The former leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was ushered from his seat beside General Secretary Xi Jinping during the final session of the 20th National Congress Saturday.

As WSJ reports, midway through the otherwise carefully-choreographed closing session, Hu Jintao, 79, Xi Jinping’s immediate predecessor, was helped out of his chair next to Mr. Xi and inexplicably led out of the hall.

Footage shot by foreign media in the hall, which wasn’t included in the official China Central Television broadcast, showed Mr. Hu seemingly reluctant or unable to stand up when an aide tried to lift him off his chair.

In the commotion, Mr. Xi leaned toward Mr. Hu and appeared to speak with him.

Mr. Hu was ushered off the center dais, briefly looking back at Mr. Xi and patting outgoing Premier Li Keqiang on the shoulder as he departed.

It wasn’t clear why Mr. Hu left or where he went. The incident has gone unmentioned in Chinese state media coverage of the event.

By Saturday evening, however, the comments section of almost all Weibo posts containing Hu’s name were no longer visible, according to a Reuters review.

On Twitter, Xinhua news agency suggested Mr. Hu’s issue was health related.

In English, indicating the report was aimed at an international audience, the government-run agency said Mr. Hu “was not feeling well during the session” and left to rest in a room next to the meeting venue. “Now, he is much better,” the account said.

When he was not feeling well during the session, his staff, for his health, accompanied him to a room next to the meeting venue for a rest. Now, he is much better.

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) October 22, 2022

Reuters also adds that Hu had appeared slightly unsteady last Sunday when he was assisted onto the same stage for the opening ceremony of the congress.

As some China-watchers have noted, if Hu were really “purged” as some are speculating “i highly doubt that CCTV would show him like this in the report.”

further on this, the sequence of leadership appearance matters greatly. in this cctv report, which they had plenty of time to arrange after the ceremony, the shots of leaders starts with xi, then hu, then the rest of current and retired standing committee members. https://t.co/X17npjTQgx

— Bill Bishop (@niubi) October 22, 2022

Still… does this look like the face of a man who ‘wants’ to leave for health reasons?

Meanwhile, Xi has set the stage to extend his rule into a second decade, and on Saturday the Communist Party announced new names for some top spots as some of his rivals head toward retirement.

Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, warned China’s human rights situation would deteriorate in a statement issued on Oct. 12.

“Another five years of Xi’s leadership is bad news for the cause of democracy and freedom, and worse news for the Chinese people,” Abramowitz said.

“If past is prologue, a third term for Xi will result in more human rights abuses within China and more aggressive suppression of free speech globally, even as his domestic and foreign policies backfire and public outrage intensifies.” 

As a reminder, Hu advocated maintaining good relations with the U.S., and was also an opponent of a military solution to the Taiwan issue. As SouthFront suggests, the former CPC Chairman’s escorting out of the hall is a clear demonstration of the renewed anti-Western foreign policy of Beijing, which, apparently, is ready for all measures, defending its sovereignty and the role of a superpower in the modern world.

Of course, the question remains, is it now in the Deep State’s favor to make it seem like there is political discord at the top in China – remember, an unstable China is a ‘dangerous’ China, that will require much bigger State and Defense Department budgets to battle not to mention serve as a generous source of revenue for the Lockheeds and Raytheons of the world for years to come.

On Tuesday we noted that the most recent NYT/Siena poll was a disaster for Democrats – putting Trump ahead of Biden in a hypothetical 2024 match up, and a massive swing to the right from independent women. The poll found that the most important issues are to Americans aren’t climate, January 6 or Covid (<.5>The economy and inflation (44% combined vs. 36% in July).

The poll also found that 64% of Republicans, 26% of Independents and 1% of Democrats believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election, while 97% of Democrats, 29% of Republicans and 64% of Independents believe President Biden won.

Going even deeper, the poll asked whether American democracy is ‘currently under threat,’ to which 74% of likely voters polled said ‘yes.’

Of those, respondents were asked to rank various people and institutions. The top threat? The mainstream media, with 59% saying it poses a “major threat to democracy,” 24% saying the MSM poses a ‘minor’ threat to democracy, and just 16% who think there’s no threat at all.

