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Pillagers Vs Producers: There's Only Two Ways To Save The Western World

Pillagers Vs Producers: There's Only Two Ways To Save The Western World

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

For the past couple of weeks I have been closely tracking the migrant surge in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and taking notes on the behavior of the extremely liberal Spanish government. One of the most important things to note about the event is that European officials quickly took to the media to admonish the OPTICS of the crisis, but not the migrants.

In other words, left-wing politicians didn’t like that the situation made them look bad, but they never spoke out against the basic premise of mass immigration from the third world. In fact, Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has been enthusiastically promoting open border policies since 2018. The main reason the migrants all flooded into Ceuta at the same time was because Spain’s supreme court ruled only days before that migrants arriving by sea could not be immediately deported.

It’s a scene we have witnessed over and over again in the past several years. The multiculturalists set the wheels in motion for a migrant rush into Europe then pretend to be shocked when it happens.

They engineer these events by breaking the cardinal rule of western civilization – Never leave the gates open, because the barbarians will see this as an invitation to pillage. Like hyenas circling a wounded animal, they will be uncontrollably drawn to the smell of an easy meal.

The only reason European elites took any opposition to the incident in Ceuta was because the migrants immediately started looting, burning and attacking locals the second they set foot on the beaches. If the barbarian horde had behaved themselves for a couple weeks, journalists and politicians would have called it a humanitarian crisis and lavished the migrants with praise for their “bravery.”

And yes, I have heard all the conspiracy theories about the US and Israel supposedly pulling the strings to facilitate the invasion and I have found those theories to be complete tripe based on zero tangible evidence. If the Trump Administration, for example, actually wanted migrants to invade Spain, all they would have to do is sit back and let the Spanish government continue to do what they’ve already been doing for years.

The fall of the western world is being aided by progressives, but these elitists are only tapping into the forces of an eternal conflict that has been raging for millennia.

Meaning, even if globalists were not a thing, the west would still be threatened with the constant danger of third world plunder. The elites are merely exploiting a problem that already exists naturally. The root of this conflict is the prominence of two distinct groups of human beings that are incapable of coexistence…

Pillager Culture vs Producer Culture

I was recently watching Sargon of Akkad’s latest expose on a small town in South Africa called Orania. It’s an all white town built by Afrikanns in the middle of nowhere in order to protect themselves from the exceedingly violent black population; a population organized around the ideology of race communism. The video is a great overview of the town and the controversy that surrounds it and I highly recommend watching it in full.

The details of Orania remind me of an article I published last year titled “The Third World Is Forever Chasing The White Man”. The concept of cultural separation is, I believe, the key to almost every problem we are facing in modern times. It may very well be the key to understanding every conflict since human history began.

At bottom, I argue that there are two kinds of people in the world: There are people who produce, create and maintain a functioning civilization. Then, there are parasites and pirates; people whose only survival trait is to pillage the wealth and resources of producer societies.

A community like Orania would not be controversial at all if it was made up of black isolationists, or Asians, or Hispanics, etc.  In fact, it would be celebrated.  It is treated as radioactive by the media specifically because the town was created by white people FOR white people. Their goal? To preserve their western principles and heritage and, most of all, to protect themselves from pillaging tribes and communists.

Orania looks much like any smaller rural town in America, with clean streets, quiet parks, well maintained infrastructure, self sufficient utilities and farms, safe neighborhoods and kids playing outside without fear.

The interesting thing is the reactions to the town by the YouTubers who visit with the expectation of discovering a virulent, racist, hate-fest. What they find instead is a community that functions far better than any other place in South Africa, run by white western people who just want to be left alone to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

There are two common reactions to Orania:

1) Black influencers, surprised by the peace and relative tranquility of the town, ask “why can’t black people have something like this…?”

2) South African politicians and thought leaders ask “How can we take away what these people have built and keep it for ourselves…?”

The answer to both questions is uncomfortable for most westerners in the US and Europe to think about, but it is a fact we desperately need to consider and embrace. They can’t copy Orania because they are socially and in some cases genetically incapable (the average IQ of Africans is 70). They can’t steal it for themselves because as soon as they take it over, the town will turn to shit and collapse.

In Ceuta, over 60,000 migrants overran the local infrastructure and demanded access to provisions, jobs, housing and the ability to travel deeper into Europe.  When asked why they came to Spanish territory, they all tended to say the same thing: “We want more money and a better life.”  They came to Europe because they can’t build a prosperous society on their own.  Their pillager mentality drives them to latch onto the west, but as they do this they turn the west into the third world.

Western Civilization Has Two Choices: Separation Or Colonization

In recent articles I have explained the differences that separate the west from the third world, including the absence of the concept of “maintenance” in third world societies. In Africa, for example, there is no terminology for the idea of “maintenance”. They simply don’t have a word for it. They have words for “repair” or “replace”, but not a word for “maintain.” Learning this fact was a revelation for me.

It explains everything about the conflict between the third world and the west. It explains why third worlders are “forever chasing the white man.” It explains why these cultures never seem to progress without direct western investment, intervention or colonization. It explains why these people flood into western countries by the millions the second the gates are left open.

If you cannot maintain, then you can’t keep a system alive for future generations. From basics like water, sewer, sanitation, electricity, food, security, etc. – There can be no generational infrastructure and no generational wealth. Your tribe will be perpetually resource-poor and scratching in the dirt for bugs, UNLESS, that is, you turn to pillaging. You can steal the wealth created by producer tribes, but you can’t copy their success.

If we come to terms with the undeniable existence of the parasite or pillager class, everything becomes clear. The third world as we know it today is rooted in pillager culture, but this ideal is not limited to brown people. Within the west we also have white socialists and communists, useless people who have devised an entire philosophy to justify stealing from producers.

