Changes in pulmonary artery pressure can signal worsening heart failure before symptoms appear.
The outpatient procedure for implanting the device takes only 30 to 40 minutes. Once implanted, patients can easily monitor their condition at home using a special pillow equipped with an antenna. Patients are advised to lie on the pillow at the same time every day for about 90 seconds. The pillow then communicates electronically with the implanted sensor, collecting heart and lung pressure data.
This information is then wirelessly transmitted to a secure website monitored by the patient’s cardiologist. If a change in pulmonary artery pressure is detected, a nurse calls the patient to give instructions from the doctor, which typically include medication changes.
Even small changes in pressure can have substantial effects on mortality rates, Klein said. For instance, a one-millimeter increase in pulmonary artery pressure raises mortality by 30 percent, while a two-millimeter decrease lowers it by 16 percent, he noted.
“We know what prolonged increased pulmonary artery pressure in the heart does. When pressures are high, the heart suffers. Every time this happens, there is an increased risk of mortality.”
Dr. Georges Chahoud, regional director of the Heart Failure Clinical Program in St. Louis, Missouri, told The Epoch Times that while the device doesn’t extend life expectancy, its significant impact on quality of life can. By dramatically reducing hospitalizations, it improves patients’ well-being, lightens the burden on health care providers, and lowers overall treatment costs. “It is a win-win for patients, providers, and insurance companies,” he added.
CardioMEMS Coverage Gap
According to Klein, CardioMEMS “should be used in patients who have had at least one hospital stay.” Patients may also be eligible for the system if they have been diagnosed with slight to marked limitations due to heart failure, and if they are able to take antiplatelet medications to prevent blood clots for at least one month after the sensor is implanted.
But even if a patient qualifies, it doesn’t mean private insurance or Medicare will pay for the device.
“About half of the Medical Administrative Contractors (MACs) in the U.S. cover the CardioMEMS,” Klein said, including California where his office is located. MACs are multi-state contractors responsible for administering both Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B claims in awarded regions.
Although Klein and others have witnessed a near-95-percent compliance rate, (95 percent of patients check their pressures three times per week, and 90 percent, five times a week), and some 20,000 to 30,000 patients nationwide have the device, Medicare still does not cover it everywhere.
“There are 6.5 million people in this country with heart failure,” Klein said. “There are still three-to-four million people who could benefit from it, but the coverage is not universal.”
On April 30, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) opened a National Coverage Analysis (NCA) and solicited public comments for 30 days, after Abbott and hundreds of physicians, hospital administrators, patients, professional societies and industry leaders requested consideration for CMS to create national coverage criteria to ensure coverage for all Medicare beneficiaries.
According to the CMS, the expected completion date for the NCA is Jan. 28, 2025. A proposed decision memo is due Oct. 30, 2024.
There has been significant support for this treatment, Klein said. Regulators will thoroughly review the clinical studies, economic analyses, and provider endorsements. If approved, private insurers are expected to quickly follow suit, he noted.
Heart Failure Cases on the Rise
Heart failure, affecting nearly 6 million Americans with almost a million new cases diagnosed every year, occurs when the heart can’t pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs.
As the heart weakens, fluid builds up in various parts of the body, leading to symptoms such as shortness of breath, weakness, swelling in legs, ankles, and feet, rapid or irregular heartbeat, cough, and difficulty concentrating.
Cardiologists tell patients tell patients to seek medical attention if symptoms worsen or if they experience rapid weight gain, as these could indicate worsening heart failure, Chahoud said.
Heart failure can result from various causes, including heart attacks, damaged valves, infections, high blood pressure, and even intense emotional stress or trauma (Broken Heart Syndrome). Also known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or stress-induced cardiomyopathy, Broken Heart Syndrome presents much like acute coronary syndrome but is often reversible. “The true broken heart syndrome is real,” Chahoud told The Epoch Times. “And it has the highest reversibility of CHF,” he added.
