The post July CPI Comes in on Target: A Quick Note on Wages and Prices appeared first on CEPR.

My morning reads:

• Corporate America Has Suddenly Decided to Stop Blowing Money on AI: Companies big and small are mixing models and it’s changing the economics and power players of the industry. Model costs have collapsed and the spending discipline has arrived all at once. (Wall Street Journal)

• Women are making more money. Why are they still doing everything else? What happens when women’s economic role changes faster than anyone’s expectations do? Your Brain on Money on the second-shift persistence — earnings equality is advancing faster than domestic equality, and the mental load math hasn’t moved. (Your Brain on Money) see also Taylor Swift Bought Her Way Out of Biometric Surveillance. Kylie Jenner Wants to Sell It. In the age of facial recognition, privacy is a status symbol. Steffi Cao on facial recognition as ambient infrastructure — your phone, the TSA gate, the grocery store — and the one thing money can still buy its way out of. (Slate)

• For Family Offices, AI Is Both an Investment Theme and an Operational Test: Adoption of artificial intelligence tools and investments are rising across family offices. Chief Investment Officer on the double exposure — family offices allocating to AI while struggling to deploy it internally. (Chief Investment Officer)

• The Rolex Report 2026: The same leader, a different market: A Chrono24’s annual state of the secondary market — Rolex still dominates, but the price dynamics underneath have shifted meaningfully from the 2022 peak era. The analysis of completed transactions from 2018 to Q2 2026 shows Rolex’s pandemic premium has fully unwound. The brand stays in front, but its lead has narrowed across every segment and younger buyers are spreading their money more widely.  (Chrono24)

• Paramount Has Spent 100 Years in Hollywood. David Ellison Loved That. Until He Didn’t: The Hollywood Reporter on Ellison’s pivot from studio romantic to cost-cutter — the century-old lot, the layoffs, and the streaming math that changed his mind. The mogul says he’s considering moving his studio out of California. Not long ago, he was talking a big game about how a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery would boost the state. (Hollywood Reporter)

• Waymo Is Growing Faster Than Ever. So Are Its Glitches: The New York Times on the scaling paradox — the expansion is working, the safety record holds, and the edge cases multiply anyway. As Waymo deploys more driverless cars to 15 U.S. cities and counting, its vehicles keep encountering new and unexpected situations that they have no script to handle. (New York Times)

• The Rise of the Unstoppable American Tourist: A strong dollar, accumulated savings and no apparent price sensitivity. Europe has noticed. A supercharged U.S. economy has helped transform a nation of homebodies into zealous international travelers; ‘Travel isn’t optional’ (Wall Street Journal)

• Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse: The Walrus on the post-search internet — AI answers replacing links, the traffic collapse downstream, and the information ecosystem nobody chose. As AI eats the web, the internet’s collective memory is disappearing (The Walrus)

• Dogs Can Tell When You’re Happy, Sad or Frustrated, Study Shows: Kathleen Felton on researchers scanning awake, unrestrained dogs to test how deep the emotional read actually goes. Anyone with a dog suspected as much; the brain imaging is the new part. (Washington Post) see also Can Florida’s ‘coastal corridor’ project safeguard wildlife and boost economy? Conservationists have created a ‘coastal corridor’ of ocean-based projects designed to preserve and nourish vulnerable marine life. Richard Luscombe on disappearing manatees, bleached reefs, gender-changing turtles and hurricane-wrecked oyster beds — and an attempt to borrow a conservation playbook that already worked on land.  (The Guardian).

• The 2026 song of the summer: The Washington Post’s interactive on the summer-song race — the data, the contenders, and how the category itself has fragmented — a dreamy, data-driven quest to find the summer soundtrack of 2026. (Washington Post)

Video of the day: This Is The Most Effective Home Wind Turbine In The World. Why Don’t We Use It?

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Dr. Ankur Crawford, EVP and Portfolio Manager at Alger. She heads the firm’s flagship Alger Capital Appreciation strategies. She was an Engineer at Intel, won the Intel Ph.D. Fellowship, and was awarded fellowship Natl Academy of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine, and holds several U.S. patents.  She was recognized as a “Top Women in Asset Management” in 2020 and serves on the board of The Knowledge House, a Bronx-based charity teaching technology skills to underserved communities.

 

Artificial intelligence has never been more important to the US economy than it is right now

Source: Derek Thompson

 

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

 

The post 10 Thursday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Ann Arbor Is The 'Most Educated' City In America

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, ranks the most educated U.S. cities in 2026, highlighting metropolitan areas with high levels of educational attainment and strong local education systems.

The data for this visualization comes from WalletHub. Cities were ranked using a weighted composite score based on educational attainment (80%) and education quality and equality (20%).

College Towns Continue to Lead

Ann Arbor, Michigan, ranks first with an overall score of 94.48, driven by exceptionally high educational attainment.

Rank Most Educated Cities State Total Score (0-100) 1 Ann Arbor MI 94.48 2 Durham NC 85.00 3 San Jose CA 82.67 4 Washington DC 81.93 5 Madison WI 79.62 6 San Francisco CA 78.92 7 Raleigh NC 77.88 8 Boston MA 77.78 9 Austin TX 76.46 10 Seattle WA 75.21 11 Portland ME 71.85 12 Denver CO 71.37 13 Colorado Springs CO 69.94 14 Bridgeport CT 69.71 15 Provo UT 69.55 16 Portland OR 67.83 17 Huntsville AL 67.69 18 Minneapolis MN 66.72 19 Baltimore MD 66.56 20 Albany NY 66.49 21 Trenton NJ 66.02 22 San Diego CA 65.78 23 Tallahassee FL 65.75 24 Lexington KY 65.44 25 Asheville NC 64.45 26 Atlanta GA 64.03 27 Charleston SC 63.52 28 New Haven CT 62.75 29 Hartford CT 62.63 30 New York NY 62.48

More than 96% of adults in Ann Arbor have earned at least a high school diploma. The presence of the University of Michigan also contributes to the area’s highly educated population.

Durham, North Carolina, ranks second, reflecting the influence of Duke University and the broader Research Triangle.

Madison, Wisconsin, also earns a top-five finish, supported by the University of Wisconsin and a workforce anchored by government, health care, and research.

Technology Hubs Also Rank Highly

Several of the country’s leading technology centers rank among its most educated cities.

San Jose places third, followed by San Francisco in sixth and Seattle in 10th, reflecting the concentration of highly skilled workers in Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest.

Austin ranks ninth as its growing technology sector continues to attract graduates and professionals from across the country.

Washington, D.C., places fourth, supported by a highly educated workforce across government, consulting, law, and policy organizations.

The East Coast Has a Strong Presence

Nearly half of the top 30 cities are located on the East Coast, reflecting the region’s dense network of universities, research institutions, and knowledge-based industries.

