The Argentina peso plunged recently on the news that “populist” economist and candidate Javier Milei, which many describe as a libertarian, won the Argentina primaries with 30% of the vote.  The uproar from establishment media sources and western officials has been growing as the reality sinks in – Milei might just win the general election in October and dismantle nearly every socialist institution in the country once he’s in office.  

Argentina’s economy has suffered under a series of progressive leaders, including Fernando de la Rúa, who was forced to resign after the inflationary crash of 2001 that led to mass civil unrest.  Then there was Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – who was president of Argentina for two terms between 2007 and 2015.  She has been arrested and sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of power and fraud, using her position to award at least 51 public works contracts and funneling over $1 billion to a friend of her husband through a shell company.  This occurred during the resurgence of inflation in Argentina which has now hit crisis levels under the current leadership (Alberto Fernandez) who is considered “center left.”

Needless to say, the citizens of Argentina are fed up with the relentless lack of change and the relentless economic decline.  It is this same decline that has the International Monetary Fund circling the floundering nation like a hungry shark. 

Enter Javier Milei, who is running on a platform of radical change which would include the dissolution of numerous socialist institutions and the very central bank which has led Argentina into multiple fiscal crisis events.  In a YouTube campaign video, Milei announced he would disband a number of ministries that he deems unnecessary. “Culture ministry – out! Environment – out! Ministry of women and gender diversity – out! Public works – out! Science – out! Labour and social security – out! Ministry of education and indoctrination – out!”

Argentinians who support Milei suggest he is a “punishment vote” against the previous leftist regimes for their economic trespasses.  The sentiment has a similar ring to the widespread support in the US for Donald Trump as a message to establishment elites that the populace will no longer accept the status quo.  Whether or not Milei or Trump can or would institute any longstanding changes to an oligarch infested system is really a secondary issue; the public is simply making it clear that they are aware of the game being played with their future.

The corporate media seems to have been caught off-guard by the popularity of Milei (just as they were caught off guard by Trump).  He was initially treated as a “joke” candidate with little chance of success, but now they are quickly moving to compile a list of buzzwords and negative descriptors as a means to undermine his image.  Thus far, they don’t have much – They cite his policies as dangerous and tie him to Trump as often as possible, while also noting his apparent history as a “tantric sex coach” with “long unkempt hair” who wants to “allow human organ sales.” 

The truth is that Milei has not been shy about his political intentions.  He plans to cut government spending, do away with the largely socialized healthcare system, eliminate the public school system which he sees as a network of indoctrination centers and replace it with a voucher system, eliminate climate change policies and propaganda, eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion indoctrination, eliminate gender identity indoctrination for children, he values private property, wants to ban abortion, wants to return gun rights to Argentinians, wants to eliminate the central bank and flies the Gadsden Flag at his rallies. 

The possible future present of Argentina Javier Milei explains how the right is winning and the left is terrified. He flies the Gadsden flag. pic.twitter.com/l6K4iliyFI

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 17, 2023

All in all, he might be one of the greatest political candidates in South American history.  Milei’s biggest mistake is his dollerization plan, which would essentially replace the peso with a dollar that is likely on the verge of its own implosion as the BRICS move to unseat the currency as the world reserve. But his social policies are being met with increasing approval among the public, indicating a growing disgust with far-left ideology.  

He has certainly drawn the attention of the leftist and globalist guard.  Only two days after Milei’s primary win, the Biden Administration is discussing a possible meeting with Brazilians President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at next month’s United Nations General Assembly in New York.   The expectation is that Biden will be pushing Brazil to reduce economic trade with Russia and China, but that Milei will be a primary topic of interest as well.  

Call it the Bloomberg jinx. One day after the billionaire failed presidential candidate and media mogul’s outlet published a report that “Bitcoin’s Extreme Volatility Vanishes Amid ‘Extreme Apathy and Exhaustion’,” bitcoin’s volatility has come back with a vengeance when what was already an ugly day – which saw bitcoin slump from above $29,000 on Wednesday evening to around $27,500 by Thursday afternoon – amid soaring nominal and real rates became a bloodbath when in the span of minutes, bitcoin tumbled another $2,000 to as low as $25,314 on a massive order dump which quickly took out all stops.

