Via The Cradle,

Israeli culture magazine Mekovit on Saturday published a leaked document issued by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence recommending the occupation of Gaza and total transfer of its 2.3 million inhabitants to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

The document, issued on October 13, identifies a plan to transfer all residents of the Gaza Strip to North Sinai as the preferred option among three alternatives regarding the future of the Palestinians in Gaza at the end of the current war between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian resistance.

The document recommends that Israel evacuate the Gazan population to Sinai during the war, establish tent cities and new cities in northern Sinai to accommodate the deported population, and then create a closed security zone stretching several kilometers inside Egypt. The deported Palestinians would not be allowed to return to any areas near the Israeli border.

The existence of the document does not necessarily indicate that its recommendations are being implemented by Israel’s security establishment. The Ministry of Intelligence, headed by Gila Gamliel of the Likud party, does not control any of Israel’s intelligence agencies, but independently prepares studies and policy papers, which are distributed for consideration by the government and its security bodies.

However, recent statements by Israeli government officials and actions by the Israeli army in Gaza suggest the plan is indeed being implemented. Since October 7, Israeli officials have repeatedly issued warnings to Palestinians to move to southern Gaza in advance of a looming ground invasion. 

Israel has imposed a total siege on Gaza, cutting off food, water, fuel, and electricity. The siege, combined with intense Israeli bombing that has killed over 8,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, threatens to make Gaza uninhabitable. 

An official at the Ministry of Intelligence confirmed that the ten-page document is authentic but “was not supposed to reach the media,” Mekovit noted. According to a right-wing activist, the document from the Ministry of Intelligence was leaked by a member of Likud.

Leaking the document was an attempt to find out whether “the public in Israel is ready to accept ideas of a transfer from Gaza.” The document unequivocally and explicitly recommends carrying out a transfer of civilians from Gaza as the desired outcome of the war.

Hebrew-language media outlet @mekomit has published Israeli Ministry of Intelligence documents recommending mass expulsion of the entire Gaza population into the Sinai Desert

It’s consistent with how Israel’s operation has been conducted so far

Here’s an English translation pic.twitter.com/VGvz2uh3Lv

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 30, 2023

The transfer plan is divided into several phases: in the first phase, the population in Gaza must be forced to move to southern Gaza, while Israeli air strikes will focus on targets in northern Gaza. In the second phase, the Israeli army’s ground entry into Gaza will begin, which will lead to the occupation of the entire strip, from north to south, and the “cleansing of the underground bunkers from Hamas fighters.”

At the same time as the Gaza Strip is occupied, the citizens of Gaza will move to Egyptian territory and will be prevented from returning permanently. “It is important to leave the traffic lanes towards the south usable, to allow the evacuation of the civilian population towards Rafah,” the document states.

The document recommends beginning a dedicated campaign that will “motivate” Gazans “to agree to the plan,” and make them give up their land. Gazan should be convinced that “Allah made sure that you lost this land because of the leadership of Hamas – there is no choice but to move to another place with the help of Your Muslim brothers,” the document reads.

Further, the plan states the government must launch a public relations campaign that will promote the transfer program to western states in a way that does not promote hostility to Israel or damage its reputation. The deportation of the population from Gaza must be presented as a necessary humanitarian measure to receive international support. Such a deportation could be justified if it will lead to “fewer casualties among the civilian population compared to the expected number of casualties if they remain,” the document says.

The document also states that the US should be leveraged to pressure Egypt to take in the residents of Gaza, and to encourage other European countries, and in particular Greece, Spain and Canada, to help take in and settle the refugees who will be evacuated from Gaza. 

Finally, the document claims that if the population of Gaza remains, there will be “many Arab deaths” during the expected occupation of Gaza by the Israeli army, and this will damage Israel’s international image even more than the deportation of the population. For all these reasons, the recommendation of the Ministry of Intelligence is to promote the transfer of all Palestinians in Gaza to Sinai permanently.

America’s anti-obesity craze, courtesy of GLP-1-based weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro made by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, continues to gain momentum as yet another Wall Street bank loses faith in obese consumers. 

Wall Street is losing faith in Fat Americans.

Truist Securities downgraded Krispy Kreme saying it has a difficult time recommending the stock until the impact of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs becomes more apparent.

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 30, 2023

On Monday, Truist Securities downgraded doughnut chain Krispy Kreme Inc. from “buy” to “hold” and slashed the price target from $20 to $13, citing GLP-1 trends. 

Analysts led by Bill Chappell told investors:

“We believe the stocks will be stuck in a holding pattern at best with strong potential for additional multiple contraction as the initial impact of GLP-1 use becomes more apparent. To be clear, we have NO IDEA what the impact of GLP-1s will be on overall food consumption, but we believe it is way too early in the cycle for anyone to have an accurate estimate.”

Chappell said he needs more evidence to gauge the overall GLP-1 impacts on overall food consumption. He noted if GLP-1 impacts worked through Krispy Kreme and its peers in the third quarter – there would be enough data to forecast 2024-25 trends. 

Chappell warned that GLP-1 overhang will weigh shares down for the next six to 12 months, “if not longer.” 

He added: 

“We believe the stocks will be stuck in a holding pattern at best with strong potential for additional multiple contraction as the initial impact of GLP-1 use becomes more apparent.” 