Boston, Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, Albany, Trenton, Baltimore, and New York all make the list.

Many of these metropolitan areas benefit from long-term investment in higher education and proximity to major employers in finance, health care, biotechnology, and government.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Which U.S. States Depend Most on Manufacturing? on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 22:10

Common Blood Pressure Drug Recalled Nationwide, FDA Says

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation recalled some heart failure and high blood pressure medication due to potency issues, according to the Food and Drug Administration's website.

Hottie pharmacist at a Florida pharmacy, in this file photo. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images. Would. 

The recall affects one lot of Diovan, Novartis' valsartan brand, according to a report issued last week. The lot includes 160-milligram tablets in 90-count bottles, with the lot number AV5913C, and an expiration date of June 2027.

The drug is prescription-only and manufactured by North Carolina-based Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC and distributed by Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical company that is one of the largest in the world.

According to the FDA notice, the reason for the recall is due to "failed dissolution specifications," meaning that the pills may not dissolve correctly in the body when ingested.

The recall was initiated on Aug. 4, while the FDA later classified the recall as Class II, which it describes as "a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote."

The notice did not say how many bottles of the medication were impacted but added that it is a nationwide recall.

The Mayo Clinic says that valsartan is a type of angiotensin II receptor blocker, which stops "a substance in the body that causes blood vessels to tighten."

It can be used by itself or together with other medicines to treat high blood pressure, heart failure, and left ventricular failure following a heart attack.

Valsartan is commonly prescribed, according to drug database ClinCalc, with around 10.9 million patients taking the medication in 2024.

In 2018, in a separate instance, global health agencies and the FDA launched significant recalls of valsartan after it was linked to contamination produced by Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals, located in Linhai, China. The medications were discovered to have high levels of N-nitrosodimethylamine, which can be carcinogenic.

Other Heart Drug Recalls

Earlier this month, India-based drug manufacturer Alkem Laboratories Ltd. said it was recalling more than 5,600 packages of a heart and blood-thinning medication, dabigatran etexilate, according to an FDA notice.

The recall was due to "failed impurity/degradation specification" in a tested batch of the drug, according to the notice.

Amlodipine and olmesartan medoxomil tablets - in 10 mg and 20 mg doses, respectively - are being recalled nationwide, according to a separate FDA notice in July.

The product was manufactured by Alkem Laboratories Ltd. and distributed by New Jersey-based Ascend Laboratories LLC, according to the report, which added that 6,192 bottles are affected by the action.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 21:45

Experts Question Why Polls Were So Wrong In The Wisconsin Primary

Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong entered primary day as the prohibitive favorite to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for Wisconsin governor.

Yet, she wound up narrowly losing to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley instead.

Crowley beat Hong by 0.4 percentage points, a margin of about 3,000 votes, in a race that polling had shown Hong leading by about 20 points for weeks.

Despite the slim margin, Hong ultimately conceded the race, and now Crowley will face Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany in November.

The gap between expectation and outcome sent pollsters, analysts, and commentators searching for an explanation, and their answers vary.

Marquette Law School polled the race twice, catching it at two different stages of collapse. The first, taken July 8-16 while Crowley sat out, had Hong at 26%, Barnes at 15%, and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez at 11%. Rodriguez dropped out the next day. Crowley climbed back in July 18, and by the time Marquette polled again July 22-27, Hong had jumped to 38%, Barnes had ticked up to 16%, and Crowley had 7%. Barnes quit three days after that.

Both polls had small samples, margins of error above four points, and undecided voters in the 30s and 40s. Neither one could have caught what came next. Hong's 2021 posts calling for canceling Thanksgiving resurfaced in early August. She defended the posts on CNN, then reversed course on Politico, calling Thanksgiving her favorite holiday. The reversal revived old criticism of her past comments on her own "proximity to whiteness."

By August 3-6, when State Navigate polled a settled field, Hong still led, 44% to Crowley's 22%, with Sen. Kelda Roys at 11%. Kalshi had her as a 95.5% favorite as late as the Monday before the primary. By Tuesday afternoon, that number had fallen to 58%. Hong finished at 39.4%, close to what the late polls predicted. Crowley was the miss. The polls undercounted him by a wide margin. Roys took 7.5%, and former state official Joel Brennan took 4.7%, enough combined that their absence could have changed who won.

Pollster Nate Silver posted his confusion Tuesday night on X. 

"Hong might come back, but wtf is up with these primary polls?" he wrote.

Silver followed up, noting that many modern polls function as statistical models rather than raw snapshots, writing that "primaries are very hard to model from first principles, whereas general elections are relatively easy given very high partisanship and usually predictable demographic relationships."

Political scientist Larry Sabato pointed to a similar failure in Michigan days earlier, where Democratic Socialist Abdul El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Senate primary. Sabato wrote, "What amazes me is that just a few days ago, the same polling train wreck happened in Michigan. Few learned anything."

Pollster Frank Luntz said he agreed with Sabato's assessment.

CNN's Harry Enten suggested pollsters oversampled young progressive voters, inflating apparent support for socialist-aligned candidates in both states. 

“When you kind of look at the polling, you go, ‘Hey, wait a minute, maybe these polls had too many younger folks in them.’ And I think that speaks to something larger potentially, which is all these pollings, which are sewing progressivism on the left, the far left rising, seeing Democratic socialism, especially in the case of Wisconsin, rising, you got to look at these results and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Maybe, Johnny, maybe these polls are overestimating how much that Democratic socialism is rising within the Democratic Party,’ because in two key statewide races in a row, what we've seen is the lefties being vastly overestimated. And in the case of Wisconsin, the Democratic socialists being vastly overestimated by 20 points.”

The polls may have given Francesca Hong a coronation, but Wisconsin voters had other plans.

David Crowley’s comeback underscores the cost of allowing fashionable ideology, activist energy, and faulty assumptions to replace a serious reading of the electorate, and once again, the polling industry has egg on its face.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 21:20

Shocked! ICE To Equip Officers With Gloves That Can Deliver Electric Zaps

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that can deliver electric shocks for its agents, according to a notice published by the Department of Homeland Security on Aug. 10.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk outside the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura, Calif., on July 27, 2026. Blake Fagan/AFP via Getty Images

The devices, known as CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E, or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, are expected to be delivered by March 31, 2027, according to the notice.

The notice refers to the gloves as "conductive distraction and de-escalation" devices, which ICE seeks to buy for Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations officers and agents.

The device manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, states on its website that the devices were designed "to supplement existing tools for law enforcement, corrections, security, EMS [Emergency Medical Services] and the military."

The devices must be applied directly to someone's skin and are ineffective through clothing or hair, according to the user manual. No more than two gloves should be used at a time, with each application lasting not more than 15 seconds, it states.

Compliant Technologies said the gloves should not be used to respond to "verbal defiance or belligerence," as punishment or for torture. The company also warned against using them on children, elderly people, pregnant women, or people with disabilities.