While it’s not clear what the immediate catalyst is, 2nd hand reports that Elon Musk’s SpaceX had sold out of its bitcoin stake began to circulate around the time of the liquidation…

BREAKING: Elon Musk’s SpaceX sold all its $373 million #bitcoin – WSJ

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) August 17, 2023

… even though the original WSJ report hit three hours earlier, at 3:22pm ET…

…  and basically confirmed what everyone already suspected based on what Tesla had done several weeks earlier:

The documents also show SpaceX wrote down the value of bitcoin it owns by a total of $373 million last year and in 2021 and has sold the cryptocurrency. Tesla has taken a similar approach with its bitcoin holdings. Musk has posted about cryptocurrencies frequently over the years.

Others, such as Michael Safai, partner at quantitative trading firm Dexterity Capital, speculated that the reason for the dump was more mundante: “There aren’t enough good headlines coming out of crypto to get people excited,” according to Sadai. “Conversely, rising interest rates and weakened risk appetite are pushing non-crypto-native traders towards safer assets.”

Shiliang Tang, CIO at crypto investment firm LedgerPrime, said that “there was optimism earlier in the week that a resolution to the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF would come this week but that passed with nothing coming out.” 

“Furthermore traditional markets have been weak all week with SPX and tech selling off, 10-year rates reaching highs and the dollar catching a bid, and China credit and econ data weakness, all of which are negatives for risk assets.”

Not helping downbeat sentiment, around the time of the flash crash Coinbase announced that its systems are “experiencing issues and they are working on a fix” adding that “funds remain secure.”

Whatever the reason, the entire bitcoin spike since the mini Blackrock euphoria in mid-June has now been wiped out.

Via The Automatic Earth blog,

A topic we can have nice discussions about ahead of next week’s BRICS+++ meeting in South Africa.

As I said recently, BRICS have momentum, and they can’t stop that, not even China could if they wanted.

The desire to create a space NOT controlled by US/EU/NATO is just too great. That said, the tentative “bloc” has plenty issues to solve.

How do all the 50+ or so countries who want to join, end up satisfied with their place in the order? If they establish a currency, will it be gold based? And what will that mean for countries who don’t have much gold but still want to join? I think they will announce a schedule next week for Pakistan, Argentina, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, the real “big brothers”, to join, in some capacity, and take it from there.

That would add another 1-2 billion people to their team of already 3.5 billion. And then we will talk about PPP GDP.

Andrew has his thoughts, just as valuable.

Andrew Korybko:

“Alt-Media Was In Shock After The BRICS Bank Confirmed That It Complies With Western Sanctions” last month, and now the Alt-Media Community (AMC) just got hit with two more truth bombs after other leading officials confirmed that it doesn’t want to de-dollarize and isn’t anti-Western. South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told Reuters earlier this month in an interview that the group’s focus is on expanding the use of national currencies rather than de-dollarization.

That outlet also quoted New Development Bank (NDB, popularly referred to as the BRICS Bank) Chief Financial Officer Leslie Maasdorp in the same article, who told them that “The bank’s operating currency is dollars for a very specific reason, U.S. dollars are where the largest pools of liquidity are…You cannot step outside of the dollar universe and operate in a parallel universe.” The official confirmation that BRICS doesn’t want to de-dollarize directly led to the next clarification about it not being anti-Western.

South African Ambassador to BRICS Anil Sooklal corrected false perceptions about the organization’s global role in an interview with Bloomberg several days back where he told them that “There’s an unfortunate narrative being developed that BRICS is anti-West, that BRICS was created as competition to the G7 or the Global North, and that is incorrect. What we do seek is to advance the agenda of the Global South and to build a more inclusive, representative, just, fair global architecture.”

In connection with this purpose, he also confirmed what Godongwana and Maasdorp said earlier in the month about how BRICS has no desire to de-dollarize. In Sooklal’s words, “Trading in local currencies is firmly on the agenda (but) There is no agenda item of de-dollarization on the BRICS agenda. BRICS is not calling for de-dollarization. The dollar will continue to be a major global currency — that’s a reality.” These revelations about BRICS might understandably overwhelm the average member of the AMC.