Shares of Krispy Kreme fell as much as 3.6% in early New York trade, but most losses were recovered by early afternoon. Shares are up 24% on the year but remain around record lows. 

Another problem for the doughnut chain is that top-line growth resulted from increased pricing during Covid. According to Chappell, this trend will “only feed into the GLP-1 narrative as pricing benefits recede and overall sales growth decelerates in the next few quarters.”

We told readers 2.5 months ago about the emerging “food revolution” as the food industrial-complex has been too lazy to adapt to the shifting winds of an increasing number of Americans using GLP-1 drugs. 

In late July, a shift occurred as investors started to offload companies with potential downstream risks related to obesity drugs, as indicated by the Goldman Sachs Global HLC GLP Risk index. Concurrently, investors piled into Goldman’s GLP-1 Obesity drug basket to capitalize on slimming down Americans. 

A recent Morgan Stanley presentation (available to pro subs) found the most bull case for the GLP-1 drugs could result in a 1.7% reduction (vs baseline) in calories consumed by Americans. 

Not surprisingly, MS found a more pronounced impact on certain food categories among those on the weight-loss drugs.

Also, the biggest losers appear to be fast food and pizza restaurants…

… confections, cookies, and salty snacks…

Expanding on MS’ report is Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham (available to pro subs), who reveals the downstream effects of the obesity drug will impact the apparel industry as “eventual weight loss in the broader population could spur a wardrobe replacement cycle.” 

Meacham said that an adoption rate of 38 million individuals using weight-loss drugs (midpoint of BofA’s estimated 2030 TAM) combined with the assumption of buying new clothing could result in $50 billion of new apparel spending. 

Walmart has already voiced concern about seeing an impact on shopping demand from people taking the diabetes drug Ozempic, Wegovy, and other appetite-suppressing medications. 

Banks are still evaluating the downstream effects of GLP-1 impacts that could be more clear in the next several quarters. 

Authored by J.M. Phelps via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In the fight against Mexican cartels, Texas law enforcement recently took control of a dangerous island used by human traffickers.

The Epoch Times spoke to Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who identified Fronton Island as possibly “the most violent part” of the Texas–Mexico border. Belonging to Texas, Fronton Island is an island in the Rio Grande River. According to the General Land Office, “Fronton Island has been a hot spot for drug and human trafficking and dangerous cartel activity in the past couple of months.”

Ms. Buckingham further described the island as “a law enforcement-free refuge, one where cartels went for refuge when they needed it.” On Sept. 7, she issued a letter to the Texas Department of Public Safety, authorizing law enforcement access to the state-owned 170-acre island.

On an island where fully automatic weapons were once being fired regularly at night, as two violent cartels fought over its control, she said, “Law enforcement set foot on the island for the first time on Monday [Oct. 2].”

Ms. Buckingham cannot speak to the details of the operation, but said the island has been reclaimed by an elite force of Texas Rangers. “Clearing the island and taking away [the cartel’s] shelter, they are finding caches of weapons and more than I can’t speak fully about,” she added.

With a Texas flag planted on the island, Ms. Buckingham considers the operation a win against illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and human trafficking—but the scope of the problem exceeds this single region.

“Texas is still getting flooded with illegal immigrants,” she said. “We’re seeing millions and millions of folks coming across the border.”

To put this in perspective, she said, “The New York mayor is complaining about thousands of people coming [into his city], while Eagle Pass [in Texas] expects far more than that.” The numbers of migrants Eagle Pass has to brace for is “the equivalent of 2.7 million people illegally coming to New York every week.” In addition, she said, “these are not just family units, but a whole lot of young, military-aged males.”

“Recent surges of illegal immigrants are setting new records for crossing the border,” she said. “There are numerous videos circulating online showing thousands of people literally storming across the border,” she added. “This is literally an invasion.”

“Everyone who comes across is owned by somebody, so you’re basically seeing the largest increase in slavery that this world has ever seen,” she said. “Many are now obligated to the drug trade or the human trafficking trade because the cartels are controlling who crosses the border.”

“With enough fentanyl across our border to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States, this has to stop,” she said, adding that “Texas is doing everything we possibly can to get this stopped.”

One of the things Texas is doing is “creating a criminal record for the people who come across and break our laws so that they’re easily identifiable,” she said. “Because of [President Joe] Biden’s policies, what we’re seeing right now is a lot of criminals who simply get turned back around to their country to turn around again and walk back across the border.”

“While Texas is fighting on every front and will continue to fight,” she said, “people need to seriously think about who they’re voting for in Congress and for president, because we need people who will enforce policies that stop illegal immigration, and the trafficking of drugs and people into our great country.”

In September alone, Border Patrol encountered a record 269,735 migrants at the border; 218,763 of whom were attempting to illegally enter the country. In fiscal year 2023, a record 169 people on the terror watch list were apprehended, and more than 25,500 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the border.

The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not return requests for comment.

Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, San Francisco’s largest employer and anchor tenant in the city’s tallest skyscraper, urged progressive leaders in City Hall on Sunday night to reverse course on defunding the police. He advocates to “refund” the police force after defunding policies sparked a metro area-wide surge in violent crime. This call from Benioff, alongside others, suggests a growing separation from previously ‘woke’ policies. However, these calls to reverse disastrous progressive policies could be too late. 