As far as the third world is concerned, the west has been dealing with such people for centuries. We were almost destroyed by them during the Muslim invasions into the Holy Roman Empire from the 7th Century to the 10th Century, and we had to continue to hold them back for several centuries after.

We’ve tried a variety of methods to solve this issue. We tried the Crusades to beat them into submission (effective). We tried colonization and importing western infrastructure so they don’t come to the west to steal what we have (also effective).

However, these solutions are no longer considered political correct by progressive ideology. It’s not a coincidence that liberalism has worked tirelessly to demonize colonization as one of the “great evils” of history. They hate it because it works; it made the west far more safe.

So, we tried global subsidization instead. In other words, western governments paid out billions of dollars (perhaps trillions) in subsidies to third world countries in order to keep them happy enough that they would stop trying to invade us. This has not worked for a number of reasons.

Most of all, migrants cannot help themselves. They will never be self reliant and independent producers, so they are compelled by their survival imperatives and their tribal instincts to plunder whenever an opportunity arises. The political left understands this dynamic and they stage opportunities so they can use migrants as biological weapons to tear down the west.

The reason third worlders and leftists seem to be joining forces (through Democratic Socialists and other organizations) is because they ARE joining forces. Conservatives will often point out the hypocrisy of progressives who claim to be champions of individual rights for women and “marginalized” groups. Meanwhile they aggressively defend the invasion of people who oppress those same groups.

I’ve made the point many times myself, but its not as profound as conservatives think it is. Leftists know exactly what they’re doing, because Marxists/Socialists/Communists and third worlders are the same. Both tribes are pillager tribes; both tribes are parasitic. They all want the same thing, which is to feed like vampires on the resources of producers. They are joining forces because parasites tend to work together.

One parasite infection can weaken a host’s immune system, which indirectly helps other parasites move in and thrive. At least, until the host is dead.

I have heard it argued that conservatives need to come to an understanding on why younger generations are turning to socialism as a solution. People claim that we don’t have enough empathy for their plight.

My position is, these people were ALWAYS going to turn to socialism because they are born pillagers. They are incapable of functioning in any merit based system, even one that is highly prosperous, because they are predisposed to feel as if they’re entitled to more. They are always going to be jealous of people who have more.

The idea of earning what we have never plays into it. They are barbarians. They are pillagers. There is no reasoning with them. There is no bargaining or compromise that will satisfy them. The only solution is for producers to separate completely, or, conquer the pillagers and force them to stop pillaging. Anything else would be a pointless half-measure.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 23:25

Digging Deeper Inside Physical AI's Hardware Stack Powering Humanoids

Digging Deeper Inside Physical AI's Hardware Stack Powering Humanoids

Building on our "Physical AI Faces One Critical Chokepoint, and Here's How to Profit" report earlier this week, Barclays analysts are closing out the week with a comprehensive map of the humanoid value chain.

As readers look beyond flashy Chinese Unitree robot demonstrations, attention is shifting toward the critical hardware stack, including motors, actuators, sensors, and batteries, and the deep supply-chain players positioned to reap the rewards before global humanoid deliveries begin to ramp up.

Anatomy of a humanoid robot

"While the humanoid market remains small today, at roughly $2-3bn, forecasts range from $10-25bn by 2030, with more optimistic scenarios reaching ~$200bn by 2035, as detailed in (open in new tab)Global Macro - AI gets physical: Ten things to know about humanoids(open in new tab)," Barclays analyst William Thompson wrote in a note on Thursday.

Within the hardware stack, reducers - high-precision gearing systems embedded in actuators - have been high barriers to entry and are led by Japanese players such as Harmonic Drive Systems and Nabtesco, while rare earth materials - particularly magnets used in high-performance motors - create strategic dependencies, with supply chains heavily concentrated in China.

Actuators are the biggest hardware prize. A humanoid may require 40 to 70 actuators, representing roughly 30% to 50% of the material bill. This makes motors, reducers, bearings, and motion-control systems  critically important.

The current supply chain for humanoids is mostly dominated by China.

The supply chain will likely be shaped by geopolitics as much as technology. China currently leads in humanoid deployment volumes and holds strong positions across several parts of the value chain, including rare earth processing, motors, batteries, and robot manufacturing.

However, growing U.S. and European scrutiny of Chinese technology and industrial supply chains could influence market access, procurement decisions, localization requirements, and ultimately the geographic distribution of production and deployment. As a result, humanoid supply chains may become increasingly regionalized over time, with parallel hardware, software, and manufacturing ecosystems emerging across China and Western markets.

Thompson provided a deep understanding of how to profit from the humanoid robotic value chain by subcategory.

Earlier this week, Bernstein analyst Dien Wang warned about "critical chokepoints" in the humanoid robotic supply chain, outlining high-performance motors, robotic actuators, and rare-earth minerals that are mostly dominated by China.

"A humanoid robot can consume more than twice as much magnetic material as an EV motor (Exhibit 3), highlighting the growing strategic importance of rare-earth magnets," Wang said.

He outlined that China's dominance in rare earth magnets is troubling in an "increasingly multipolar world."

Taken together, both Barclays and Bernstein notes suggest the humanoid robotics value chain remains dangerously exposed to China and concentrated Asian supply chains. The Trump admin must accelerate the development of domestic production for motors, rare earth magnets, precision reducers, semiconductors, and other critical actuator components.