After all, many of them were misled by top influencers into imagining that this group is plotting to deal a deathblow to the dollar out of hatred for the West, but nothing could be further from the truth after what leading officials revealed in the last three weeks. President of the BRICS Bank Dilma Rousseff confirmed that it complies with the West’s anti-Russian sanctions; Godongwana, Maasdorp, and Sooklal confirmed that it doesn’t want to de-dollarize; and the latter also confirmed that it isn’t anti-Western.

BRICS can still “advance the agenda of the Global South and to build a more inclusive, representative, just, fair global architecture” exactly as Sooklal clarified is its intent in spite of the ‘politically inconvenient’ facts that were just shared, but it’ll be at a gradual pace, not an accelerated one. Therein lies the crux of the misperceptions about it, which Russia sought to correct earlier in the month after finally realizing that its soft power interests are threatened by supporters’ unrealistic expectations.

A critical mass of the AMC came to be convinced that BRICS was something that it’s not through a combination of well-intentioned but naive influencers pushing their wishful thinking about it and others maliciously doing the same to generate clout, promote their ideology, and/or grift. In parallel, some of this camp’s Mainstream Media (MSM) rivals scaremongered about BRICS for the ulterior purpose of galvanizing Westerners against it, but which also extended false credence to the AMC’s populist claims.

Taken together, it’s easy in hindsight to understand why so many people fell for the false narrative that BRICS is plotting to deal a deathblow to the dollar out of hatred for the West, which is why the organization’s officials decided to set the record straight in recent weeks ahead of its next summit. They didn’t want their supporters’ unrealistic expectations leading to deep disappointment that in turn makes them susceptible to hostile suggestions, nor did they want to spook the West into overreacting either.

The first potential outcome that could have come to pass had the previously mentioned clarifications not been made risked filling its supporters with such despair that they might either become apathetic towards BRICS or possibly even turn against it after feeling that they were duped. Regarding the second, some among the West might have ramped up their pressure campaigns against BRICS and its partners, including through blackmail, political meddling, and sanctions threats, all to stop the bloc in its tracks.

After debunking the disinformation that’s been spewed about their organization by the AMC and MSM alike, each in advance of polar opposite agendas but still suspiciously relying on practically identical narratives, BRICS officials are now more confident that these worst-case scenarios can be averted. This reality check sobers their supporters up and prepares them to expect a prolonged transition to multipolarity while also reducing the chances that the West will overreact to their group’s goals.

To elaborate on the last observation, the events of the last eighteen months since the start of Russia’s special operation convinced the West that the global systemic transition to multipolarity is irreversible, which is why they’re now willing to entertain reforms to their hegemonic models. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, former Director for Europe and Russia at the US National Security Council Fiona Hill, and Goldman Sachs’ President of Global Affairs Jared Cohen all suggested this on the same day in mid-May.

They believe that the West must engage with the Global South on a more equal level, which necessitates scaling back some of its most blatantly exploitative practices in order to not lose more hearts and minds to the Sino–Russo Entente. To that end, they’re positively inclined towards accepting gradual changes to the global financial system such as those that BRICS’ officials confirmed that they have in mind, but will resolutely respond to any revolutionary developments that risk drastically accelerating this transition.

Simply put, BRICS wants to “play it safe” because all of its members apart from Russia are in relationships of complex economic-financial interdependence with the West, which isn’t expected to overreact to their piecemeal reforms since their own policymakers now believe that they’re inevitable. Among those four members, two schools of thought predominate as represented by China and India, whose respective differences of vision were explained at length here.

In brief, China wants to speed up the yuan’s internationalization and integrate BRICS into the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), while India wants to prioritize national currencies and keep BRICS officially separate from BRI. Both agree that changes to the global financial system must be gradual, however, in order to avoid provoking a mutually detrimental overreaction from the West with whom all of them apart from Russia are in relationships of complex interdependence.