On Sunday evening, Benioff posted on X, “San Francisco must REFUND the Police not continue to DEFUND the Police. Our SFPD and Sheriffs are the key to a safe and clean San Francisco every day. SFPD must be returned to >2000 officers within 18 months from <1400 where it has been allowed to fall, and the police force must be fully empowered to enforce ALL laws.” 

He continued, “Compensate ALL city employees to recruit the best officers in the country. Reward and recognize them for hiring the absolute best now. San Francisco Police Academy must be expanded for hiring surge. All laws must be fully enforced. Police must be fully funded. The DA’s office must prosecute to the fullest level of the law. Return Safety to retail business and residential properties NOW. DISTRICT BY DISTRICT – Police officers need to be enabled to protect assigned districts and rewarded & measured for their effectiveness. Metrics for effectiveness need to be clearly defined and transparent. Let’s institute a Neighborhood Policing model in San Francisco, safety District by District. We can and must do more now with our police force.”

San Francisco must REFUND the Police not continue to DEFUND the Police. Our SFPD and Sheriffs are the key to a safe and clean San Francisco every day. SFPD must be returned to >2000 officers within 18 months from <1400 where it has been allowed to fall, and the police force…

— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) October 29, 2023

And, of course, Elon Musk, whose X headquarters is based in the crime-ridden metro area, responded to Benioff’s post: “We must also grant law enforcement officers the respect and honor that they deserve. Every profession has flawed individuals, but it was deeply wrong to condemn all police officers, after they risked their lives to keep us safe, for the sins of the few.”

We must also grant law enforcement officers the respect and honor that they deserve.

Every profession has flawed individuals, but it was deeply wrong to condemn all police officers, after they risked their lives to keep us safe, for the sins of the few.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2023

Musk has warned San Francisco’s downtown feels “post-apocalyptic” … 

San Francisco is on track to set a record for fatal drug overdoses this year, and the intersection of Seventh and Market Streets at U.N. Plaza has become an epicenter of the drug crisis—and a physical representation of the political battles playing out at City Hall. (1/12) pic.twitter.com/YV6DiPuj9x

— The San Francisco Standard (@sfstandard) October 27, 2023

The homeless man who had been advertising free fentanyl across from a San Francisco public school has been charged with battery and creating a public nuisance, according to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. https://t.co/fPlsMk7oUd

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) October 27, 2023

A woman bathing herself by using a fire hydrant in San Francisco. Her private parts exposed. San Francisco is so disgusting, we need new mayor and police chief. Incompetent leadership led to this. pic.twitter.com/JFU7tg3DJw

— Asian Crime Report (@activeasian) October 29, 2023

While the #USA government spends billions on wars, #SanFrancisco poor have organised themselves into crime rings to survive. pic.twitter.com/5HH5h8Dr58

— Kamal Perera (@KamalPe69257601) October 28, 2023

Microsoft to vacate 50,000 square feet of office space in San Francisco as tech-xodus continues amid drug and crime ‘doom loop’https://t.co/WVtpgj0Wxs

— Stalingrad & Poorski (@Stalingrad_Poor) October 24, 2023

I am a self taught citizen journalist who has been documenting the chaos happening in San Francisco for years. My X account is literally a database of information. A living testimony of survival. pic.twitter.com/0srJhMB52j

— World Peace Movement (@darren_stallcup) October 25, 2023

The backfiring of policies recently forced Democrat Mayor London Breed to reverse course on her defunding the police initiatives. She has requested more funding for police, a move to attract businesses back to the downtown area.

Benioff has previously warned about the metro area’s collapsing commercial real estate market, warning that the downtown area is “never going back to the way it was” in pre-Covid times.

No more kneeling for the mayor?

… and across the nation, who could’ve seen this coming? 

Blue cities face severe police shortages as violent crime explodes. 

X users responded to Benioff’s post: 

Where were you 2 years ago on this? How obvious.

— Tbarton (@SLMHTEXA) October 30, 2023

Seeing major CEOs like @Benioff do a complete 180° on their prior support of Black Lives Matter criminal justice reforms is very encouraging. It was never racist to punish repeat violent offenders, sometimes officers have to use force as many offenders are extremely violent.

— Adam Lowisz (@AdamLowisz) October 30, 2023

The woke are awaking. How much money did SalesForce donate to BLM?

— Joel Wolh (@joelwolh) October 30, 2023

Give @Benioff credit. He backed mistakes, & now he is fixing things.
–
Good

— Mark Simon (@MarkSimonHK) October 30, 2023

… 

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Questions abound. Assume you can convert offices into homes, who wants to live in them? Is a tear-down cheaper?

To ease the housing crisis, White House Opens $45 Billion in Federal Funds to Convert Offices Into Homes

Taking aim at the nation’s housing crisis, the White House kicked off a multiagency push on Friday to help real-estate developers convert more office buildings emptied by the pandemic into affordable housing.

The initiative aims to harness $35 billion in low-cost loans already available through the Transportation Department to fund housing developments near transit hubs, folding the initiative into the Biden administration’s clean-energy push.

It also opens up additional funding sources and tax incentives and offers a new guide to 20 federal programs that developers can tap and that offers technical assistance in what can be tricky and expensive conversions.