The manual also recommends that the gloves be deployed as necessary to "accomplish lawful objectives within the scope of the agency's policies" when a suspect becomes violent to the point of endangering the officer or the public.

Officers must be trained and certified to use the gloves, with recertification required every two years, according to the manual.

The Epoch Times reached out to both the Department of Homeland Security and Compliant Technologies for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director for policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, expressed doubt that ICE officers would use the devices appropriately and questioned why the devices would be necessary for civil immigration enforcement.

"ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force. Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do," she said. "Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public."

Meanwhile, acting ICE Director David Venturella announced on Aug. 8 that federal agents will be equipped with body-worn cameras by the end of the month in a move to increase "transparency and accountability."

The cameras are a key measure that congressional Democrats demanded during a months-long funding dispute earlier this year over the funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

Democratic lawmakers in Congress have demanded that ICE be reformed following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal agents during operations in Minnesota earlier this year.

Troy Myers and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 20:55

Mamdani's Socialist Utopia Collides With Reality As Manhattan Rents Hit Record

Socialist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani built his political campaign by relentlessly attacking America and, most importantly, portraying capitalism as the root cause of nearly every social problem, from affordability pressures to soaring rents.

Voters were sold the idea that his administration could deliver an instant utopian transformation built on free bus rides, government-run grocery stores, and cheap housing.

However, like every Marxist before him, Mamdani's vision of utopia is not grounded in economic reality. The dream pitched to millions across the metropolitan area is now colliding with market reality: a continuing nightmare for renters. Even with Mamdani's rent freeze and threat of a pied-à-terre tax, rents are still rising.

Delving into the granular data, a report from the New York Post, citing data from Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, shows that Manhattan's average monthly rent jumped to a record $6,655 in July, up 10% from a year earlier.

The median rent reached $5,295, a 6% increase from the same month one year ago, according to the data. Average rents rose across every apartment category, including 8% for studios to $4,088, 7% for one-bedroom apartments to $5,486 and 13% for two-bedroom apartments to $8,054. Three-bedroom apartments averaged $12,228, up 12%.

NYC's rental vacancy rate has fallen to 1.49%, the lowest since 1968 and well below the 5% threshold typically associated with a landlord's market. Separately, state data show that roughly 57,000 rent-stabilized apartments sat vacant in 2025

A severe housing shortage, elevated mortgage rates, and new rental regulations have intensified competition for available apartments. Let's not forget that a recent Center for Migration Studies report showed that more than 500,000 illegal aliens live in NYC.

Via Pew Research 

Yet the socialists in City Hall have no interest in deporting illegal aliens - that because that's their imported voter bloc. These illegals add pressure to the housing supply and force rental prices higher. Even the Dallas Federal Reserve recently confirmed that the illegal alien invasion under the Biden-Harris regime led to pressure on rents and housing prices on a national level. 

To begin the week, a New York judge temporarily halted Mamdani's socialist tax experiment on second homes. The far-left in City Hall also published a controversial list doxing more than 900,000 homeowners, exposing them to targeting by radical activists, including Luigi-worshipping far-left activists. Maybe the socialists' game is not affordability but more about seizing private property.

President Trump commented on Truth Social yesterday about Mamdani's dangerous tax "experiment" before it "destroys what was once a great City and State." He said the federal government is looking for ways to challenge the tax scheme. 

Related:

• Rich-Kid Mamdani Ally Wants To "Abolish Rent"; Could Hawley Reform Bill Stop College Indoctrination?

Beyond tax schemes, doxing wealthy, and attempted rent freezes, Mamdani and the radical left are trying to build more housing, but that takes time, something they do not have if they hope to prove that their utopian vision works. These policies may work in the short run if implemented, but over the long term, such fundamentally flawed policies have repeatedly failed around the world. 

Meanwhile...

Reality Bites: Socialist NYC Mayor Mamdani Turns To Capitalist Bankers For Help https://t.co/C18ePozoCI

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 7, 2026

Read: South America Just Rejected Socialism. So Why Is North America Buying It?

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 20:30

The Return Of Economic Gaslighting

Authored by Connor O'Keefe via The Mises Institute,

Around two and a half years ago, as the Biden administration was entering what we now know was its final year, the then-president’s re-election campaign was growing frustrated.

According to nearly all the big economic indicators and aggregates, the economy was doing quite well, especially considering the historic shutdown governments had forced on the global economy a few years before.

However, at the same time, the American public as a whole felt very negatively about that same economy. And that negativity was persistent.

That diversion appeared to genuinely baffle some media figures and political strategists who seemed to believe everything you could ever need to know about the health of the economy could be gleaned entirely from GDP and the unemployment rate. But, more urgently, it forced the president’s team to make a decision.

On one hand, they could find some politically useful scapegoat for the public’s economic discomfort and run a campaign on addressing it. That would allow them to meet voters where they were, but it would force them to tone down their aggressive celebrations of all the nominally strong economic data drops.

On the other hand, they could continue to celebrate the “strong” economy and give themselves credit for rescuing the country from the dark days of covid with “daring” legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Acts.

Clearly, the team of presumably seasoned political strategists on Biden and later Harris’ campaign chose to pursue the latter. It went terribly.

In one of the most unsurprising developments in modern American politics, it turned out that people who were struggling to navigate the aftermath of the government’s destructive economic shutdowns and keep up with rising prices did not like being told by establishment-approved economic “experts” that they were essentially stupid if they didn’t understand how excellent the economy actually was.

And the establishment really did try. The media loudly credited Biden and the big spending bills he helped move through Congress whenever a good jobs report came out and then all but ignored the later revisions that revealed virtually all that job growth wasn’t real. Establishment-friendly economists kept the public laser-focused on GDP as the one and only indicator of the economy’s strength while leaving out how much government spending was propping the number up. And an effort was made to falsely frame all negative economic sentiment as a dishonest ploy by Biden’s political opponents to tank the president’s re-election bid.

None of it worked. The majority of the American public, including a sufficient number of independent voters, could tell that something was deeply wrong with the American economy. And that, worse than merely doing nothing about it, the people in power were trying to gaslight them into thinking everything was fine.

Trump won, in large part, because he focused on confronting this mounting “affordability crisis” as it was quickly coming to be called. But now, as the midterms approach and he and his party are the ones in charge, the Republicans are faced with the exact same choice the Democrats had been faced with before 2024. And, notably, they have decided to adopt the same strategy that helped torpedo the Democrats last time around.

That was made very clear on social media last week after an X post about the price of burritos ignited a firestorm on the right. Trump-aligned figures lambasted the younger generations especially for continuing to espouse the very sentiment that helped propel Trump back to the White House. Again, the disaffected public was told to shut up, accept what the president was saying about how this was the strongest economy ever, continue to vote Republican, and scrounge together cheaper food if they didn’t like how much burritos cost nowadays.

