Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

The German government is considering whether to extend the period in which old coal-fired power plants would be asked to remain on standby for emergency backup beyond the currently planned deadline in the spring of 2024, German business daily Handelsblatt reported this weekend, citing a spokeswoman for the economy ministry.

Without Russian gas, last year’s energy and gas crisis in Germany, and in Europe, has been keeping utilities and governments on edge and ready to have mothballed coal-fired power plants on stand-by in the coldest winter days to ensure the security of electricity supply.

Earlier this month, Germany’s government said it was bringing back online several coal-fired units for this winter in an attempt to save natural gas and avoid power supply shortfalls.

Several coal-fired blocks operated by RWE and LEAG at their Niederaußem, Neurath, and Jaenschwalde power plants will be temporarily reactivated until March 2024 as a precautionary measure to safeguard electricity supply in the coming winter, the Economy and Climate Action Ministry said, referring to a government decision to bring the coal-fired units online again.

Those coal units were already operational during the 2022/2023 winter when Germany was shocked into a severely reduced gas supply with the end of Russian pipeline deliveries. The backup coal capacity was put on stand-by this summer until the government now decided to reactivate them for the coming winter.

Now the German government is considering extending the stand-by period beyond the spring of 2024 to prevent energy shortages, according to Handelsblatt’s source.

The government needs to take a decision soon because utilities need to make preparations for potentially running coal-fired plants longer than planned, including preparations in procuring coal and planning for stable energy systems, a spokesperson for Uniper told Handelsblatt.

As of this month, 11 coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 6.2 gigawatts (GW) have been supplying additional electricity to the German grid.

Authored by ‘Mr. E.’ via bombthrower.com (emphasis ours),

In my last article, The World’s Greatest Hoax, I exploded the myth that the Freemasons were at the center of a devil-worshiping conspiracy for world domination. As expected, this left some of the simpler minds out there thinking “If it’s not the Freemasons, he must be saying the whole thing is a lie!”

Not so, not even close.

Half the truth is often a great lie. – Benjamin Franklin

For those unfamiliar with the term ‘limited hangout’ I’ll explain. The best deceptions will always contain elements of the truth, and where these disclosures are bound to stir up public anger, they’re seeded with lies to scapegoat innocent parties. This is what Ben Franklin is talking about in the quote above, and it’s what Malcolm X was talking about in the quote used to kick off my last article.

Leo Taxil’s Jesuit education is an indication that he knows more than the average person about what is truly going on behind the scenes in the world. This may have served as a model for the hoax he ultimately created. In this report we’re going to explore what he said in detail, and ultimately coax out the identity of the god of the elites, and why they all appear to be engaged in the same depraved rituals.

Origins of Lucifer

Taxil’s hoax starts off with Doctor Bataille’s encounter and initiation into the Palladium Rite. He recounts the strange rituals they performed, and one where they summoned Lucifer himself. The fictitious doctor assures the reader this is a real spiritual apparition, that even shook hands with one of the ritual’s attendees, and proceeds with giving us a general physical description:

I then looked at the spirit that appeared. In all the previous evocations, in which I had taken part, when the spirit evoked had wanted to appear, it was always a ghost with more or less vaporous forms, a fluidic being, essentially impalpable. This spirit, on the contrary, was indeed a being like you and me, in flesh and blood, but with a truly radiant body. In the theater, sometimes, a jet of oxyhydric light is accompanied by the main character on stage; nevertheless, the trick is easy to see, since the light, directed from any point on the artist, widens towards him in the form of a barely opened compass; the light falls on man and illuminates him. Far from there, the spirit which had just appeared to us was itself the center of the glow, the luminous focus illuminating the room. There was no doubt; we were indeed in the presence of Lucifer himself.

When he shows himself, is he always like I saw him?… That, I don’t know… That day, he had the features of a man between thirty-five and thirty-eight years; tall in stature; without beard or mustache; rather lean than fat, but by no means bony; the fine, distinguished physiognomy; I don’t know what melancholy in his eyes; a nervous smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He was naked, with white, slightly pink skin, wonderfully decoupaged, like a statue of Apollo. – Léo Taxil, Le Diable au XIXe Siècle, pp. 16-17

This sympathy for the Devil, so to speak, carries on throughout the book and is the reason why Taxil refers to this fake group of Masons as “Luciferians.” However, the real Albert Pike, who Taxil portrayed as the ringleader of the bogus group of Masons, has published a great deal of literature under his own name, the most famous being the much-maligned Morals and Dogma.

The subject of Lucifer is raised only FOUR times in this 860 page book. Quite amazing for a supposed Luciferian. Pike is hardly venerating the deity, either. Reproduced here for you are the only four parts, with a little truncation in places to compensate for Pike’s loquaciousness:

Hypocrisy is the homage that vice and wrong pay to virtue and justice. It is Satan attempting to clothe himself in the angelic vesture of light. It is equally detestable in morals, politics, and religion; in the man and in the nation. To do injustice under the pretence of equity and fairness; to reprove vice in public and commit it in private … and sell one’s vote for place and power, are hypocrisies as common as they are infamous and disgraceful. To steal the livery of the Court of God to serve the Devil withal; to pretend to believe in a God of mercy and a Redeemer of love, and persecute those of a different faith … to inculcate humility, and in pride surpass Lucifer … is indeed to be like unto whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful outward, but are within full of bones of the dead and of all uncleanness. – Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 73.