After years of decline, heart failure mortality rates have been increasing since 2012, especially among younger adults. A 2024 Duke University study reported that the mortality rate rose from 82 deaths per 100,000 people in 2012 to 106 in 2021. Experts attribute this trend to factors such as widespread obesity, rising rates of diabetes and hypertension, high costs of new heart medicines, and health care access difficulties, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Doctors treat heart failure with a combination of medicines known as the “four pillars:”
These medications help relax blood vessels, reduce heart workload, and improve pumping efficiency. In severe cases, heart valve surgery or implantable cardioverter defibrillators may be necessary.
What’s Next?
Heart failure is a multifaceted condition with many causes and a few treatments. Some types are reversible, others are life-long but manageable, Chahoud said, so early detection is crucial.
“The idea is to give an early signal to see the pressures going up two to four weeks before patients seek medical attention,” he said. “Then we can act on those early warnings.”
According to Drs. Chahoud and Klein, two more innovative devices are emerging as potential game-changers in heart failure management.
1. Cordella Pulmonary Artery Sensor System
In June, Endotronix, Inc.’s Cordella Pulmonary Artery Sensor System received FDA premarket approval for heart failure patients with limited physical activity. Led by Klein, the PROACTIVE-HF trial, which evaluated the Cordella system for safety and efficacy, demonstrated low heart failure hospitalization rates and significant improvements in patient’s quality of life and physical activity.
Cordella uses daily pressure and vital sign data to guide treatment decisions. The system includes a handheld pressure reader for patient self-monitoring. While available by prescription in the United States, it’s limited to clinical investigation in Europe.
2. Heart Failure and Arrhythmia Management System
ZOLL’s LifeVest wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD) was approved by the FDA in 2001. By 2010, physician prescriptions for the vest had topped 35,000. In 2019, the company introduced µCor™ (pronounced “Micro Core”) Heart Failure and Arrhythmia Management System (HFAMS), another new technology intended to improve the management of acute heart failure patients.
The non-invasive, patch-based wireless system monitors pulmonary fluid levels, alerting physicians to potential heart failure. The sensor can be worn for up to 30 days, transmitting data on heart rate, respiration, activity, posture, and heart rhythm.
A ZOLL-sponsored study showed that heart failure patients using the sensor were 38 percent less likely to be readmitted for complications within 90 days. By providing remote patient data, the device allows for earlier medication adjustments and complication prevention.
“Heart failure is a very large disease entity because there are a million causes for and types of it,” Chahoud said. “Some are reversible. Some are life-long, and some are easier to manage.”
Migrant Population In Charleroi, Pennsylvania Explodes 2,000% As Crisis Unfolds
Americans are quickly realizing that the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous open southern border policies that flooded the nation with millions of unvetted illegal aliens from third-world countries are quickly overwhelming towns and local municipalities nationwide.
The nation has been shocked by the 20,000 Haitians that were dumped into Springfield, Ohio, by the Biden administration’s expansion of the Temporary Protected Status program for immigrants from that failed Caribbean nation. By the way, the small town only had 58,000 before the migrant crisis began.
Springfield resident Diana Daniels told Fox News on Thursday that life in the metro area, with thousands of Haitian migrants, has been chaotic. She said local resources like housing and health care are quickly being drained, warning it’s “like living in a dystopian nightmare.”
Another Springfield resident is frustrated with the Biden-Harris team importing the third world into the first world:
“I see what’s going on in the streets. And I see you guys sitting up there and, comfy chairs and suits… I really challenge you guys to get out here and do something, said Anthony Harris, 28, adding, “These Haitians are running into trash cans. They’re running into buildings. They’re flipping cars in the middle of the street, and I don’t know how like, y’all can be comfortable with this.”
And another…
This is an absolutely insane video.
A Springfield, Ohio homeless advocate tells the city council that landlords are kicking people out of their homes and replacing them with Haitians and that the Biden-Harris government is paying them to do it.