Everyone has the right to their own opinion about this reality that was just described, but the facts that were shared throughout this analysis in support of associated observations can’t be denied. Any top influencers among the AMC who still push the debunked narrative about BRICS plotting to deal a deathblow to the dollar out of hatred for the West are dishonest. Those among their audience who now know better should politely fact-check them under their posts to prevent others from being misled.

*  *  *

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This fall, Disney+ and Hulu will hike prices on their ad-free plans. Disney+’s monthly subscription will jump from $11 to $14, while Hulu’s will go from $15 to $18. For those who have been counting, Disney+ now costs twice as much as it did versus its 2019 launch. In other words, entertainment giants have unleashed ‘streamflation’ on their respective customer bases. 

So with Disney+ and Hulu price hikes expected on Oct. 12, we want to see how heavily indebted consumers with personal savings dwindling and student loan payments restarting have reacted to streamflation. The results are not great: 

Google Trends reveal “Cancel Disney Plus” and “Cancel Hulu” searches have erupted nationwide:

Cancel Disney Plus

Cancel Hulu

A Wall Street Journal analysis found the average cost of watching a major ad-free streaming service has surged by a quarter in the last year. It’s not just Disney and Hulu raising prices; Peacock, Max, Paramount+, and Apple TV+ have all announced similar price hikes. 

“After years of charging bargain-basement prices in pursuit of fast growth, most of the big players face a financial reckoning, with tens of billions of dollars in losses piling up,” WSJ said, adding entertainment companies now seek “profitability” and this might be a major test for “loyalty of their customers” if they can afford higher prices. 

“Can you raise prices by 30% and not increase churn? That’s the big question,” said Rich Greenfield, an analyst with LightShed Partners.

According to new Nielsen data released Tuesday, a record 38.7% of Americans were streamers last month. 

Steaming companies are like drug dealers. They hooked consumers on cheap stimulating content for years. Now hike prices on their struggling customer base. How many folks who cold-turkey streaming go back to cable?

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has handed down a major victory for free speech against the District of Columbia.  In Frederick Douglass Foundation v. District of Columbia, Judge Neomi Rao reversed district court judge James E. Boasberg who dismissed the challenge by pro-life protesters who alleged that they were treated differently from Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters. The selective enforcement of city ordinances gave what Judge Rao called “a monopoly in expressing its views . . . the antithesis of constitutional guarantees.”

The contrast in these cases was raised by a few commentators and sites in prior years.

In the summer of 2020, the city allowed thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters to take over streets in D.C. without any permit. The police watched as protesters wrote slogans and slurs on stores, streets, and sidewalks with paint and chalk. No one was arrested.

However, later two pro-life advocates in a protest in front of a D.C. Planned Parenthood facility were immediately arrested when they chalked “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on a public sidewalk.

Chief Judge Boasberg previously held that they had no right to challenge the selective enforcement of the laws. They simply had to plead guilty and accept that their views were not given the same official tolerance.

Judge Rao reversed the trial court and said this is precisely what the First Amendment is meant to prevent. The D.C. Circuit noted that such selective prosecution cases are based on one of the hardest claims to prove: “Selective enforcement claims must clear a high hurdle. Because the lawful exercise of prosecutorial discretion does not violate the Constitution, disparate enforcement of a neutral ordinance based on viewpoint is unlawful only when the prosecutorial factors are similar, and ‘unlawful favoritism’ remains the predominant explanation for the government’s targets.”

While reaffirming the ruling under the Equal Protection Clause, the court reversed on free speech grounds:

The First Amendment prohibits government discrimination on the basis of viewpoint. “To permit one side … to have a monopoly in expressing its views … is the antithesis of constitutional guarantees.” City of Madison Joint Sch. Dist. No. 8 v. Wis. Emp. Relations Comm’n, 429 U.S. 167, 175–76 (1976). The protection for freedom of speech applies not only to legislation, but also to enforcement of the laws. This case concerns a constitutional challenge to the selective enforcement of the District of Columbia’s defacement ordinance against some viewpoints but not others.