The true name of Satan, the Kabalists say, is that of Yahveh reversed; for Satan is not a black god, but the negation of God. The Devil is the personification of Atheism or Idolatry. For the Initiates, this is not a Person, but a Force, created for good, but which may serve for evil. It is the instrument of Liberty or Free Will. They represent this Force, which presides over the physical generation, under the mythologic and horned form of the God PAN; thence came the he-goat of the Sabbat, brother of the Ancient Serpent, and the Light-bearer or Phosphor, of which the poets have made the false Lucifer of the legend. – Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 102.

The Apocalypse is, to those who receive the nineteenth Degree, the Apotheosis of that Sublime Faith which aspires to God alone, and despises all the pomps and works of Lucifer. LUCIFER, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish Souls? Doubt it not! for traditions are full of Divine Revelations and Inspirations: and Inspiration is not of one Age nor of one Creed. Plato and Philo, also, were inspired. – Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 321.

It is by His uttered Word that God reveals Himself to us; not alone in the visible and invisible but intellectual creation, but also in our convictions, consciousness, and instincts. Hence it is that certain beliefs are universal. The conviction of all men that God is good led to a belief in a Devil, the fallen Lucifer or Lightbearer, Shaitan the Adversary, Ahriman and Tuphon, as an attempt to explain the existence of Evil, and make it consistent with the Infinite Power, Wisdom, and Benevolence of God. – Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 324.

It’s obvious that Pike’s (and that of the world at large) conception of Lucifer is heavily influenced by Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. It was in these fictional works that Lucifer was cast as an angel who rebelled against God’s “plan” for humanity, in favor of his own and, after a war, was cast out of heaven along with the rest of his followers.

The canonical reality is that “Lucifer” appears only once in the KJV Bible, in Isaiah 14:12, and that is the result of King James’ translator working from a copy of the Vulgate. The translator was less than adept at Latin and he had no idea what the word meant, and so left it untranslated. Isaiah was written during the Babylonian captivity and is a litany against the King of Babylon. The word ‘Lucifer’ is used in a list of epithets for the King. Working from the original Hebrew version of Isaiah we see the word is actually correctly rendered in English as “Day Star,” or “Morning Star,” a reference to the planet Venus when it appears just prior to sunrise in the east, of which Pike is clearly aware. This planet, the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon was worshipped as a goddess in Rome, and in Greece she was known as Aphrodite, and Phosphorus.

And so there you have it, Lucifer is Aphrodite. Not a fallen angel who rebelled against God, but the godDESS of lust and sexual pleasure!

Need more evidence? Venus orbits the sun thirteen times for every eight orbits of the Earth. By following the orbit of Venus from our geocentric perspective, we see that its course through the heavens traces out a pentagram – the symbol ostensibly used to summon!

Divine Lovers

It’s no controversy to say that the patriarchal Abrahamic faiths eliminated the entire female aspect of God, and now we can see the original template they worked from. You shouldn’t be surprised at this, because many early Christian apologists outright admit their dogma was borrowed heavily from the earlier pagan mythologies.

And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter. – St. Justin Martyr, The First Apology, Chapter 21.

Let’s now go back to the quotes from the Taxil hoax, because they clearly convey a very different conception of Lucifer than Pike did.

Therefore, when the autocratic Empire of Russia will become the citadel of papist adonaism, we shall unleash the revolutionary nihilists and atheists, and provoke a formidable social cataclysm, which will demonstrate clearly to the nations, in all its horror, the effect of absolute unbelief, mother of savagery and of the bloodiest disorder. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the mad minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate these destroyers of civilization; and the countless disillusioned adonaites, whose deist soul have up until that time remained without a compass, thirsting for an ideal, but not knowing which God is worthy of tribute, will receive the True Light, by the universal manifestation of the pure Luciferian doctrine, at last made public, an event that will arise from a reactionary movement following the destruction of atheism and adonaism, together at the same time vanquished and exterminated. – Léo Taxil, Le Diable au XIXe Siècle, Vol. II, p. 605.

That which we must say to the world is that we worship a god, but it is the god that one adores without superstition. To you, Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, we say this, that you may repeat it to the brethren of the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees: The masonic Religion should be, by all of us initiates of the higher degrees, maintained in the Purity of the Luciferian doctrine. If Lucifer were not God, would Adonay and his priests calumniate him? Yes, Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also god. For the eternal law is that there is no light without shade, no beauty without ugliness, no white without black, for the absolute can only exist as two gods; darkness being necessary for light to serve as its foil as the pedestal is necessary to the statue, and the brake to the locomotive. Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy, and the true and pure philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay; but Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil. – A. C. de la Rive, La Femme et l’Enfant Dans la Franc-Maçonnerie Universelle, pp. 588-589.

