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Bill is Interviewed by Jon Dowling – (Also posted under Interviews)
Bill’s Commentary:
“One black swan avoided!”
BREAKING: Dockworkers union reaches deal to suspend strike until January: report
The union representing dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reportedly reached a deal to suspend their strike until January 15. This suspension would allow time for the International Longshoremen’s Association to negotiate a new contract with the US Maritime Alliance.
A person briefed on the matter told the Associated Press that the union is would resume working immediately until at least January.
The suspension agreement will allow the union and the US Maritime Alliance time to negotiate a new six-year contract. The source said that both sides had reached an agreement on wage increases. US Maritime Alliance represents the shippers and ports.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Is this true? If so, and would not/should not be a surprise, someone needs to go down hard big time! Remember, “weather manipulation” has been around at least since the Vietnam war.”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Is this because she believes there are not enough illegals there yet to warrant the necessity for an armed population? (sarc)”
Massachusetts Governor Uses Emergency Powers to Fast-Track Sweeping Gun Control Law
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has signed an emergency preamble to the state’s sweeping gun control bill, fast-tracking its implementation and halting an ongoing effort by gun rights activists to delay its effects.
The law, H.4885, was originally scheduled to take effect on Oct. 23, or 90 days after Healey signed the bill in July, but her decision to proceed with signing the emergency preamble means it goes into effect immediately.
Under Massachusetts law, governors have the authority to issue an emergency preamble to expedite legislation when “the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or convenience” is deemed necessary.
Bill’s Commentary:
“We should file this one under the category of “Karen.” I would ask, why don’t they do DNA tests of human shit all over our major cities?”
Why Landlords and Even Tenants Are Picking Up After Other People’s Pooches
About once a month, Sinie Beck drops a small plastic bag with a foul odor outside the manager’s office of her Minot, N.D., apartment building. Then she goes about her day.
Beck, a 38-year-old stand-up comic and dog walker, isn’t playing a prank. She’s trying to help her landlord identify owners of hounds who leave a mess on the property by gathering evidence for DNA testing.
“I am the poop patrol,” she says.
Bill’s Commentary:
” JJ checks in”
Wait til Winter…..LOL! Jeremiah
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Bill’s Commentary:
“No way, you mean an actual whole book?”
The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books
Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.
This development puzzled Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Non US citizen”? Is she here legally or not? Does she get to vote too?”
Tim Walz’s Minnesota Swears in First Non-Citizen Cops, Including Hijab-Clad Somali Muslim
The most populous city in Minnesota, controlled by Democratic vice presidential hopeful Governor Tim Walz, has sworn in its first non-U.S. citizen police officer. Lesly Vera, who was born in Mexico, took the oath of office in Minneapolis last week.
The move follows a policy change by the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) in 2023, eliminating the citizenship prerequisite for law enforcement candidates. Under the new guidelines, candidates only need to be residents authorized to work in the U.S.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Port Exposure”
The Companies Most Exposed to the U.S. Port Strike
Nearly 50,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) have walked off the job, putting billions of dollars’ worth of goods at risk of severe delays.
It was estimated that on the first day of the strike (October 1st, 2024), 147 vessels carrying $34.3 billion in goods arrived at 14 idle ports along the East and Gulf coasts of America. The strike comes during peak shipping season, impacting as much as 49% of all U.S. imports.
This graphic shows the companies most exposed to the strike—the ones with the most twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) imported at East and Gulf coast ports over the past year—based on data from ImportGenius and Arbor Data Science shared by Liz Ann Sonders.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Diplomacy at its finest!”
In break from tradition, China receives no formal statement from US on National Day
In a departure from past practice, the US Department of State is yet to release a formal congratulatory message to mark China’s National Day.
On October 1, China celebrated the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China accompanied by a week-long national holiday.
The US State Department has traditionally congratulated China before its National Day, as it does with all nations with which it has diplomatic ties. In previous years it congratulated China in statements on September 29 last year and on September 30, 2022.
Bill’s Commentary:
“For anyone wishing to help those in need post-Helene”
Samaritan’s Purse Starts Five-Site Response to Hurricane Helene
Samaritan’s Purse is responding in five locations across four states after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the Southeast.