Besides Springfield, Americans were shocked weeks ago to find out that Venezuelan prison gangs were roaming parts of a Denver metro area, causing chaos and seizing apartment buildings. Leaked US Army documents show there are thousands of Venezuelan prison gang members, some of which are armed and dangerous, running amok nationwide. And America’s top oil-producing region in West Texas has been under threat by migrant gangs. This indicates that the nation’s critical energy infrastructure is at risk.
Back to small towns overwhelmed by migrants, the next area to focus on is Charleroi, Pennsylvania, a small town 21 miles south of Pittsburgh, with a population of around 4,200, according to 2020 Census data.
Harris and Biden are targeting the swing states for their Haitian repopulation program https://t.co/6PWhdhlVoO
The new think tank America 2100 wrote in a post on X that the blue-collar town of Charleroi has seen its migrant population soar by 2,000% over the past two years. The group said the migrants are mainly Haitians. This is very similar to the situation in Springfield, of what appears to be the Biden-Harris team precision dumping migrants in small bull-collar towns.
“Why was it [migrants] all dumped on us? We’re not being funded with anything, okay. And again, we can’t even make ends meet with our budget. So, now, how are we going to get all this extra revenue to pay for it [caring for migrants]?” Councilman Larry Celaschi of Charleroi told America 2100 in a phone interview.
It isn’t just Springfield. It’s happening everywhere.
In Charleroi, Pennsylvania—a low-income town of just 4,000—the immigrant population has increased by 2,000% over the past two years. And it’s almost all Haitians.
“We can’t even make ends meet with our budget [as it is]. And so now, where are we going to get this extra revenue to pay for them? And we gotta do all these things to accommodate the immigrants? That’s bullshit.” https://t.co/LOzUaszP4U
The spread of migrant chaos overwhelming local municipalities across the nation is only expected to worsen. Readers were supplied with a list of the areas across the country that obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from ICE. These areas will likely experience a migrant crisis and are to be avoided for safety travel reasons.
It will not matter who wins the election. The flood of illegals have a purpose in the overall plan that has been unfolding. Chaos as far and wide as possible.
Massive spread across the nation!https://t.co/qFhElt4NtW
In 2016, Pennsylvania—along with the rest of the Rust Belt—slotted into former President Donald Trump’s column, delivering him a sweeping Electoral College win. In 2020, the state swung to Biden.
Pennsylvania carries the most electoral votes of any state considered a swing state. The next closest are North Carolina and Georgia, with 16 electoral votes apiece.
The Epoch Times spoke to some of the Keystone State’s voters, traveling across eastern and southern Pennsylvania and the outskirts of Philadelphia. Here’s what they told us.
Several Pennsylvanians indicated frustration with the current election, and the two-party system more broadly.
Susan Diehl, a gas station employee in Newburg, seemed jaded with politics.
“Why can’t they just tell the truth about whatever they’re going to do or not do? I always feel that politicians, all of them, lie just to get elected,” she said.
The Epoch Times found mixed signs of support for both candidates.
Several independents indicated they have frustrations with Trump and his trademark communication style, which they described as too abrasive.
Many said they were ultimately undecided, and expressed dissatisfaction with both candidates.
Dave Brueggeman, a 60-year-old Army veteran from York, hasn’t made a decision yet.
Brueggeman, who described himself as “a Democrat, but … not the kind of Democrat today,” said that he had initially planned to vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was running as an independent before recently dropping out and backing Trump.
Following Kennedy’s departure from the race, Brueggeman said, “I’m not sure about Trump, I’m just not sure. I haven’t really made up my mind yet completely.”
Brueggeman thinks Harris will ultimately win the race—a situation he said would dissatisfy many, but which he blamed on the two-party system.
Brueggeman said he hopes both candidates will pursue Social Security reforms, specifically in changing the rules around how much income Social Security recipients can make each month.
Lawrence Clark, a 52-year-old from Mt. Wolf, says he’s also still weighing his options, but the lifelong Democrat said one thing is certain: he won’t be voting for Harris.
“I don’t think she’s as qualified as Trump. Trump already has experience,” Clark said.