Here these hucksters are setting up a form of dualism in the form of Lucifer and Adonai, which is indeed one of the names of God according to the Hebrews. Adonai is associated with the Greek god Adonis, and now, suddenly everything fits together.

Because Adonis and Aphrodite were lovers, not adversaries!

The worship of Adonis in Greece and Phoenicia includes a great many rituals and themes you may find familiar. The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible is an authoritative resource on this and the entry for Adonai is quite interesting.

Whereas Aphrodite self-formed from the castrated genitals of Ouranos, Adonis was born to mortals. He’s the son of Princess Myrrha, who was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father after her mother bragged that Myrrha’s beauty surpassed that of the goddess. Children being punished for the transgressions of their parents is a common theme in ancient myths and this one carries on that tradition. Myrrha conceals her identity, and she manages to sleep with her father several times without being recognized, becoming pregnant. When the truth of her deeds is discovered, her father exiles her from his kingdom. She eventually is changed into a myrrh tree, but nevertheless gives birth to a child, Adonis.

This child is taken by Aphrodite to Persephone, who raises him in the underworld. After reaching adulthood, Aphrodite returns to find he has grown into a stunningly handsome man. The two goddesses quarrel over who gets to be with him and a resolution is reached where he will spend one-third of the year each with Persephone and Aphrodite, as their lover. The remaining third was his choice, and he went with Aphrodite.

Adonis, being beautiful, but ultimately useless as anything other than a boy toy, is mortally injured by a wild boar one day and dies in the arms of Aphrodite. Deemed a paragon of anti-heroic behavior, he represented the opposite of the positive sides of matrimony and manliness. An annual festival was instituted to commemorate his death by cultures throughout the Mediterranean. As recounted by many historians, these festivals usually take place over the course of three days. The first day the death of Adonis is mourned, and on the third day he is resurrected so they can repeat it all again next year.

Sound familiar?

In the Phoenician city of Byblos this event was celebrated in the temple of Astarte, the Canaanite equivalent of Aphrodite. Adonis also had an equivalent known as Baal-Adon. In Greece the women would celebrate this time in an atmosphere of frolic and licentiousness. They would also conduct orgies in honor of Aphrodite, but this was about as extreme as they got. In Byblos they would engage in sacral prostitution and much, much more.

As you shall see in the next part, coming next week, the Canaanites and other cultures further east took their worship of the divine lovers to the heights of depravity.

Subscribe to the Bombthrower mailing list to get these posts as they come out, and follow Mr. E via his Substack and Twitter.

As the Israel-Hamas war sparks fears of WW3, law-abiding Americans are streaming the chaos in Israel and Gaza on their smartphones or smart TVs and have come to one conclusion: It’s time to panic buy ammo (just like during Covid). 

New data from the ammo tracking website Ammo Prices Now shows 5.56×45mm NATO caliber ammunition listed online by popular brands has surged 39% in the past week, from .36 per round on Oct. 14 to .50 per round on Sunday. 

The price spike is significantly larger than the move in early 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Also, 223 Remington surged 42% last week. 

Besides the Israel-Hamas war threatening to broaden into a regional conflict, Americans are also watching the Ukraine war and imploding US cities governed by radical progressives who could care less about law and order. All of these developments are stoking yet again another run on ammo.

Remember what Elon Musk said on X last week, “As tragic as the mass shootings are, armed citizens are essential to the defense of democracy.”

… and don’t forget when shit hits the fan, the government won’t be there to save you. 

Authored by CJ Hopkins via The Consent Factory,

Welcome back to the War on Terror. I hope you had a nice 7-year break.

Yes, that’s right, once again, Democracy is under attack by the Axis of Pure Unadulterated Evil! It’s time to switch off your critical faculties, wrap yourself in the American flag, or the Israeli flag, or the Ukrainian flag, or, better yet, all three flags, and stand with the Forces of Freedom and Goodness as they exercise their God-given right to defend the world from the Children of Darkness, and the Putin-Nazis, and Hate, and Rape, and Baby Murderers, and Baby Rapers, and Baby-Raper sympathizers!

For those of us who are old enough to remember 9/11 and its aftermath, it’s déjà vu all over again. Except we already had The War on Terror. So, I don’t know what we’re calling it this time. Maybe it’s The War on Horror, or “Horrific Horror,” as President Biden put it.

Or maybe we should call it The War on Whatever. After all, it’s all the same war.

No. That isn’t going to sell. No one is going to fight a War on Whatever. We need something utterly meaningless but catchy. Something that will shut people’s minds off and keep them from asking inconvenient questions, like a corporate slogan or thought-terminating cliche.