A third part of the program will see the federal government draw up a public list of buildings it owns that could be made available for sale to help bolster development.

The federal government owns about 1,500 office buildings nationally and had leases on almost 200 million square feet of additional space as of April, according to Barclays analysts, who said in a recent report that much of that office space was underused.

Questions Abound

Also consider San Francisco’s push to turn office buildings into homes hinges on this simple idea

“Hope is not a strategy,” said Nick Romito, co-founder and CEO of VTS, a leasing and asset-management data company. “The hope that if you convert it, they will come —well, a lot depends on where that building is.”

While New York City’s downtown financial district is home to a number of successful office-to-residential conversions, it also takes a vibrant neighborhood, with bustling cafés, grocery stores and more.

“That is not the same for San Francisco,” Romito said. “The infrastructure and the cost of converting a building — that’s part of it,” he said. “But I’d be more concerned about, even if you can convert it, who wants to live there?”

“What’s cheaper?” Romito said. “Is it cheaper to add amenities in maybe a zombie building, add a floor or two, to create a better experience? Or is it cheaper to knock the entire building down, rebuild something else, and pray to God you lease it?”

Warren Wachsberger, CEO of Aecom Capital, a subsidiary of Aecom ACM, said revamping old office buildings isn’t that simple. “Less than 1% of all apartment units underway, being built nationally, are office-to-residential conversions, despite everybody’s love affair with them,” Wachsberger said, speaking from Los Angeles.

“Many buildings probably won’t work,” Wachsberger said, observing that thick, concrete office floorplates often need to be drilled through and plumbing and heating systems overhauled, with local building codes adding to the headache.

“It’s a lot easier and cheaper to demolish it and start over from scratch,” he said. “That means buying buildings essentially at the cost of land.”

Wachsberger said hopes for an expansion of an office-to-residential conversion effort in Los Angeles in the 2000s likely hinge on incentives for developers and the buildings being in places where people wanted to work, eat, live and shop. “Until that’s able to come back, it’s difficult to create the vibrancy that was there prepandemic,” he said.

Simple Idea

I had to read that article twice to find the simple idea mentioned in the headline. The article never really explained. But I believe It’s in that last paragraph above: Incentives and free money from governments.

With enough subsidies, developers will try nearly anything. Then when the projects fail, the developers ask for more money.

Clean Energy Question

What the heck does this have to do with clean energy?

The answer is clearly nothing. Nonetheless, $45 billion is siphoned from the Biden administration’s clean-energy push.

The government has 1,500 office buildings nationally and leases on almost 200 million square feet of additional space that it does not need. Instead of canceling leases and selling the real estate, it’s going to convert them into clean energy spaces.

Biden’s Green Energy Inflation Reduction Act Needs a Big Bailout Already

Please note Biden’s Green Energy Inflation Reduction Act Needs a Big Bailout Already

Surprise, surprise. Subsidies were not enough to make Biden’s energy projects profitable.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for green energy, yet now renewable developers want utility rate-payers in New York and other states to bail them out.

According to a report late last month by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (Nyserda), large offshore wind developers are asking for an average 48% price adjustment in their contracts to cover rising costs. The Alliance for Clean Energy NY is also requesting an average 64% price increase on 86 solar and wind projects.

What Will This Office to Apartment Conversion Ultimately Cost?

Supposedly, this office conversion idea will only cost $45 billion.

I assume it will eventually cost $450 billion minimum by the time Biden finishes. He is guaranteed to add subsidized low income, clean energy, free electric heat, and free child care into the mix.

Submitted by Seth Chalnick (@seth_oshi),

Inspired by this ZeroHedge article about the Cantillon Effect, a friend asked me today if I follow how Bitcoin is perceived as “deflationary”?

This came within the context of a broader discussion about “fiscal dominance” as it relates to market-breaking events imploding in real-time.

My response follows…

Excellent article explaining the Cantillon effect… i.e. how those closest to the printing presses benefit not just disproportionately, but at the expense of everyone else.

And who can blame them? Centralization leads to more centralization, as oligopolies across different verticals align incentives to play ball. It is, in fact, probable that most of us complaining today would also quietly accept a multibillion dollar payout, if it “just meant that” innocent citizens halfway around the world would die as a result. Especially if plausible deniability couldn’t directly link it back. Especially if we could justify it as a “greater good”. Not saying we would, but its pretty fucking clear as day that others would… and that this is also how the world has always worked, since arguably before man first harnessed the power to create a surplus.

But life has a funny way of balancing out. See guillotines, viruses, and schoolyard bully resolution for reference.

In my opinion, Bitcoin gets misclassified as “deflationary” because people conflate theorical (cyclical?) price declines with an eventual fixed supply of money. Basically they take fiscal (Keynesian) and/or Monetary (Friedman) and/or MMT (idiotic) square peg world views, based on their own malincentives or fears, and rationalize them into round holes screaming FUD (fear/uncertainty/doubt) to justify the status quo and cognitive dissonance.

Bitcoin will actually continue to be “inflationary” until the year 2140, when the last bitcoin will have been mined.

That’s 117 years away.

