Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Is crime rising or falling across the United States? National crime trends have been difficult to track in recent years because of changes in the way that police departments report their statistics to the FBI.

But by examining crime data from large police departments individually, a clearer pattern emerges.

The Epoch Times’ analysis of data going back several years shows that while the major crime spike that plagued the United States’ largest cities has ebbed, crime rates are still exceeding numbers from before the 2020 summer of protests and riots.

Car theft, in particular, has remained high. Robbery, on the other hand, has declined significantly in some large cities.

The analysis has focused on the top 10 most populous cities and the four offenses of murder, robbery, aggravated assault, and car theft, which tend to be the most reliably reported to the police, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.

New York City, Pop. 8.2 Million

The country’s largest city suffered a surge in violence starting in mid-2020 as a wave of protests and riots hit the country following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.

Shootings doubled that year, with more than 1,850 wounded or killed. Car theft, after dwindling for decades, shot up by 66 percent, NYPD data show.

Crime continued to rise in 2021, with 488 people murdered—the most in a decade.

In 2022, murder declined by about 10 percent, but instances of other serious crimes kept increasing. Car theft was up by more than 150 percent from 2019. Major theft (of items worth more than $1,000 in value) and felony assaults reached numbers unseen since the 1990s.

Violent crime subsided a step further in 2023. Murder dropped by another 11 percent but was still more than 20 percent above the pre-2020 numbers. Meanwhile, car thefts and felony assaults went up again.

This year, so far, murder appears to be further receding, though still holding stubbornly 20 percent above 2019 numbers for the same period. Robberies and felony assaults, however, are both up from last year and more than 40 percent above 2019 levels. Car theft has eased up, yet the rate is still double that of 2019.

Los Angeles, Pop. 3.8 Million

Los Angeles is following a similar trajectory to New York City. Crime surged in 2020 and continued to rise until 2022, aside from murder, which peaked in 2021 with 401 fatalities—the worst since 2006.

Based on incomplete data, crime seems to have declined a bit in 2023, although murder is still 30 percent above the 2019 level, felony assault is up by about 17 percent, and car theft is up by more than 70 percent.

This year, it appears that the LAPD hasn’t been releasing its weekly crime reports. A spokesman reached by phone said the department is switching to a new system so the reports aren’t available.

The department provided some figures for this year up to June 22: Violent crime had been up by 3.5 percent from the same period in 2023, and so was murder. Robberies were up by 18.5 percent, and burglaries up by 4.2 percent. Property crime dropped by 3.1 percent.

Chicago, Pop. 2.7 Million

Chicago experienced a giant spike in murder in 2016. But by 2019, it had just about managed to get it under control. Then 2020 hit and, just as with other cities, violence exploded anew and continued upward in 2021, which resulted in 811 murders—the most since 1995.

Since 2022, murders have decreased, but other crime has continued to rise. So far this year, murder is up by 20 percent compared with the same period in 2019, robbery is up by 40 percent, aggravated battery is up by 4 percent, and car theft is up by 150 percent. Last year, nearly 30,000 cars were stolen in Chicago—the most since at least the year 2000.

Houston, Pop. 2.3 Million

Houston was still trying to contain a wave of violence that started in 2015 when another wave hit in 2020. The following year, in 2021, the city recorded 471 murders, making for its highest homicide rate since 1994.

The violence has eased since then, but last year’s murders still outpaced 2019 by more than 20 percent.

In the first four months of this year, murders seem to have further abated, although aggravated assaults are still nearly 20 percent above the same period in 2019 and car theft is almost 50 percent higher.

Robberies, on the other hand, have been on a steady decline since 2019—down by 25 percent in 2023.

Phoenix, Pop. 1.6 Million

Phoenix followed much the same trajectory, with a spike in violence in 2016, another increase in 2020, and a peak in 2022 when 217 people were killed, making for the city’s highest murder rate since 2007.

In 2023, violence somewhat declined, but car theft jumped by 22 percent.

In the first quarter of this year, the city managed another reduction in murders because of a particularly calm March, with five murders. Car thefts and aggravated assaults barely budged, though, and robberies are up by 17 percent compared with the first quarter of 2023.

Read more here…

Just when you’ve thought you’ve seen the worst, most egregious examples of inflation rearing its head, we give you: Six Flags.

The theme park was in the news this week after a customer went viral for spending $9 for a single Diet Coke at the park’s concessions, as was reported by DailyDot. 