The figures and specific talking points may differ, but the formula remains the same.

First, voters can tell that the economy is not only weaker than the official metrics are letting on, but that, somehow, it is rigged against them.

They then vote for the party or candidates who are closest to echoing this sentiment and who promise to make sweeping changes in the name of addressing this economic pain.

Then, when that sense that something in the economy is off persists after those politicians get into office, anyone who points that out is called either a liar, lazy, or bad at managing their money by the very people who they had once voted for and supported.

This kind of cyclical economic gaslighting is infuriating. But it isn’t surprising.

The cause of this so-called affordability crisis is not a mystery. It is, primarily, the result of the government inflating the money supply. When the Federal Reserve creates new money out of thin air to buy financial assets, the purchasing power of all dollars goes down—something we all experience as a general rise in prices. But it does not happen instantaneously across the whole economy. The people who get their hands on the new dollars first get to use that new money to buy things at old prices. And, on the other side of the spectrum, the people who get the new money last have to first pay higher prices before they ever get access to the new money that helped bid those prices up.

This is called the Cantillon effect, and it is, in every way, a forced wealth transfer from the bulk of the population to the small, typically well-connected group who gets the money first. However, what makes this form of redistribution especially damaging is that, even though economic theory is very clear that it is inevitable with the kinds of monetary operations the Fed is doing, it is not easy to identify. There is evidence if you know where to look and what to look for. But for most everyday people, this institutionalized theft is only ever experienced as this vague sense that things are getting less affordable.

That difficulty in detecting the true cause of this impoverishing policy gives the monetary authorities and all the people in government and well-connected industries who benefit from it a lot more room to operate than they typically get with more visible measures of taking our wealth, like taxes and government borrowing.

So money printing has become one of the primary ways the political class both transfers our wealth to themselves and, because the Fed also loans many of the dollars it creates directly to the Treasury Department, funds their extremely expensive government programs. That’s been true for decades. But the levels of theft through money printing hit historic levels during the pandemic. The Fed printed trillions of new dollars and injected most of them straight into the economy.

That is the reason we’re dealing with this so-called “affordability crisis” and, further, why there is such a visceral sense among the public that something is deeply wrong with the economy. That, somehow, they’re being ripped off. And they are right.

However, this isn’t ever talked about in the establishment media or genuinely taken on by politicians in either party because solving the problems caused by the Fed’s money printing is not in the interest of those in power. What is in their interest is using the money spigot for their own ends while obfuscating the issue in public and redirecting people’s righteous anger towards some useful scapegoat.

The Trump administration is facing no pressure to address the true cause of this problem and—with the expensive war they launched and their complete disinterest in doing anything but increasing federal spending—every reason to keep it going.

That puts them in a hard electoral position, but the truth is, with the massive increase in social spending most democrats are calling for, the other party will—once again—be in the same boat once they win back some power.

In other words, unless and until people wake up to the political class’s scheme or, at least, grow used to the jump in prices caused by the government’s historic monetary expansion during covid, the gaslighting will continue.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 20:05

Nearly Half Of NYC Homeless Deaths Due To Drugs Or Alcohol: Study

Nearly half of all deaths among New York City's homeless population in the most recent fiscal year were connected to drug use or alcohol abuse, according to a new city report.

A homeless man sits in the cold in Manhattan on Dec. 27. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Of the 634 people experiencing homelessness who died between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, 285 lost their lives to drug addiction, overdoses, or alcoholism. The figures come from the annual mortality report jointly issued by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Department of Social Services/Homeless Services.

Drug-related causes alone accounted for 251 deaths, or 40 percent of the total - still the leading cause of death among this population. Alcohol misuse or dependence contributed another 34 deaths (5 percent). Together, substance-related deaths made up roughly 45 percent of the total, the NY Post reports.

The report covers deaths that occurred in temporary shelters, on the streets, in the subway system, in abandoned buildings, and in other locations. Fifty-two percent of those who died were classified as unsheltered; 48 percent were living in a homeless facility at the time of death. Most (58 percent) died in a hospital. Among unsheltered individuals, 22 percent died outdoors.

Other leading causes of death included heart disease (78 deaths, 12 percent), accidents excluding drug overdoses (60 deaths, 9 percent), and cancer (23 deaths, 4 percent). Additional figures included 18 suicides, 15 deaths from hypothermia or cold exposure, 15 subway-related accidents, 14 motor-vehicle accidents, and 11 homicides. A small number of deaths involved toxic substances, heat exposure, or falls. In ten cases, the manner of death could not be determined.

The overall number of deaths declined nearly 18 percent from the previous year, when 770 people experiencing homelessness died. Drug-related deaths specifically fell 28 percent, from 348 in fiscal year 2024 to 251 in fiscal year 2025. Despite the drop, substance use remained the dominant cause of mortality, consistent with both citywide and national patterns.

City officials noted that the true toll is likely higher. Thousands of migrants housed in temporary facilities operated by other agencies during the border crisis were not fully included in the data-matching process, meaning some deaths may have gone uncounted as homeless fatalities.

The report is the 20th in the annual series required by law. Authors said the data help identify pressing health risks for a highly vulnerable population that faces elevated rates of poorly controlled physical and mental health conditions, compounded by poverty, housing instability, and other social stressors.

As of early August 2026, the city's shelter system housed roughly 83,200 people - down from a peak above 100,000 during the height of the migrant influx. The city has extended a $1.86 billion contract to continue using commercial hotels as emergency shelter for the next three years.

A man rests against a wall appearing to be under the influence of drugs on a street in the South Bronx on June 7 in New York City. Spencer Platt / Getty Images file Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 19:40

White House Ends TikTok Ban On Government Devices

Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times,

The White House has allowed Executive Branch employees to use TikTok on their government devices.

The Office of Management and Budget on Aug. 10 issued a memorandum to heads of executive departments and agencies, stating that “TikTok may be used on government devices.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to TikTok for comment.

This comes after the Department of Justice issued a memorandum on July 17 that said federal employees can again use TikTok on their government devices.

The app was banned in 2022 over national security concerns surrounding TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

The U.S. version of the app is operated by the TikTok U.S. Data Security Joint Venture, whose majority ownership consists of American investors.

It has changed the algorithm and cybersecurity measures that were created by the firm.

The joint venture’s managing investors are Oracle, MGX, and Silver Lake, owning a total of 45 percent of its shares.

“Employees of Executive Branch agencies may download TikTok onto their official devices, subject to the agency’s discretion and consistent with all applicable workplace policies,” the DOJ said in its memorandum.

According to the DOJ, the TikTok U.S. Data Security Joint Venture uses third-party cybersecurity experts to monitor and certify privacy while detecting any vulnerabilities.

“These safeguards would appear to make TikTok USDS just as data-secure as any other social networking service, if not more so,” the DOJ said.