Got a few minutes?

As Just the News notes;

This attitude toward the media was strikingly bipartisan, with 95% of Republicans, 83% of independents, and 70% of Democrats calling the press a threat. However, only 38% of Democrats deem the media a “major” threat, compared to 80% of Republicans and 53% of independents.

Prominent, mainstream press outlets have come under fire in recent months for portraying Trump and those criticizing the FBI’s August raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as threats to democracy and national security, in some cases hastily reporting false or misleading information.

In key ways, the news media’s coverage of the raid resembled how the press previously covered now-debunked allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to sway the 2016 presidential election, with journalists prematurely weaving a narrative of Trump’s guilt resting on flimsy underpinnings of anonymous government leaks and innuendo.

Meanwhile, back in government, Biden and his political allies, including Democrats in Congress, have repeatedly described Trump and his allies as dangers to the foundations of America, warning democracy itself is at stake and positioning themselves as its savior. -JTN

The “Major threat” runner-ups were;

Donald Trump (47%)

Joe Biden (39%)

Democrats (35%)

Voting by mail (32%)

The federal government (32%)

Republicans (30%)

The Supreme Court (27%)

The Electoral College (25%)

Electronic voting machines (22%)

Authored by Julianne Geiger via OilPrice.com,

U.S. trade and energy policies have created a “double standard”, with Europe left paying higher prices for its natural gas, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.

France, the latest—and largest–country to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, has switched from being a net exporter of energy last year, to being a net importer of energy this year, after problems with its nuclear fleet surfaced.

To compensate for its declining nuclear fleet and Russia’s complete halt of natural gas shipments into the country, France has turned to the United States for LNG—only Macron is unhappy with the price it’s paying. 

U.S. natural gas exports to France increased 421% during the first eight months of 2022—but the value of that LNG increased by 1094% in August alone due to the higher prices of LNG.

“The North American economy is making choices for the sake of attractiveness, which I respect, but they create a double standard,” Macron explained at a Brussels news conference on Friday, with the United States enjoying low energy prices at home, while exporting at record prices.

“In addition, they allow state aid going to up to 80% on some sectors while it’s banned here — you get a double standard. It comes down to the sincerity of transatlantic trade,” Macron added, after earlier in the week referring to both the United States and Norway as those who are reaping “the real superprofits,” in what Macron calls benefiting from “geopolitcal war unearned income.”

With ties already strained over the previously botched nuclear deal between France and the United States, Macron is scheduled to visit the United States in early December, and the subject of energy is likely to be a prime focus.

Submitted by ‘BlueApples’,

Perhaps out of sheer necessity for his mental well-being, Alex Jones was defiant as ever following the verdict against him in his latest defamation case. A jury recently ordered Jones to pay the families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings and an FBI agent included in their suit an unfathomable $965 million. In the wake of that verdict, Jones took to the air on InfoWars to not only denounce the judgment but to ensure viewers that its absurdity only aided his case on appeal.

While portraying the ruling as absurd will only ruffle the feathers of opponents of Jones amidst their latest victory lap on their crusade to push cancel culture, the families of victims who sued the maligned political commentator made that assertion hard to disagree with. Claiming that “the highest possible punitive damages,” are the only thing that can keep Jones from continuing to harm them, the families who sued the InfoWars founder asked the Connecticut judge presiding over the defamation suit to award them $2.75 trillion in damages. To contextualize how obscene their request is, only 7 countries in the whole world exceeded a GDP of $2.75 trillion in 2020.

The basis of the families claim relies upon the judicial interpretation of Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act. That law bars the sale of products using false statements. The family’s invoked that law by asserting that Jones’ claims about Sandy Hook aided the sale of supplements and other merchandise he sells and regularly advertises on InfoWars. Predicating their claim on that legal argument, the families reached the $2.75 trillion by imploring the judge to multiply the $5,000 fine set worth by the law to the 550 million exposures that Jones’ commentary on Sandy Hook had across Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter in the wake of the shooting before the deplatforming campaign which saw him removed from each website. The previous $965 million ruling against Jones was entirely based on a jury’s decision on restitution for the emotional pain and suffering the InfoWars host inflicted upon them.

