A U.S. Coast Guard cutter on routine patrol around Alaska’s Aleutian Islands came across a Russian military ship in international waters but within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, the AP reported citing US military officials.

The crew on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley on Monday detected the vessel about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of the Amukta Pass, the Coast Guard said in a Friday statement. A helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak also spotted the vessel.

The vessel was “transiting in international waters but still inside the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone,” which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the U.S. shoreline, according to the statement.

The Coast Guard vessel did not communicate with the Russian ship but followed it as it moved east, the statement said.

“We met presence with presence to ensure there were no disruptions to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska” Cmdr. Steven Baldovsky, commanding officer of the Alex Haley, said in the statement.

In July, the Coast Guard while on patrol spotted four Chinese military ships north of the Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands in international waters but also within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, officials said.

Russian and Chinese bombers later that month flew together for the first time in international airspace off the coast of Alaska, in a new show of expanding military cooperation that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the time raises concerns.

The flights weren’t seen as a threat, and the bombers were tracked and intercepted by U.S. and Canadian fighter jets. But it was the first time that Chinese bomber aircraft flew within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. And it was the first time Chinese and Russian aircraft took off from the same base in northeast Russia.

RBC’s former CFO is suing the bank that terminated her, alleging they made a a “devastating” error in firing her.

Nadine Ahn was terminated for a relationship with a co-worker, according to BNN Bloomberg, and is now suing in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice denying that she ever had a romantic relationship. 

She claims in her suit she suffered “palpable reputational harm” and “public humiliation” and is suing for $36 million in pay and damages, the report says. 

RBC had previously said she was involved in an “undisclosed close personal relationship with another employee which led to preferential treatment of the employee including promotion and compensation increases.” 

Ahn’s lawsuit details how CEO Dave McKay texted her on April 4, requesting a meeting the next morning.

When she arrived, McKay was absent, and instead, she faced unexpected questions from a lawyer about her relationship with Ken Mason from the bank’s treasury group. Her laptop and cell phones were also seized, according to the court filing.

“RBC’s investigator accused Ms. Ahn of providing Mr. Mason with preferential treatment and insinuated that they were having an affair. Ms. Ahn pleads that RBC’s allegations are patently false.” her statement says. 

BNN reported that Ahn and Mason had been friends since 2013, well before she became CFO, and she argues RBC’s code didn’t require disclosing their friendship, which wasn’t hidden. Mason, who was also fired, has sued the bank, claiming he was “ambushed” by a biased and unfair workplace investigation.

“RBC opted to make an example of Ken and Ahn by wrongly publicly shaming them in order to project moral righteousness, appearing to swiftly investigate and punish perceived corruption,” Ahn’s filing says. 

“The clear insinuation of the RBC Statement was that Ken and Ahn had had an extramarital affair and that Ken received career advancement and financial benefits as a result. This insinuation was false and defamatory.”

A spokesperson for RBC said: “These claims are without merit, and we will vigorously defend against them in court. We conducted a thorough review with an investigation by outside legal counsel and the facts are very clear that there was a significant breach of our Code of Conduct based on the irrefutable evidence collected during the investigation.”

Authored by Edward Curtin via Off-Guardioan.org,

To hell with the truth! As the history of the world proves, the truth has no bearing on anything. It’s irrelevant and immaterial, as the lawyers say. The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober.”

– Eugene O’Neill, The Iceman Cometh

Voters in the USA live in fantasy and probably always will.  No matter how obvious it is that the U.S. is an oligarchy, not a democracy, the ardent pipe dreams of a new face in the White House go to their heads every four years.

It can only be explained by a combination of intellectual ignorance, the acceptance of propaganda, and the embrace of illusions.

An analogy is apropos. In the small town and vicinity where I live, there are about 10 pot shops where pipe dreams are dispensed. As The Platters sang long ago, “when your heart’s on fire, you must realize smoke gets in your eyes.”  But few realize it.

Smoke?  What smoke?

Quadrennially, this love affair with the presidential candidates burns hot and heavy despite their records, as if they were heart throbs of stage and screen, straight from Broadway or Hollywood deeply concerned for the public’s welfare.

Americans love actors, and the presidential candidates are of course actors, following the directions of the fat cats who produce their shows.  As the grand opening of election day approaches, the supine public is aroused to a fanatical frenzy of excitement from its years’-long sleep by a mass media that spews out drivel to deceive.  It could be said that what the media propagandists digest, the public eats.