Let’s go with The War on Horror. Here’s how The War on Horror began …

It began on the morning of October 7, when the State of Israel, which was just sitting there, peacefully, in the Middle Eastern territory bestowed on it by God, minding its own business, bothering no one, was unprovokedly attacked by members of Hamas, who, according to the Horrorists, were “exercising their legitimate right to resist occupation” by mass-murdering hundreds of unarmed people at a music event and entire families in their homes. In order to ensure that everyone recognized the legitimacy of their “armed resistance” — or, rather, to guarantee that the Israelis would be forced to massively overreact and that the attack would polarize the global public along the lines Hamas wants people polarized — they went about it with extreme brutality.

Surprise! It worked! Israel is currently transforming Gaza into a heap of smoldering rubble, bombing commercial and residential areas, hospitals, mosques, churches, schools, shelters, people fleeing the air-raids, killing thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire Palestinian families (or, as Israel calls them, “human shields”), and otherwise exercising its inalienable “right to defend itself” by sealing off Gaza and systematically liquidating its inhabitants, or, rather, by creating “a new security reality.”

And the global public could not be more polarized.

But Hamas can’t take all the credit for that. The most fearsome propaganda machine in the history of fearsome propaganda machines is working overtime, pumping out the message: “You’re either with us or you are with the Horrorists!” “You’re either with us or you are an anti-Semitic, Russia-loving, Baby Raper sympathizer!” And so on. I’m sure you’ve heard the message.

Meanwhile, actual anti-Semites and “revolutionary” fanatics who are totally OK with mass-murdering people as a “resistance” tactic are doing their best to play along. The Internet is swarming with anti-Semites demonizing the Jews for, well, you name it. Crypto-fascists are coming out of the woodwork. Palestinian activists are lionizing Hamas. And so on. I’m sure you’ve seen the coverage.

I’m going to forgo my usual practice of including links to some of that coverage, and to the numerous social media posts documenting the criminalization of dissent and expressions of support for the Palestinians since the War on Horror officially began, because, frankly, right now, I don’t believe anything I see or read until I’ve dedicated time to verifying that it is not propaganda designed to reinforce the official narrative, or the unofficial narrative, or some other narrative.

At the moment, we’re being inundated with narratives, the official narrative, the unofficial narrative, the official unofficial narrative, the alternative official narrative, the alternative unofficial narrative, the bull-goose-loony unofficial narrative, etc., all of which is standard procedure when you are rolling out a War on Horror, or an Apocalyptic Pandemic, or some other major revision to the official master narrative.

Which brings me to that hospital bombing story. You know the one. Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which Israel bombed, or didn’t bomb, depending on which narrative you believe, or which narrative you don’t really believe but are nonetheless committed to pretending to believe, because believing the other one would betray your “side.”

Now, I want to state this very clearly. I do not know who bombed the hospital.

Yes, of course, I think I know. But I’m here in Berlin. I’m not in Gaza. I’m not in touch with anyone in Gaza. All I have to go on is the word of the IDF, and US Intelligence officials, and statements by the Palestinian authorities, and international media reports, and other stuff anyone can find on the Internet, and … well, you know, common sense.

Call me a “Horrorist sympathizer” if you need to, but I do not take the word of the IDF and anonymous “Intelligence officials” on faith. I examine their narratives critically. I did that during the War on Terror. I did that during Russiagate. I did it during the Covid pandemic. Critically examining official narratives is part of my job as a political satirist.

So, let’s take a look at the official narrative of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital bombing.

According to the official narrative, the Palestinian Horrorists just can’t catch a break. After decades of attacking Israel with their sissy little Horror rockets that typically only kill a few people at best, now, after they finally come up with a new Super-Horror rocket that will kill hundreds of people, the first time they use it, they shoot it into their own hospital.

Or — and this is “Official Narrative B” — they shoot their new Super-Duper Horror rocket at Israel, but it disintegrates in mid-air, or is intercepted by the Israeli “Dome” thing, and one fragment of it (i.e., the Super-Horror rocket) lands in the parking lot of the hospital, and it turns out that fragment just happened to be the “Super-Horror” component of the rocket, which simultaneously ignites the topped-up gas tanks of every single car in the parking lot, which generates a massive fireball that blows the people in the parking lot to bits.

But that’s just the current version of the official narrative, which has evolved over time.

First, shortly after the explosion, Benjamin Netanyahu’s social media advisor took to X to celebrate the strike, crowing “The Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas terrorist base inside a hospital in Gaza!” This Tweet was quickly deleted, of course, and the IDF officially denied responsibility, blamed the explosion on an Islamic Jihad rocket, and posted CCTV footage confirming their story. Unfortunately for the IDF, the fake footage they posted included a timestamp of 7:59, one hour after the event. So, the IDF deleted that Tweet, revised it, and reposted it without the fake footage. Then other IDF-related entities posted other footage, which was also fake.