Guyset (@theguyset) posted a viral video on TikTok expressing shock over paying $9.35 for a Diet Coke at Six Flags, showing his receipt as proof. Despite the high price, he bought it. He noted in the caption that both he and the cashier were stunned by the cost.

Other TikTokers shared similar experiences of high prices at amusement parks, concerts, and airports. One user recalled paying $12 for M&Ms at a concert, while another mentioned spending $15 on a small bag of jerky at an airport.

Many users shared their outrage over Six Flags’ prices. One mentioned paying $10 for a bottle of water, while another noted that at Kings Dominion, a slice of pizza and a breadstick cost $17.

A TikToker highlighted similar issues at other parks, citing an $85 bill for 2 hotdogs, 2 slices of pizza, and 3 drinks at Sesame Place for a family of four.

To emphasize the price difference, one user pointed out spending just $4.48 for three 2-liter bottles at a grocery store. Another suggested a hack for staying hydrated at theme parks: buy refillable cups or get a membership that includes refills.

In the comments section, people also lamented the price of items at places like airports. Recall last week we just wrote that Philadelphia’s airport had caused an “outrage” after slapping a hidden 3% surcharge on all concession items. 

According to the report the surcharge is  “to offset the employee wages and benefits” that must be paid to airport workers, but none of the money actually goes to employees. 

View From The Wing then asks the astute question: “You might ask, why allow vendors to charge people more than the marked prices, instead of just raising prices?”

And you already know the answer, right? It’s because the airport doesn’t let them raise prices, stating that “operators are only permitted to charge up to 15% more than a comparable street-side unit”.

What’s Six Flags’ excuse?

Authored by George Ford Smith via The Mises Institute,

There are no secrets about the world of nature. There are secrets about the thoughts and intentions of men.

– J. Robert Oppenheimer

No big deal, it was just “a milk run.”

So remarked Paul Tibbets Jr., pilot of the Enola Gay, a United States B-29 Superfortress, describing his trip to Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. His cargo that early morning was an atomic bomb called “Little Boy,” which bombardier Major Thomas Ferebee released when the plane was directly over the city. Forty-three seconds later and with pilot and crew watching, “Little Boy” exploded above ground. Their job finished, the Enola Gay returned to base on Tinian Island.

Yes, just a milk run.

Others saw it differently. War correspondent John Hersey published a long article in the New Yorker on August 23, 1946, detailing the experience of those far enough from the center of the explosion to have recollections. No milk runs here:

As Mrs. Nakamura stood watching her neighbor, everything flashed whiter than any white she had ever seen. She did not notice what happened to the man next door; the reflex of a mother set her in motion toward her children. She had taken a single step (the house was 1,350 yards, or three-quarters of a mile, from the center of the explosion) when something picked her up and she seemed to fly into the next room over the raised sleeping platform, pursued by parts of her house.

In case you’re a visitor from another galaxy and find this disturbing, most earth dwellers believe the “Little Boy” mission was an act of mercy. According to the accepted math, the instantaneous mass murder saved lives. So strong was this belief that the plutonium “Fat Man” bomb followed up on August 9 in Nagasaki, marking the last time a nuclear weapon was used in war. Meanwhile, on August 8, the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, storming Japanese-held Manchuria with 1.6 million troops.

The Japanese fight-to-the-death attitude weakened. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on August 15, followed by the formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri on September 2.

As the first to inaugurate nuclear war, the Enola Gay crew had done their job—as ordered. Most of them agreed they were saving lives, but incinerating a city full of people as a life-saving exercise desperately needed context. Galactic visitors would be confused, but here on earth it was plainly necessary to put a quick end to a bloody engagement humans call war. Radar operator Joe Stiborik recalled the stunned silence on the flight back to Tinian, pierced by one outburst: “My God, what have we done!”

If you have a superweapon, it does you no good if you lack the nerve to use it. And the US was driven to develop one out of fear Germany might already be working on one of its own.

How it should be used varied among those at the top of the food chain. As Ralph Raico has written, “The bombings were condemned as barbaric and unnecessary by high American military officers, including Eisenhower and MacArthur.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, in fact, believed “Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary. . . . Japan was, at that very moment [prior to Hiroshima], seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of ‘face.’” But Truman ruled. It was his call. A half million or more American lives would be spared if a planned US invasion could be avoided. Yet, as Raico points out, that estimate was “nearly twice the total of US dead in all theaters in the Second World War.” Who was checking the math?