Smoke and mirrors never fail as the electorate’s favorite billionaire-backed candidates – at this point in 2024 Trump and Kamala Harris (but don’t count on it) – spew lie after lie and the mass media faithfully promote the show as if it were an actual contest between good and evil, a grand movie.  The acting is terrible, but the audience is so inflamed they can’t tell.

“There are unconscious actors among them and involuntary actors; the genuine are always rare, especially genuine actors,” Friedrich Nietzsche told us long ago, alluding to far more than this crude political masquerade – to life itself – urging us to take a deep look at the games we play and love in our politicians because they confirm our illusions.

In the 2020 election between Joseph Biden and Donald Trump, more than 158 million ballots were cast, a record number that was two-thirds of estimated eligible voters.  That was about seven percentage points higher than in 2016 when Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off.  Each election was supposed to be the most important in “your lifetime.”

And as everyone knows, the country has gotten more prosperous, healthier and happier, and the world more peaceful, in those eight years of Republican and Democratic rule.

One can expect more of the same smoke this year as the excitement, titillation, and political lies build to a November 4th crescendo.  Illusions die hard, or to be more accurate – they do not die.

The Spectacle rolls on.

Although it might sound uppity, unless people read books that explain how the political and economic system is constructed and how it operates, they have no hope of understanding why the presidential elections are musical chairs played to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy.  Podcasts and talks can be instructive when true, but they don’t stick like words on a page in a book that you have noted and can refer back to.

But the vast majority of people will not read such books because many can’t read or are too lazy or distracted to take the time to switch off digital media and the mainstream corporate press.  It is only through slow meditative reading and study of the great analytic books about social structure, propaganda, history, capitalism, and political economy that a person can truly grasp the nature of the power elite’s domination of the US government, the mass media, and the White House.

A soupçon of differences between contestants for the presidency – superficial makeup – is enough to have those caught in the spectacle get worked up into a hot lather of excitement for candidates chosen by the billionaires.  It is an aspect of the mania for celebrity culture.

One cannot simply imbibe the daily mass media, listen to talking heads, or read books recommended and promoted by The New York Times or some prize committee such as the Booker or Pulitzer prizes. (see the NYT’s Best Sellers here – as if #5 could be as “best” as #1).

It is no secret that the reading public has been shrinking for years as literacy has waned dramatically.  This is not an accident as the internet, cell phones, and the online life have been pushed by the authorities at every level, including throughout the school system.  (I am not arguing that the voters saw through the electoral charade in the past because the level of cultural literacy was higher.)

Today, a walk into any local library throughout the country will confirm the sad state of what even those who read books are reading.  The new fiction shelves are filled with books with candy-colored sensationalized covers that evoke bodice-ripping books of old now updated to sound more serious by telling stories of orphans on European trains during WW II, mysterious murders, separated twins, equally evil Nazis and Russians on the prowl, childhood trauma, unfaithful men, etc.  All seemingly NY Times bestsellers, together with the “non-fiction” books within which you would search a long time on the shelves to find a radical critique of the American political system and its propaganda arms.

This issue of voting and literacy is connected to another key matter.  The American public as a whole does not much care to follow foreign policy and military issues.  That is an understatement.  Once the military draft was ended in January 1973, the public lost interest in who was being killed in America’s wars.  Let foreigners be damned was the unspoken assumption.  It was a stroke of genius by the military-industrial-political complex, for politics has always been about what’s in it for us, and when the military is voluntary and Americans are dying in smaller numbers, people are indifferent to the killing.

When it comes to politics, the public’s focus is primarily on domestic issues, the economy, health care, taxes, etc., despite the fact that the entire economy is dependent on war and preparations for war and the U.S. has been at war continually for decades.  The U.S spends nearly $900 billion dollars annually on “defense” spending; this is more than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, the U.K., Germany, France, South Korea, and Japan combined.

As everyone knows:

The U.S. is defending itself in Syria where its troops illegally occupy the oilfields in the northeast.

It is defending itself helping Israel slaughter Palestinians and supporting an expanded Middle Eastern war.

It is defending itself by attacking Russia via Ukraine and leading the world to nuclear war.

It is defending itself by provoking China in the South China Sea.

It is defending itself all over the world with special forces and military bases everywhere because everyone is out to get us.

It is defending itself always far, far away from its own shores.