Helene tore through western North Carolina, dumping extreme rainfall—more than 2 feet in some areas—and causing terrible flash flooding. Some parts of the region are in ruins. We are providing relief in the mountains of Watauga County, North Carolina—home to Samaritan’s Purse international headquarters in the town of Boone. The town and surrounding communities have been particularly hard-hit with toppled trees, flooding, road damage, and a lack of power and water. This response extends to include neighboring counties in North Carolina (Ashe, Avery) and eastern Tennessee (Johnson), and our church base is Alliance Bible Fellowship in Boone.
The latest from USA Watchdog –
Bill’s Commentary:
“My advice to Erik, don’t ever argue with stupid, you’ll never win because they will never know they lost!”
The latest from Erik –
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Bill’s Commentary:
“These are good people! I am familiar with losing everything. Our home burned down in the 2011 Texas wildfires; the Mennonites were here helping rebuild for 2+ years – there are some super good people out there!”
Cajun Navy Relief. Helping Those in Need
The Louisiana Flood of 2016 brought together total strangers, all with one common interest of helping those in need. We are a group of volunteers who work tirelessly without pay to provide immediate rescue and relief during natural disasters.
Rescue and relief are our way of sharing the South Louisiana cultural tradition of neighbors helping neighbors with people in need across the United States. By integrating civilian volunteers into the Incident Command Structure we can act as a force multiplier for agencies responding to disaster.
Bill’s Commentary:
“So, as I now understand it, it sucks to be white?”
Bill’s Commentary:
“This is true.”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Do you want to know what the reality of a Longshoreman strike is?”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Foreboding!”
Housing Starts Are Tumbling as Completions Soar, It’s Very Recessionary
The discrepancy between housing starts and completions is the largest since 1980. Let’s discuss.
The DotCom bust was unrelated to housing. Most recessions impact housing or housing busts lead to recession.
The single-family stats aren’t good, but they aren’t as bad.
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Bill’s Commentary:
Our pal Grizzly checks in –
> Bill, Just think how quickly we could take our country back if each governor dealt with the current invasion taking place in each of their respective states like TX dealt with this. Your pal Grizzly
“God Blessed Texas!” Bill
Texas Law Enforcement Rids Border Island of Criminal Cartel Activity
Texas has successfully curtailed cartel presence and criminal activity on an uninhabited border island after declaring it state property last year.
Fronton Island—located in Starr County and sitting in the Rio Grande—was once a hotspot for cartel activity. As part of Operation Lone Star, Texas law enforcement cleared it out.
Texas Department of Public Safety Spokesman Chris Olivarez said that due to the combined efforts of the General Land Office, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, Texas DPS, and the Texas National Guard, human smuggling and other criminal enterprises that once flourished on the island have come to an abrupt halt.
Bill’s Commentary:
“It’s quartz.”
“Modern Economy Rests On Single Road” In North Carolina Where Hurricane Collapsed Bridges
In March, a Wharton professor who studies artificial intelligence and start-ups claimed on X, “The modern economy rests on a single road in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The road runs to the two mines that are the sole supplier of the quartz required to make the crucibles needed to refine silicon wafers.”
Ethan Mollick noted at the time, “There are no alternative sources known” if supply disruptions were seen in Spruce Pines.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Next storm”
Caribbean, Gulf On Watch For Tropical Development By National Hurricane Center
Tropical development is possible from the western Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico later this week, and while the U.S. Gulf Coast should monitor this possible system, it’s too early to determine if it will bring significant impacts.
Where the potential system is now: A broad area of low pressure is located in the western Caribbean Sea near the “X” in the map below, according to the latest National Hurricane Center Outlook (NHC). It’s producing disorganized shower and thunderstorm activity at this time.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Certainly not racist… and by those wonderful people who claim to be “inclusive”!”
Taxpayer-funded Minneapolis food pantry bans white people – as boss’ astonishing outburst at local who complained is revealed
The boss of a Minneapolis food pantry, funded by city taxpayers, has banned white people from taking advantage of the resource.
Mykela ‘Keiko’ Jackson used a Minnesota State grant to launch the Food Trap Project Bodega designed to help poor and hungry residents living close to the Sanctuary Covenant Church in the north of the city.