Attempts to Avoid a Nuclear Strike

At the Potsdam Conference in Germany (July 17 to August 2, 1945), Truman issued a Declaration, supported by Great Britain and China, demanding the Japanese surrender unconditionally or else he would order the “prompt and utter devastation” of their homeland. But he didn’t mention the horrific twenty-one kiloton Trinity Test on July 16 or the Soviet Union’s plans to invade Manchuria. Nor did he tell the Japanese their emperor would be safe from prosecution as a war criminal. Full disclosure might well have prompted Japan to surrender without an American invasion and without dropping the bombs.

The scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project varied sharply in their views about attacking Japan. The Franck Committee, headed by Nobel Prize–winning physicist James Franck, opposed a surprise attack on Japan and recommended instead a demonstration in an uninhabited area. They also raised the issue of trust. How does the benevolent ethics of the West align with nuclear mass murder? Was it possible the US would get the “reputation of outdoing Hitler in atrocities,” as Secretary of War Henry Stimson asked Truman.

Director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team agreed that regarding the bomb, “We see no acceptable alternative to direct military use.”

But Oppenheimer’s feelings of elation following Trinity and the bombing of Hiroshima three weeks later changed after the bombing of Nagasaki, which he found unnecessary from a military perspective. On the contrary, he was a “nervous wreck” after the second attack on August 9, 1945, and distressed by the growing reports of casualties.

On the morning of October 25, 1945, the “father of the atomic bomb” met with President Harry Truman in the Oval Office. “Mr. President, I have blood on my hands,” Oppenheimer blurted, to which Truman in one version of the story (and in the 2023 movie) mockingly offered him a handkerchief.

Oppenheimer, who admitted to being a fellow traveler with the Communist Party and was often accused of being a member, saw a future dominated by superweapons a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb. Above all, he wanted to control nuclear weapons’ development and avoid an arms race with the Soviets.

But the race was already well underway. “After scientists in Germany experimentally split the uranium atom in 1938, [Hungarian-German physicist Leo] Szilard became deeply concerned about idea of Hitler obtaining an atomic bomb first and began raising alarm bells among his personal connections.”

Szilard and Albert Einstein both became so disturbed that they composed a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, urging him to start a program in the US among physicists working on chain reactions. Szilard, according to his biographer, had “worked frantically to start the very arms race he had feared.”

But with states, an arms race is one of their most conspicuous features.

Truman had never heard of the Manhattan Project until he was sworn into office and thought the Soviets would never catch up. Stalin, though, with his Manhattan Project spies, was far ahead of him.

At Potsdam, after hearing of the success of Trinity, Truman sauntered over to Stalin after a meeting and said, the “United States had a new weapon of unusual destructive force.” Stalin kept a poker face and replied, in effect, good for you. According to Truman’s Russian interpreter Charles E. Bohlen, “Years later, [Soviet] Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, in his memoirs, disclosed that that night Stalin ordered a telegram sent to those working on the atomic bomb in Russia to hurry with the job.”

The Reign of Absolute Madness

How much destructive force the superpowers need to maintain deterrence has varied over the decades, though according to a 2012 study by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “Just 100 nuclear detonations of the size that struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki would usher in a planetary nuclear winter, which would drop temperatures lower than they were in the Little Ice Age (1300–1850).” The Little Ice Age was characterized by widespread famine.

According to the Nuclear Notebook of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Department of Defense in 2023 had 3,708 nuclear warheads, whereas Russia, as of early 2022, had 4,477 nuclear warheads.

Today’s doomsday weapons far out-annihilate “Little Boy” that killed an estimated seventy thousand people, most of them civilians. The world has lived with increasingly powerful nuclear weapons for so long they no longer arouse the attention they deserve. A handful of state overlords of questionable conscience will decide whether you will be alive in the next second or drift away like chimney soot.

During an informal gathering in 1950, Enrico Fermi, a leading physicist and member of the Manhattan Project in Chicago, posed a question that puzzled his fellow scientists: Where is everybody?

He was referring to the “contradiction between the seemingly high likelihood for the emergence of extraterrestrial intelligence and the lack of evidence for its existence.” Specifically, “Given that our solar system is quite young compared to the rest of the universe—roughly 4.5 billion years old, compared to 13.8 billion—and that interstellar travel might be fairly easy to achieve given enough time, Earth should have been visited by aliens already.”