In the summer of 2020, thousands of protesters flooded the streets of the District to proclaim “Black Lives Matter.” Over several weeks, the protesters covered streets, sidewalks, and storefronts with paint and chalk. The markings were ubiquitous and in open violation of the District’s defacement ordinance, yet none of the protesters were arrested. During the same summer, District police officers arrested two pro-life advocates in a smaller protest for chalking “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on a public sidewalk.

…

Viewpoint discrimination, whether by legislative enactment or executive action, violates the First Amendment. “Once a forum is opened up to assembly or speaking by some groups, government may not prohibit others from assembling or speaking.” Police Dep’t of Chi. v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 96 (1972). We hold the Foundation has plausibly alleged the elements of a free speech selective enforcement claim. We may reasonably infer from the Foundation’s complaint, first, that its members were similarly situated to other protesters who were not arrested and, second, that the District engaged in viewpoint discrimination by enforcing the defacement ordinance against individuals chalking “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” but not against individuals painting and chalking “Black Lives Matter.”

…

The First Amendment prohibits the government from favoring some speakers over others. Access to public fora must be open to everyone and to every message on the same terms. The District may act to prevent the defacement of public property, but it cannot open up its streets and sidewalks to some viewpoints and not others. During the summer of 2020, the District arrested individuals chalking “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on the sidewalk, while making no arrests against the many individuals marking “Black Lives Matter” on sidewalks, streets, and other property.”

Once again, the media virtually ignored the sharply different treatment and this case despite its obvious importance to free speech.  Moreover, the D.C. government spent considerable money and time to defend its right to arrest certain protesters while allowing others to commit the same acts.

Here is the opinion: Frederick Douglass Foundation v. District of Columbia,

Russia is showing off some captured US and Western supplied hardware taken from the battlefield in Ukraine at the Moscow annual Army International Military-Technical Forum. Among these are items that appear in mint condition.

The forum, more commonly dubbed Army 2023, features Russia’s leading defense companies displaying their latest defense tech among some 1,500 total unique military items. This ranges from stealth jets, to battlefield medical equipment, to military grade earth-movers.

But this year for the first time Russia’s military showed off a large amount of seized “war trophies” — including captured and destroyed armored vehicles from NATO countries. 

Below, for example, is an American armored personnel carrier, seen in the foreground, and a British armored vehicle in the center.

The captured NATO vehicles had placards explaining their specs as if part of a museum display.

Additionally, a burnt out Australian Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle captured from Ukrainian forces was on display in the vehicle exhibition. 

Bullet-riddled armored vehicle on which the Russians attached a UK and NATO flags…

Reuters captured the following details from the expo:

In the Moscow region’s Patriot Park, dedicated to the achievements of the Russian army, an officer wearing a green cap stood in front of a captured US MaxxPro armored vehicle. “It was abandoned on a battlefield because it stopped working,” the serviceman told Russian state-run agency TASS.

He then turned to a British Husky vehicle, whose windshield was riddled with what seemed to be bullet holes. Around him, more Western military equipment was on display, an opportunity for the Russian army to flaunt its achievements and mock the counteroffensive that Ukraine launched in June.

A few meters away, another Russian officer was showing off a French AMX-10 RC and its famously long anti-tank gun. The collection of “trophies” that AFP journalists saw Tuesday also included an Australian Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle, a US M113 personnel carrier and a Swedish CV90 combat vehicle.

#BREAKING #Russia #Moscow Video footage of western armored vehicles captured in Ukraine.
Video: RIA pic.twitter.com/eWNuWIqkd0

— National Independent (@NationalIndNews) August 15, 2023

Other captured Ukrainian equipment was also featured, including a border patrol boat, which appears largely undamaged and in good condition.

Recovered small arms from the US were also seen at the expo, and even things as large as a Turkish-made drone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally opened the expo with a speech, as is customary, and top military officials were seen inspecting the site, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. He told a group of military officials on Tuesday that “Ukraine’s military resources are almost exhausted.”

The defense expo is scheduled to run until August 20, and among the delegations sent by other countries are military leaders deemed “friendly” to Moscow and from countries which have not criticized the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

More photos from the Moscow army expo can be viewed here.