The pantry only opened up on July 27 but within months it has been forced to close and relocate away from church grounds after Jackson attempted to block white people from accessing the service, including a local chaplain who complained.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Regarding the port closures; this is a great article about supply chains with many links. Have you already prepped I hope? This article does not really go into “credit”, without credit there is NOTHING. I am not sure how people really don’t see this but they do not… at a point in time where the issuer of world’s reserve currency is facing THE credit crisis for the ages!”
Brown Bananas, Crowded Ports, Empty Shelves: What To Expect If Major Port Strike Erupts On Tuesday
Whether you’re buying a can of sardines or a screwdriver, getting products to consumers requires that supply chains function well.
The availability of labor is essential in each link of the supply chain. That includes the workers who make sure that your tinned fish and handy tools smoothly journey from their point of origin to where they’ll wind up, whether it’s a supermarket, hardware store or your front door.
Amazingly, 90% of all internationally traded products are carried by ships at some point. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hard not to notice the supply chain disruptions. For U.S. ports, there were many bouts of congestion. Demand for goods that were either more or less popular than they would normally be became volatile. Shortages of truckers and other freight service providers wreaked havoc on land-based and maritime transportation networks.
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Bill’s Commentary:
“What an asshole, if he doesn’t like the 1st Amendment, he should just shut up and remain silent. In any case, the 2nd Amendment guarantees the 1st..”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Kids are stupid today but generally it is not their fault, they have been “taught” to be stupid!”
The latest from Erik –
Bill’s Commentary:
“As the saying goes, “there is no bull market quite like a gold bull market.” This is simply because gold can move higher versus fiat because of greed, but more importantly it can move MUCH higher because of fear… especially REALIZED FEAR!”
Why Another Chinese Gold Mania May Be Starting
A few weeks ago, I published an article where I explored the potential for another China-driven rally in gold, one that could quickly push prices to $3,000. My thesis was rooted in the observation that China’s futures traders were the driving force behind gold’s explosive $400 surge this past spring. However, these traders had been dormant for the past five months as the yuan price of gold stagnated. I proposed that a technical breakout in the yuan price of gold could trigger a resurgence similar to the powerful rally we saw in the spring. Since sharing that idea, I’ve been watching for a breakout in the yuan price of gold—and it appears that moment has arrived.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Truth is leaking out, what will you do with truth?”
Bill’s Commentary:
From Dave –
Bill, They all know fiat money is worth-less, lets see what the BRICS do at the meeting? – Dave
Dave, it is a guaranteed way to build their Treasury reserves with something real, smart on the part of Tanzania. This could be anything from announcing a future meeting with a communique to a rejection of Bretton Woods and truly a NEW WORLD ORDER? Bill
“Oh and by the way, here is a small country that bought less than half a ton of gold in the last 12 months… that will buy 6 tons over the next 12 months. No ramification for the miners, but what about price?”
Tanzania orders gold dealers to reserve 20% for purchase by c.bank
DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Tanzania’s mining regulator has ordered all mining firms and traders exporting gold to allocate at least 20% of the commodity for sale to the central bank to bolster the bank’s move to diversify its foreign reserves.
The central Bank of Tanzania (BoT) began buying gold from local traders and miners in the last financial year that ended in June to boost its reserves amid depreciation pressure on the local currency, the shilling.
The latest from USA Watchdog –
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Bill’s Commentary:
“Very 1930’s Germany like, don’t you think?”
Michigan Lawmakers Create Anonymous Tip Line For Children To Report ‘Improperly’ Stored Guns
Children in Michigan will soon be able to anonymously report their parents or other adults for “improperly” storing firearms “that are accessible to a minor.”
The new tip line was part of an amendment to House Bill 5503, a supplemental K-12 budget that passed the Michigan legislature on Wednesday, The Midwesterner reported. A new gun storage law went into effect in Michigan earlier this year, requiring gun owners “to keep unattended weapons unloaded and locked with a locking device or stored in a locked box or container if it is reasonably known that a minor is likely to be present on the premises.”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Erik telling some very ugly truth!”
The latest from Erik –
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Bill’s Commentary:
“This should be THE BIGGEST news of all, bigger even than the US Presidential election because it comes first. If the BRICS completely cut SWIFT ties prior to the election, will we even have an election? Cutting ties to SWIFT collapses the US Treasury and dollar markets. In other words, lights out and game over! Have you heard a single word about this from the mainstream media? Maybe the biggest financial news since 1944, yet only 5 in 100 are even aware of it. Talk about a complete blindside!”