In support of the monetary claim, attorneys of the families continued their assault on Jones by continuing to portray his mere existence as a continued threat to the well-being of their clients.

“Alex Jones perpetrates this attack for one reason: greed,” the families’ lawyers said in the filing Friday.

“Alex Jones will never treat them like real people, because they are too valuable to him as targets.”

Although the CUTPA was originally passed in order to compensate those directly harmed by deceptive practices in the marketing and sale of products, the application of the law has since been expanded to directly aid the legal cases pursued by the families of victims of Sandy Hook. In 2019, the Connecticut Supreme Court over-ruled a state appeals court by deciding that the CUTPA could be cited in a case those families fledged against Remingtom, the firearms manufacturers who they sought to hold liable for the school shooting. In their decision the court ruled:

The gravamen of the plaintiffs’ complaint was that the defendants negligently entrusted to civilian consumers an assault rifle that is suitable for use only by military and law enforcement personnel and violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA) (§ 42-110a et seq.) through the sale or wrongful marketing of the rifle.

The Connecticut Supreme Court’s ruling that the CUTPA could be applied to the families’ suit remanded the case to be adjudicated on appeal. However, no judgment was rendered as Remington reached a settlement paying the families a total of $73 million. That sum was agreed to after Remington originally offered $33 million as a settlement, which the families deemed was too little. The $73 million award far exceeded the $2.5 million settlement reached between Bushmaster Firearms and the gun dealer who sold the rifle used by the DC serial snipers that ravaged the nation’s capital with their indiscriminate shootings over the course of 2004.

The monetary claim is another chapter in a tome of tales chronicling attempts to plunge InfoWars into financial ruin. Jones’ attorney Norm Pattis argued that the provisions of the CUTPA don’t fit his clients defamation case and went on to detail how his oppositions arguments weren’t rooted in facts but instead on a pathological approach to effectively nullify the jury by vilifying Jones. Pattis stated the focus of the plaintiffs was aimed at “arousing sympathy, directing anger, and anchoring a large number before the jury with the hope that jurors would do what they did in this case — award a fortune,”

In spite of his auspicious outlook of his case on appeal, the defamation case against Jones has already taken its toll. The InfoWars founder placed the news outlet’s parent company Free Speech Systems into creditor protection in Federal Bankruptcy Court following another ruling in a defamation case fledged by the families in Texas earlier this year. In that case, a jury awarded one of the families suing Jones $50 million in damages. That judgment is 0.0018% of the latest monetary awarded at issue. As optimistic as Jones and his legal counsel can be and have been, the barrage of defamation cases against him continues on as the host is slated to stand trial in a third lawsuit later this year in his native Texas. Despite the outcome of his appeals, it appears that it’s only a matter of time before one of these lawsuits proves to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.

In a sane world, the voice of reason would be looked down upon as a madman. While Jones’ claims have a clear track record of being proven as legitimate time and time again, instances like his commentary on Sandy Hook have been weaponized in the court of public opinion against him, ultimately obfuscating the other truths InfoWars has brought to light over the decades it’s been airing. Independent of the validity of his claims about Sandy Hook, the hysteria advancing the defamation cases against him may very well be the end to InfoWars and Free Speech Systems.

What remains to be seen is the dangerous bearing that the precedent the ruling sets would have on enabling civil lawsuits to be weaponized against political dissidents and those who question accepted narratives and whether or not that will ultimately mean the end of free speech as we know it.

Germany’s national weather service, the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), released a new report Friday showing temperatures across the country will be well above average through mid-November. This promising forecast could stave off a worsening energy crisis (for now). 

DWD’s month-ahead forecast expects warmer-than-normal temperatures in Germany through at least mid-November. A weather model via Bloomberg shows above-average weather. 

A two-week forecast shows heating demand across the EU’s largest economy will be below a 30-year trend line. This means less natural gas will be drawn out of storage. 