Everyone knows that’s how it goes.

But facetiousness aside, the voting public either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that the U.S.A. is a warfare state; it’s as simple as that.  Without waging wars, the U.S. economy, as presently constituted, would collapse.  It is an economy based on fantasy and fake money with a national debt over 35 trillion dollars that will never be repaid.  That’s another illusion.  But I am speaking of pipe dreams, am I not?    And whether they choose to be aware of it or not, the vast majority of Americans support this killing machine by their indifference and ignorance of its ramifications throughout the society and more importantly, its effects in death and destruction on the rest of the world.  But that’s how it goes as their focus is on the masked faces that face each other on the stage of the masquerade ball every four years.

This charade is comical but accepted by so many, and as the Halloween season in a presidential election year in the USA approaches, it becomes most clear.  It’s always a trick until four years elapses and the next poisoned candy treat is offered.

Get to the polls.  Your life depends on it!

But there is a big price to be paid – a lesson always too late for the learning – for going to the masquerade ball.  Yet when smoke gets in your eyes…ah, such an exciting time it is!

“Do you not know there comes a midnight hour when everyone has to throw off his mask?” warned Søren Kierkegaard.

“Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked?

Do you think you can slip away a little before midnight in order to avoid this?

Or are you not terrified by it?”

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

A federal appeals court in North Dakota has found that a rule issued by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that restricts ownership of pistol attachments known as stabilizing braces is “arbitrary and capricious,” ordering a lower court to re-consider a motion that would block enforcement of the brace ban.

In a 2–1 decision issued on Aug. 9 by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, the majority found that a coalition of 25 Republican attorneys are likely to succeed in their legal challenge against the ATF rule that treats pistols fitted with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles and subjects them to various restrictions.

“The Final Rule, as a whole, is arbitrary and capricious because it allows the ATF to arrive at whatever conclusion it wishes without ‘adequately explain[ing] the standard on which its decision is based,’” the majority opinion states. “Thus, we conclude the Coalition is likely to succeed on the merits of its challenge.”

The states and other plaintiffs sued the ATF in February 2023, with U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in North Dakota declining to grant their motion for a preliminary injunction and block the rule. Arguing that they were unlikely to succeed on the merits, Hovland found that ATF had adequately explained its rulemaking process.

The majority on the 8th Circuit disagreed, and in their Aug. 9 decision ordered Hovland to reconsider the plaintiffs’ motion for a injunction that would block the ATF rule’s enforcement.

“We reverse the order denying a preliminary injunction and remand with instructions to reconsider the motion consistent with this opinion,” the judges wrote in the majority opinion.

Circuit Judge Bobby Shepherd dissented, saying that the panel should have affirmed Hovland’s order because there was no need for a preliminary injunction after the rule was vacated in June by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas.

O’Connor argued in his 12-page decision that the ATF’s rule that treated roughly 99 percent of pistols fitted with the braces as short-barreled rifles violated the Administrative Procedures Act’s procedural requirements because it was not a “logical outgrowth” of the proposed version of the rule.

“The Court finds that the adaptation of the Final Rule was arbitrary and capricious for two reasons,” O’Connor wrote. “First, the Defendants did not provide a detailed justification for their reversal of the agency’s longstanding position. And second, the Final Rule’s standards are impermissibly vague.”

The judge granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and ordered the rule vacated.

The ATF told The Epoch Times that it had no comment on the 8th Circuit ruling.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who were among the 25 attorneys general who challenged the ATF rule, praised the 8th Circuit ruling.

“This victory upholds Americans’ constitutional rights and stops the Biden-Harris ATF’s illegal attempt to make millions of law-abiding citizens felons overnight,” Bird said in a statement.

Bailey issued a statement saying: “The Constitution was meant to be a floor, not a ceiling, for our God-given rights. We will continue to do everything in our power to safeguard Missourians’ right to keep and bear arms against encroachment by unelected federal bureaucrats.”

Stabilizing Braces

The pistol stabilizing brace, introduced over a decade ago, was designed to aid disabled individuals and others who require assistance when shooting large-format pistols, such as those built on AR-15 platforms. This accessory attaches to the rear of the pistol and the shooter’s forearm, providing a steadier aim for one-handed shooting.

Restrictions on stabilizing braces have been the subject of intense debate after the ATF proposed them in 2020. Initially, the ATF said in open letters that it did not consider the braces as converting pistols into short-barreled rifles but in the final rule, the agency cited changes in the braces’ design in saying they convert pistols into restricted short-barreled rifles.