Al Jazeera has documented all that here …

In this Fact Check, we look at Israel’s changing narrative on the deadly bombing of Gaza’s al-Ahli Arab Hospital. pic.twitter.com/kayAx1zPpW

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 19, 2023

The next morning, footage of the hospital parking lot where the explosion occurred and the hospital building still standing was all the official propagandists needed to put the finishing touches on their official narrative, but, just for good measure, the IDF posted a “surveillance recording of two Hamas terrorists” with funny accents confessing that they had accidentally bombed the hospital. It was kind of like a Cheech and Chong routine. Seriously, they had the audacity to do that.

Intelligence-agency sock puppets immediately inundated the Internet with tweets and posts reinforcing the “misfired rocket” story. Anyone questioning it was shouted down as an “anti-Semitic terrorist-loving idiot.” Papers of record revised their headlines. Biden confirmed that the “other team” did it. The corporate media, assorted Persons of Influence, and even prominent independent media sources like Racket News and Public declared the case closed. After all, the IDF and anonymous US Intelligence officials would never lie to us or attempt to dupe the public with fabricated “evidence,” and anyone who suggests they would is an “anti-Semitic, Horrorist-loving, hate-speech-disseminating disinformationist!”

Apparently, the UK’s Channel 4 News did not get the memo. Here’s their coverage …

Who was behind the Gaza hospital blast – a visual investigation. pic.twitter.com/FGQ9kG0Wni

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) October 19, 2023

Neither did the Aaron Maté at The Grayzone …

No matter what Israeli and anonymous US intelligence officials say, the claim that Israel bombed the al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza has not been debunked at all. https://t.co/pJuz2svAt5

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) October 19, 2023

But, I don’t know … maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the Israeli military, and the Military-Industrial Complex, and the Censorship Industrial Complex, and the US Intelligence community and its cutouts, are telling us the truth this time.

The usual ghouls manufacturing consent on al-Ahli Hospital bombing to deflect blame from Israel: Bellingcat—funded by Langley cutout @NEDemocracy—cites PAX For Peace, funded by @StateDept; along with Nathan Ruser of @ASPI_org, funded by @DefenceAust @StateDept @LockheedMartin etc pic.twitter.com/G330gYCADx

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) October 20, 2023

Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know, because conducting an independent investigation into the bombing would be “inappropriate” …

“It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.” – Harold Pinter https://t.co/Timf1Ji464

— CJ Hopkins (@CJHopkins_Z23) October 21, 2023

Seriously, though, this is only the beginning. The torrent of official and unofficial propaganda, gaslighting, and emotional manipulation is only going to increase over time. Probably the best thing to do at this point is pick a “side” and back it unquestioningly, no matter what it does or says. If you’re a professional person, with a career, and a mortgage, and kids, or aspiring to be such a person, I would recommend going with The Powers That Be. It’s easy to do that. Simply unsubscribe from, and block, and otherwise close your ears and mind to “conspiracy theorists” like me. Stick with those anonymous “Intelligence officials,” the IDF, and the corporate media, and those “fact-checking” entities, and Google, and the rest of the Official Reality Enforcement Apparatus that has been rolled out, globally, during the past three years. You didn’t think they were rolling all that out for kicks, did you? No … of course you didn’t.

In any event, welcome to the War on Horror, or Terror, or Reality, or Whatever!

Earlier this year, Elon Musk warned the Biden administration would “weaponize” federal agencies against him for his ‘free speech’ platform X. More recently, Democrats tried to cancel the billionaire after his biographer Walter Isaacson claimed Musk turned off Starlink coverage for Ukraine, which turned out to be false. Then, in recent weeks, the European Union told Musk that X could be at risk of being banned across the continent over claims of ‘disinformation’ amid the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Despite the frequent efforts by Western political elites to ‘cancel’ the billionaire, their efforts have largely been unsuccessful. Musk is becoming the ‘uncancellable billionaire’ as the latest news from the Wall Street Journal reveals – even though the European Union has a strong distaste for the billionaire – they must now use SpaceX rockets to launch spy satellites into orbit because delays in Europe’s space rocket program and cutting off the use of Russian rockets due to the Ukraine war. 

SpaceX and the European Space Agency agreed to conduct at least two launches next year, catapulting two Galileo satellites into orbit. The European Commission and EU member states have yet to approve the agreement, but officials told WSJ they anticipate approval by the end of the year. 

ESA Director of Navigation Javier Benedicto said the agreement calls for the Galileo satellites to be launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the US. A spokesman for the European Commission said it is “taking all necessary steps to ensure that the Galileo constellation continues to provide outstanding services in the coming months and years.”

WSJ said EU officials have hesitated to use Musk’s rocket company for the Galileo satellites, saying the EU should rely on the US. However, it is tough luck because Europe’s Ariane rocket program has been hit with delays, and there’s no chance the Russians will be launching those satellites. 

If EU officials sign the agreement, this would be the first SpaceX Galileo contract ever and the first time Galileo satellites would be launched outside EU territory in 15 years.  

The billionaire noted on X in September that SpaceX delivered 80% of all Earth payload mass to orbit so far this year. He said China accounted for the other 10%. He added next year will be 90%, and when Starship becomes operational, that number will rise to >99%. 