Regarding NatGas storage, the EU is about 91% full despite reduced NatGas shipments from Russia. Shipments via Ukraine are one of the last remaining Russian supply lines to western Europe after the bombing of Nord Stream pipelines.

Warmer weather plus EU storage is above a 10-year average for this time of year is good news (for now). 

Dutch front-month gas futures, a European benchmark, has been halved and hit lows not seen since June of around 113 euros per megawatt-hour. 

As for now, a worsening energy crisis has been delayed. But as explained recently by Russian energy giant Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, all of that can change in the event of a cold snap and send “entire towns freezing” this winter. 

Authored by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,

(Complexity – Energy) x (Arrogance + Ignorance) = A Great Disaster

This is a critical episode that explores a concept that can change how you see the whole world.  It did for me when I first learned it, and now I am passing that on.

Today we explore what complex systems are and how they have features that we simply have to appreciate and respect. However, unfortunately, none of the World Economic Forum or western leaders seem to have any awareness of the fact that they live in a world composed of complex systems and governed by this pesky thing we call ‘reality.’

One reason we suspect this is their insistence on the idea that we can readily transition to ‘clean energy.’  However, even the most basic of straightforward (linear) arithmetic reveals it cannot be done.  All that’s required to come to this conclusion is to simply divide current rates of mineral and metal production into the minimum requirements for a first-generation clean energy build-out.

When we do, we discover that it would take anywhere from hundreds to thousands of years to mine the resources needed to build the desired renewable energy world.  At best we’ve got a decade or two left before a permanent energy decline bites and renders all such dreams to the dustbin of what could have been.  If only…

If we can’t even properly manage simple math (add, subtract, multiply and divide) for our most dominant narratives, what hope is there that the subtleties of complex systems command a proper seat at the table?

Complex systems are what govern our world and define our reality. They share a couple of important features. (1) They are inherently unpredictable. (2) They owe their order and complexity to energy flows.

Our economy is a complex system. Take its energy away, and it will extremely rapidly “simplify” and become a lot less dynamic, complex, and interesting.

Your body is a complex system. Starve it for food, and you too will quite rapidly become a lot less interesting and dynamic, and eventually dead.

What the WEF is trying to do, along with a host of colluding world leaders and other true believers sprinkled throughout the elite centers of power and intellectual exploration, is to force a Reset so they can Build Back Better.

Their words and their deeds align and reinforce that this is exactly what they are doing. But without any apparent appreciation for the fact that they are attempting to control the uncontrollable and to pull off the impossible. They want to force multiple, nested, and feedback-looped complex systems to do their bidding.

The chance of them pulling this off, without accidentally breaking the whole system, is about as close to zero as you can get without actually being zero. Never say never, but to succeed, they’d have to somehow rewrite the laws of nature that govern complex systems and the laws of physics to defeat thermodynamics. Ain’t going to happen. Not on purpose; maybe accidentally, but you might as well hope to hit the Powerball lottery after buying a single ticket because those are better odds.

Watch the Video

This is the BIGGEST Reason the WEF Will Fail – powered by sovren.media

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The National Grid warned Britons of winter power blackouts earlier this month if it can’t import enough natural gas and electricity from other parts of Europe. According to Daily Mail, the grid operator developed a new scheme to prevent the worst-case scenario of power outages by offering households equipped with smart meters to turn off appliances during peak demand times. 

National Grid’s scheme pays households up to £20 per day if they don’t use energy-intensive appliances, such as electric ovens and stoves, washing machines, tumble dryers, televisions, microwaves, and even video game consoles, between 4 pm and 7 pm or 2 pm until 9 pm over the next five months. 

They will be advised to use washing machines, tumble dryers, ovens, dishwashers and other appliances outside those periods so boffins can measure how much energy is saved on the grid when it is at its busiest. If the entire proposed £3 per kwh rebate if passed on to Britons by their supplier, over five months this could mean around £240 off their bills in total. –Daily Mail 

The grid operator hopes the ‘demand flexibility service’ will save 2GW of electricity — equivalent to powering 1 million homes — during peak demand hours to thwart supply and demand imbalances that could result in power rationing. 