If Beijing moves on Taiwan, U.S. robot manufacturers could lose access not only to advanced chips but also to the motion-control systems needed to build humanoids at scale. In that scenario, America's physical-AI ambitions could grind to an instant halt

Professional subscribers can read a whole lot more on humanoids here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 23:00

ADNOC Reports 15 Vessel Attacks As Hormuz Risks Mount

ADNOC Reports 15 Vessel Attacks As Hormuz Risks Mount

Submitted by Julianne Geiger of OilPrice.com

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said attacks on its vessels and employees are having a significant impact on operations as the company tries to keep crude, gas and refined products moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

Fifteen ADNOC vessels have been hit by missiles or drones since the war began, including three this week, the company said Friday. One crew member has been killed and 20 others injured.

The Strait of Hormuz carried roughly one-fifth of global oil consumption before the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran expanded into a broader regional conflict. Repeated attacks on commercial vessels have disrupted traffic through the waterway, driven freight costs sharply higher, and made some shipowners reluctant to enter the Persian Gulf.

ADNOC said it is working with authorities to protect personnel and assets while meeting customer requirements “as much as possible” in what it called an exceptionally challenging operating environment.

The attacks are hitting one of the few Gulf producers that has managed to restore exports close to pre-war levels. The UAE has relied on crude loading points outside Hormuz, including Fujairah, while continuing to move some barrels through the strait despite the security risk.

ADNOC is expanding its own shipping capacity even as those risks increase. Its logistics arm announced Friday that it had acquired six very large crude carriers and five very large gas carriers for about $1.3 billion.

Nine of those vessels are scheduled to enter service this quarter, with two newbuild gas carriers due in the fourth quarter. ADNOC Logistics & Services already owns more than 340 vessels and operates another 600 chartered ships.

The fleet additions are intended to support higher crude and LNG exports as ADNOC expands production and trading volumes. The company also ordered four new LNG carriers last month in a $900 million deal.

“Freedom of navigation and the safe, uninterrupted passage of commercial shipping through international waterways must be respected and protected,” ADNOC said Friday.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 22:35

DHS Hiring "Bounty Hunters" For Overseas Tracking Of Deported Migrants

DHS Hiring "Bounty Hunters" For Overseas Tracking Of Deported Migrants

The Trump administration is planning to hire private investigators to track down deported immigrants in their home countries, verify where they live, and deliver notices seeking payment of U.S. immigration fines, according to Wired.

The proposed program, budgeted at up to $9 million over two years, would cover countries including Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Rather than collecting money directly, contractors would be paid to confirm a person's location using evidence such as photographs of their residence, public records, utility bills, employment information, or other documentation accepted by the government. They would also hand-deliver notices listing any outstanding penalties.

Wired writes that the initiative comes as DHS says it has assessed more than $84 billion in civil immigration fines, including "failure-to-depart" penalties that can accumulate to hundreds of thousands—or even millions—of dollars. Although the administration has encouraged migrants to self-deport by promising to forgive many of these fines, legal advocates argue the new overseas tracking effort undercuts that message because some penalties can still remain.

Immigration attorneys and civil rights groups describe the program as a major expansion of enforcement, saying it targets people who have already left the United States and raises due process and privacy concerns. CBP, meanwhile, maintains that the effort is intended to enforce existing legal obligations and notify individuals of debts owed to the U.S. government.

Legal experts say the initiative represents a major escalation. NYU law professor Alina Das called it a "significant escalation in tactics," while attorney Charles Moore described it as "part and parcel" of the administration's broader immigration crackdown. Hasan Shafiqullah, who is challenging the fines in court, questioned the effort's purpose: "What’s the point of this?"

The proposal builds on ICE's growing use of private "skip-tracing" contractors inside the United States, extending similar investigative practices to people living abroad.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 22:10

Trump To Announce $180 Million Grants For Mining Industry

Trump To Announce $180 Million Grants For Mining Industry

Authored by Emel Akan via The Epoch Times,

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is set to host a major mining industry roundtable on Friday at the State Department, bringing together nearly 200 business leaders, educators, and government officials to strengthen domestic mining companies.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at General Motors proving ground, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Milford, Mich. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

At the event, the president is expected to announce over $180 million in grants to expand workforce training and trade programs for the mining industry, according to the White House. CBS first reported the plan.

The Department of Energy is launching a $100 million grant program to support scholarships and related initiatives. Universities, community colleges, trade schools, industry groups, and other partners will be eligible to apply.

Additionally, the military is providing over $80 million in funding to three universities for technology and workforce development programs. The recipients are the Colorado School of Mines, the South Dakota School of Mines, and Johns Hopkins University.

"The mining industry has never had a greater champion than President Trump," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told The Epoch Times in an email.

"His unprecedented support has driven record investment, streamlined permitting, and delivered real results for American workers, companies, and communities. President Trump is the first president in decades to prioritize our country's mining industry, unleash its abundant resources, and build the next generation of American miners."

The meeting comes as the White House is working to reduce America's reliance on China for critical minerals and processed metals, which are essential for the U.S. defense and technology sectors.

Key cabinet members attending include Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Industry executives from Resolution Copper, MP Materials, American Ocean Minerals, Ivanhoe, and Century Aluminum will also participate, according to the White House.

The new funding is expected to develop skilled workers and strengthen supply chains for the American mining industry.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 21:45

Your Tax Dollars At Work: NJ Cops Dress Up As Bushes To Hand Out Cell Phone Violations

Your Tax Dollars At Work: NJ Cops Dress Up As Bushes To Hand Out Cell Phone Violations

If you thought speed traps were getting creative, New Jersey police have officially entered the landscaping business.

Officers in Dunellen spent part of the week hiding in full ghillie suits, essentially dressing up as oversized shrubs, to catch drivers using their phones behind the wheel, according to Newser.

While unsuspecting motorists scrolled through texts and notifications, a camouflaged officer watched from the roadside with binoculars, radioing violations to waiting patrol units.

The six-hour operation ended with 74 distracted driving tickets, proving that plenty of drivers never saw the world's most judgmental bush staring back at them. Police said they targeted the busy downtown stretch because it's packed with traffic and pedestrians, making distracted driving especially dangerous.