In January 2023, the DOJ announced that it had submitted the final rule to the Federal Register, formalizing the regulation that President Joe Biden advocated for in April 2020 after it was found that a man killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, using a gun with a stabilizing brace.

The rule went into effect immediately upon publication. Any firearms with stabilizing braces or similar attachments that qualified them under the new rule as short-barreled rifles had to be registered no later than within 120 days, or modified by removing the brace and restored into a regular pistol, or turned into a local ATF office, or destroyed.

Short-barreled rifles are subject to more strict regulations under the National Firearms Act (NFA), with those found in possession of unregistered NFA firearms can face fines of up to $10,000, 10 years in prison, and a felony conviction that disqualifies them from future firearm ownership.

The rule faced pushback from Republicans and gun-rights groups like the National Rifle Association, which pointed out they were originally designed for disabled veterans.

The rule faced several legal challenges. In one of the lawsuits, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals determined in August 2023 that the rule was finalized without giving the public a meaningful chance to comment on it, in violation of the federal Administrative Procedure Act, which sent the case to O’Connor in Texas, who in June this year vacated the rule, setting up a possible U.S. Supreme Court appeal.

The number of Americans impacted by the ATF’s brace rule is difficult to determine. The ATF estimates that 3 million pistol braces have been sold. Second Amendment advocates say the number is closer to 40 million.

Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

France, 1788.    Russia, 1916.    Germany, 1937.

These dates have something in common.

In France in 1788, political conditions had been getting questionable, but there was no apparent need to panic. That came the following year, with the sudden outbreak of the French Revolution. From that point on, it was dangerous even to go out in the streets of Paris. So many people had become enraged, that even if you were not a member of the aristocracy, you could easily become collateral damage.

And so, it would have been wise if, in 1788, you had decided to pack your bags and remove yourself from the epicentre of what was developing.

Similarly, in 1916, Russia was at war with the Germans, and the populace was becoming increasingly vocal about the state of the economy. Yet, even the czar believed that the people simply had to accept the situation and muddle through.

A year later, soldiers were deserting, a host of political wannabes were vying for power and anyone who simply wanted to be left alone to run his own life was now afraid to go out on the streets.

And of course, in Germany, prior to Kristallnacht in November of 1938, all the warnings were there that the country was beginning to unravel, but virtually everyone assumed that, somehow, things would be all right.

A year later, Germany was at war with five nations and had invaded three others. People were being rounded up, imprisoned and/or shot. Those who sought to get out of Germany found that they were no longer allowed to do so.

And history is full of similar cases. In hindsight, the warning signs have always been there: an increasingly autocratic government, increasingly volatile and irrational political struggles, mounting debt, increased taxation, a declining economy and the removal of basic freedoms “for the greater good.”

In 1929, if you lived in the US, you might have just paid $2,735 for a new Packard Custom 8 Roadster – a means of showing off your recent gains in the stock market. A year later, you might well have offered it for sale for only $100, as, for all your previous price offers, there were no takers. And you, like they, had been wiped out in the crash, and $100 meant the difference between eating and not eating.

In 1958, you might have been enjoying a daiquiri at El Floridita in Havana and joking to friends about ‘las barbudas’ – the tiny rebel force hiding in the Sierra Madre. A year later, the joking had ended and private businesses like El Floridita had been nationalized by the new government.

For millennia, the playbook has been the same. Countries that had been wonderful to live in, began to deteriorate from within, and the great majority of residents had failed to read the tea leaves – the warning signs that, in the future, conditions were not going to get better; they were going to get worse.

But why should this be so?

Well, in 1787, in the midst of the Scottish Enlightenment that gave rise to Adam Smith, economist and historian Alexander Tytler is credited as having said:

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

He further noted that the latter stages of any such decline are marked, first, by complacency, then by apathy. The final stage is invariably one of bondage.

In some cases of collapse, the country is taken over by an outside force, but invariably, as stated above, the rot always starts from within. It’s simply human nature for the majority of any population, when passing through challenging times, to fall prey to promises that, somehow, a change in the form of government can and will result in the elimination of problematic conditions.

But how do those who make such claims sell their ideas? Do they suggest that everyone should work harder and practice a greater level of abnegation?