Musk is becoming an uncancellable billionaire. And this is making Democrats and their counterparts in the EU have meltdowns. 

Today, there are roughly 80 major stock exchanges worth a combined $110.2 trillion in value.

The world’s top two exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq, command 42.4% of global market capitalization.

Despite the rapid growth of emerging economies, the U.S. continues to lead capital markets by a wide margin—even as countries such as India see considerable growth, surpassing the UK in 2023.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld and Sabrina Fortin, shows the largest stock exchanges in the world, with data from the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).

Top Stock Exchanges, by Market Cap

Here are the top 25 largest stock markets covering 96.6% of total stock market capitalization:

The NYSE ($25.0 trillion) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ($21.7 trillion) are home to many of the world’s most valuable firms, from Apple to Nvidia. Since 2016, the NYSE has grown 35.1% while the Nasdaq has ballooned 189.3% in market cap.

The vast majority of companies in the S&P 500 Index, often seen as a barometer for U.S. stock market performance, are traded on these exchanges.

With $7.2 trillion in market cap, Euronext is the world’s third-largest exchange. Since Brexit, the pan-European exchange has attracted more capital and by early 2021, it outranked the London Stock Exchange. Over the last two decades, London’s stock market has fallen from 13% to 4% of the global share.

Ranking fourth is the Shanghai Stock Exchange, at $6.7 trillion in market cap. Beverage giant Kweichow Moutai, ICBC, and PetroChina are the largest companies traded on the exchange.

Like China, as India’s economy has continued to expand, so has its primary stock market. As the twelfth-largest globally, it’s worth $3.5 trillion in market cap, growing over 133% in market value since 2016.

Should You Invest Internationally?

While U.S. stock markets are unmatched in scale in the global arena, investors may look to diversify exposure across the pond.

In fact, by 2050, Goldman Sachs projects that emerging markets’ share of global stock market capitalization will surpass America. Given the strong economic growth of emerging markets, investors may find opportunities in broad market indexes that track these countries through investment vehicles like ETFs or mutual funds.

Yet while international markets may provide opportunities for diversification, they may also present risk given political, regulatory, and economic factors.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Below is my column in Fox.com on the poll released last week showing an increasing number of citizens have lost faith in our constitutional system and now view violence as warranted to silence those with opposing views.

It is a crisis of faith that represents the greatest possible threat to our Republic. The loss of faith and fealty constitutes one of the greatest crises that our nation has faced since its foundation.

Here is the column:

A recent startling poll shows that a majority of voters not only view the opposing party as a threat to the nation but justifying violence to combat their agenda. The poll captures a crisis of faith that I have been writing about for over a decade as an academic and a commentator. Many now question democracy as a sustainable system of government. It represents the single greatest threat to this nation: a citizenry that has lost faith not just with our system of government but with each other.

The polls by the University of Virginia Center for Politics shows a nation at war with itself. Fifty-two percent of Biden supporters say Republicans are now a threat to American life while 47 percent of Trump supporters say the same about Democrats.

Among Biden supporters, 41 percent now believe violence is justified “to stop [Republicans] from achieving their goals.” An almost identical percentage, 38 percent, of Trump supporters now embrace violence to stop Democrats.

Not surprisingly, many of these people have lost faith in democracy. Some 31 percent of Trump supporters believe that the nation should explore alternative forms of government.  Roughly a quarter (24 percent) of Biden supporters also question the viability of democracy.

Faith is the one thing that no system of government can do without. Without faith in the underlying values of a constitutional system, authority rests on a mix of coercion and capitulation.

For years, I have written about this growing loss of faith and how it has been fueled by our intellectual and political elites. In the echo chamber of news and social media, citizens constantly hear how the opposing party is composed of “traitors” and how the constitutional system works to protect enemies of the people.

Viewers now get a steady diet of figures like MSNBC commentator Elie Mystal who called the U.S. Constitution “trash” and argued that we should simply just dump it.

In a New York Times column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for the Constitution to be “radically altered” to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”

Georgetown University Law School Professor Rosa Brooks went on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” to lash out at Americans becoming “slaves” to the U.S. Constitution and that the Constitution itself is now the problem for the country.

They are part of the radical chic that has become the norm in academia — and widely embraced by the media.

According to these law professors the problem is not just our Constitution, but constitutionalism in general.

Others have argued that key protections or institutions should just be ignored. In a recent open letter, Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet and San Francisco State University political scientist Aaron Belkin called upon President Joe Biden to defy rulings of the Supreme Court that he considers “mistaken” in the name of “popular constitutionalism.”

“Popular constitutionalism” appears a form of discretionary or ad hoc compliance with constituitional law. If only “popular” constitutional rules are followed, the Constitution itself becomes a mere pretense for whatever the shifting majority or forming mob demands.

Politicians have also contributed to this crisis of faith in challenging constitutional values or core institutions. Members like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has questioned the need for a Supreme Court.