New Jersey law bans handheld phone use while driving, with first-time violations carrying fines between $200 and $400. The department defended the unusual tactic as a safety measure, reminding drivers that "That text or notification can wait. Keep your eyes on the road, not your screen."

Apparently, in New Jersey, the bushes aren't just watching anymore, they're writing tickets. And it feels like we're literally one step away from officers just framing people at this point...

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 21:20

What Else Are They Hiding?

What Else Are They Hiding?

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

This past couples of weeks was a wild ride. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released many thousands of pages of documentation concerning the strange world of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) while Dr. Anthony Fauci was at the height of his power as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci’s wife headed the ethics department for the entire agency.

His tenure there came to an end in December 2022, following three years in which he was celebrated by mass media as the nation’s leading voice for science and the man with all the answers for dealing with a respiratory pandemic. He was on television daily, sitting for as many as 12 interviews a day.

All this while, he kept careful logs of each day, while working with a large staff to prepare the document as the first draft of an autobiography. He believed that he would go down in history with exactly the reputation the media had cultivated for him. He lobbied for and amassed dozens of awards, some of which paid in the high six figures. He was sought after and doted on by all the elites.

All at once, it has fallen apart.

The simple reason: The agency he once occupied is now run by a man and people he had ferociously denounced in public and private.

The release was an act not of revenge but of simple transparency.

The American people deserve to know the truth about a time in which accurate information was denied to them through censorship and media propaganda.

It’s a rare treat.

We find out, for example, that the billionaire Bill Gates has special security clearances at NIH, where at every visit he was treated like royalty. Gates cleared his book on pandemics with Fauci, who recommended an editor at NIH, none other than Dr. David Morens, who has been charged with document destruction.

The revelations go on and on seemingly without limit. I started reading as soon as the diary was released. I saw that it was 1,100 pages, but that’s full pages in small type. In book form, it would be 2,400 pages. I could not stop reading. Having lived and breathed every day of this, I was fascinated to see Fauci’s own thinking in light of the world outside.

Not only was my weekend gone completely, but also, without notice, the project took up the next day and evening and then again. And again. It was late Thursday afternoon before I finished. My notes on the salient parts, the truly astounding material, alone took up 30 pages along with screenshots. I had lost so much sleep over these days and canceled every appointment. It was all too delicious to resist.

And you know why, correct?

For years we had been stuffed to the gills with the greatness myth. Then it suddenly all unraveled, slowly but furiously and all at once. The author was put in front of a Senate subcommittee and questioned in great detail about the origin of the virus, the contracts, the cover-ups, the angling for fame and fortune, and so much more.

At every question, the witness would only invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination. But this alone was strange because the witness had already gained a full pardon for any misdeeds dating back to 2014. He could have confessed all and then some and faced no prosecution. All he had to do was tell the truth.

He was vulnerable only to the charge of perjury, but even that he could not risk. So he remained silent throughout, invoking his Fifth Amendment right 111 times. I have watched many Senate hearings in my life. I had never seen one like this. The drama was intense. I was not there, but those who were said it was even more fiery in person.

There is really no way to sum up our current moment.

In 2019, the economy was doing well and Trump was popular. There were the usual political divisions but no real emergency on the horizon. All at once in the first months of 2020, everything fell apart and a foreign regime was visited upon us, complete with new protocols that required staying home and standing apart from people and covering our faces. We could not go to church, visit the sick, or travel to other countries.

A year later came the promised relief that turned out not to hold up but instead caused more suffering. All the while, trust in the system we had never really questioned began to collapse. We were routinely instructed to trust this Dr. Fauci. Most of the dissidents, including my friends who wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, were censored. Our accounts were threatened and removed. Many were debanked.

Our world collapsed completely, and all these years we’ve cried out for answers. We’ve received only bits and pieces, enough to cobble together workable theories.

Seemingly out of nowhere, we are sitting on tens of thousands of pages of revelations. We can only read with amazement at the inner workings of government, the chaos, the pettiness, the corruption, the confusion, the deception. It’s all here, and now we see that there was a strong basis for why trust had evaporated. It seems as if every conspiracy theory was coming true.

Consider too that we have all these documents only because Fauci left so much behind on government computers. We also have men and women of conscience in charge of releasing them. Millions of hours of painstaking work are behind these releases, all done in the service of truth.

It’s really not possible to feel any joy from what we read. There is only tragedy, not only in the life of one man but also in all those who followed him and the nation that suffered so much from living under his diktat. At the very least, we are entitled to hear answers from him, point by point, but instead we get silence.

The list of institutions that have been hit hard by this is long and includes large media, academia, the scientific establishment, the world of professional medicine, and government itself. We cannot help but wonder today what is real and what is fake, what can be trusted and what is too far gone ever to be trusted again. No one ever wanted to be where we are today at the 250th anniversary of the country, to see how the dreams and ideals of our Founders have been so trounced and disrespected by so many in power. And yet that is where we are.

There is some deeply profound poetry about this moment. As sad as all of this is, and as much as it pains us today to think of all who have suffered, we should feel gratitude mainly for the truth to which we suddenly have access. For me, reading all these releases has been something of a catharsis. I hope you too will read and not merely trust media summaries or artificial intelligence reductions. It needs to be read in full to get the whole picture.

Nor can we shelve that great, great question: What else is being hidden from us, and for how long? Trust cannot return until we know the full truth. I suspect that this will take many years, and that’s fine. We can be patient.

Let there be no despair in the land today. These files have been released by men and women of enormous courage and conviction. They have taken huge risks to stand up for what is right. They have given us all a gift, the evidence that our instincts that something was not right were on target. They are evidence that redemption is not only possible; it is happening.