Well, no. Although such people may exist and may even become outspoken, they are, historically, never the individuals whom the majority of the population follow. Invariably, the majority (having become complacent and pathetic), choose those who promise to take from one group and share the spoils amongst those who are less productive.

As illogical as this promise is, most people, even if they doubt the reality of the claim, tend to think, “Well, it couldn’t be any worse. I might get something, so let’s give it a try.”

A very simple case in point is the Bahamas election of 1967, in which Bahamians elected their first ‘man of the people’ as their premier. Under his rhetoric of ‘Bahamas for Bahamians,’ he promised the large underclass of Bahamians that he would take the top jobs away from the British bankers and other business leaders and that the spoils would go to the average Bahamian.

Of particular interest were the luxury vehicles driven by successful businessmen. Bahamians in their thousands imagined that the senior staff in banks would be fired, that they themselves would be given the jobs… and the fancy Jaguar Saloons.

And that did happen to some extent. Those who were loyal to Prime Minister Lynden Pindling did move up to management positions overnight – positions for which they were not qualified. Not surprisingly, they were unable to learn decades of knowledge overnight. They subsequently either lost their new jobs, or the banks lost business on a massive scale.

And the Jaguars? Well, it turned out that there were thousands of Bahamians for every Jaguar that existed, and for 99.9%, there would be no previously imagined spoils.

Instead, their lives soon headed south in the coming months and years, as wealth flowed away from the Bahamas, most of it never to return.

In other countries the details have often been quite a bit more complex, but the scenario and the outcome have been the same.

Once the warning signs begin to appear, it’s important to remember that, historically, the process never reverses itself. An apathetic population is not one that will suddenly decide to roll up its sleeves and get the country, once again, on a productive footing.

Invariably, the population jumps on the toboggan of empty promises and rides it downhill until it reaches the economic bottom.

And so, circumventing such a situation becomes a question of timing. When it becomes clear that the telltale signs are reappearing once again, those who are wise will acknowledge that the sands are running out and it’s time to move on.

The signs tend to be the same in any locale, in any era. They’re quite easy to see. The difficult part is choosing to make an exit whilst it’s still easy to do so.

*  *  *

Unfortunately, there’s little any individual can practically do to change the trajectory of broke governments in need of more cash. There are still steps you can take to ensure you survive the turmoil with your money intact. That’s precisely why bestselling author Doug Casey and his colleagues just released an urgent new PDF report that explains what could come next and what you can do about it. Click here to download it now.

Just hours before futures in the US open, troubling news has surfaced on X that Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant’s cooling tower has caught fire. 

At first, several X users that identified as “OSINT”—or open-source intelligence—pointed out the fire developing at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe (able to generate 6,000 megawatts for four million homes). 

A blaze has broken out at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine this evening, sending up a large column of black smoke.

Ukrainian sources report that the Russians set tires on fire in the vicinity of one of the cooling towers. pic.twitter.com/yNzA9a9lRR

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) August 11, 2024

About 15 minutes later, around 1500 ET, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on X that “Russian occupiers have started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.”

Zelensky continued:

Currently, radiation levels are within norm. However, as long as the Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal.

Since the first day of its seizure, Russia has been using the Zaporizhzhia NPP only to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world.

We are waiting for the world to react, waiting for the IAEA to react. Russia must be held accountable for this. Only Ukrainian control over the Zaporizhzhia NPP can guarantee a return to normalcy and complete safety.

Enerhodar. We have recorded from Nikopol that the Russian occupiers have started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Currently, radiation levels are within norm. However, as long as the Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear plant, the… pic.twitter.com/TQUi3BJg4J

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 11, 2024

Zaporizhzhia NPP has come under shelling and drone attacks in the past. The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has issued numerous warnings about the plant dangerously close to suffering an accident or attack. 

According to Russian state-controlled Russia Today, the fire at Zaporizhzhia NPP’s cooling systems facility was the direct “result of Ukrainian shelling of Energodar city – local authorities.” At this moment, it really depends on the source for who is responsible for the fire. Welcome to the ‘fog of war’. 

⚡️Fire breaks out at Zaporizhzhya NPP cooling systems facility as result of Ukrainian shelling of Energodar city – local authorities pic.twitter.com/v17IDeIbxy

— RT (@RT_com) August 11, 2024

AFP News cited Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, who said the fire at the cooling system was a result of shelling of the town of Energodar by the Ukrainian armed forces.