Since then, almost everyone has kicked in a reply. One I find chilling is this: Given enough time, intelligent life self-destructs.

It’s a hypothesis that by its nature precludes validation.

Russia’s defense ministry (MoD) on Wednesday published some rare and intense footage of a Ukrainian naval suicide drones which got close to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

The speedboat-type drones were approaching the coast in the darkness of the early morning hours when Russian Navy assets opened up heavy machine gun and rocket fire on the vessels. Watch the footage released by the MoD:

#War Footage of a night attack by🇺🇦USV on 🇷🇺warships in the port of Novorossiysk. pic.twitter.com/SiaaQTn1H5

— Capt(N) (@Capt_Navy) July 3, 2024

“Two unmanned boats travelling in the direction of Novorossiysk were destroyed in the waters of the Black Sea,” the defense ministry stated on Telegram.

The inbound drones didn’t cause any damage to the port or naval assets docked there, the statement confirmed, and at least one suffered direct hit from the hail of Russian fire, having caught fire and exploded, according to the released footage.

The return automatic weapons fire from the military port was so intense that it may have damaged buildings in the area, as Russian media notes that—

“City officials closed the area close to the embankment in response to the incident. Mayor Andrey Kravchenko reported in the morning that minor damage was caused to an apartment and two commercial properties, but nobody was hurt in the incident.”

This isn’t the first time Novorossiysk has been targeted, as it came under major drone attack also in May.

It is likely a focal point for Ukraine’s military given its role as a major export route for Russian oil, as well as coal, fertilizer, grain, and timber.

Ukraine has been ramping up cross-border drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure as conflict spillover risks soar. Kiev and its Western backers aim to paralyze one of Russia’s most important industries: oil refining.

Last month, Ukrainian drone attacks damaged several oil storage facilities. Shortly before that in May, two other refineries in southern Russia, including Rosneft’s large Tuapse facility on the Black Sea, were targeted.

Authored by Summer Lane via The Epoch Times,

A measure seeking to ban forced prison labor and formally prohibit slavery in California will be on the November ballot.

Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 8 would change the California Constitution to prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from disciplining any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment. It would also prohibit “slavery in any form.”

“Forced labor has no redeeming qualities and is inconsistent with California’s respect for human dignity,” the amendment reads.

The measure was introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Lori Wilson in February 2023. It passed June 27 in the Senate with only three opposition votes from Republican Sens. Brian Dahle, Roger Niello, and Kelly Seyarto.

Their offices were not available for comment.

The measure passed the same day 68–0 in the Assembly.

“This historic measure will now be presented to the voters of California, giving them the power to decide on ending slavery and involuntary servitude in our state Constitution,” Ms. Wilson said in a statement Thursday after the two votes.

ACLU California Action argued in a position statement, in favor of the amendment, that the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution failed in abolishing slavery.

“Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in involuntary servitude due to an ‘exception clause’ that allows free labor for punishment of a crime,” they wrote.

The possible amendment of the California Constitution is part of the “Reparations Priority Bill Package” introduced by the California Legislative Black Caucus in January.

The package includes 14 bills centered on civil rights, criminal justice reform, and health and business matters for black Californians written in response to a 2023 report from the state’s Reparations Task Force, tasked by the Legislature to survey “ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans as a result of slavery.”

The report offered statewide reparations recommendations.

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, an advocacy group working to end what it calls structural racism in the justice system, has also supported ACA 8.

“For the first time in California’s tarnished history around slavery, Black Americans and Indigenous people will be able to vote against slavery,” the organization wrote in a statement.

Although the bill had broad support among lawmakers, there are some criticisms.

Brian James, a former California state prison inmate who spent 29 years behind bars after being convicted of second-degree murder, said he disagrees with the measure.

“I believe work should be enforced,” he told The Epoch Times July 2.

Released in 2022, Mr. James, who also recently appeared on EpochTV’s “California Insider” on the topic of prison life, said working was an integral part of being incarcerated and said inmates are needed to do tasks like yard maintenance, plumbing work, electrical work, and cooking.

“Inmates run the entire facility,” he said.

Most convicted persons enter prison and are assigned jobs based on their education and experience, he said.

“If you don’t have a high school diploma, they will put you in school,” he said.