In those dark days of 2020 when the world seemed to be collapsing, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University would call me with a grave sense of moral urgency. “What can we do to stop the madness?” he would ask. He did what he could then. Now he finds himself as the head of the National Institutes of Health, working to begin the process of rebuilding. We have a very long way to go, but the essential first steps are done.

We are going to get what we seek: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 20:55

Iran Launches Battlefield Trophy Propaganda Campaign With Captured US Reaper Drone

Iran Launches Battlefield Trophy Propaganda Campaign With Captured US Reaper Drone

The off-ramp narrative is growing louder. With the US midterm elections quickly approaching, the Trump administration may have reached its "declare victory and leave" moment, shifting from military operations toward a negotiated peace deal, one that must last more than one month. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reinforced that possibility earlier, saying the Strait of Hormuz could reopen "today or tomorrow."

As US negotiations with Tehran appear to be ongoing, the Iranian semi-official news agency Tasnim has released battlefield trophy propaganda that appears to show largely intact U.S. MQ-9 Reaper and Israeli Hermes 900 drones, and even parts of an F-15 fighter jet.

X user The Hormuz Letter said:

Iran has released an image of a fully intact Israeli Hermes 900 drone taken down by Iran's electronic warfare, with the IRGC now reverse-engineering various parts of the drone, per Tasnim. Iran has also started the process of reverse-engineering the previously captured F-15 fighter jet, MQ-9 drone, and C-130 Hercules.

Tasnim images:

IRGC engineers will likely examine the captured drones and study their technology in an effort to reverse-engineer key components for future domestic advancements.

A battlefield trophy display usually serves as propaganda to show 'proof of victory' or as intelligence signaling, demonstrating to the US and other allies that their weapons of war can be studied and reverse-engineered.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 20:30

Texas Energy Giant Oncor Supports Governor's Data Center Freeze

Texas Energy Giant Oncor Supports Governor's Data Center Freeze

By Emma Penrod of UtilityDive.com

About 44 GW of large load projects slated for Oncor’s service territory qualified for ERCOT’s new “Batch Zero” interconnection process for large loads, company executives told analysts during a Thursday earnings call. But the timeline for that process is uncertain following an order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that paused new data center interconnection approvals pending a state-wide audit.

ERCOT’s criteria for Batch Zero, which include new financial and technical requirements for loads with a peak demand of 75 MW or greater, narrowed immediate load growth projects for Oncor, a subsidiary of Sempra.

The batch approach, Sempra Chairman and CEO Jeff Martin said, was intended to align the interconnection of large loads with the construction of new generation. The criteria for acceptance into the first Batch Zero was finalized in June.

Jeff Martin, chairman and CEO of Sempra, in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 2026. Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images

“Think about a situation where you’ve got close to 500 GW of generation on the sideline waiting to come on the system and, similarly, over 400 GW of large load customers,” Martin said. “That batch process is intended to sequence generation with large loads. Over time, it will be a sequencing effect that’s intended to balance what we think is going to be remarkable load growth.”

The utility had submitted a qualifying load forecast of about 127 GW to ERCOT earlier this year, before the Batch Zero eligibility criteria were released.

On Thursday, executives expressed confidence in the durability of the pipeline, despite uncertainty. Oncor CEO Allen Nye said service requests at that company had increased from 289 GW at the end of the first quarter, to 298 GW this past quarter.

“We continue to have really strong growth, really strong interest. And yes, there is more out there,” Nye told analysts on Thursday.

By the numbers: Sempra Q2’26

  • 44 GW: Oncor Batch Zero interconnection requests under ERCOT review prior to the state moratorium.
  • $65B: Capital plan through 2030, including $47.5B at Oncor.
  • $560M: Additional base rate revenue approved at Oncor by the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

It is not yet clear how the governor’s order, issued on Monday, will affect the new ERCOT review process. ERCOT spokespeople told local media on Monday that they had put the Batch Zero review on hold pending clarification from the governor.

Oncor’s current $47.5 billion capital plan does not include any spending tied to the Batch Zero load, Martin said. The utility plans to update its capital plan in the fourth quarter of this year, he said, but any capital needs associated with the batch study will not make their way into the company’s capital plan until at least 2027.

But the current plan does include about $5 billion tied to high-voltage transmission projects Oncor has underway in Texas’ Permian Basin, which Nye noted were the subject of a 15-hour public hearing in July. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and several state senators called on the Public Utility Commission of Texas to deny the transmission lines’ applications following the hearing, in which speakers decried the projects’ potential impacts on private landowners.

Martin and Nye said they understood the Texas lawmakers’ position and expressed support for their efforts, despite the potential for delays at Oncor.

“Like all across this country, there’s a variety of elections taking place in November,” Martin said. “There’s a big focus on affordability. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or an independent, we’re looking for ways to release pressure on American families, and I think Texas is not immune to that.

“There’s a process going forward where we’re doing things at a scale...that have never been done before,” Martin continued. “What we want to do is make sure that we’re supportive of the process. We’re there to make sure that we can address some of the needs of stakeholders. If the outcome is it takes a little bit longer to make the process better for everybody, and we end up with a durable framework, I think it’s great for the state of Texas.”

Leaders at Sempra also expressed support for legislative processes in California, where lawmakers are still mulling wildfire liability reforms. SoCalGas, a Sempra-owned utility, was named in January in a lawsuit filed by Edison International alleging actions by the gas utility worsened the 2025 Eaton Fire, for which Edison International has been sued. SoCalGas filed a cross-complaint against Edison seeking compensation for damages to SoCalGas’ infrastructure in April. A trial has been scheduled for January 2027. SoCalGas has also been named in suits related to the 2025 Palisades Fire. Sempra-owned San Diego Gas & Electric is not currently the subject of any wildfire-related litigation.