“We conclude that, as a matter of statutory interpretation, the version of TikTok currently available for download in the United States [no longer falls] within that prohibited category of applications.”

The DOJ said federal agencies can independently decide whether to ban TikTok from government devices.

The memo noted that the federal government-TikTok relationship has been strained since at least 2020.

In 2022, Congress passed the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, instructing the Office of Management and Budget to provide guidelines for agencies to delete TikTok or any other app developed by ByteDance from government devices.

In 2024, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, making it illegal for any entity to distribute, maintain, or update any foreign-adversary-controlled application.

During his first day in office, President Donald Trump postponed the implementation of the ban. He has since again delayed it.

Following the DOJ memo, the Treasury, Transportation, and Health and Human Services Departments set up TikTok accounts. Last year, the White House created a TikTok account.

TikTok is banned on congressional devices in the House and Senate.

It’s also prohibited on state government devices in states such as Texas and Virginia.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 19:15

New Orleans Becomes First Major U.S. City To Let AI Answer 911

New Orleans is testing just how much Americans are willing to trust artificial intelligence when the stakes are considerably higher than writing an email or ordering dinner, according to the New York Post.

The city has begun allowing an AI system to field certain 911 calls, apparently making it the first major U.S. municipality to put a bot directly between emergency callers and human operators.

The idea is largely about volume. New Orleans' emergency communications center receives more than 1,000 calls on a typical day, and officials believe automation can clear some of the clutter while dispatchers concentrate on genuine emergencies.

The technology isn't supposed to take over the entire 911 operation. Instead, it can deal with situations that appear redundant or relatively routine when human operators are tied up. A flood of calls about the same already-reported car accident, for example, could potentially be filtered through the automated system rather than occupying multiple dispatchers.

The Post writes that city officials insist humans remain at the center of the operation. But skeptics say emergency calls are precisely the kind of messy, unpredictable interactions computers may struggle to interpret.

People dialing 911 aren't reading from scripts. They may be terrified, whispering, intoxicated, injured, confused or speaking through heavy background noise. In some situations, callers intentionally conceal what's happening because another person is nearby.

One online critic who identified himself as a former 911 dispatcher called the experiment “the worst idea you could possibly think of,” arguing that experienced operators routinely listen for clues beyond the caller's literal words.

That concern becomes more significant given the continuing reliability problems surrounding conversational AI. Voice models can confidently produce incorrect information, while cybersecurity researchers have shown that specially constructed audio can sometimes manipulate AI systems into behaving in unintended ways.

New Orleans isn't alone in bringing algorithms into emergency services. Atlanta uses AI technology to assist operators in locating callers, while Seattle has used automated tools to help sort medical calls by urgency. The distinction is that New Orleans appears to be going further by allowing AI to actually interact with some people dialing 911.

Officials believe safeguards, human supervision and strict limits on when the system is activated can make the technology useful without handing emergency response over to a machine.

It's an ambitious experiment, although perhaps an uncomfortable one: the next time somebody calls 911 in New Orleans, the first voice answering may not belong to a person at all.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 18:50

Illegal Immigrant Pleads Guilty To Purchasing 91 Firearms

Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times,

An illegal immigrant from Mexico has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges related to purchasing 91 firearms and 40,000 rounds of ammunition.

A sign displaying "No firearms in Mexico" its outside a border entry point in Naco, Ariz., on March 5, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon announced on Aug. 10 that Samuel Rodrigo Melo Santos pleaded guilty to being an alien in possession of a firearm and making false statements in the acquisition of a firearm.

Authorities said Melo Santos illegally entered the United States through Arizona in May 2024 but was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol and deported to Mexico.

He later illegally re-entered at an unknown date and location.

Between May 2024 and July 2025, Melo Santos purchased 91 firearms for $56,448, along with 40,000 rounds of ammunition, for illegal resale, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said one of the firearms was later recovered in Mexico.

"This criminal illegal alien from Mexico pleaded guilty to buying more than 90 guns and 40,000 rounds of ammunition so he could illegally resell them," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.

"Once his sentence is complete, [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] will remove him from our country."

Melo Santos was arrested by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) on Dec. 16, 2025, before being transferred to U.S. Marshals Service custody.

The investigation was led by ATF, with assistance from ICE Homeland Security Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Harper is prosecuting the case.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 2,227 seizures involving firearms and ammunition have occurred so far in 2026. The agency reported 2,997 such seizures in 2025 and 4,932 in 2024.

In 2026, CBP has intercepted 1,447 handguns and 688 explosives. In 2025, the agency took 2,487 handguns and 473 explosives, compared with 2,299 handguns and 1,816 explosives in 2024.

In February, ATF reported that since Jan. 20, 2025, it had seized 36,277 crime guns and more than 2.3 million rounds of ammunition from prohibited individuals, including gang members and suppliers of transnational criminal organizations.

More than 4,300 of the seized firearms were bound for Mexico for alleged use by violent drug cartels and gangs.

Nearly 650,000 rounds of ammunition were also bound for Mexico - an average of more than 1,600 rounds per day, according to ATF.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 18:25

Robocalls Are Increasing In US As Report Lists Worst-Impacted Area Codes

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

A new report found that Americans are continuing to get bombarded by robocalls, with more than 4 billion recorded in July, according to blocking service YouMail.

A smartphone displays the icons of some of the main artificial intelligence based apps, including Meta AI, Grok, Gemini, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and ChatGPT, in Saint-Mande, France, on July 15, 2026. Martin Lelievre/AFP via Getty Images

There were 4.3 billion robocalls received across the United States last month, said YouMail in a news release.

On average, July saw 139.3 million robocalls per day and 1,612 robocalls per second, which is slightly lower than the 141.8 million robocalls per day, and 1,642 calls per second recorded in June.

Unwanted robocalls also increased by nearly 6 percent in July 2026 as consumers received more than 2.1 billion such calls that month, it said.

According to the report, about 51 percent of robocalls were likely wanted, and 49 percent were likely unwanted.

"Monthly robocall volumes have been slowly creeping upward, and we're more than 15 percent above the lowest levels we saw last October," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici in a statement, noting "the dangers of scam calls" despite robocall activity being "much lower than historic levels."

YouMail said that the "most problematic robocall campaigns" in July revolved around pre-approved loan officers that claim to inform a consumer that they have qualified for a loan with relatively low monthly payments.

"Hi, this is Cornelius about your recent personal loan inquiry," said an example of a robocall on loans, provided by the company.

"I'm happy to share that you've qualified for up to $45,000 with monthly payments around $575. I want to take a few minutes to go through the details with you and answer any questions before we get the paperwork started."

That campaign, YouMail said, originated from thousands of separate phone numbers and used a "small set of recurring caller names" with different loan amounts, payment terms, and contact numbers.

More than 40 million calls were generated from the campaign last month, according to YouMail.