Others like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) have called for the packing of the Supreme Court to simply create an immediate liberal majority.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) thrilled his base by going to the steps of the Supreme Court to declare “I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price! You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

It is little surprise that one man showed up at the home of Justice Bret Kavanaugh to kill him for his “awful decisions.”

Conversely, former President Donald Trump has regularly denounced his political opponents as “traitors” and “enemies of the people.” He recently declared “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!”

With leaders engaging in such reckless rhetoric, it is hardly surprising that the Constitution itself is now viewed as threat to our nation rather than the very thing that defines us. It is designed to restrain the majority and protect those who are the least popular in our society.

In the end, a constitution remains a covenant not between citizens and their government but between each other as citizens. It demands a leap of faith; a commitment that despite our differences we will defend the rights of our neighbors.

If nothing else, the Constitution has one thing to recommend it: we are still here. It is a Constitution that has survived economic and political upheavals. It survived a Civil War in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

It is not a particularly poetic document. It was written by the ultimate wonk, James Madison. If you want truly inspirational prose, try any of the French constitutions. Of course, they had more practice since they regularly failed. Other countries based their constitutions on aspirational statements of the values that we shared. The Madisonian system spent as much time on what divided us; it not only recognized the danger of factions but created a system to bring such divisions to the surface where they could be addressed.

The danger of other systems was realized when these divisions were left below the surface where they would fester and explode in the streets of Paris. The American Constitution allowed for a type of controlled implosion toward the center of the system; these factional interests would be expressed and vented in the legislative branch. The Madisonian system does not hide our divisions; it invites their expression.

The question is whether we have reached a time when the things that divide us will now overcome what unites us. This is not our first age of rage. Indeed, at the start of our Republic, rivaling parties were not just figuratively trying to kill each other; they were actually trying to kill each other through laws like the Alien and Sedition Acts. Thomas Jefferson would refer to the term of his predecessor John Adams as “the reign of the witches.”

Yet, that history is no guarantee that it can survive our current age of rage. The relentless attacks on the constitution from the political, media, and academic elite has turned many into constitutional atheists.  Yet, the future of our constitutional system may rest with the rising number of constitutional agnostics — those citizens who are simply disconnected or disinterested in the defense of our founding principles.

Philosopher John Stuart Mill warned in 1867 that all it takes for evil to prevail is for “good men [to] look on and do nothing.”

We are now in an existential struggle to preserve the values that founded the most successful constitutional system in the history of the world.

It is our legacy that now can be either boldly defended by a grateful people or lost in the whimper of a disinterested generation.

An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot riding in the cockpit of a Horizon Airlines regional jet was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after he allegedly tried to cut engine power mid-flight on route to San Francisco. 

The Messenger reports Alaska Airlines pilot Joseph D. Emerson, 44, was riding in the cockpit’s jumpseat of Horizon Air flight 2059 when he “unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the operation of the engines.” 

One man is under arrest on state charges, booked by the Port of Portland, after an incident in the air on Horizon Air flight 2059 from Everett, Washington to San Francisco, California. See full #FBIPortland statement below: pic.twitter.com/G8vtST51ZJ

— FBI Portland (@FBIPortland) October 23, 2023

On Sunday night, the flight from Everett, in suburban Seattle, to San Francisco was diverted to Portland, Oregon, where Emerson was arrested. 

“The Horizon captain and first officer quickly responded, engine power was not lost and the crew secured the aircraft without incident,” Alaska said

Information on Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 Operated by Horizon Air https://t.co/af3FCXggJQ

— Alaska Airlines News (@AlaskaAirNews) October 23, 2023

A streaming audio network of aircraft communications called Live ATC, recorded audio from the pilots talking to air traffic controllers about the incident: 

“We’ve got the guy that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit and he doesn’t sound like he’s causing any issue in the back right now, I think he’s subdued.

“We want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and parked.”

CNN’s Pete Muntean wrote on X, “The FAA is telling airlines that Sunday’s incident involving an off-duty pilot who attempted to cut the engines of an Alaska Airlines flight is “not connected” to “current world events.”” 

NEW: The FAA is telling airlines that Sunday’s incident involving an off-duty pilot who attempted to cut the engines of an Alaska Airlines flight is “not connected” to “current world events.”

Even still, the agency urged airlines and crews to “maintain vigilance.”

— Pete Muntean (@petemuntean) October 23, 2023

Commercial pilots undergo rigorous medical screening by an Aviation Medical Examiner every six months to several years. 

Pilots must run through a series of checklists before operating a plane, even a personal checklist called “I’m SAFE,” which covers illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, and emotion. 

It’s unclear whether the off-duty Alaska pilot was experiencing a mental breakdown or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. While the FAA clarified that the incident wasn’t related to current global events, we still ask the question if it was a factor. 

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The Israeli military has told Palestinian civilians living in north Gaza that if they don’t evacuate to the south, they will be considered “an accomplice in a terrorist organization.”

The warning was made in threatening leaflets dropped by Israeli drones over the weekend. “Urgent warning, to residents of Gaza. Your presence north of Wadi Gaza puts your life in danger. Whoever chooses not to leave north Gaza to the south of Wadi Gaza might be identified as an accomplice in a terrorist organization,” the leaflets said, according to Reuters.