Russian occupation troops set something on fire(reportedly tires) near the unit of Zaporizhzhia power plant https://t.co/Ghcru7qV61 pic.twitter.com/sjSZcEffjA

— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) August 11, 2024

Data from the Joint Research Centre of Radioactivity Environment Monitoring (view here) shows radiation levels are still normal despite the ongoing incident. 

In April, Goldman’s Borislav Vladimirov told clients, “Sabotage or failure at the NPP Zaporizhzhia. Situated on the front line of the war in Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest of its type in Europe, poses ongoing risks not only due to the threat of Russian sabotage, but also to the gradual deterioration of the facility due to poor maintenance and extreme (war-zone) operating conditions.”

The fire at the Zaporizhzhia NPP coincides with the recent deployment of Ukrainian fourth-generation F-16 fighter jets in the air along the frontline in the southern Kherson region, according to Newsweek. Additionally, Ukrainian forces have seized the “Sudzha” gas metering station, one of the last remaining Russian pipelines still delivering NatGas to Europe through Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine has been intensifying suicide drone missions targeting Russian energy infrastructure. 

In markets, well, crypto at the moment, since futures are closed, the first response by algos has been to dump Bitcoin and Ethereum.

*This story is developing…  Please check back for updates. 

A McMansion in Harford County, Maryland, exploded on Sunday morning, resulting in one fatality at the 2300 block of Arthur Woods Drive in Bel Air.

Harford County Fire and EMS Association spokesman Jeffrey Sexton told WBAL TV that emergency dispatchers received a call early this morning reporting a natural gas leak at the house. Shortly after, their hotlines were flooded with reports of an explosion. 

Neighborhood doorbell camera captured the sound of a house exploding in the 2300 block of Arthur Woods Drive in Bel Air on Sunday morning.

You can find all the details on our website https://t.co/0ufS0dHAon pic.twitter.com/0nOyJs0xBp

— WMAR-2 News (@WMAR2News) August 11, 2024

Local utility company Baltimore Gas and Electric was aware of the NatGas leak, and contractors were on-site at the time of the explosion that obliterated the house and damaged surrounding structures in the neighborhood.

One of our viewers, Sam Casale, sent us this drone video captured minutes after a home on Arthur Woods Drive in Bel Air reportedly exploded killing at least one person. You can see the home is reduced to rubble. Firefighters are still searching the debris. @wbaltv11 pic.twitter.com/5LkFFfBrfj

— Breana Ross (@breanarossWBAL) August 11, 2024

“This is one of the largest explosions I’ve seen, especially in Harford County,” Master Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire told WBAL.

Update on apparent house explosion. Volunteer Firefighters continue to search for victims. No current public threat. @HarfordCoDES Special Operations is responding with special equipment to search the rubble.

Media staging is Abingdon Library 2510 South Tollgate Road, Abingdon. https://t.co/B7srld2j6N pic.twitter.com/H6g08Iwjwb

— Harford Co., MD Fire & EMS (@HarforCoFireEMS) August 11, 2024

House explosion in Bel Air pic.twitter.com/O1MyjY8hMY

— Megan Weeks (@sparkyweeks25) August 11, 2024

Emergency officials said one of the workers and a neighbor were injured. The deceased victim’s identity has not been released. 

The home was for sale at the time. Investigators are still trying to determine whether the homeowner was inside during the incident. 

Alkire added that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is en route to the scene. 

By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

What were we thinking about markets last weekend?

In some ways, that seems like an obvious question, since the S&P 500 finished the week unchanged!

On the other hand, it might seem like a crazy question, since you heard more about the yen carry trade than you ever wanted to hear, and saw stocks decline sharply on Monday (with lots of “crash” chatter), only to be followed later in the week with the best day for the S&P 500 since 2022.

Despite last week’s volatility, it seems easiest to start with where we were last weekend.

The Plodding Fed. We focused largely on how the Fed seems to be basing policy on some data of dubious quality (birth/death model on jobs, and OER on inflation). We stuck to our theme that very little de-risking had occurred and more pain was to come (we also paid some attention, though clearly not enough, to the yen carry trade). It is worth pointing out that on Wednesday of the prior week, the S&P 500 was up over 2% after the FOMC, so, yes, this week’s rally was impressive, but we had a similar one before and it didn’t prevent the “excitement” of this week.

We think that last weekend’s report is relevant, and worth reading if you didn’t get to it before the “fun” began on Sunday night.