“But the scheme relies on users having a controversial smart meter, a device which automatically transmits your energy usage to your provider,” Daily Mail said. 

Remember in the US, over the summer, when households in Colorado could not control their own smart thermostats after the local power company digitally seized them to prevent people from increasing cooling demand during a heatwave. There are risks when using anything smart. 

This winter could be reminiscent of power outages experienced in the 1970s across the UK if power generators cannot get enough NatGas to operate.

Ahead of the cold season, we’ve pointed out that European households have returned to burning wood, coal, and even trash to heat their homes. Western sanctions against Moscow are backfiring and risk sending tens of millions of Europeans not just into energy poverty but back a couple of centuries in progress. Thank you, NATO. 

Authored by Craig Deutsch via BitcoinMagazine.com,

Countries around the world are tightening restrictions on their citizens’ bank accounts. Bitcoin is the best way for people to protect their money…

You may have seen or heard about people in Lebanon robbing banks for their own money. They’re no Butch Cassidy, but are just trying to get their own money out of the bank.

Lebanon is facing an economic crisis and banks responded by locking depositors out of their own accounts. As a result, multiple banks have been held up by their customers, who are only looking to withdraw their own money.

A woman staged a bank robbery in Beirut, Lebanon to access her own money. She said she needed the money to pay for her sister’s cancer treatment.

Lebanon is facing a financial crisis that has left many citizens locked out of their own bank accounts. pic.twitter.com/exJYJwoRxi

— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 24, 2022

In late June 2022, G7 countries famously froze around $300 billion of Russian central bank funds, including $30 billion of Russian oligarchs’ assets. Ethiopia’s central bank is banning foreign currency from being used in local commerce and is lowering the threshold for the amount of time that residents who are returning to the country can hold foreign currency. Taiwan is facing significant capital outflows and is floating the idea of foreign-exchange controls if the trend continues to worsen. Mongolia’s local banks are restricting the amount of dollars their customers can buy to $300 per day due to their foreign currency reserves being down 40%. Russian citizens are flocking to banks to withdraw their funds and the waiting time is two to three days.

the hellscape of financial censorship and surveillance we live in gets progressively worse every single day pic.twitter.com/EsXL223a15

— Zack Voell (@zackvoell) October 9, 2022

Similarly, financial surveillance and censorship continue to advance. Even transferring money within the United States has its risks. PayPal has expanded its “Acceptable Use Policy” to threaten users with fines of $2,500 per violation. The company is no stranger to freezing client funds. In January 2022, three users filed a federal lawsuit for locking them out of their accounts without cause. More recently, the payments company shut down accounts of the U.K.-based Free Speech Union. (Authors’ note PayPal quickly reversed course when it became clear that many users were shutting down their accounts in response to this new policy.)

I think you can see the trend.

CAPITAL CONTROLS AND CAPITAL FLIGHT

People will always find ways to protect their wealth.

It is well known that there are certain countries that have more favorable privacy and tax customs when it comes to banking. With the release of the Panama Papers and the Pandora Papers, finances of current and former world leaders and more than 100 other politicians were released to the public, proving that the wealthy elite have ways to store their money in offshore accounts and shell corporations, while everyday people are locked out of their bank accounts.

The reality of capital controls is becoming more and more apparent as global tensions heat up. When Russia first invaded Ukraine, there was a story about the wife of a wealthy politician getting caught fleeing the country with suitcases full of dollars and euros. I already listed plenty of examples of countries tightening their citizens’ monetary leashes. It is only a matter of time before people recognize that bitcoin is the solution to monetary restrictions and outright control.

BITCOIN KNOWS NO BORDERS

According to Western Union, it can take anywhere from 24 hours to five days to send money internationally. From SWIFT’s website:

“There are a number of reasons why cross-border payments may be delayed or held up. Firstly, not all account balances can be updated outside the operating hours of local settlement systems. Delays can also arise if compliance checks need to be carried out, especially when a payment passes through different countries and jurisdictions.”