What Bitcoin actually is… is disinflationary… because people are incentivized to save it rather than spend it, and to make sound investments with it, rather than foolishly levered ones, and to build generational low-time-preference projects, like bridges, universities, infrastructure, cathedrals, artwork, etc… versus spending FIAT now on high-time-preference items, because it will be worth less (worthless?) in the future, such that gambling, fast food, leverage, and immediate gratification get drawn like moths to the lights of extreme celebrity, cancel culture, debauchery, depravity, etc.

Look at all the historical great civilizations. Most of everything meaningful was built during gold standard periods. Bitcoin is popularly viewed as having an erratic valuation, something that moves quickly and beyond our control. In periods where gold was not messed with it became stable. That is, until its derivatives became corrupted. Which is perhaps a tendency of human nature itself, but not inevitable.

Bitcoin is currently undergoing an adoption phase, quite similar but opposite to the Cantillon effect. Those in early, who can withstand the wild swings, will benefit disproportionately, outperforming every other asset class. But it will inevitably settle down. And it will subsume or at least check and balance FIAT/CBDC. And it may very well lead to a gold 2.0 standard. Because it is better than gold in every way (except industrial use). And it is notably more defensible than gold from derivative dilution… because gold has no open source distributed ledger.

Bitcoin is in fact slightly deflationary, in that people can lose their private keys to their bitcoin holdings, and lose it forever, thereby making the rest of the pool more valuable. But this is a small fraction, and will decrease over time, as bitcoin education increases, and custody solutions simplify. This happened a lot in the beginning, because people didn’t know what they were sitting on. Now that its valuable, people either safeguard it or get scared away from it altogether.

Circling back to why it gets a bad rep as deflationary… the primary reason is because the masters of the universe cannot inflate it. They can’t print it. They can’t finance wars with it. They can’t steal its citizens’ life force with it. They can’t hide behind the justification of “saving the world from depression” during the next financial crises. Case in point… compare 2008 banking crisis with the SBF blowout. 2008 was “fixed” by inflating the bubble of the next generation to grotesque proportions. SBF got exposed for the ponzi he was, and what, 5 months later, we’re within $5k price pre-crisis?

Everyone talks about the Great Depression and how we “learned our lessons” to avoid it. Compare the Great Depression with the lesser known depression of 1920-1921. 1920 was the single most deflationary year we ever had. It was extremely painful. Shit burned. And then the economy roared back. What we “learned” was how to more efficiently transfer wealth to the rich. That, and to use war as a vehicle for stealing other people’s lives, possessions, and future life force.

In the end, Bitcoin offers a way to vote with your feet, a parallel system that doesn’t care about your feelings, that will reward those who see its inevitability, that has rules with no rulers, that is incorruptible and beyond the scope of governmental control.

Personally, as geopolitics implode, markets dislocate, and the financial world starts to break… I have never been more bullish or higher conviction on Bitcoin:

• The ponzis washed out

• ETF approval will not only infuse billions in capital, but more importantly, blast a positive feedback loop of credibility onto the world stage

• The next “Halving” starts in about 6 months, which mathematically cuts the new supply creation by 50% every four years, which if past is prologue, will start the next bull run

• The next bull run will ramp up in tandem with the next presidential election shit show, and at least two 2nd-tier candidates potentially representing the tying vote are very much pro-bitcoin

• The FACT that I introduced three years ago… namely that the US Dollar has LOST its world reserve currency status… will slowly, painfully, begrudgingly… make its way into the American zeitgeist… and Bitcoin will be taken seriously as a vehicle for flight to quality. Smart money (i.e. Larry Fink, Blackrock) is already calling it that.

Now ask yourself… is it more likely:

• That spending on social services, military, and debt service repayment will increase or decrease?

• That rates remain high enough for longer (if not higher) or decrease all the way back to 1%, which is what it would take to keep the ponzi alive?

• That investors will demand more interest, or accept less interest, on the money they loan the US, now that our currency is debasing at an ever faster pace?

• That other countries will sell or buy US treasuries to insulate themselves from potential sanctions, and while we head into dollar weakness?

• That investors will buy Bitcoin, a .5t market cap with no sustainable derivative market, or Gold, a 10t market cap with artificial price cap, opaque ledger, and difficulty safeguarding?

• That a material number of the world’s 50 million millionaires will want at least 1 bitcoin?

  • Which is problematic… because there are only ~19 million bitcoins minted. Guess what happens to the price when they do start competing… in a market where 85% of supply has not changed hands… EVEN DURING THE SBF DEBACLE.

When the world was down on TikTok and the mob tried to lynch it. Why didn’t they? Because they couldn’t. Try messing around with bitcoin and finding out. When only five people have cell phones, they have cute walky-talkies. When third-world villagers have them, the network changes the world. Get ready for Bitcoin’s network.

Bitcoin is a vote against Davos. Against the Uniparty. Against the Fed. Against censorship, high-timepreference, depravity, cancel culture, vaccines, the war machine, pronouns, gun control, and everyone who doesn’t surf.

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is no stranger to controversy.  She raised eyebrows after she received at least $130,000 from George Soros during her failed 2018 election bid, then won in 2022 on a campaign of radical criminal reforms for the Oakland area.  Her primary position?  That minorities are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement and the criminal court system and that “equity” policies would stop the rising crime rate.