Sunday night saw the yen gap stronger, and stocks, stock futures, and crypto drop significantly. By Monday morning, the weekend T-Report had to be supplanted with Margin Call Monday. We did our best to analyze what was going on in markets. Without a doubt, we finally had some serious de-risking.

Turnaround Tuesday fizzled, as did another bounce on Wednesday, but Thursday had no such problem as apparently, at least in part, a small (probably statistically insignificant) drop in new unemployment claims combined with some strong earnings sent stocks soaring. As we wrote on Thursday, that rally was unlikely to fade, as even my mother knew that every rally faded, and that is usually a good contrarian signal.

But that leads me to the question, and the main reason for today’s title, how much did market positioning change?

Imagine There’s No Carry Trade, It’s Easy if You Try

One thing that I think we can safely argue is that there is very little positioning left in the yen carry trade. Anyone who didn’t get stopped out by now is unlikely to close out trades unless we get another monster move. It seems difficult to believe that much money was put to work creating new yen carry trades even at the now “attractive” levels and with a “pledge” from the BOJ not to raise rates while markets are volatile.

So, one difference is this yen carry trade has largely been removed from the system and has not been replaced. That is good for risk and for calming markets.

How Much De-Risking Occurred in the “Panic”

That is really the biggest question of all. Bulls seem to be of the opinion that we had “panic,” and the market is all set for clear sailing from here.

We concede that the yen carry trade should no longer be an issue. On the other hand, I would argue that there was very little panic as a whole. We focused on the alleged panic in Did the VIX Hit 65?

We argue quite vehemently (and hopefully convincingly) that there was no panic in the volatility markets. Fear, yes. Some new hedges added, yes. But panic, no. We focus on the VIX futures market, since it actually trades, and people actually risk money in the VIX futures market, unlike the VIX calculation, which is just that, a calculation (a complex and sometimes, like Monday morning, weird calculation heavily influenced by wide bid/offers on “lottery” ticket types of options).

I highly encourage you to read that particular T-Report, partly because it is contentious, but it also forms the crux of our argument that we had no panic, just some fear.

The working premise is:

• Some de-risking occurred Monday, as stops were triggered, vol sellers got scared away, etc.
• While de-risking occurred, there was no panic.
• That by the end of the week, away from the yen carry trade, much of the de-risking had turned to re-risking.

On a scale of 1 to 10 on how at risk markets were going into last week, with 10 being the most risky, we were probably sitting at a 7 or 8. By Monday lunchtime, it had dropped to a 5 or so, as prices had dropped too quickly, and the move was too closely tied to a trade that once unwound, wouldn’t act like a catalyst again.

By Tuesday, we were back to a 6 or 7 as we saw clear evidence, not only of no panic, but also of investors re-risking. By Thursday’s close, we were back to an 8 on risk, as people piled into risk as the belief that the worst was behind us became consensus.

Why We Are As Bearish This Weekend as We Were Last Weekend

The bearish case boils down to this:

• The narrative that there was panic is overblown. There was some fear, but it was nowhere near the level of panic, and if anything, we’ve pivoted back to complacency.
• We learned very little about the economy last week, and we fully expect to see weak economic data once again hammering home recession fears (with a Fed that will be reluctant to act, due to what we believe are overblown inflation concerns).
• We need to get through a few more important earnings calls, which no longer seem to create an almost obligatory bounce in the important stocks and major averages.
• The 10-year Treasury yield is back to 3.94% (thankfully) and has the potential to rise more as the campaigns move on to discuss policies, and it was quite clear from the lack of demand at the Treasury auctions that the move to much lower yields had been technical.
• Nothing about the geopolitical landscape has improved and many of the risks of escalation and expansion remain out there.

It is possible that no catalyst occurs to drive stocks lower, but we see plenty of potential catalysts, ready to spark another wave of selling. Positioning is once again too bullish and susceptible to a rapid pullback. Finally, liquidity is abysmal – in BOTH directions, which is dangerous and why we are comfortable not giving too much credence to Thursday’s rally.

Bottom Line

What a wild week, but little was resolved, and we are back to bearish stocks, a bit worried about credit, and largely comfortable with bond yields (though we’d like to see 10s back above 4.1%, but that is unlikely if we get the weak economic data that we are looking for).