He described prison labor as “a point of dignity” rather than slavery. He also highlighted the “value of work” and said prisoners were “supposed to [be] gaining the skills to go back into society.”

The ballot measure needs more than a 50 percent yes vote to pass.

In their second face-to-face meeting in as many months, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that “Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation are in the best period of their history.” Russian state media subsequently likened it to a golden age in relations.

The two are meeting once again at the annual session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which runs Wednesday through Thursday in the Kazakh capital of Astana. “Russia-China relations are on the highest level in history, and they are not aimed against anyone, we do not create blocs or unions, we just act in the interests of our nations,” Putin stressed.

And Xi told Putin in brief opening remarks, “In the face of the turbulent international situation and external environment, the two sides should continue to uphold the original aspiration of friendship for generations to come.”

Still, the reality is that the two are coming closer based ultimately on countering the US, while also vying for influence among other Central Asian SCO bloc countries, which includes the ex-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Those are among the founding members alongside Russian and China, while India and Pakistan joined in 2017, and Iran was welcomed as the newest member last year.

Collectively the SCO countries account for some 20% of global GDP, and importantly many of them have remained uncooperative with US-led sanctions related to punishing Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

“I would like to recall that our countries were behind the creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” Putin continued in his remarks to Xi. He said the SCO has “strengthened its role as one of the key pillars of a fair multipolar world order.”

The bloc is looking to expand in the coming years and decades, as currently over a dozen countries hold SCO dialogue-partner status, allowing them also to be observers at the summit. Belarus is a notable close ally of Russia’s which is soon set to join. It too is under US and EU sanctions related to the war in Ukraine, given its close defense cooperation with Moscow.

Some social media commenters have underscored that the world is laughing at the US amid the chaos and controversy over Biden’s physical and mental capabilities…

Our Commander in Chief is a vegetable, being advised by a crackhead, and about to be replaced by a diversity hire.

MEANWHILE, Putin and Xi are at the SCO Summit in Kazakhstan, planning how to “bolster security and counter the US”.

They are licking their chops, while we implode. pic.twitter.com/MzJex6naFZ

— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) July 3, 2024

Meanwhile there are reports that Xi told the conference that China is on the “right side of history” in Ukraine. This is not the first time he’s said this phrase (for example, he also said it back in March of 2023), but it comes at a moment Ukraine’s President Zelensky has been urging that China take a lead role in achieving ceasefire and peace.

Zelensky’s office has reiterated this week, however, that the “value of any plan lies in the nuances and in taking into account the real state of affairs on the ground.” China has long had its own Ukraine peace formula published, yet it has maintained that any legitimate international peace summit must include Russian representation to be impactful (the recent Swiss-hosted summit did not).

Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times,

Americans are projected to travel in record numbers, spend more than ever, and endure searing temperatures and violent thunderstorms in many areas when they commemorate the nation’s 248th Independence Day on Thursday.

Heat and storms aside, they will, nevertheless, celebrate.

From Boston’s Harborfest to San Diego’s Big Bay Boom, from Seattle’s Seafair to Miami’s Celebration in Peacock Park, on small town Main Streets and in neighborhood backyards between, there will be patriots on parade, grills blazing, music in the air, and fire in the sky on July 4.

The red, white, and blue festivities will range from the traditional, such as Philadelphia’s Fourth of July Jam—“the largest free concert in America”—to the quirky, including “Best Tail Wag” in Bryson Creek, North Carolina.

There will be rodeos—the Cody (Wyoming) Stampede—muskets and cannon in historic reenactments in places like Put-In-Bay, Ohio, a full slate of Major League Baseball games on tap, and, of course barbecues where, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, more than 150 million hot dogs nationwide will be consumed.

But Joey Chestnut won’t be eating any, at least not competitively. For the first time in 19 years, the 16-time champion won’t be woofing down dogs—he ate 62 in 10 minutes in 2023—in the annual July 4 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.

Mr. Chestnut was banned from defending his title after signing a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs.

There should be no such controversy to digest, however, at the July 4 World Famous Key Lime Pie Eating World Championship in Key West, Florida.

WalletHub’s annual ranking of “best and worst places for 4th of July celebrations” cites Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the top five places to enjoy July 4 festivities.

But for a less urban, more Main Street USA perspective, American Flags, Inc., based in West Bay Shore, New York, offers the 20 Best Small Town Fourth of July Celebrations where “quaint and quirky” festivities in Flagstaff, Arizona; Lambertville, New Jersey; Homer, Alaska; Virginia City, Nevada; Bristol, Rhode Island; and Washington, Georgia, are among those highlighted.