Clark was among those released from prison under Trump’s First Step Act, which allowed inmates to reduce their sentence by accumulating “good behavior” credits.
“The economy was better when [Trump] was in office,” Clark said.
He says he’s hopeful that the next president will continue to pursue criminal justice reform, and believes Trump will do so.
Marco Ceo, a 45-year-old from eastern Pennsylvania, says he’s leaning toward voting for Harris and that he dislikes Trump’s “edge.”
On the other hand, Ceo indicated ambivalence about Harris’s executive experience, noting it’s one area in which Trump has Harris beat.
“I think she has some experience there. And clearly the Republican candidate has experience being the former president, but … I like inspiration more than bullying,” Ceo said.
These considerations, Ceo said, have left him “really torn” about who to vote for.
Ceo was critical of the “non-stop assault with campaign messaging” directed at independents in crucial swing states like him. The ads, he said, don’t respect the intelligence of voters.
He hopes that the candidates will look more into rising tuition costs, which he says have taken a toll on his family’s finances.
Among those more open to Harris, some expressed a feeling of resignation.
Zach Miller, a 43-year-old from Lancaster, said that he’s primarily motivated to vote against Trump, rather than a preference for Harris.
“She doesn’t evoke any strong emotion from my being whatsoever,” the Pennsylvanian said of the vice president.
Mikki Breitmos was once a labor union Democrat. She left the party 18 years ago, however, and now has decided on Trump.
“I think that he is more of a businessman than a politician, and that’s why I voted for him the last time,” she said.
She expressed hope that Trump will tone down the rhetoric—and expressed optimism that former First Lady Melania Trump could help on that front.
“I feel that maybe with Melania’s influence, he would direct himself away from that and then make the country whole again,” Breitmos said.
Michael Nicolazzo, a 92-year-old Korean War veteran, has seen many presidential elections come and go in his lifetime. But his first time voting in one came in 2016, when he cast his ballot for Trump.
Nicolazzo lost his pension due to a clerical error and later a fire that destroyed his service records, but says he hopes Trump will be able to help during a second term.
“Nobody’s helped me. And I think Trump could be the only one, because he likes veterans,” Nicolazzo said.
McDonald’s Meal Deal Extends Into December As Core Customers Under Pressure
McDonald’s is set to extend its $5 meal deal, originally a summer promotion launched in June, through December across all US markets. This move signals the fast-food giant’s acknowledgment that its core customers are struggling to afford Big Macs in a period of elevated inflation and high interest rates, thanks to failed Bidenomics. Recent data shows that broader low- and middle-income consumers are experiencing the financially devastating combination of insurmountable debts and depleted personal savings.
Value wars among fast-food chains are heating up and now extending: MCD rolled out the $5 meal deal in June, allowing customers to pick the following items: a McDouble or McChicken sandwich or 4-piece Chicken McNuggets, a small fry, and a small soft drink. Now, the promotion runs through December.
“Together with our franchisees, we’re committed to keeping our prices as affordable as possible, which is why we’re doubling down with even more ways to save,” Joe Erlinger, President of McDonald’s USA, wrote in a statement.
Erlinger said, “The extension of the $5 Meal Deal, and the other offerings we’re announcing for our fall line-up, are just a few of the ways we’re working hard to offer great meals at a fair price.”
The proliferation of meal deals by fast-food companies early this summer marks the moment low/mid-tier consumers hit a financial brick wall in the eyes of management teams. The weight of inflation and high interest rates has led to a consumer pullback in spending.
The latest consumer data shows that people have maxed out their credit cards and drained their personal savings to a record low. All of this is an ominous sign as storm clouds gather overhead.
Meanwhile, auto delinquencies have soared this summer as some consumers with those $1,000 monthly payments, likely drowning in negative equity, must choose between paying bills or putting food on the table.
Earlier this week, Goldman cited new high-frequency data that analyzed foot traffic at brick-and-mortar stores, which only showed ‘thrift trends outperforming.’
The lingering theme in the second half of this year is that low/mid-tier consumers are severely under pressure as the labor market cools and economic momentum trends in the wrong direction.