In his first interview since he was very clearly ousted from the 2024 race, President Biden specifically mentioned former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – telling CBS News Sunday Morning that Democrats in the House and Senate thought he would drag down the entire party’s chances of reelection.

“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it’d be a real distraction,” said Biden.

Biden admits he was forced out of the race because Democrats thought he’d “hurt them in their races” pic.twitter.com/UJjrHeXEVl

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 11, 2024

“When I ran the first time, I thought of myself as being a transition president. I can’t even say how old I am — it’s hard for me to get out of my mouth,” he continued, adding that it was a combination of those factors, along with the priority of “maintaining this democracy,” that steered ‘his’ decision, the NY Post reports.

Pelosi, meanwhile, is acting very strange about the whole thing – suggesting that Biden’s letter announcing his withdrawal from the race wasn’t written by him. (duh)

“It didn’t sound like Joe Biden to me”

Pelosi admits others might be writing Biden’s statements against his will: pic.twitter.com/IffHpDIkdI

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 11, 2024

As modernity.news reported last week, it was widely reported that Pelosi told Biden that he could either step down “the easy way” or be removed “the hard way.” Biden is apparently furious with her, as mentioned by interviewer Lesley Stahl in this clip.

“I did not call one person.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks with Lesley Stahl about her role in President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race. https://t.co/BtvgDUKdYf pic.twitter.com/cnJ8ywR5sU

— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) August 3, 2024

She didn’t need to call anyone.

“I didn’t call anyone” is probably the worst excuse she could have come up with.

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 4, 2024

It’s fairly obvious what happened – and now Pelosi is overcompensating with absurd suggestions, like adding Biden to Mount Rushmore. 

I’m kinda blown away that she is even talking about this.

She is making it so obvious that she had a massive role in removing him.

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 11, 2024

Nancy Pelosi had a delicate conversation with her dear friend about his legacy…

… it was a loving, thoughtful discussion filled with data and respect. 🫡😂😂😂😂

And now the Democrats have flipped the polls because of her loving chat with Biden — a conversation that helped…

— @jason (@Jason) August 11, 2024

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,

ActBlue agreed to tighten its donation security requirements, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who, along with other Republican-controlled states and a congressional committee, is investigating the Democratic fundraising platform.

Paxton said in an Aug. 8 statement that ActBlue has cooperated with the Texas investigation and will now require CVV codes for credit card contributions.

One primary focus of the Texas probe launched in December 2023 involved ActBlue’s failure to require donors to provide CVV codes, which are numerical codes printed on credit cards commonly used to combat credit card fraud.

“ActBlue has been the subject of numerous allegations of illicit activity, including that its platform may enable fraud,” the statement said.

Paxton said his office issued a supplemental civil investigative demand in his ongoing probe to obtain additional information relevant to allegations of wrongdoing regarding ActBlue.

Enforcing the law surrounding elections and campaign contributions is critical, he said.

“Certain features of campaign finance law may incentivize bad actors to use platforms like ActBlue to covertly move money to political campaigns to evade legal requirements,” Paxton said.

State attorneys general from Virginia, Wyoming, and Missouri have launched similar investigations into ActBlue.

ActBlue has denied wrongdoing.

“This investigation is nothing more than a partisan political attack and scare tactic to undermine the power of Democratic and progressive small-dollar donors,” the organization said in a statement on Aug. 2 as Virginia announced its investigation.

Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) speaks at a hearing with the House Administration subcommittee on Elections in Washington on June 24, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Republicans have resorted to “political attacks and spreading false accusations” because they can’t accept that millions of Democrats are donating, according to the group’s statement.

ActBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

On the federal level, Rep. Bryan Steil, (R-Wis.) chairman of the House Administration Committee, initiated a probe into ActBlue last fall amid allegations it facilitated illegal contributions to political committees nationwide.

In an Aug. 5 news release, Steil asked the FEC to require political campaigns to verify online donors’ CVV codes and stop taking donations via prepaid credit cards and gift cards.

In March 2023, O’Keefe Media Group reported that senior citizens in Maryland and elsewhere denied making all the donations attributed to them in Federal Election Commission records.

Donors contacted by O’Keefe Media Group said they made political contributions to ActBlue but had no knowledge of making what amounted to thousands of donations—with some totaling more than $200,000— in a few years.

The media group found similar anomalies in data from WinRed, a Republican platform similar to ActBlue. The House Administration Committee does not appear to be investigating the WinRed fundraising organization.