Let’s unpack SWIFT’s statement and compare it to Bitcoin:

“Firstly, not all account balances can be updated outside the operating hours of local settlement systems.” Bitcoin runs 24/7, 365 days per year. It has been running almost nonstop for over 5,000 days. It is possible and common for users to send money outside of typical business hours, on weekends and holidays. Bitcoin settles transactions with finality in blocks nearly every 10 minutes.

“Delays can also arise if compliance checks need to be carried out, especially when a payment passes through different countries and jurisdictions.” Bitcoin needs no compliance checks. Nodes verify whether the transaction follows the rules of bitcoin, by ensuring the bitcoin is coming from a valid unspent transaction output, and that it is not being double-spent. There are no governments, authorities, people with guns, banks or central third parties that are required to complete the payment. Just miners, who are rewarded in bitcoin by expending energy and for including valid transactions in blocks.

There is nothing stopping me from sending bitcoin to anyone else anywhere in the world, regardless of their country, nationality, race, religion, age or whether or not they are on a sanctions list. Bitcoin knows nothing about its users and it knows no borders.

Bitcoin lives everywhere and nowhere; the ledger of all transactions is stored in a distributed manner on computers called nodes that are running the bitcoin software. If someone is trying to escape capital controls or oppression of any kind, they can leave the country with the clothes on their back and still access all of their bitcoin by remembering their seed phrase and recovering their funds when they get to a safe place.

Leaving one’s country due to capital controls, oppression or war is an extreme example and a majorly useful albeit drastic use-case, but even the ability to travel with a significant amount of funds is an impressive use-case. One anonymous Reddit user claims to have exited a country with $1 million of bitcoin by keeping their seed phrase with them on the flight.

Without getting further into the implications of being able to escape from a country with one’s entire net worth in their pocket (or mind), there are other major problems that bitcoin has solved, namely, the ability to pay someone quickly in another part of the world.

Just sent a wire to India. It won’t settle until October 7th…

Bitcoin is a 1000X improvement. Literally.

— ck (@ck_SNARKs) September 30, 2022

It is not yet possible to fully understand the impact of Bitcoin having solved cross-border payments.

You could buy some saffron from Afghanistan with a weeklong wire transfer or you could just order some from the merchant and pay them directly with bitcoin.

Looking for Fresh #Afghan #Saffron to make its Tea or add it to your meals? You can buy our Saffron with #Bitcoin straight from Afghanistan and ship it to wherever you want. #Bitcoin enables you to do this trade in P2P without any intermediary. pic.twitter.com/edroLfdMSk

— Ovis Haraiva⚡via Bitcoin (@OvisHaraiva) September 27, 2022

Need some design work done for your business? You can hire a graphic designer from halfway around the world and they can receive the money for their work in approximately 10 minutes.

The #Bitcoin community is so amazing. I was fortunate enough to be put in touch with graphic designer and Bitcoiner @Bitcoineca to do the graphic translations# for the Spanish version of Bitcoin Evangelism!

How did I pay her when she’s hallway across the world? #BTC of course!

— Brian De Mint (@BrianTheMint) October 4, 2022

I was able to send a tiny amount of bitcoin to a stranger in Africa and they got the money in their wallet almost instantly.

Bitcoin is so cool. I just sent a stranger in Africa 1,000 sats (~$0.23) using a screenshot that I took over a week ago and they received the funds instantly with zero fees. pic.twitter.com/dL8Vdxapqg

— Craig Deutsch (@Bitcoin_phan) August 18, 2022

These types of peer-to-peer transactions are exactly what Bitcon was designed to facilitate. The fact that anyone can opt into direct trade with anyone else, anywhere in the world is a major breakthrough that will have far-reaching ramifications that we are nowhere close to comprehending. As Lyn Alden stated in “A Look At The Lightning Network,”:
“Back when the iPhone was introduced in 2007, few people thought, ‘Wow this could really disrupt the taxi industry a decade from now.’”

Bitcoin’s ability for its users to send value easily, quickly and trustlessly while retaining property rights in the face of tyranny will have implications few people can grasp.

People will always find a way to protect their wealth. It is inevitable that people will come to the conclusion that bitcoin is the best option for them to do so.