Sempra continues to pursue the sale of its interests in SI Partners, which owns LNG and natural gas infrastructure in the U.S. and Mexico, to KKR Partners for $10 billion, and of Mexican natural gas utility Ecogas. Mexican regulators recently approved the Ecogas sale, which Martin said puts the transaction on track to close later this month.

The sales will allow Sempra to remove more than $9 billion in debt from its balance sheet and should improve the company’s prospects with ratings agencies, according to Karen Sedgwick, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Sempra. Moody’s issued a negative outlook for the parent company in January on account of its debts and funding capacity, Sedgwick said.

Texas regulators in April approved a $560 million base rate increase at Oncor that took effect on June 1, and SDG&E filed an initial 2028 GRC application with the California PUC in June.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 20:05

Both Iranian & Israeli Officials Call Out 'Paper Tiger' Saudi Arabia

Both Iranian & Israeli Officials Call Out 'Paper Tiger' Saudi Arabia

Regional rivals and enemies are calling out Saudi Arabia as a "paper tiger" which must rely on others for protection and defense needs.

Criticisms of Riyadh are being issued on the same day the kingdom signed a major security pact with the other major Muslim-dominant nations of Pakistan and Turkey. Formally called the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, it is essentially a NATO-style agreement for the 'Muslim world' - given that it stipulates and formalizes that an armed attack on any of the countries will be treated as an attack against all of them.

Saudi national media

The pact extends across populations with a combined total of some 380 million people. Both Iranian and Israeli officials have taken to mocking the historic agreement.

For example, on Friday within hours of the deal's signing, prominent Iranian MP Ebrahim Rezaei called on Riyadh to change course in terms of its pro-American policies, which has included allowing US troops to be stationed on Saudi soil. He said the new pact won't bring Riyadh protection or peace.

He stated on X: "Saudis must know that a paper agreement with Turkiye and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as years of one-sided nursing to the Americans did not bring them security."

"Reform your policies so that you do not need to beg for security from others," continued Rezaei, who is also a member of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

Somewhat ironically, voices out of Israel echoed similar criticisms, blasting the wealthy kingdom as seeking to appear strong but in truth being weak with not much of a military to speak of:

Saudi Arabia is less powerful than it may seem at first glance, former head of the National Security Council Prof. Jacob Nagel told 103FM in a Friday morning interview addressing the defense agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan.

"You have to understand that Saudi Arabia, despite all its wealth and weapons, is to a large extent a paper tiger. It has a great deal of weaponry and a great deal of money, but militarily, it cannot manage to 'get through the day,'" Nagel said.

He added, "If we examine the war in which the Saudis tried to fight the Houthis, we see that they failed despite all the advanced capabilities at their disposal. They have a great many assets, but nothing is really liquid, and they have reached a situation in which, economically, they need help."

Saudi has in prior months been subject of sporadic 'retaliatory' attacks from Iran in the context of the war, and has earlier even responded by launching numerous unpublicized strikes on Iran. Yemeni Houthis have lately also fired projectiles onto Saudi Aramco sites.

So it did seek to flex - apparently - but still must be largely reliant on US weaponry and especially on American Patriot batteries, which form the backbone of the kingdom's defense system.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 19:40

The WNBA Is At War With Its Biggest Stars

The WNBA Is At War With Its Biggest Stars

Via The Daily Signal,

This is a lightly edited transcript of an Aug. 6 segment of the Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words podcast...

Jack Fowler: And the whole trans issue is coming up in the WNBA, and various coaches are like, “I don’t know. Should a she - I can’t say who should be playing.” They will not say that a biological woman should be playing in the WNBA. It’s this absurdity.

Victor Davis Hanson: But they know.

I think Clay Travis said he was going to buy a franchise ...and have only trans players. Would they let him do that? No, because they would win every game.

Fowler: Yeah. It was funny what he put up there.

Hanson: And the Minnesota coach who wore a jacket... with advertisements or a message about trans issues.

She was also whining that there are still too many men in women’s coaching and that women don’t get a chance to dominate the field as they should, given that they’re women.

So, obviously, she was walking into a logical inconsistency because she had this jacket on that she would want biological men in women’s sports, where they would dominate, and then she was angry that, in her own coaching aspect, she was being dominated by men.

So, why wouldn’t she have the same concern about women who are players that she does about biological men? Aside from the fact that—I don’t think we’re ever going to—correct me if I’m wrong—but I don’t think in my lifetime, or anyone’s lifetime, we’re ever going to see a woman transition to a man and play in the NBA.

Does anybody believe that? I don’t. I just don’t think that’s going to happen.

I do think you will continue to see trans athletes in women’s sports because they were biological males at birth, and nobody wants it.

The other thing—and I talked a little bit with Sami [Winc] about it—is that I went and looked at about six AI estimates. If you ask them how much money and media attention Caitlin Clark has brought to the Women’s National Basketball Association—which is owned by the men’s league and ran at a deficit until about three years ago—most of them estimate that, through increased attendance, merchandising, advertising packages based on ratings, and the fact that the Indiana Fever and any team she plays sells out, they think she has generated about $1 billion in added revenue, value, and free publicity.

The teams that had been perennially losing money are now starting to break even, if not show a profit. They’re upgrading their travel arrangements, so women are flying privately now. They’re not like a college basketball team on United or American Airlines. They have their own chartered jets. They’ve got upgraded salaries, and they’re getting bonuses.

And what has the reaction been?

The one woman who’s doing all of this—it’s not any white woman; it’s one white woman who is a superb athlete: Caitlin Clark, probably the best natural shooter and passer we’ve seen in women’s basketball in two or three generations. She’s magnificent.