Elite Seal Team That Killed Bin Laden Trains For China Invasion Of Taiwan
The Financial Times curiously chose September 11 to run the following perhaps overly sensational headline, which pretty much checks every box of classic “global war on terror” fear-mongering, but which also pivots straight to the ‘next big war theater’ type rhetoric: US Navy Seal unit that killed Osama bin Laden trains for China invasion of Taiwan.
We are told in the article that “Seal Team 6, the clandestine US Navy commando unit that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China, according to people familiar with the preparations.”
“The elite Navy special forces team, which is tasked with some of the military’s most sensitive and difficult missions, has been planning and training for a Taiwan conflict for more than a year at Dam Neck, its headquarters at Virginia Beach about 250km south-east of Washington,” the report continues.
But then there’s the following admission that this could just be more typical training for repelling an amphibious assault landing of PLA forces on Taiwan’s shores, which would not at all be primarily fought by a small Seal team – no matter how elite:
The Pentagon has in recent years sent more regular special forces to Taiwan for missions that include providing training for the Taiwanese military. The Seal Team 6 activities are far more sensitive because its covert missions are highly classified.
All breathless talk of super classified Rambo-style secret missions aside, the real question is what are the American people being prepped for with such a headline which impressively manages to include bin Laden, elite Seals, military preparations, Chinese aggression, and Taiwan… and all on the day that Americans remember the deadliest terror attack in the nation’s history?
The answer lies, unfortunately, in this: the US national security state already appears in search of its next war even as two are still raging. Washington participates in both the Ukraine and Gaza wars by proxy – but neither is going very well.
Recall too that for much of the past year CIA director William Burns has consistently said US intelligence views China as the far bigger long-term threat to the United States than Russia. “While Russia may pose the most immediate challenge, China is the bigger long-term threat,” Burns wrote in a Foreign Affairs op-ed all the way back in January.
With this in mind, the CIA’s budget has recently been doubled over the last three yearsas part of preparations to take on China. “The CIA has committed substantially more resources toward China-related intelligence collection, operations, and analysis around the world — more than doubling the percentage of our overall budget focused on China over just the last two years,” Burns revealed in his article. These efforts have involved the recruitment of more Mandarin speakers, and Burns further described that the agency is “stepping up efforts across the world to compete with China, from Latin America to Africa to the Indo-Pacific.”
Interestingly, Burns in his public comments just days ago alongside MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore also urged the West to keep its eye on the ball: China. CNN summarizes of this segment of the Saturday FT event in London:
The CIA chief does not, however, see Putin’s grip on power weakening. “He does one thing really well, and that’s repress people at home.”
Both men expressed a continued need to focus their attention on China, with Moore warning that President Xi Jinping is likely China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and has an “ambitious agenda at home and also overseas.”
“He has a very tight control over his political system, and he has an ambitious agenda at home and also overseas. And that is why we devote so much effort into understanding China, because it’s such a hugely important actor on the international stage,” Moore said.
The MI6 chief added that China’s agenda is one that in most cases “contests our interests, contests often our values.”
It’s fascinating that given everything now happening in Ukraine and Kursk, and with the Western allies actively mulling giving Kiev the greenlight to use US/UK missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory, Burns appeared to brush off the Putin threat while warning that the threat Xi poses is on a global level.
Meanwhile, some China analysts have warned that a newly passed Congressional anti-China bill will result in a coming barrage of hawkish China/Taiwan-focused media stories…
Just remember the next time you hear “China is the biggest threat to America” the US government is investing billions in propaganda to portray China in the most negative light possible. It’s incredible sad and just ridiculous.
Are we already witnessing the first fruits of this newly authorized $1.6 billion to deliver anti-China propaganda overseas? Remember that in past historic instances of official US propaganda, it inevitably trickled back on the American populace. And there’s this not so small detail:
Crucially, HR 1157 doesn’t seem to contain any requirement that U.S. government financing to foreign media be made transparent to citizens of foreign countries (although there is a requirement to report grants to certain U.S. congressional committees). Thus, it’s possible that the program could in some cases be used to subsidize covert anti-Chinese messaging in a manner similar to the way Russia is accused of covertly funding anti-Ukrainian messaging by U.S. media influencers.