Consumers, meanwhile, have reported the loan-related calls as likely spam and said they never asked about or applied for a loan.

According to YouMail, area codes in the United States that saw the largest increases in robocalls in July were: area code 346 in Houston, Texas; area code 470 in Atlanta, Georgia; area code 229 in Albany, Georgia; area code 765 in Indianapolis, Indiana; area code 901 in Memphis, Tennessee; area code 812 in Evansville, Indiana; area code 720 in Denver, Colorado; area code 870 in Jonesboro, Arkansas; area code 931 in Clarksville, Tennessee; and area code 254 in Killeen, Texas.

"As with similar campaigns, this appears to be, at a minimum, illegal telemarketing at scale," the company said. "Based on consumer reports and the behavior of the calls, it's likely to be a scam."

Earlier this month, a bill to reduce robocalls passed in the Senate that cracks down on calls originating from outside the United States.

"As foreign robocallers step up their efforts to exploit and prey on vulnerable people, we need to do more to combat this unlawful practice and protect Americans from scams," said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Va.) in a statement.

Consumers can opt into the National Do Not Call Registry, a federal government database that lists phone numbers of people who have requested that telemarketers not contact them.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 17:40

US Attorney Makes Rare Move By Convening Special Grand Jury in Washington

D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has taken the rare step of convening a 'special' grand jury in Washington, according to the Washington Post.

US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro walks outside the White House, September 2, in Washington. Mark Schiefelbein/AP

It will be overseen by Steven Vandervelden, a key Pirro lieutenant, the Post said. Vandervelden has run some of the office's most contentious investigations - including the failed probe of then-Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and an inquiry into whether D.C. police tampered with their own crime statistics.

Unlike a regular grand jury, a special grand jury can issue a potentially scathing report on the target of an investigation even when prosecutors ultimately decide there isn't enough evidence to bring charges.

"They are very unusual," said Niki Kuckes, a professor at Roger Williams University. "Sometimes they can issue a report, which a regular grand jury can't do."

"It's a very protective scheme. A majority of the grand jurors have to decide to issue the report," Kuckes added. "And a special grand jury has to be set up to investigate some criminal wrongdoing. You can't just have one to issue a report."

The Post notes:

A special grand jury has several unique characteristics. The 23 members focus only on a single case - or a string of cases that prosecutors present as related - instead of juggling a variety of matters like most grand juries. And a special grand jury's ability to issue a report at the end of an investigation sets it apart.

That report can name specific individuals even if prosecutors do not find enough evidence to bring the people to trial, as long as the report shows that there is a "preponderance of evidence" of wrongdoing. That is a significantly lower standard than the "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt" that is needed to convict someone.

What this one is investigating is not known. Legal experts told the Post there is no known recent precedent for a special grand jury in Washington; they are typically reserved for large jurisdictions where organized crime is presumed, or for major matters like Georgia's 2020 election interference case and the federal Enron probe.

The disclosure lands in the middle of an open feud between Pirro and the president who appointed her.

On July 31, Pirro's office moved to drop felony vandalism charges against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, one of four defendants accused in connection with damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Her filing directly contradicted Trump's repeated claim that the pool was vandalized, concluding the damage resulted from a botched installation rushed to completion ahead of the America 250 celebrations. Pirro said her prosecutors had been misled by the Interior Department.

Trump unloaded from the Oval Office on Aug. 3. "The judge was extremely unfriendly to Jeanine, and frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious," he told reporters. "And I guess she choked. I don't know what the hell happened." Minutes later he added that Pirro had "folded like an umbrella."

Judge Todd Edelman formally dismissed the case on Aug. 6. The following day, Trump demanded Pirro "revisit her hastily made decision," posting photos he said showed knife cuts in the pool's liner.

Asked whether Pirro would keep her job, Trump said he had not "made a determination yet."

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 17:20

WHO Defends Childhood Vaccination Schedules After Trump Order

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Aug. 11 defended its immunization guidelines after President Donald Trump issued an order to change the childhood vaccination schedule to space out the shots.

A health worker prepares a vaccine in Texas in a file image. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

On Aug. 10, Trump signed an order to recommend administering the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in three shots during separate visits. The combined MMR shot is commonly given to children, and some states mandate the vaccine for attendance at day care, schools, and summer camps.

Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the United Nations' health body, referred to the Trump administration's changes during a press briefing on Tuesday, saying that WHO's vaccine recommendations are "based on years of research across the world on how the immune system develops, when a person is most susceptible for a disease and how to keep protection strong."

"This is the advice we give to all countries, and we hope that all countries will use this best scientific evidence that we have," Jasarevic said, adding, "we have to always stress that the science does evolve to make their immunization programs for their citizens."

During Monday's signing event, Trump also called for only 11 key vaccines, and argued that spreading out the shots was critical for a child's health. Children should receive their shots in one year with five separate visits, he added. Previously, the Department of Health and Human Services had recommended 17 vaccines, which was revised down to 11 by the agency earlier this year.

Kush Desai, a Trump spokesperson, told media outlets on Aug. 10 that the president is "one of countless parents who have voiced questions and concerns about the combined MMR vaccine" and said that with the change, parents are provided "more options on timing and frequency for their children" and that this would increase vaccine uptake.

In January, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV), and varicella (chickenpox).

When the vaccine total was revised, several groups, including the American College of Physicians, sharply criticized the Trump administration's decision.

"Abandoning the U.S. evidence-based process is a dangerous and potentially deadly decision for Americans," said Jason M. Goldman, MD, the head of the American College of Physicians, in a Jan. 5 statement. "The evidence is clear that vaccines prevent deaths, hospitalizations, and spread of disease."

In explaining the decision for Monday's order, which comes as students across the United States will soon be returning to classrooms, Trump wrote that the administration is committed to ensuring that Americans can receive "the best scientifically supported medical advice in the world, as well as to protecting religious liberty and parental authority."

"I am taking further action to reaffirm that it is the policy of the United States that the core childhood vaccine recommendations should be aligned with scientific evidence and best practices from peer, developed countries while preserving access to vaccines currently available to Americans," he said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Aug. 11.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 17:00

Josh Kushner, Bob Iger Stun Sports World With Record-Shattering $12 Billion Lakers Takeover Deal

The Los Angeles Lakers are being sold to billionaire venture capitalist Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, and former Disney CEO Bob Iger for a record-breaking $12 billion, according to a new ESPN report.

The sports news website said:

The businessmen were involved in the expansion process in Las Vegas, but in a stunning turn, they pivoted to make an aggressive offer to buy the Lakers from Mark Walter, who had purchased a controlling interest in the team from the Buss family last year for a franchise valuation of approximately $10 billion.

The $12 billion buyout price implies an increase of at least 20% in the Lakers' value in less than a year.

Josh Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, and Iger released the following statement:

"As lifelong NBA fans, we are deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world. We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss.

"Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles."

TWG Global CEO Mark Walter, who purchased control of the Lakers from the Buss family last year at a valuation of about $10 billion, has a sports holdings portfolio that includes stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Sparks, Chelsea Football Club, the Professional Women's Hockey League and several auto-racing teams, including Cadillac Formula 1.

"Owning the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the great honors of my life, an extraordinary investment, but what I will carry with me is the community, the fans, and a city that treats this team as family. I am grateful to Jeanie Buss, the Buss family, the players, and the staff for welcoming me into this chapter. The Lakers belong to Los Angeles, and I have every confidence the best is still ahead," Walter said in a statement.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 17:00

Former SPLC Exec Arrested: Accused Of Funneling Donor Money To KKK, Neo-Nazi Informants

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) executive Heidi Beirich was arrested in California on Wednesday under a superseding indictment in the Justice Department's ongoing case against the organization, according to a CNN report confirmed by federal officials.

Heidi Beirich. What even...

Beirich, who directed the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project until 2019, faces three counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to conceal money laundering. She was expected to make an initial appearance in Riverside later Wednesday.

"I believe she was part of the effort to open bank accounts in completely fictitious companies' names and make payments to individuals for reasons that were not accurate as described," Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Wednesday. "This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this."

At the center of the allegations is an SPLC program that paid informants embedded in extremist organizations the nonprofit publicly monitored and campaigned against. Prosecutors allege Beirich helped oversee those payments and shared a bank account with one of the informants receiving them.

That informant, identified in charging documents as F-9, allegedly infiltrated the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Prosecutors further allege that Beirich was living with him and romantically involved with him while the payments were being made.

Reporting on the June superseding indictment said roughly $140,000 in donor funds moved from the SPLC's operating account into joint accounts held by Beirich and F-9 between 2015 and 2021. The organization is also alleged to have paid the informant more than $1 million since 2007.

Other payments under the same program allegedly went to separate recipients. The indictment, for example, describes funds reaching an Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America - a different individual from the informant with whom Beirich allegedly had a relationship.

According to prosecutors, F-9 also broke into the headquarters of a white supremacist organization and removed approximately 25 boxes of documents. Those materials allegedly became the basis for a 2015 Hatewatch article written by Beirich titled "Chaos at the Compound." A second informant was allegedly paid about $6,000 to take responsibility for the burglary and conceal the identity of the original source.

An attorney for Beirich denied wrongdoing, calling the case meritless and politically motivated and saying she looks forward to presenting her side in court. An SPLC spokesperson had no immediate comment.

The SPLC has contested the government's case from the beginning, arguing that prosecutors are mischaracterizing a long-running intelligence-gathering program designed to monitor violent extremists. Its attorneys have also emphasized that law-enforcement agencies made use of information generated by SPLC informants.

Initial Indictment

A federal grand jury in Montgomery indicted the SPLC on April 21 on 11 counts: six of wire fraud, four of bank fraud, and one of money laundering.

Prosecutors allege the organization funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to at least eight informants associated with groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the National Alliance, and the National Socialist Party of America between 2014 and 2023.

According to the indictment, some of those payments were routed through bank accounts opened in the names of fictitious entities such as Rare Books Warehouse and Tech Writers Group.

"The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence," Blanche said when the original charges were announced.

The SPLC pleaded not guilty in July and moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the prosecution was vindictive and that the administration was retaliating against the organization for identifying and criticizing extremist groups.

On Aug. 7, U.S. District Judge Emily Marks rejected that motion, finding that the SPLC had not demonstrated prosecutorial animus. We covered that ruling here, as well as the unusual timing of an Atlantic story targeting FBI Director Kash Patel three days before the original indictment here.

The FBI severed its relationship with the SPLC in October 2025. In its most recent available filing, the organization reported gross receipts of $339.3 million and assets totaling $822.2 million.

At a June 9 House Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Manufacturing Hate, Part II," witnesses testified that the SPLC's "hate group" designations had been used as screening criteria by payment processors, donor-advised funds, corporate-giving platforms, and web-hosting companies.

WATCH: "The SPLC is little more than a highly profitable scam."

ADF's @ryanlbangert delivers his opening statement to @JudiciaryGOP on @splcenter pic.twitter.com/nbxBBhN63a

— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) June 9, 2026

In practice, witnesses argued, the SPLC's privately maintained list could carry consequences resembling those of an official government designation, despite there being no formal due-process mechanism for organizations placed on it.

One witness told the committee that his organization lost access to charitable-giving platforms, web hosting, and nonprofit software pricing after appearing on the SPLC's hate map.

Those claims remain witness characterizations rather than judicial findings. But they are now part of the congressional record, and the fact that federal law-enforcement agencies previously relied on intelligence produced by the SPLC is not in dispute.

Beirich left the SPLC in 2019 amid the upheaval that followed the firing of co-founder Morris Dees and the departure of much of the organization's senior leadership. She later co-founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, where she continued working as an extremism researcher.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 16:40

Two Leftist Fantasies That Collide With Reality

Authored by Kathleen Dynan via AmericanThinker.com,

Many want to live with fantasies that contradict facts as their reality.

But facts can’t be ignored, and we are not required to accept their fantasies as our truth and reality.

Here are two such fantasies: that a man can become a woman or vice versa, and that Marxism is good for citizens of the country.

Let us examine biology and medical science facts to disprove the first fantasy.

Sex chromosomes are packages of DNA found inside most of our approximately 30 trillion cells that have a nucleus. There are two different kinds of these chromosomes, X and Y. When an egg is fertilized, the egg itself always contributes an X chromosome, while sperm can contribute either an X or a Y. Sex chromosomes are the genetic elements that define a person’s biological sex. Females have XX and males have XY chromosomes. Chromosomes themselves are made up of proteins and DNA that carry our genetic information from cell to cell. In addition to biological gender and the resulting reproductive systems, they determine other physical traits, e.g., eye color.

The reproductive systems of men and women are distinctly different. The male reproductive system mostly exists outside of the body. The external organs include the penis, scrotum and testicles. Internal organs include the vas deferens, prostate and urethra. The male reproductive system is responsible for sexual function and urination. The female reproductive system is a group of organs that enable reproduction, pregnancy, and childbirth. It also produces female sex hormones, including estrogen and progesterone. The system consists of organs and tissues inside the body and some that are visible outside the body.

Medically, it is not possible to transplant reproductive systems into the opposite sex. Drugs and mutilating surgeries change a person’s appearance, but do not change the biological gender.

To dispel a related fantasy, women are physically weaker than men because of a combination of factors rooted in this biology. Women have: less total muscle mass, different muscle fiber profiles, lower testosterone levels, higher essential body fat, and smaller, lighter bones. These differences are significant. In upper body tasks, women produce roughly 56% of the force men do; in the lower body, that figure rises to about 72%. The average gap is real, measurable, and driven by physiology that diverges sharply at puberty.