Price has made headlines in the past for various suspect behaviors and decisions.  Not long after taking office she hired her boyfriend, Antwon Cloird, to her office as a “senior program specialist” with a six-figure income.  She then tried to interfere in a triple-murder-for-hire case, creating a plea deal for the defendant and reducing his sentence down to a maximum of 15 years even though he was eligible for 75 years.  The presiding judge blocked Price’s plea deal, but dropped two charges.  Price accused the judge of bias and said he should no longer be allowed to preside over criminal cases.     

Pamela Price’s methods have so far been a disaster for the Bay Area.  Skyrocketing crime (41% increase in burglaries and 20% increase in robberies) has led to Alameda residents demanding a recall of the far-left activist DA.  Alameda and the surrounding metro area does not report full violent crime data and will not provide such information to the FBI until 2024-2025.  Violent crime rates are estimated to have risen at least 20%.  Residents say Price’s soft-on-crime antics are making things far worse for the community and costing innocent lives.  

Ironically, Price has become a victim of her own policies.  The DA had her car broken into and was robbed this week, items including a laptop were taken; the break-in happened in broad daylight at 3pm at 27th Street and Telegraph Avenue, near the Alameda County Family Justice facility.  When Price attempted to call police to investigate the crime, she waited an hour for a response, then was forced to file a report online.  Lack of adequate law enforcement presence and the refusal to prosecute, often based on race, have been cited as the biggest catalysts for the Bay Area’s swift social and economic decline.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Rather than mocking the Counterculture, we would benefit from re-acquiring its values that favored frugality and the ownership of skills, work, enterprise and land.

Mention the Counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, and the memory stored in popular culture is of drug-dazed, half-naked hippies dancing to rock music. There was a slice of that, to be sure, but there was much more that’s largely been forgotten:

The Counterculture was primarily a response to the meaningless debt-dependent consumerism that had already taken hold of our society and economy. The core values of the Counterculture Everyone Forgot were:

1. Learning how to make and repair things oneself

2. Frugality

3. Rejection of debt

I submit that the value of these life precepts will become increasingly visible and necessary. As I’ve explained before, reliance on debt incentivizes the most destructive and unsustainable traits of human nature: choosing the painless, sacrifice-free option of pushing costs into the future, the removal of any incentive to become more productive and efficient, and the optimization of the illusion that the future will painlessly be able to not just service the current mountain of debt but an entire mountain range of debt that will pile up as our borrowing increases.

The emptiness and meaningless of consumerism has reached levels which are now actively destroying our health, as I laid out in gory detail in The Profitable Destruction of Americans’ Health. The optimization of maximizing profit via monopoly/cartel profiteering, planned obsolescence and shrinflation (getting less while paying more) has stripped products and services of durability, so everything we buy is on a conveyor belt to the Landfill–the perfection of our Waste Is Growth Landfill Economy.

This conveyor belt of squandered wealth looks sustainable as long as debt can skyrocket at near-zero rates of interest. But those days are gone, never to return. Borrowing more money now costs money, and so long after the unrepairable, low-quality gew-gaw is rotting away in the landfill, the debt used to purchase it lives on, eating the borrower alive.

The secular bible of the Counterculture was the Whole Earth Catalog, a collection of quality American-manufactured tools and products designed for durability and productive use. In other words, things that aren’t consumed, they’re used to generate value. This concept has largely been lost: human beings are not productive beings, we’re consumers, whose very identity anf existence flows from buying more of everything: I shop, therefore I am.

The depravity of borrowing money to squander on things of questionable or temporary value was visible 60 years ago, and the depravity will soon consume all those who believe this system is sustainable. What’s the opposite of a depraved dependence on debt to buy stuff of questionable or temporary value? Buying tools with cash and learning how to use them to create value for oneself, one’s household and one’s community, and consume / share / sell what one produces.

The Counterculture questioned the value of debt and consumerism, and sought to return to the bedrock skills and values of the pre-debt/consumerism era. These included frugality–waste not, want not–in service of saving up and paying cash for everything rather than borrowing money, and in reducing dependence on the exploitive system of labor, where one sells their time (i.e. their life) for the dubious benefits of a wage.

The favored Counterculture alternative was to own your own work, own your own tools and own your own land. And by “own” we mean “own free and clear,” i.e. zero debt.

One of the more popular books of the Counterculture era was How to Live on Nothing (1/1/71), an exaggeration of course, but nonetheless it offered a practical guide to spending as little as possible, for it was understood that frugality equals freedom and debt equals servitude.

In my own work, I’ve strived to offer alternatives to piling up debt / servitude. My book Get a Job, Build a Real Career describes an alternative to accepting a lifetime of debt /servitude for a university degree of questionable value–learn how to accredit yourself.

My book Self-Reliance in the 21st Century lays out a framework for increasing self-reliance by reducing exposure to systemic fragilities and vulnerabilities, and assembling real-world skills and assets rather than pile up more debt or depending on a government funded by debt.

Our first house was a micro-house constructed with hand tools as there was no electrical service onsite. Those who know how can do quite a bit with a sharp handsaw and other basic tools. A few years later, when we were 26 years of age, we built a “real house” ourselves, subcontracting the electrical and plumbing asd required by local building codes. We took out a local bank loan for $5,000 to finish the house and paid it off in less than two years. (In today’s money, that’s $17,500.) Then the house was ours, free and clear.

Frugality in service of saving and paying cash for durable value really is freedom. So is knowing how to do things so you don’t have to pay others to do what you could have done yourself.