More than 11,000 people will officially become Americans on July 4 in 195 naturalization ceremonies between June 28 and July 5 with many symbolically scheduled for July 4, according to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Service.

Citizens will take the oath on July 4 from Misawa Air Base, Japan, to Mesa, Arizona, to Des Moines, Iowa, to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, to Apopka, Florida.

Fireworks shoot from the Hatch Shell during rehearsal for the annual Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on the Esplanade in Boston on July 3, 2016. (Michael Dwyer/AP Photo)

Record Hitting The Road

According to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Independence Day Data Center, 87 percent of American consumers plan to celebrate the Fourth of July in 2024 and will spend an average of $90.42 each on food items.

NRF estimates Americans will spend a record $9.4 billion just on food to be eaten on July 4, with 66 percent eating in barbecues and cookouts, 44 percent saying they plan to attend fireworks/community celebrations, 13 percent going to parades, and 12 percent looking forward to getting away from it all for a four-day weekend vacation.

Another 31 percent of NRF respondents said they would buy “patriotic items” to decorate homes or wear on July 4.

The American Pyrotechnics Association projected in late June that Americans would spend $2.4 billion during “fireworks season,” which peaks in the days before July 4, nearly $100 million more than last year.

The average cost of fireworks is down between 5 and 10 percent this year compared to last year, the association said, attributing the decline to lower ocean shipping rates.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only Massachusetts bans all fireworks use by private citizens, meaning the only legal public fireworks displays must be sanctioned and supervised by state or local officials.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimates “more people than ever will be taking to the highways” this July 4th weekend, with 60.6 million traveling by car and 5.74 million flying to destinations.

That’s up from 57.8 million who traveled by car in 2023 and above the pre-pandemic 55.3 million who traveled via car over the July 4th holiday period in 2019, AAA estimates.

“With summer vacations in full swing and the flexibility of remote work, more Americans are taking extended trips around Independence Day,” AAA Senior Vice President Paula Twidale said in a statement. “We anticipate this July 4th week will be the busiest ever.”

The AAA notes that gas prices are slightly lower nationwide this year than last, when the national average was $3.56 a gallon. That average this year was $3,50 a gallon as of June 27, it said.

AccuWeather forecasts“storms for some, hot as a firecracker for others” across much of the Lower 48 states on July 4.

California’s Central Valley will see highs between 100 and 110 degrees. Sacramento, California, projects it could top its July 4 record of 107 degrees.

Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona desert high temperatures could top 115 degrees. Las Vegas could come within a couple degrees of its hottest-ever Independence Day, with temps topping 112 degrees.

AccuWeather also forecasts the South will “bake,” with parts of Texas and Oklahoma set to reach into the low 100s and temperatures in Atlanta expected to reach the mid-90s.

Thunderstorms bulling up the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys could bring late-afternoon and evening relief—but potentially spawn tornadoes—in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, it warns, while storms could disrupt fireworks displays in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York City that evening.

About eight months after Iran-backed Houthi rebels began seriously disrupting maritime traffic in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, June recorded the highest number of missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels this year and the second-largest since December. As instability in the Middle East intensifies, Houthi rebels have sunk one commercial vessel in recent weeks and have introduced kamikaze drone boats to their arsenal. 

Despite efforts of the US, British, and European navies sailing in the critical maritime chokepoint, attempting to ensure freedom of navigation, the Houthis managed to conduct 16 confirmed attacks on commercial vessels in June, according to Bloomberg, citing new data from naval forces operating in the Middle East.

The surge in attacks is alarming, considering President Biden’s Operation Prosperity Guardian, launched at the start of this year to ensure freedom of navigation, has been without success in neutralizing threats and restoring security for commercial shipping. Instead, the consequence of failure has been emerging supply chain snarls and supply shocks, resulting in soaring containerized shipping rates. 

“The Houthis have proven to be quite the formidable force. This is a nonstate actor that fields a larger arsenal and is really able to give a headache to the Western coalition,” said Sebastian Bruns, a naval expert at the Center for Maritime Strategy and Security and the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University in Germany, who was quoted by Foreign Policy. 

Bruns said, “This is as high-end as it gets for now, and when navies are having a problem with sustainment at this level, it is really worrisome.”