Pepe Escobar: Will a BRICS Bretton Woods Take Place in Kazan?
With less than a month before the crucial BRICS annual summit in Kazan under the Russian presidency, serious informed discussions are raging in Moscow and other Eurasian capitals on what should be at the table in the de-dollarization and alternative payment system front.
Earlier this month Andrey Mikhailishin, head of the task force on financial services of the BRICS Business Council, detailed the list of top projects under consideration. They include:
- A common unit of account – as in The Unit, whose contours were first revealed exclusively by Sputnik.
- A platform for multilateral settlements and payments in BRICS digital currencies, connecting the financial markets of BRICS members: that’s BRICS Bridge, which bears similarities with the Bank of International Settlements-linked MBridge, already in effect. That will complement intrabank systems already in action, as in Russia’s SPFS and Iran’s CPAM settling financial transactions – and 60% of their trade – in their own currencies.
Bill’s Commentary:
“WOW, what a shocker? Everything about COVID from start to finish was/is complete bullshit!”
Those Published “17,000 Hydroxychloroquine Deaths” Never Happened
Early January of 2024, Americans learned about the publication of an article from Elsevier’s Journal of Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy overseen by Dr. Danyelle Townsend, a professor at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy’s Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences.
As Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Townsend reviewed, approved, and published the article titled: “Deaths induced by compassionate use of hydroxychloroquine during the first COVID-19 wave: An estimate.”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Remember, the dollar is the “common stock” of the United States.”
US Navy warships fought off a ‘complex’ missile and drone attack in the Red Sea
US Navy warships shot down a barrage of Houthi missiles and drones in the Red Sea on Friday in what a Pentagon spokesperson described as a “complex attack.”
Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon spokesperson, said no US warships were damaged or struck by the Houthi munitions, and there were no injuries to American personnel.
“We did see a complex attack launched from the Houthis that ranged from cruise missiles and [drones],” Singh told reporters at a briefing. “My understanding is that those were either engaged and shot down or failed.”
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Bill’s Commentary:
“Some advice from a former FBI agent… who has no faith in the FBI. Sounds about right to me…”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Another icon from our past shuts down, bye bye Schwans, I remember them as a little kid in the 60’s. What a shame…
Beloved food company shuts down after 72 years in business
An iconic frozen meal delivery company has announced it is closing after over 70 years in the business.
Yelloh, a meal delivery service, plans to cease operations on November 22 due to ‘multiple insurmountable business challenges’.
The company began as Schwan’s Home Delivery in 1952 and set up its headquarters in Marshall, near southeastern Minnesota. Yelloh currently employs about 1,100 employees nationwide.
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Bill’s Commentary:
“Hooters experiencing “deflation”?”
PE-Backed Hooters Reportedly Taps Advisers to Address Debt as Revenue Falls
Hooters of America is huddling with lenders and advisers amid revenue declines that pushed the restaurant chain to shutter several of its locations, according to people with knowledge of the talks.
Hooters, famous for its chicken wings and skimpy server uniforms, is getting guidance from Accordion Partners and law firm Ropes & Gray on how to improve business and address its debt load as foot traffic slows and its liquidity dwindles, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing confidential matters.
Bill’s Commentary:
“As Richard Russell always said, “inflate or die!””
Home Prices Set To Soar Amid Mortgage Refi Explosion
The Fed could not have picked a worse time to start easing (although with the election in just over a month, the “apolitical” Fed really had no choice).
As we predicted all the way back in December, the Fed would cut rates just in time for shtler/home prices and rent to start rising again…
Bill’s Commentary:
“Insanity rules?”
NATO plans for large-scale transport of wounded troops in case of Russia war
BERLIN, Sept 25 (Reuters) – NATO plans to coordinate the transport of a large number of wounded troops away from front lines in case of a war with Russia, potentially via hospital trains as air evacuations may not be feasible, according to a senior general.
The future scenario for medical evacuations will differ from allies’ experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, Lieutenant-General Alexander Sollfrank, the head of NATO’s logistics command, told Reuters in an interview.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Michael Oliver is not one to throw crazy predictions out there. I can certainly see from a fundamental standpoint how the metals go vertical (currencies crash) from here. I will only add my two cents here …BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!”