So, factual biology shows it is impossible for women to successfully compete against the strength of men in physical tasks and sports.

Now, let us look at history to disprove the second fantasy.

The Democratic Socialists of America is claiming Americans’ lives would be better under Marxism. Both socialism and communism are based on the principles of Marxism. The claim is that both are better for citizens than our form of government, a constitutional republic with an economy based on capitalism. But history shows this false claim is just a desperate attempt to seize control of Americans.

They claim Marxism would provide: a classless society; peace for all; and less labor required, meaning more leisure time. They consider the last the true measure of wealth. Capitalism, not any form of Marxism, delivers leisure time. Below are some results of living that fantasy.

 

Millions more citizens were stripped of all wealth and property, captured, debased and tortured under these governments. If they were able to escape these madmen, citizens fled their homelands.

 

To date, 11 countries have tried socialism. All have failed.

The sole equality for all was the anguish and suffering of citizens. Only the elites running those governments prospered.

The far left is trying to buy control of us by offering the same eight “free programs” they offered in 2019. These include: Universal Child Care; Guaranteed Income; Reparations to Blacks and Illegals; Affordable Housing; Medicare for All; Student Loan Forgiveness; Free Public College; and a Green New Deal. Their desperate attempt to pretend to have programs for all Americans was and is a sick joke. They can’t ever happen.

In 2019, the total world wealth was estimated to be $360.6 trillion; and the United States’ wealth (assets minus liabilities) at about 29% of that total, $106 trillion. The far left was promising to spend an estimated $81.9 trillion for these “freebies.” That was 77% of our wealth on “free stuff.” Common sense and logic said what facts proved, that none of those would materialize. (2019 Credit Suisse Report) Both wealth and costs have increased in the last 7 years, but that total wealth and costs comparison is still viable.

Unlike Marxist governments, American citizens are represented in our government. Do not let that change in the United States. Marxists can’t improve your life, but history shows they will destroy or end it.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 16:20

Tanker Data Contradicts US Claim That Middle East Oil Flows Have Normalized

By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

Oil flows from the Middle East have normalized, with Sunday traffic alone above pre-conflict averages, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said on Tuesday in a claim that appears not to be backed by ship-tracking data.

On Tuesday, Secretary Wright posted on X that “Thanks to the coordinated efforts of the U.S. military and our gulf allies, the seven-day average for oil leaving the Strait of Hormuz is currently up to almost 9 million barrels per day.”

Thanks to the coordinated efforts of the U.S. military and our gulf allies, the seven-day average for oil leaving the Strait of Hormuz is currently up to almost 9 million barrels per day.

When combined with the additional 5-7 million barrels per day leaving the region via newly…

— Secretary Chris Wright (@SecretaryWright) August 11, 2026

He went on to add that “When combined with the additional 5-7 million barrels per day leaving the region via newly upgraded pipelines and export facilities, total oil flows are currently averaging approximately 15 million barrels per day.”  

According to the top US energy official, “On Sunday alone, over 20 million barrels left the Arabian gulf region, which is above the pre-conflict average.”

However, analysts and tanker traffic monitoring services cannot fathom how the U.S. Administration has arrived at these numbers, considering that traffic at the Strait of Hormuz is severely constrained, even according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

“We have increased our estimates of Middle East shut-in crude oil production in the coming months compared with our July forecast due to continued severe constraints on Strait of Hormuz transits, which we assume persist through August,” the EIA said on Tuesday in its latest monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).

“It is not possible to reconcile the disparity between what we see and what he is quoting,” Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Kpler, told CNN, commenting on Wright’s claim.

Kpler data showed earlier this week that vessel traffic at the Strait of Hormuz continues to decline as last week’s hopes of negotiations of a U.S.-Iran deal began to fade, yet again.  

On Monday, only six commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz in either direction, down from 11 ships in the latest 10-day average, according to shipping data from Kpler cited by Reuters on Tuesday. The number down to just 1 on Wednesday. 

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 15:40

Ukraine Defies Vance Warning With Massive Strike On Russia's Key Black Sea Port, Shuttering Grain Terminals

Did President Zelensky and the Ukrainian armed forces not listen to US Vice President JD Vance's warnings and request after all?

On Wednesday a "massive" Ukrainian drone and missile strike was unleashed on Russia's port city of Novorossiysk, which badly damaged grain export terminals at what also constitutes the the last major Russian naval base on the Black Sea.

via Retuers

Three were killed, including an eight-year-old child, and also 24 people were injured in the Wednesday nighttime attack.

Zelensky acknowledged the rocket and underwater drone attack in what he hailed as a "unique operation" to strike the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk.

It seems Zelensky is distinguishing this instance as a hit on a purely 'military target' given he did not mention the grain export terminal aspect to the destruction.

"The occupying fleet and all the infrastructure that supports it will not be safe as long as Russian aggression continues," Zelensky said.

Many Russian assets previously docked at the longtime Russian fleet's home base of Sevastopol were forced to vacate during earlier phases of the war, given the frequent prior targeting of the historic Crimean naval hub. Some ships have even been relocated as far away as the Caspian Sea in order to protect them.

The attack could seriously impact global food supplies, particularly in the African continent.

Reuters has said shutdowns resulted: "Two of Russia's biggest grain terminals at the southern port of Novorossiysk have suspended operations as a result of overnight Ukrainian drone strikes, four industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday."

"Russia is the world's ​largest wheat exporter and most of those exports are shipped via its Black Sea ​ports like Novorossiysk. Russia's main grain lobby group warned last month that Ukrainian ⁠drone attacks could shut down grain exports via the Black Sea in the near future, ​pushing up prices and causing hunger in Africa and the Middle East," the report added.

Novorossiysk is also home to vital oil export ​infrastructure. Kiev has essentially declared open season on Russian oil exports, arguing that proceeds fuel Russia's military machine.

A state of emergency has been declared in Novorossiysk after a Ukrainian drone attack

Due to the rupture of two water mains, the city’s water supply system has been damaged, and water delivery to residents has been restricted.

The Novorossiysk port area is covered in thick… pic.twitter.com/nWpeIfcf5Q

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 12, 2026

We reported earlier that at the urging of Vice President Vance, Ukraine indicated that it has suspended attacks on oil tankers using Novorossiysk. The request was made in late July, but first reported today by the Financial Times, citing Ukrainian officials. 

Vance's plea sprang from the Trump administration's worries that Ukraine's attacks were creating dangerous instability in global fuel markets. There were also concerns that strikes on vessels transporting Kazakhstan crude oil to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal at Novorossiysk were detrimental to American companies. 

So it will be interesting to see if in the wake of this latest Wednesday attack, Washington ramps up the pressure on its Ukrainian ally - or whether such attacks will continue and be met with US silence.

Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 15:20