But getting back to the new FT piece in question, the author admits that a scenario wherein Seals train to join the fight against a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could be somewhat routine. “Seal Team 6” as a tier one force runs missions given to it by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and this command center regularly has elite operatives “prepare and train for a wide range of contingencies.”
FT further points out: “As the threat from terror groups has receded, special operations forces have joined the rest of the US military and the intelligence community in intensifying their focus on China.” But then there’s this highly revealing line buried deep in the report, quoting an expert on JSOC:
“With the Pentagon’s reorientation over the past few years to focus on great power competition, it was inevitable that even the nation’s most elite counterterrorism units would seek out roles in that arena, for that path leads to relevance, missions and money,” Naylor added.
Ohio’s governor says he is sending law enforcement officials and millions of dollars in health care resources to Springfield, a city at the center of a national spotlight on Haitian illegal immigrants.
Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said he doesn’t oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which some 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020. However, he said, the federal government must do more to help impacted communities.
In a news conference on Sept. 10, DeWine said that “dramatic surges” in illegal immigrants “impact every citizen of the community,” adding that the small Ohio cities of Lima and Findlay also have had influxes.
“The federal government simply has to be part of the solution,” the governor said. “They have to step up. It’s their policies that have created these surges.”
He said the influx affects “moms who have to wait hours in a waiting room with a sick child, everyone who drives on the streets, and it affects children who go to school in more-crowded classrooms.”
On Sept. 11, the Ohio State Highway Patrol is being dispatched to help local police with traffic issues in Springfield.
City officials and social media posts have indicated that Haitian drivers are frequently involved in accidents and crashes, the governor said.
“The goal, of course, is to reduce dangerous driving regardless of who the driver is,” he said.
DeWine said he is also earmarking $2.5 million over two years for more primary health care through the county health department and private health care institutions.
Controversy over migrants in Springfield erupted earlier this month after some social media users said that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pets, as well as ducks from a park.
People who spoke at town hall events, videos of which were uploaded online, also said that the immigrants frequently crash their vehicles, camp, and squat on locals’ property, cannot speak English, and haven’t tried to assimilate into the broader American culture.
The allegations were enhanced by Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice presidential nominee, who said on social media that “people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” He added that immigrants are allegedly “causing chaos all over Springfield.”
In a newer post on Sept. 10, Vance wrote that his office received inquiries about the claims and that it’s possible “that all of these rumors turn out to be false.”
In a statement on Sept. 10, Springfield Strategic Engagement Manager Karen Graves told The Epoch Times, “There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Multiple requests to the Springfield Police Division for comment have not been returned.
Halt in Deportations
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security announced Temporary Protected Status for Haitians who arrived in the United States before June 3, including those who entered illegally, protecting them from being deported back to Haiti.
DeWine’s family operates a charity in Haiti, which has built a network of schools. Earlier this year, a school founded by the charity was forced to close as armed gangs took over swaths of Haiti in the latest round of unrest to hit the impoverished country, the Ohio governor told reporters.
Long considered the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has been beset by gang warfare since the country’s president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in July 2021. The U.S. Embassy currently lists the country as “Level 4—Do Not Travel,” because of crime, kidnappings, general unrest, and poor health care infrastructure.
“U.S. citizens in Haiti should depart Haiti as soon as possible by commercial or other privately available transportation options, in light of the current security situation and infrastructure challenges,” the embassy said in a bulletin last year, which hasn’t been updated.
Ukrainian Intelligence ‘Actively Recruiting’ Extremists In Syria’s Idlib: Lavrov
On Thursday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued a bombshell of an accusation against Ukraine. He said that Ukrainian intelligence agents are “actively recruiting Islamist militants” in northwest Syria, the Sahara, as well as in the Sahel regions of Africa “to carry out terrorist operations.“
“Now there is information that Ukrainian envoys, those of Ukrainian intelligence, are in the Idlib de-escalation zone on the territory of Syria, where they are recruiting militants of Jabhat al-Nusra, now called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS),” the foreign minister said.