Bill’s Commentary:
“What’s in your wallet? Hopefully not paper and credit?”
Reports Of BRICS Moving Forward With Gold-backed ‘Unit’ Currency
We’ve been hearing rumblings of the possibility of the BRICS creating an alternative payment currency that may involve gold ever since Russia was kicked out of the SWIFT system in 2022. But in May of 2024, journalist Pepe Escobar reported that the BRICS nations are now advancing their plan, which is based on a partially gold-backed settlement currency called the Unit. The BRICS Business Council has already endorsed the Unit, a proposal that as currently constituted would include a 40% backing of gold and a 60% backing of BRICS+ currencies.In his report Escobar explains the significance of the development:”And now comes the clincher: the Unit has already received backing by the BRICS Business Council and is on the agenda at the crucial ministerial meeting in Russia (which occurred in July), which will work out the road map for the summit next October in Kazan. That means the Unit has all it takes to be on the table as a serious subject discussed by BRICS+ and eventually be adopted as early as in 2025.”Sergey Glazyev, a prominent member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Minister of Integration and Macroeconomics for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), has also voiced his support of the Unit model. He describes it as an academically sound and technologically innovative solution that complements the existing banking infrastructure. And he emphasized the legitimacy of the Unit under a UN institution, and for its role as a decentralized global trade currency anchored in physical gold and BRICS+ currencies.”I have been following the development of Unit for more than a year and can confirm that Unit offers a very timely, feasible solution. Launching it under the auspices of a UN institution gives Unit legitimacy, which the current Bretton Woods framework is clearly lacking. Recent actions by the US administration and loud silence from IMF clearly indicate the need for change. A decentralized approach to emission of potential global trade currency, whose intrinsic value is anchored in physical gold and BRICS+ currencies, makes Unit the most promising of several approaches being considered. It balances political priorities of all participants, while helping each sovereign economy develop along its optimal path. The New Development Bank (NDB) and BRICS+ shall embrace the concept of Unit and help it to become the pinnacle of the new emerging global financial infrastructure, free from malign political interferences while focused instead on fair trade and sustainable economic growth.”As the plan has developed, Escobar talks about how the emphasis has now shifted to increasing the public awareness of the new proposed system.“As it stands, the priority for the Unit conceptualizers – whom I followed for over a year during several, detailed meetings in Moscow – is to inform the general public about the new system.”He also highlights another crucial aspect of the Unit and its potential impact on commodity pricing:“The Unit can also help to upend unfair pricing in commodity trading, by means of setting up a new – fair and efficient – Eurasian Mercantile Exchange where trading and settlement can be done in a new currency bridging trade flows and capital, thus paving the way to the development of new financial products for foreign direct investment (FDI).”In July of this year Escobar provided another update that highlighted how Russian President Vladimir Putin has also been briefed on the plan.“Putin had a special meeting with Dilma Rousseff, president of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB). They did talk in detail about the bank’s development – and most of all, as later confirmed by Rousseff, about The Unit, whose lineaments were first revealed exclusively by Sputnik: an apolitical, transactional form of cross-border payments, anchored in gold (40%) and BRICS+ currencies (60%).”To say it’s a done deal would be premature. Although in addition to Escobar’s reports, there’s been increasing confirmation that the Unit is indeed being discussed, including a report from TASS Russian news agency earlier this month that the Unit is on the agenda for the meeting in October.Escobar also released his latest piece today titled Will a BRICS Bretton Woods Take Place in Kazan?, which includes commentary from Russian analysts who have been following the progression of the Unit. Which I personally found insightful to get a more full picture of how the news is being perceived in the east.We’ve heard rumblings about some sort of gold involvement in the monetary system ever since Russia was kicked out of the SWIFT system. And as we approach the BRICS meeting in Kazan next month, we could be getting closer to finding out more about where those plans officially stand.The latest from USA Watchdog –
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Bill’s Commentary:
“Because it’s the right thing to do? In what world do we live?”
Indiana judge rules prison must provide transgender surgery for inmate who killed baby
A federal judge has ruled that it would be unconstitutional for an Indiana prison to deny a transgender inmate sex reassignment surgery following the inmate’s lawsuit against the facility.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Indiana Department of Corrections last year on behalf of a transgender inmate, Jonathan C. Richardson, also known as Autumn Cordellionè, who was convicted of strangling his 11-month-old stepdaughter to death in 2001.