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

When a ‘LGBTQ+’ reporter confronted Vivek Ramaswamy, demanding to know his views on the “LGBTQ+ community,” the Republican presidential candidate provided a stark reality check.

Ramaswamy told the person that he doesn’t “think it’s one community,” explaining that as far as he can tell “Trans is fundamentally in tension with gay, if you ask me.”

The person then attempted to get Ramaswamy to say something negative about same sex couples, to which he responded that he only has a “negative view of the tyranny of the minority.” 

A “pan-sexual” LGBTQIA+ activist approached me at the Iowa State Fair with a question. I answered directly: in the name of protecting against tyranny of the majority, we’ve created a new tyranny of the minority. That’s just the TRUTH. https://t.co/4GQxcwfQIi

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 14, 2023

“I don’t think that somebody who is religious should be forced to officiate a wedding that they disagree with,” he stated, adding “I don’t think somebody who is a woman who has worked really hard for her achievements should compete against a biological man in a swim competition.”

Ramaswamy continued, “I don’t think somebody who is a woman, that respects her bodily autonomy and dignity should be forced to change clothes in a locker room with a man.” 

“That is not freedom, that’s oppression,” he urged. 

Ramaswamy also asserted that while adults can do as they please “do not foist that ideology onto children before children are in a position to make decisions for themselves.” 

The candidate said many Americans are tired of being subjected to this “new culture of oppression.” 

“Part of what makes our country great is that you and I can be civil and have this conversation and that we live in a country that gives each of us a right to speak to a presidential candidate and back,” Ramaswamy told the person.

He followed up during an interview on Fox News:

Vivek Ramaswamy: “If gender dysphoria is such a condition of suffering, then why on earth are we going out of our way to create even more of it by spreading this ideology through young kids in our schools?” pic.twitter.com/x2Ed7EWqNw

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 17, 2023

*  *  *

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Ukrainian officials have long complained that the counteroffensive is faltering in large part because they are unable to gain air superiority. They have also been angered at delays, such as with tanks and especially the F-16 training program.

On Wednesday a top Ukraine military official admitted Kiev has given up hope over ever seeing F-16 jets in battle by this year, which follows more optimistic statements from months ago suggesting Ukrainian forces would have them by close of 2023.

“It’s already obvious we won’t be able to defend Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets during this autumn and winter,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said. “We had big hopes for this plane, that it will become part of air defense, able to protect us from Russia’s missiles and drones terrorism.”

It was only in the spring that President Biden belatedly greenlighted European countries’ ability to export the F-16s to Ukraine, following mounting political pressure. 

The Washington Post earlier this month described that the slow to get off the ground training program, which currently has just six Ukrainian pilots enrolled, is dragging things out longer.

“A first group of six Ukrainian pilots is not expected to complete training on the U.S.-made F-16 before next summer, senior Ukrainian government and military officials said, following a series of delays by Western partners in implementing an instruction program for the sophisticated fighter jet,” the WaPo report said.

A Ukrainian official who spoke to the newspaper had accused Washington of “dragging it out”—given also the following: 

Though the pilots are already fluent in English, the officials said, they must first attend four months of English lessons in Britain to learn terminology associated with the jets. That instruction will occur along with ground staff who may be less proficient in English because, according to Ukrainian officials, Denmark requested to train entire crews together rather than just the pilots first. Denmark’s ministry of defense declined to comment.

That pushes back the start of combat training, which is expected to take six months, to January, the Ukrainian officials said. A second group of about the same size would be ready six months after that, or roughly the end of next year.

And a prior July report on how the air effort was going included American officials admitting they don’t see F-16s as making a significant difference on the battlefield:

Ukrainian officials have pointed out that Western militaries would never attempt a massive operation — which he said was the most intense since World War II — without air support.

“So, to say that it is slow or too fast is at least ridiculous to hear from those who have no idea what it is,” Zaluzhny said in an interview. “They do not know what it is. And God forbid they should ever experience it.”

American officials privately say that Western jets would have little utility in the current fight because of Russia’s extensive air defenses.