Rather than mocking the Counterculture, we would benefit from re-acquiring its values that favored frugality and self-reliance, the ownership of skills, work, enterprise and land, sharing knowledge with others and a rejection of debt as needless servitude.

These values don’t disappear with financial success, for they are the bedrock of financial success. Here are my work slippers and my dress slippers, for going out into the world looking my best:

*  *  *

My new book is now available at a 10% discount ($8.95 ebook, $18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century. Read the first chapter for free (PDF)

Become a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

Subscribe to my Substack for free

Tucker Carlson sat down with former UK politician Nigel Farage to discuss where refugees from current conflicts in the Middle East should go, considering that there will be “hundreds of thousands, possibly millions” of them in the coming weeks, months and years.

Carlson posited a scenario in which Israel is asked to take in refugees who hate them.

“So if you were to suggest ‘well why isn’t Israel take them in, it’s their War’, the response you would get would be… ‘that’s insane these people are dangerous.'”

Likewise, a country with Christian roots such as the United States – which feels it should try to help people, should remember that “the duty of any government its primary duty is the Integrity of its own country and its citizens,” Carlson continued.

Carlson then observes that there’s a distinct lack of voices calling for countries with booming economies, such as China, to bear the refugee load. Why instead are Christian countries, historically bastions of refuge, the only ones saddled with this “obligation”?

“It’s interesting that no one ever says well China’s got the fastest-growing economy in the world they have an obligation to take in millions of refugees,” he said.

Farage noted the UK’s “great history in the UK of taking refugees,” noting that “they did very, very well in Commerce, Finance, the military in our country,” in terms of persecuted groups that the country has taken in throughout history.

But juxtapose this with the recent waves of refugees, and a disturbing pattern emerges. A significant number of these refugees, especially from regions like Gaza, are potential sympathizers of extremist groups like Hamas. Given the spate of extremist-driven incidents in the West, particularly in the UK, one can’t help but wonder: are Western countries knowingly or unknowingly sowing the seeds of their own societal unrest?

“So if you take any significant number from Gaza into our country, you will have a significant percentage of Hamas sympathizers and supporters among them,” said Carlson.

To which Farage replied: “And if anyone should take them Tucker, shouldn’t it be the Egyptians? Shouldn’t it be the Saudis? Shouldn’t it be their co-religionists in that part of the world? And how interesting that Saudi Arabia didn’t take a single person from Syria because they were worried of the impact it would have on Saudi Society. Right. And the same goes for Egypt.”

Marxism and ‘conservative cowardice.’

According to Farage, “We have allowed the virus of Marxism to take hold in our countries,” noting how Britain and the United States are being indoctrinated with a toxic blend of guilt over their colonial pasts, allegations of institutional racism, and a host of other divisive narratives. All the while, conservative voices, which could counter this downward spiral, remain silenced by a spineless media establishment.

“Conservative cowardice through politics and media has led to so very much of this,” he continued.

Watch:

Ep. 35 Start another war, send millions more anti-Western refugees to the West. Starting to notice a pattern? pic.twitter.com/93dQaVfbNF

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 30, 2023

By Adam Andrzejewski of Open the Books Substack

By making concessions to the Mullahs who operate the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, the Biden Administration has directly or indirectly pumped more than $50 billion into their coffers enabling untold violence and international destabilization, threatening our our allies and implicating our energy supply chain – just as the Administration also instituted unprecedented handcuffs on U.S. energy independence.

It allowed the sale of Iranian oil worth approximately $40 billion.

It allowed the sale of electricity to Iraq, bringing in an estimated $10 billion to the regime.

Most recently, it released another $6 billion to Iran in Iranian cash. Fortunately for all, the current custodian of that cash, Qatar, has agreed to hold onto those payouts for now.

Despite universal opprobrium and hard sanctions on Iran, Yale University and The Johns Hopkins University have partnered with Iranian entities for research in country since 2013 on the U.S. taxpayer’s dime. Both universities hold massive endowments and don’t need the taxpayer’s help. Furthermore, both were recently criticized for not rebuking the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.

KEY BACKGROUND

Iranian Oil: The Mullahs increased oil exports by about 1.5 million barrels a day during Biden’s presidency according to The Committee to Unleash Prosperity founded by the economists Stephen Moore, Lawrence Kudlow, Arthur Laffer, and Steve Forbes:

“This has put roughly $40 billion more into the coffers of the Iranian government,” according to the committee’s investigation.

Loosening Iranian oil sanctions accompanied decline in domestic U.S. oil production by some 700 million barrels a year, thanks to the administrations resolute anti-fossil fuel polices.

The Wall Street Journal wrote, “there’s no question the U.S. decision to ease enforcement of oil sanctions against Iran has aided Israel’s enemies.”

By not enforcing oil sanctions, cash flowed to Tehran, which then had billions more to fund Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, reports Iran’s oil production jumped more than ten-percent from 2.6 million barrels a day in April, to 3 million in August.

Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies points out that not enforcing Iranian oil sanctions also helps China: Iran’s oil increased production can’t be accomplished by sanction evasion alone.

“That number likely reflects a policy of non-enforcement of sanctions,” Goldberg said. “With the administration pursuing so-called ‘de-escalation’ policies with both Iran and China simultaneously, tacitly approving increased Iranian oil exports to China is one way the White House can offer concessions to both regimes.”