Indiana law, however, prohibits the Department of Corrections from using taxpayer dollars to fund sex reassignment surgeries for inmates. However, the ACLU argues in the lawsuit, filed on Aug. 28, 2023, that the law is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Nomi Prins on gold”
5 Flashpoints for Gold
During my career on Wall Street, I saw that the best analysts were the ones who understood emerging risks, acknowledged their complexities, and were primed in advance to navigate them.
For investors, that means avoiding volatility when possible and being patient. For businesses, it could mean understanding external impacts ranging from supply chain disruptions to new tariffs. For those on Main Street, it means being on the lookout for economic problems and preparing for a rainy day.
Bill’s Commentary:
“This is what is meant when you hear “we don’t need no stinkin’ economy as long as we have the Dow Jones”…”
So the Economy Now Depends on Stocks Which Depend on Front-Running the Fed–And This Is Fine?
So the entire economy depends on the stock market going up as punters front-run the Fed–and this is not only fine, it’s optimal, the best arrangement the world has ever seen. On which ethereal plane is this considered sane, much less optimal?
That the real-world economy–a neofeudal confection featuring a parasitic, predatory Nobility vacuuming up virtually all the gains of the Everything Bubble while the bottom 80% stumble along in debt-serfdom, resigned to serving the top 10% who own 90% of the assets bubbling higher–is teetering on the precipice, clinging to the wealth effect of soaring assets, courtesy of the Federal Reserve, for its lifeline is, well, insane.
Speaking of gaslighting–how many people do you know who call this arrangement by its real name, neofeudalism? No one? How many people are trembling with excitement because every time the Fed cut rates at or near the all-time highs in the stock market, stocks were higher the next year–20 times out of 20? Hundreds? Thousands? A great multitude to be sure.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Umm, didn’t she get less than 40% of the Teamsters vote? It’s not like she got 60% and got snubbed, she just plain lost…”
Kamala’s Husband is Lashing Out at The Teamsters for Refusing to Endorse Her
Doug Emhoff, the Second Gentleman and husband to Vice President Kamala Harris, is lashing out at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union for refusing to endorse his wife’s 2024 Democratic Party presidential campaign. Despite rank-and-file members of the Teamsters overwhelmingly backing former President Donald J. Trump, according to the union’s internal polling, Emhoff believes the labor organization should still have thrown its support to his wife.
“Even though Trump, you know, bullied the leaders of the Teamsters to not do an endorsement, the Teamster locals are all endorsing her, including right here in Pennsylvania,” Emhoff claimed at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Sunday. A corporate and entertainment industry litigator whose past clients include the aggressively anti-union Walmart Inc., he added: “These Teamsters are not going to listen to some guy in D.C. who does not have the courage to stand up to Donald Trump, right? Can’t have that.”
Bill’s Commentary:
“This is so bad on so many levels, but dare I say not surprising?”
US Navy Oiler Runs Aground, Forcing Carrier Strike Group to Scramble for Fuel
by John Konrad – gCaptain has received multiple reports that the US Navy oiler USNS Big Horn ran aground yesterday and partially flooded off the coast of Oman, leaving the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group without its primary fuel source.
First reported on the gCaptain forum and by maritime historian Sal Mercogliano, a leaked video and photos show damage to the ship’s rudder post and water flooding into a mechanical space. US Navy vessels don’t typically transmit AIS signals, so we don’t know the exact location of the ship but a Navy source confirms she is anchored near Oman awaiting a full damage assessment.
Fortunately, no injuries or environmental damage have been reported for the ship. This is significant because the 33-year-old vessel is one of the single-hull versions of the Kaiser-class oilers.
Bill’s Commentary:
“As Jim used to say, “if you can’t catch it, you can’t kill it!””