Indeed the Kremlin has vowed to escalate its response the moment Ukraine is in possession of F-16s, given FM Lavrov’s prior words of seeing it as a ‘nuclear threat’ – given the F-16’s ability to carry a tactical nuclear warhead.

“Russia cannot ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons. No amount of assurances will help here,” Lavrov was quoted as saying in July. “In the course of combat operations, our servicemen are not going to sort out whether each particular aircraft of this type is equipped to deliver nuclear weapons or not.”

Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,

The House Ways and Means Committee is set to launch an investigation into whether or not far-left activists have deliberately used tax-exempt nonprofits and foreign money to boost Democratic campaigns in recent elections.

As reported by Just The News, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) revealed on Wednesday that Democrats are currently outpacing Republicans in the campaign to drive up early or absentee voting, and may be using such illegal methods to do so.

“We’re going to be investigating that as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Oversight Subcommittee,” said Tenney.

She further expressed her concern that 501(c)3 organizations, which are tax-exempt, are being used to fund “vote trafficking.”

“We’re going to look into whether they’re abusing the IRS rules in order to get all kinds of money,” Tenney explained, “whether it’s foreign money or Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother funneling money in there to target certain types of voters in certain demographics in swing states to make sure that they get those vote votes in.”

Organizations with 501(c)3 status are allowed to engage in such activities as voter registration or “get-out-the-vote” (GOTV) campaigns, but can do so only “if they are conducted in a neutral, non-partisan manner, for example, without reference to any candidate or political party,” according to the IRS.

Earlier this week, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) sent a memo to all committee members revealing that his team has been gathering evidence in preparation for an investigation.

“The Committee has learned that a Super Political Action Committee (PAC) recommended donations to 501(c)(3) organizations as ‘the single most effective tactic for ensuring Democratic victories’ and that large donations from a wealthy donor to state election offices in 2020 may have been done in a manner that helps one political party over another,” Smith wrote in the memo.

“Additionally, the Committee has also found that significant amounts of foreign money is flowing through 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations to influence elections.”

This move represents yet another layer of the extent to which voter fraud has been weaponized by Democrats in recent years, starting with COVID-era restrictions during the 2020 election, which led to many irregularities that likely changed the results of the election in favor of Joe Biden. Further irregularities occurred in many key states throughout the country in the 2022 midterms, most prominently in Arizona.

On Wednesday, officials in Michigan reported that they had uncovered an extensive voter fraud operation that resulted in up to 10,000 fraudulent ballot applications, which have since been recovered by police.

Auto research firm Cox Automotive – the owner of the closely followed Manheim price index – published new data for the first 15 days of August that shows wholesale used-vehicle prices marginally increased—an ominous sign of sticky inflation. 

The mid-month Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index increased by 0.1% from July in the first 15 days of August — the first increase in four months. But when compared to the full month of August 2022, the index was down 7.8%. 

the Manheim used-vehicle prices increased 0.1% from July in the first 15 days of August.

the 4 month decline is over pic.twitter.com/rTCuBmz5Qr

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 17, 2023

Perhaps tight supply is driving re-inflation trend at the end of summer. 

The report said buyers in the first 15 days of the resort had “more bargaining power for this time of year.” All vehicles, including pickups, sports, cars, vans, and SUVs, slid 2.9%, 4.6%, 6.6%, and 7.5%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis in the first half of the month. Compact cars lost the most, down 13.5%, followed by midsize cars, down 11.9%, and luxury, declining by 8.8%

The monthly price uptick could be attributed to a tight used car market. Manheim explains:

Used retail supply measured in days’ supply and compared to 2019 suggests supply is tighter than normal for this time of year. Wholesale supply has decreased with stronger wholesale purchase activity in early August and is tighter than normal for this time of year.

New and used car markets are still tight. However, interest rates notably influence vehicle demand, and the average consumer has diminishing disposable income and dwindling personal savings. 

The first monthly positive print in four months comes as the latest Fed minutes warn: “Most participants continued to see significant upside risks to inflation, which could require further tightening of monetary policy.”