So, eight months on, the disruption to the critical shipping lane is getting a lot worse as rebels have expanded their use of uncrewed service vessels to attack commercial vessels. These are much harder to track than anti-ship missiles. 

And the Houthis aren’t the only problem.

A European naval commander told Bloomberg that criminal groups have reinvigorated piracy networks off the Somalia coast.

Pirates “think there is a window of opportunity due to the Houthis’ presence,” with increased maritime traffic along Somalia’s coast due to commercial vessels re-reouting from the Red Sea to Cape of Good Hope, said Vice Admiral Ignacio Villanueva, who commands a European Union operation tasked with curbing piracy, adding, “They are really trying to stretch the Western, international operations’ limits and capabilities.”

The world is dangerously ablaze as Biden’s foreign policy decisions backfire. Even before Biden, the world was fracturing into a multipolar state, one full of conflict. Now, Biden faces calls from within his own party to step down amidst speculation over his cognitive decline. This is not a great look for America. 

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

It’s no secret that the vast majority of the so-called elites are advocates of climate alarmism and are taken in by the Green New Scam.

Whether this preference is based on ignorance of the science, ideological zeal, a willful desire to hurt American growth or simple greed because of their investments in Green New Scam infrastructure varies case by case.

The typical upper-income supporter of the climate cult including academics, media figures and celebrities is probably ignorant of the fact that there is no evidence that CO2 emissions cause climate change and that the real causes are solar cycles, volcanoes, ocean currents and atmospheric moisture not caused by humans.

Climate Alarmists Have It Backward

The historical record actually demonstrates that warming periods produce higher CO2 levels — not the other way around. CO2 doesn’t cause warming. It’s caused by natural warming.

In other words, climate alarmists have causation completely backward.

Climate alarmism is based almost entirely on computer models, which depend on the inputs the modelers themselves build into them. A model is only as good as the inputs and assumptions programmed into it.

Virtually every one of these models has overestimated warming, sometimes by orders of magnitude, because it’s based on faulty assumptions that overestimate the impact of CO2 on climate.

In other words, it’s junk science. But they keep relying on these models because their political agenda requires it.

Climate: The New Communism

There’s no doubt that a fair number of neo-Marxists embrace the climate scam because they know it damages U.S. industry, raises costs to U.S. consumers and helps to undermine the U.S. economy.

Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism, anti-capitalistic collectivists admitted that they needed to promote the climate agenda because the only way to combat global warming is through collective action. It requires a coordinated global effort that limits national sovereignty.

The neo-Marxists are impervious to evidence; they just want to hurt America and wasting money on windmills instead of building new refineries is a good way to do it. That leaves the greed crowd.

The Real “Green” in the Green Agenda

They’re early investors in windmills, solar modules, lithium car batteries, EVs, charging stations, carbon credits and other infrastructure of the climate scam. They stand to make billions of dollars off the narrative with help from extravagant government subsidies.

They don’t really care if it all collapses in the end (which it will) as long as they get rich at taxpayer expense in the meantime. All of this behavior is clear as far as it goes. What is not clear is the extent to which the Green New Scammers are doing this with your money.

The best example is multibillionaire Larry Fink, who runs the giant BlackRock investment fund. Fink has been aggressive in promoting the climate scam along with racial quotas, DEI and defunding police.

He’s entitled to his opinions. But is he entitled to pursue his radical agenda with pension fund money from conservative states and institutions? Fortunately, a backlash has begun against Fink and his fellow wokesters.

More state pension fund managers are beginning to pull their funds from BlackRock and other investment managers that pursue far-left policies not in the best interests of their beneficiaries. This backlash may not change Larry Fink’s lifestyle. But over time, it might change the world for the better.

The EV Sham

A major part of the climate agenda includes electric vehicles (EVs). I’ve been warning for years that EVs aren’t feasible as a transportation solution for more than relatively few Americans and that they are little more than glorified golf carts despite the $70,000-and-up price tags.

In the first place, EVs don’t cut carbon emissions. The car itself does not have emissions, but it’s charged with electricity from power plants that do.

The batteries are made with poisonous chemicals and metals including lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel that come from mining operations that use enormous amounts of water and electricity to extract the needed materials.