Reuters reported on the increased OPEC output: “Iran, which has been boosting supply despite U.S. sanctions, also pumped more, with output hitting the highest level since 2018.” That’s the year Washington re-imposed sanctions.

Iranian electricity: Earlier this year, Iraq made another $10 billion in frozen assets available to pay for natural gas that Iraq buys from Iran.

U.S. sanctions prevent Iraq from paying Iran directly for the gas, and Tehran had cut supplies, plunging already electricity-starved Iraq into blackouts. That lead to an Iraqi plan to barter with Iran, sending its oil as payment for Tehran’s natural gas.

$6 billion in unfrozen Iranian assets: The Wall Street Journal news side published an exclusive on October 8th, that since August, Iran helped plot the Hamas attack on Israel.

It’s impossible to miss that this took places as the Biden Administration unfroze $6 billion in disputed Iranian funds.

In the communique announcing the accord, the U.S. agreed to release five Iranians held in the U.S. and the $6 billion, in exchange for freeing five U.S. citizens illegally held in Tehran. For the Mullahcracy, crime pays — they got their guys and the money.

The funds at issue had been in South Korea. The money was transferred to Doha, Qatar, along with a fig leaf suggesting they will be expended only for “humanitarian” spending, such as food and medicine. Obviously, $6 billion for food and medicine frees up another $6 billion for terror and violence.

As The Hill said, “Iran has access to $6 billion that it did not have access to three months ago.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken insists the money wasn’t used to attack Israel.

“Not a single dollar from that account has actually been spent to date,” Blinken said. “It’s very carefully and closely regulated by the Treasury Department to make sure that it’s only used for food, for medicine, for medical equipment.”

Somehow, the Biden Administration, which is expert in spending other people’s money, simply cannot understand the $6 billion boost it gave to terrorists.

U.S. federal grants spent in Iran: Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com searched the federal checkbook for direct payments to entities in Iran and found that U.S. agencies have funded American universities doing work in Iran with Iranian institutions.

It’s unclear how this partnership happens when U.S. sanctions are in place.

From 2016 to 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave Johns Hopkins University $538,000 in the form of a mental health research grant for a project the university did in conjunction with Tehran Medical Science University – a subdivision of the Iranian government.

The description states a contract

“will cover effort for Dr. Larry Wissow [Johns Hopkins] to have the role of co-pi of the grant. Activities will include weekly meetings with Dr. Mojtaba the other co-pi and with Dr. Sharifi, the leader of the Iranian research team, to oversee the ongoing conduct of the project. Dr. Wissow will have primary responsibility for drafting analysis plans and for creating the de-identified data set that will be deposited with NIMH. He will also participate in drafting and submitting manuscripts developed from the study data.”

For perspective on its spending, Johns Hopkins’ spokeswoman Jill Rosen pointed to the university’s position of leading the nation in research spending for the 43rd consecutive year, with $3.2 billion spent in FY 2021.

The National Science Foundation also funded $17,000 for Yale University to do doctoral dissertation research in Iran.

Both universities have large endowments — $40.7 billion for Yale, and about $8 billion for Johns Hopkins — and Yale, among other Ivy League schools, is being criticized for not rebuking the Hamas invasion of Israel. 

TROUBLING INTEL

U.S. officials won’t say that Iran “gave the green light” to Hamas to attack Israel, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, or otherwise was directly involved in the planning or funding of the Oct. 7 attack.

But U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in an October 10th White House press briefing:

“Iran is complicit in this attack in a broad sense because they have provided the lion’s share of the funding for the military wing of Hamas, they have provided training, they have provided capabilities, they have provided support, and they have had engagement and contact with Hamas over years and years. And all of that has played a role in contributing to what we have seen.”

Sullivan continued, “Now, as to the question of whether Iran knew about this attack in advance or helped plan or direct this attack, we do not — as of the moment I’m standing here at the podium — have confirmation of that.”

According to unclassified U.S. documents,

‘‘Iran has historically provided up to $100 million annually in combined support to Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.’’

The U.S. knows Iran funds Hamas. Therefore: Freeing up $6 billion in a cash-for-hostages deal, trading $10 billion from Iraq for natural gas, or increasing Iranian oil output and revenues by $40 billion means America gave Iran billions in leeway it could use to empower Hamas, and indeed Iran’s entire terror network, to the detriment of our allies.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

​​ “We know that there were meetings in Syria and in Lebanon with other leaders of the terror armies that surround Israel, so obviously it’s easy to understand that they tried to coordinate,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. “The proxies of Iran in our region, they tried to be coordinated as much as possible with Iran.”

ADDITIONAL READING:

• Biden Pays, Rockets Fly: Administration Sent $1 Billion In Palestinian Aid After Trump’s Freeze | OpenTheBooks.Substack.com | October 17, 2023

• Biden Reversed Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze To Expand Palestinian Funding—$6.3 Billion Since 1953 | Forbes | Adam Andrzejewski | May 2021

• U.S. Resumption of Foreign Aid To The Palestinians | Congressional Research Service | April 2021

• Mortar And Rocket Attacks Against Israel By Date | The Jewish Virtual Library, A Project of AICE | 2001 to the Present