Now she has a sidekick who is also a very good blocker and shooter herself, Sophie CunninghamShe’s beautiful, and like Caitlin, she’s white and heterosexual.

In a league that we didn’t know much about because nobody watched it, the more we watched, the more we were told by various sportscasters—sometimes joking, sometimes bragging, sometimes hinting they didn’t approve—who knows? But they all agree on one thing. The WNBA, like the NBA, “doesn’t look like America,” to quote the Left. It’s not diverse.

It’s about 60–65 percent Black and roughly 30–40 percent gay.

Now you have these two women. When Sophie Cunningham made that [22-second viral point at an opponent], it became a social media phenomenon. Everybody was talking about it. Now her name is everywhere, and she’s making a lot of money.

I saw a clip the other day someone sent me. She’s doing bikini photo shoots. She must be about 6’2″ or something. She’s lean, muscular, beautiful—stunning, actually.

You can see what this is doing for the league.

A logical, rational person would say,We’ve got to make sure we don’t gratuitously foul these two girls because they’re our meal ticket. They’re bringing us more money than we ever imagined. The crowds are bigger. We’re getting better exposure. We’re getting our own media contracts.”

Or would the reaction be, “I don’t like white people. I don’t like heterosexual people. I’m going to try to injure these people”?

That’s what they’re doing.

Sophie Cunningham got hit really hard in the face, and they called a foul on her.

Fowler: Yeah. She got elbowed in the jaw.

Hanson: Yes, just like what happened to Caitlin Clark.

Then you look at everything else and say, “Well, maybe it’s just the players.”

No, because you see the coach wearing a propaganda jacket. You see a co-owner going over and yelling at two little girls.

You get the impression what? 

The more you see of the WNBA, the more you don’t want anything to do with it. It’s just too toxic.

Everything about it is toxic. It brings together the worst in American society. It is tribal. It is racialist. It has a sexual-orientation chauvinism about it. It’s driven by projection. Everything about it.

The irony is that it would rather destroy itself than benefit if it meant having to allow two white, heterosexual women to continue being stars in the league and the biggest breadwinners for everybody.

They would rather destroy it.

Fowler: Or simply say this is a league for biological women.

There’s something about that, Victor. I could be totally wrong—I have no data on this—but my gut tells me it’s the lesbians in the league, and perhaps lesbians more generally, who seem to favor trans participation in women’s sports more than, say, your wife, my wife, or other heterosexual women.

Hanson: I think they see it as adding numbers. I think about 2 percent of the population is lesbian, and .001 is trans, but they’ll include them because they see them as another victimized tribal group that can join their coalition.

But it’s not going to work.

At some point, Sophie Cunningham, Caitlin Clark, and some smart investors are going to say, “You know what? I want to start a league—or go somewhere else—where race is incidental, we don’t obsess over it, we don’t constantly talk about sexual orientation, and we try to be good leftists and try to represent America.”

Quoting, ”Who are we? We’re America. We’re diverse. We’re proportionally representative.”

Use all of the left-wing boilerplate.

Of course, when you do that you’re ”racist.” When they do that, they’re ”inclusive.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 19:15

Visualizing 75 Years Of America's Electricity Transition

Visualizing 75 Years Of America's Electricity Transition

Over the past 75 years, the U.S. electricity system has shifted from one dominated by coal to one in which natural gas and renewables supply nearly two-thirds of generation.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, shows annual U.S. electricity generation by source from 1950 to 2025 using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It tracks output in billions of kilowatt-hours and each source’s share of the electricity mix over time.

Natural Gas and Renewables Lead U.S. Electricity Generation

Coal supplied 46.4% of U.S. electricity in 1950 and remained the country’s largest power source for decades. By 2025, however, its share had fallen to 16.6%. Natural gas moved in the opposite direction, rising from 13.5% to 40.8% and overtaking coal in 2016.

The table below shows each energy source’s share of total U.S. electricity generation at 15-year intervals from 1950 to 2025.

Energy Source Share of U.S. Electricity Generation 1950 1965 1980 1995 2010 2025 Natural Gas 13.5% 21.0% 15.1% 14.8% 24.0% 40.8% Renewables 30.2% 18.6% 12.4% 11.4% 10.2% 24.0% Nuclear 0.0% 0.4% 11.0% 20.1% 19.6% 17.7% Coal 46.4% 54.0% 50.7% 51.0% 44.8% 16.6% Petroleum and Other 10.2% 6.1% 10.7% 2.8% 1.5% 0.8%

Renewables reached a 24.0% share in 2025 and have remained ahead of coal since 2022. Together, natural gas and renewables supplied 64.8% of U.S. electricity that year.

Coal peaked at 56.9% of the electricity mix in 1988. By 2025, no single source accounted for a majority of U.S. generation.

Coal Declined as U.S. Electricity Generation Surged

Coal generation peaked at 2,016 billion kWh in 2007. By 2025, it had fallen to 737 billion kWh, a decline of 63.4%.

Meanwhile, natural gas generation expanded rapidly with the growth of efficient combined-cycle power plants and abundant shale gas, rising from 45 billion kWh in 1950 to 1,807 billion kWh in 2025.

The table below shows U.S. electricity generation by source at 15-year intervals, measured in billions of kWh:

Energy Source Electricity Generation (Billion kWh) 1950 1965 1980 1995 2010 2025 Natural Gas 45 222 346 496 988 1,807 Renewables 101 197 285 382 422 1,064 Nuclear 0 4 251 673 807 785 Coal 155 571 1,162 1,709 1,847 737 Petroleum and Other 34 65 246 93 61 37 Total Electricity Generation 334 1,058 2,290 3,353 4,125 4,430

Over the same period, total U.S. electricity generation rose from 334 billion kWh to 4,430 billion kWh. Natural gas accounted for about 43% of the overall increase, illustrating how it absorbed much of the system’s long-term growth.