Lavrov alleged that the al-Qaeda linked militants are being recruited for “new hideous operations planned.” The fresh comments came during a conference involving the heads of Russian diplomatic missions abroad, held in Moscow.
“They are already looking further south, to the Sahara–Sahel zone of the African continent, where they are also carrying out terrorist attacks on government troops of numerous countries together with recruited extremists,” Lavrov alleged of Ukrainian intelligence.
In the remarks the top Russian diplomat highlighted the Moscow Crocus City Hall terror attack which killed at least 145 people on March 22 of this year. At the time Russian authorities alleged that the four Islamic militant attackers had links to Ukraine and that some of their associates involved in the plotting tried to escape across the border. The attack was later claimed by ISIS.
“The investigation is still underway, but it has already revealed evidence that the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry was involved in the preparation of the terrorist attack. In particular, the escape routes of the killers across the Russian–Ukrainian border were planned in detail,” Lavrov continued.
So it seems that Lavrov is accusing Ukraine of plotting more sabotage and terror attacks in side Russia by recruiting and paying Syrian and North African Islamist mercenaries.
The specific accusation regarding Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is interesting, given that the Syrian AQ group has long held Idlib province in northwest Syria. It has for years been fighting the Syrian and Russian militaries, and in 2015 Islamic fighters had first seized Idlib with the support of a NATO operations room in southern Turkey.
The only additional significant source claiming that Ukraine is tapping Syrian mercenaries is Turkish newspaper Aydinlik. The newspaper reported this week that Ukrainian government officials recently traveled to Idlib and met with members of Syria’s HTS to discuss a “drones-for-fighters” deal. “A delegation from Ukraine went to Idlib in recent months and met with the leaders of the terrorist organization,” the newspaper claimed of a meeting reportedly held in June.
However, there’s been no specific proof. But it would perhaps be an interesting way for Ukraine to solve its manpower problems. Syrian anti-Assad militants have also been known to travel to north Africa in support of Turkish defense firms. Turkey has long overseen what’s essentially a ‘jihadist highway’ in and out of Syria, or at other times “looked the other way”. It all started in and after 2011, amid US-Gulf efforts to oust Bashar al-Assad.
The University of Michigan’s Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) has granted almost $500,000 to research subjects tied to “anti-racism.”
The announcement was made by the OVPR and published by The University Record on Wednesday. The $500,000 was distributed to eight different research teams.
One of the “anti-racism research projects” is titled “Ubuntu-AI: Empowering Design Collaborations Across the Black Atlantic with Artificial Intelligence,” which will examine how “AI might reverse its potentially debilitating impact on Black artisans.”
Another group will study “Racial Capitalism and Anti-Racism in Kenyan Conservation,” a project that seeks to “identify how and why racialized conservation injustice occurs and how it can be prevented in the future.”
Another project is “Ways of Knowing and Storytelling as Diversity Training Mechanisms,” which “will examine the effectiveness of ‘ways of knowing’ and storytelling interventions on diversity training activities.”
The OVPR began its Research Catalyst and Innovation Program in 2021, which fosters research that looks into “complex societal racial inequalities to inform systemic action that achieves equity and justice.”
In the three years since, OVPR has granted almost $2 million in “anti-racism grants” to support research into “anti-racism.”
“The work these teams are pursuing is key in understanding how to dismantle the effects of systemic inequalities across multiple communities,” said Trachette Jackson, a top Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) official at the school.
Other schools have also been using research grants dedicated to promoting DEI and “anti-racism.”
This August, the National Science Foundation gave $4.5 million to Louisiana State University to found a “Center for Equity in Faculty Advancement” focused on working “to understand mechanisms that drive bias, along with policy and training interventions to mitigate it.”
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Michigan for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