A wilderness of mirrors: The Hegemon’s Last War
By Pepe Escobar on 24 September 2024
Andrei Martyanov has carved for himself a unique, haloed place when it comes to deep critical thinking of all matters of war and peace.In his previous books, in his blog Reminiscence of the Future and in countless podcasts, he has become the go-to source when it comes to the inner workings of the Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine as well as The Big Picture of the proxy war between the U.S. and its collective West minions against Russia.Naturally every new book by this delightful human being with a biting sense of humor is something to cherish – and this one, America’s Final War, the fourth in a series, should be seen as the crowning achievement in his carefully detailed analysis of a real revolution in military affairs that has completely bypassed the “indispensable nation.”Right off the bat, Martyanov addresses Russophobia – and how this overwhelming, Western-wide pathology “of a much larger scale than mere geopolitical contradictions between nations and states” is “taking on a metaphysical dimension, rising from its racial, religious, and cultural components”.Russophobia has only been exacerbated by unpleasant facts on the ground concerning the “Real Revolution in Military Affairs”: a true “paradigm shift” in warfare.Already in the preface, Martyanov outlines the state of things as we speak, or what I have recently defined as a War OF Terror:“The current U.S. economy and military will not be able to fight Russia conventionally; it would face defeat if it tried. So, the United States and combined West have resorted to terrorism”.Add to it that concerning the ongoing proxy clashes, “NATO is incapable of fighting a real war of the 21st century”. And even the U.S.’s “shortly to be overcome superiority in satellite constellations and NATO’s ability to fly with impunity in the international air space over Black Sea counts for little in real war, in which NATO would be made blind and its Command and Control disrupted.”“The best strategic assessment apparatus in the world”Martyanov engages in a necessary rewind to the situation pre- SMO, in late 2021, when the AFU was massing on the borders of Donetsk and Lugansk: “In a last-ditch attempt to avoid military confrontation with what at that time amounted to the best U.S. (and West) proxy force in history – trained and equipped with many critical C4 elements” – Russia presented the U.S. on December 15, 2021 with what Martyanov describes as a “diplomatic euphemism for demands” on Washington on mutual security guarantees: that was the notorious “indivisibility of security” proposal for Europe and the post-Soviet space.Martyanov is correct in evaluating that this was not exactly groundbreaking; it was “a reiteration of the same points which Russia had insisted upon since the 1990s”. The crucial point was of course non-expansion of NATO, specifically applied to Ukraine, “which since 2013 was becoming in effect NATO’s forward operational base.”That was Putin’s diplomatic gambit to prevent war. After all Russia’s political-military establishment had seen which way the dogs of war were barking, and were able to forecast “based on the superb intelligence and arguably the best strategic assessment apparatus in the world – the Russian General Staff, Service of Foreign Intelligence (SVR), FSB and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”Moving on down the road, what is now developing in the black soil of Novorossiya – NATO’s impeding humiliation – could not have possibly be understood as “the captains of the combined West” are essentially uber-incompetent: “Western academic and analytic institutions” not only are “not designed” to think strategically in terms of global balance of power and matters of war and peace but clueless on “Statecraft as Art of Governance and Military Art”.Russia, in contrast, applied creative governance that “manifested itself as an art”, not least through “forecasting and forestalling” NATO’s moves, “but specially so in the military and economic preparation” for the clash, “including through the process of constant adaptation to changing external and internal conditions”. Let’s call it a military art counterpart to the geoconomic intuition by Deng Xiaoping of “crossing the river while feeling the stones”.Martyanov characterizes the proxy war in Ukraine as a Stupidistan spectacular: “Considering a mediocre at best, at worst non-existent military-engineering background of the most influential actors in Biden’s administration, the difference between starting a war in Vietnam or Iraq, and starting a war on Russia’s threshold (…) was lost on them” – as they failed to realize that “Russia was a military superpower with an extremely advanced ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) complex”.Martyanov correctly dates the dramatic “descent” of the U.S. “from the pedestal of self-proclaimed military hegemony” to the sabotaging of the April 2022 Istanbul agreement – which was on the verge of being signed – when Boris Johnson, “a major in classics from Oxford and a clownish figure with zero grasp of military art, let alone science”, botched it on the orders of the Biden combo.Going HypersonicA highlight of the book is when Martyanov registers the American bewilderment when it comes to high supersonic missiles such as the Kh-32 and especially the hypersonic, Mach-10, Mr. Khinzal – as he had been warning for years in his books and blog that Hypersonic Russia “would render any NATO’s air defenses useless in any serious conflict”.Cue, for instance, to 2018 when he outlined that “Khinzal’s astonishing range of 2,000 kilometers makes the carriers of such missile, MiG-31K and TU-22M3M aircraft, invulnerable to the only defense a U.S. Carrier Battle Group, a main pillar of U.S. naval power, can mount.”As the SMO developed, “Russia dramatically ramped up production across the whole spectrum of its missile arsenal”: from the RS-28 Sarmat, which carries the strategic hypersonic Avangard, to “tactical-operational Iskanders, P-800 Oniks, hypersonic 3M22 Zircons, 3M14(M) ship and submarine cruise missiles”, and of course Mr. Khinzal himself.For NATO’s ISR complex things can only get worse, because the Khinzal is now carried by Su-34 fighter bombers, “which makes the work of identifying which ones are Khinzal carriers very difficult and leaves no time for warning”.A crucial theme in the book is the relationship between the Hegemon and war: “The U.S. is not just an expeditionary military, it is also imperial military which fights imperial wars of conquest and doesn’t address the concept of defense of a Mother – or Fatherland in its strategic and operational documents”.The conclusion is stark: “Thus it cannot fight a real conventional combined war of scale against a peer or better-than-peer opponent who fights in defense of their own country.”Implicit in this concise explanation of the U.S./NATO debacle in Novorossiya is the disproportionate power of the U.S. industrial-military complex: “The U.S. military doesn’t fight in defense of America, it fights for imperial conquests only. Russian soldiers fight in defense of their homeland.”U.S. conventional military supremacy: a bluffMartyanov once again details how a real revolution in military affairs is already taking place. From facts on the sea like the ominous Poseidon submarine – “capable to not only devastate shores but hunt down any carrier battle group with impunity” – to the immense gap in “capacity of tools of destruction” between Russia and NATO, complete with “the operational concepts that gave birth to these weapons systems.”On the inescapable face-off between Russia and the combined West, led by the U.S., Martyanov hits the heart of the matter. It is already global, and “spreads into all domains from the world ocean to space, and encompasses not just military but also related economic, financial and industrial capacities.”And that, crucially, was the initial operating framework of the SMO. Yet now it’s all evolving into a toxic mix of counter-terror operation and Hot War, potentially more lethal than Cold War 2.0.At this point in the book, Martyanov goes for the kill, asserting that as facts develop, “the much-propagandized U.S. conventional military supremacy is nothing but a bluff.”The Hegemon cannot “fight a peer or better than peer opponent and win such a fight”. Apart from an absolute freak out among Brzezinski epigones, one can imagine the desperation among the handful of neo-cons equipped to understand at least a simple mathematical equation.The only auspicious angle in all this turmoil is the apparent unwillingness by the War Party in the U.S. to “enter into open confrontation with Russia.” Yet what remains is as ghastly as a Hot War: the hybrid War OF Terror – as illustrated by the green light for Kiev to indiscriminately attack civilians inside the Russian Federation.As the book comes to a close, it would have to inevitably circle back to Russophobia: “Russia’s military record is telling – it has consistently defeated the best the West could throw at it when it mattered.” That’s a source of envy mixed with fear. Moreover, Russia remained Orthodox Christian, which only adds to the unmitigated hatred displayed by collective West elites.Martyanov comes up with a precious, concise formulation: “Especially after Trotsky has been exorcised by Stalin”, Russia ended up evolving into “a society with primarily conservative values”, very much derived from Orthodox Christianism, which crucially is part of a “non-Crusader historical ethos”.Whatever happens next, Russophobia simply won’t get erased from the Anglo-American “elite” worldview: “Russia in the form of the Soviet Union defeated the best West’s military force in history and a simple fact of the West’s efforts to rewrite this history by claiming the victory as theirs without acknowledgment of the USSR’s greater role reveals not only an ideological agenda and shoddy scholarship, but a deep lasting trauma.”The trauma persists and now has metastasized into a New Dementia Cycle – exemplified by the current War OF Terror and NATO’s plans to actually attempt an Operation Barbarrossa remix by 2030, all that while NATO’s “geopolitical humiliation remains a secret only for the most unsophisticated strata of the Western public.”That’s a diplomatic way of characterizing the relentless brainwashing and imbecilization of the post-modernist, post-Christian collective West.In Roman Empire days, Latins were able to turn something into a wasteland and declare victory. Martyanov’s chronicle of the fate of contemporary Empire turns Tacitus upside down: before they will be able to turn everything into a wasteland, a counterpower will inflict them inexorable defeat.
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