Israel previously ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, an area that’s home to 1.1 million people. Since Gaza is under blockade, the only option for Palestinians in the north is to flee to the south, which is also under constant Israeli bombardment.

Some Gazans have fled to the south, while others have refused to leave their homes or have sought shelter at hospitals, hoping they will not be targeted in the Israeli onslaught, but Israel is ordering hospitals to be evacuated.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, Israel ordered the evacuation of Al-Quds hospital, which is housing more than 400 patients and 12,000 displaced civilians.

Since Israel has unleashed its bombing campaign on Gaza in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack, at least 4,651 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza [since revised to over 5,000], including 1,756 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. On the Israeli side, at least 1,405 people have been killed.

Gazans are also suffering from food and water shortages due to the Israeli siege. A limited number of aid trucks have been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt, which included medical supplies but no fuel to power hospital generators.

Aid agencies have said the aid that has been let in is just a “drop in the ocean” for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

With over 25% of American startup investments in 2023 going to AI companies (per Crunchbase), a whole generation of young entrepreneurs are ditching college to seize opportunities in the booming sector.

The launch of transformative AI models such as ChatGPT and Bard has ignited a surge in investments and the establishment of new AI-driven companies. The generative AI market alone is estimated to be worth $43 billion for enterprise technology AI in 2023, as reported by PitchBook. This rapid growth has enticed young founders to abandon their college classrooms and embark on entrepreneurial journeys, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Govind Gnanakumar, 19, recently made headlines after he left the Georgia Institute of Technology to devote his full attention to his AI startup, Automorphic. He’s not alone in this endeavor, as a growing number of teenagers and twenty-somethings see the potential of the AI boom and are willing to take a leap of faith. Gnanakumar believes that Y Combinator’s prestigious startup accelerator program offers education and experience equivalent to a traditional degree. At Automorphic, he’s working on AI tools capable of answering intricate questions in specialized fields such as genomics and patent law. Gnanakumar’s motivation is clear: he’d rather be on the side of automation than risk losing his job to it.

Venture capitalists acknowledge the drive and ambition of these young dropouts, but caution that many of their ventures may fizzle out. Building a successful AI company requires access to vast datasets and expertise in building and training AI models. While some students may experiment and fail, not having mortgages or children to support provides them with the freedom to take these risks.

“It’s the wonder of youth. You’ve got to love them,” said Jeffrey Sohl, who leads the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire as well as a student angel-investment fund, and who acknowledges that most won’t become household names.

“Not all of them can change the world.“

Tech giants like Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs, who achieved tremendous success without formal degrees, have reinforced the notion that academic qualifications aren’t the sole path to innovation and entrepreneurship, while the emergence of generative AI tools like ChatGPT has simplified the process of starting AI-based companies. Founders can now use AI to develop algorithms that previously required entire teams of engineers. This newfound accessibility has fueled the ambitions of young entrepreneurs.

20-year-old Kevin Lu, who left the University of Waterloo in Canada to focus on his company, Sweep AI, sees AI as a force that could replace many traditional jobs, including his own. He believes that embracing AI entrepreneurship is a way to stay ahead of the curve in a world where automation threatens various professions.

“By the time I graduate, I’m going to be replaced by AI,” he says. “I’d rather be the one replacing people.”

A recent McKinsey analysis suggests up to 30% of tech workers’ time could be changed by automation in the next decade. Eighty percent of workers are in occupations where at least one task can be performed more quickly by generative AI, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT. -WSJ

According to research from the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI, 80% of workers are in occupations where at least one task can be performed more quickly by generative AI.

Hype? Vaporware?

The push into AI has also stoked calls for restraint, as concerns of overzealous branding and the use of ‘all things AI’ as a buzzword may backfire – and has prompted predictions of an impending shakeout in the AI startup space. Institutions have seen a surge in AI-related startup ideas, even when they may not necessarily require AI solutions.

“Everyone is trying to pass off their company as an AI venture,” said Kartik Hosanagar, faculty co-director of a program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania focused on AI.

Despite these challenges, young entrepreneurs remain undeterred. David Zhi LuoZhang and Jeffrey Pan, both 20, leveraged their machine-learning knowledge from a graduate-level course to create Bronco AI, which assists executives in decision-making using business data. They left their university after securing their first investment and are now actively engaged in their startup.

“It’s hard to focus on your homework when you’re thinking about how you could run all the factories in America,” said LuoZhang.

Jay Dang, 21, withdrew from the University of California Berkeley to establish FlowGPT, a generative AI applications company. Dang sees this decision as the best he’s ever made, with FlowGPT now boasting a substantial user base and a valuation of $12 million after raising $2 million, according to the co-founders.

Dang says he now works 90 hours a week, something he couldn’t do if he also had to deal with exams and classes.

And then there’s plan B: “You can always go back to college if you fail.”