It takes thousands of tons of ore to extract enough critical minerals to make one battery. EVs don’t take a charge in extreme cold, and the batteries can’t hold a charge. Travel range is grossly overstated for many reasons, including the fact that EV car heaters drain the batteries (with internal-combustion engines, ICEs, the engine makes heat which can easily be directed into the car to keep passengers comfortable with no additional energy required).

Resale values of EVs are close to zero because buyers of used EVs have to shell out $25,000 or more for new batteries after the vehicle is about seven years old. The list of drawbacks goes on.

Most Americans have resisted EVs because they understand the disadvantages. But many Americans were drawn to the false promise of emission-free transportation and other ridiculous claims by the Green New Scammers. Now even the most committed EV buyers are waking up.

I Want My ICE Car Back

A new survey by consulting firm McKinsey and Co. shows that 29% of EV owners in nine major economies want to return to ICE vehicles. When the sample is narrowed to just the U.S., 46% of those surveyed want to return to ICEs.

The McKinsey officials who conducted the survey claim to be “surprised” by those results. That probably says something about the fact that McKinsey experts are just as deluded about EVs as the buyers surveyed.

When breaking down the results, 45% say EVs are too expensive, 33% say they have charging concerns and 29% are concerned about the limited driving range.

The truth is that the EV was invented in 1837 and reached the peak of its popularity in 1910 just before the mass production of internal-combustion cars by Henry Ford. The American public got it right when they flocked to the Model T.

It sounds like they’re getting it right again after a brief infatuation with the false promise of the EV. The bottom line is that the Green New Scam is falling apart.

It can’t happen soon enough.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded Hurricane Beryl to a Category 4 storm from a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale on Wednesday morning. Beryl is the earliest hurricane on record to strengthen into a Category 5 as it churns across the southeastern Caribbean Sea. It is forecasted to hit the Yucatán Peninsula on Friday and afterward poses a threat to US oil and energy critical infrastructure on the Gulf Coast.

NHC said Beryl’s winds peaked at about 157 mph before weakening to 145 mph on Wednesday morning. Government weather forecasters expect “some weakening” of the storm over the “next day or two,” however, it will still be a “major hurricane” as it impacts “Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands.”

On Wednesday, Mexico’s Meteorological Service posted a hurricane warning for the coast of the Yucatán peninsula from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancún, with forecasted landfall on Friday. 

After the Yucatán Peninsula, Beryl’s forecasted path heads directly to the Texas coast and is expected to move up towards Louisiana. This area is home to major US oil and gas refineries.

Ahead of the storm, Shell announced Wednesday that it paused some drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Here’s more from Bloomberg:

• Company also began evacuating non-essential personnel as precautionary measure

• Shell is also evacuating non-essential staff from the Whale asset, which is not scheduled to begin operations until later this year

• Production from the Shell-operated Perdido platform feeds into the HOOPS Blend, a medium sour oil with 29.2 API and 1.55% sulfur

• Oil from Perdido is delivered by the Hoover Offshore Oil Pipeline System (HOOPS) to the Quintana terminal, south of Freeport, Texas; from Quintana oil flows into the Houston refining hub but mainly to the Texas City area

“There remains uncertainty in the track and intensity forecast of Beryl over the western Gulf of Mexico this weekend. Interests in the western Gulf of Mexico, including southern Texas, should monitor the progress of Beryl,” NHC wrote in the most recent update. 

Computer models show the storm’s future path along the Texas coast, which is home to 32 oil refineries. Refineries are critical for processing crude into products such as gasoline and diesel.  

“We have to wait and see where it lands,” Mark Schieldrop, a spokesperson for the travel club AAA Northeast, told newspaper The Record. 

Schieldrop said, “But if the storm makes a direct hit to oil and gas infrastructure, it could cause prices to go up here if refineries down there are knocked offline for more than a few days.” 

At the start of hurricane season, we penned a note titled “La Nina Will Complicate Things For Biden Ahead Of Elections As Hurricanes Threaten Oil Refineries,” and that’s exactly what could happen next week. 

All it takes is one major hurricane to disrupt major US Gulf Coast refineries, which could drive average gasoline prices at the pump to the politically sensitive level of $4 a gallon. 

Currently, AAA average prices of gas at the pump stand at… 

If Beryl causes refinery closures on the US Gulf Coast, the Biden team will have a whole lot more issues to deal with (currently, it’s just chaos in Washington: “”No One Is Pushing Me Out” Biden Tells Staff As New NYT Poll Shows Trump Lead Widening”).