The national shift is also visible at the regional level. A recent Visual Capitalist map of what powers each U.S. state and Canadian province shows natural gas as the leading electricity source across much of the United States.

Renewables Set a New Generation Record in 2025

Renewable generation rose to a record 1,064 billion kWh in 2025, equal to 24.0% of total electricity production. That was 93 billion kWh more than in 2024 and nearly twice the 539 billion kWh generated in 2015.

The complete dataset for U.S. electricity generation by source from 1950 to 2025 is available below:

Year Natural Gas (Billion kWh) Renewables (Billion kWh) Nuclear (Billion kWh) Coal (Billion kWh) Petroleum and Other (Billion kWh) Total Electricity Generation (Billion kWh) 1950 45 101 0 155 34 334 1951 57 105 0 185 29 375 1952 68 110 0 195 30 404 1953 80 110 0 219 38 447 1954 94 112 0 239 32 476 1955 95 117 0 301 37 550 1956 104 125 0 339 36 604 1957 114 134 0 346 40 635 1958 120 144 0 344 40 648 1959 147 141 0 378 47 713 1960 158 150 1 403 48 759 1961 169 156 2 422 49 797 1962 184 172 2 450 49 858 1963 202 169 3 494 52 920 1964 220 181 3 526 57 987 1965 222 197 4 571 65 1058 1966 251 198 6 613 79 1148 1967 265 226 8 630 89 1218 1968 304 227 13 685 104 1333 1969 333 254 14 706 138 1445 1970 373 252 22 704 184 1535 1971 374 270 38 713 220 1616 1972 376 278 54 771 274 1753 1973 341 278 83 848 314 1864 1974 320 307 114 828 301 1870 1975 300 307 173 853 289 1921 1976 295 291 191 944 320 2041 1977 306 228 251 985 358 2127 1978 305 287 276 976 365 2209 1979 329 287 255 1075 304 2251 1980 346 285 251 1162 246 2290 1981 346 270 273 1203 206 2298 1982 305 318 283 1192 147 2244 1983 274 342 294 1259 144 2313 1984 297 333 328 1342 120 2419 1985 292 295 384 1402 100 2473 1986 249 306 414 1386 137 2490 1987 273 265 455 1464 118 2575 1988 253 238 527 1541 149 2707 1989 353 325 529 1584 176 2967 1990 373 354 577 1594 140 3038 1991 382 353 613 1591 136 3074 1992 404 323 619 1621 117 3084 1993 415 353 610 1690 129 3197 1994 460 333 640 1691 123 3248 1995 496 382 673 1709 93 3353 1996 455 420 675 1795 99 3444 1997 479 430 629 1845 110 3492 1998 531 396 674 1874 146 3620 1999 556 393 728 1881 136 3695 2000 601 351 754 1966 130 3802 2001 639 279 769 1904 146 3737 2002 691 335 780 1933 120 3858 2003 650 347 764 1974 149 3883 2004 710 343 789 1978 151 3971 2005 761 351 782 2013 149 4055 2006 816 379 787 1991 91 4065 2007 897 346 806 2016 91 4157 2008 883 375 806 1986 70 4119 2009 921 413 799 1756 61 3950 2010 988 422 807 1847 61 4125 2011 1014 507 790 1733 56 4100 2012 1226 490 769 1514 49 4048 2013 1125 517 789 1581 54 4066 2014 1127 532 797 1582 56 4094 2015 1335 539 797 1352 55 4079 2016 1379 603 806 1239 51 4078 2017 1298 680 805 1206 47 4035 2018 1472 701 807 1149 52 4181 2019 1589 723 809 965 44 4131 2020 1627 778 790 773 42 4010 2021 1579 810 780 898 43 4110 2022 1687 895 772 832 46 4231 2023 1806 889 775 675 38 4183 2024 1870 971 782 652 34 4309 2025 1807 1064 785 737 37 4430

Renewables first edged above coal in 2020, fell back below it in 2021, and moved ahead again in 2022. They remained the larger source through 2025. Renewables also surpassed nuclear in 2021 and have stayed ahead since, while nuclear generation held relatively steady at about 785 billion kWh in 2025.

As U.S. electricity demand records its strongest three-year growth stretch since before the global financial crisis, natural gas and renewables are supplying much of the increase, including demand linked to AI data centers.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out this map, What Powers Each U.S. State and Canadian Province?, on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 18:50

Hawaii's 'Blood Quantum' Rule Deepens The State's Housing Crisis

Hawaii's 'Blood Quantum' Rule Deepens The State's Housing Crisis

Authored by Rachel Chiu via the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

Hawaiian residents are challenging ancestry-based housing restrictions in federal court. A pair of lawsuits filed in June and July takes aim at the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, a state agency that reserves long-term homestead leases to individuals who meet the state’s “blood quantum” requirement.

To be eligible for a homestead lease—long-term, affordable leases for residential, agricultural, and pastoral purposes—an applicant must prove that he or she has 50 percent Native Hawaiian ancestry. In any other context, this type of requirement would be instantly illegal. No ordinary government agency or housing authority can deny your application or evict you because of your ancestry. Yet, these controversial rules are very common for determining benefits for indigenous populations, and continue to give the state inordinate power to withhold opportunities and take property from citizens according to overtly discriminatory justifications.

The lead plaintiff in the first lawsuit is Eric Ryan, a lifelong Hawaiian resident whose application for a homestead lease was immediately denied because he was not, as the pre-qualification form required, “at least 50 percent Native Hawaiian.” The legal definition of a Native Hawaiian is a “descendant of not less than one-half part of the blood of the races inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands previous to 1778.” With this narrow construction, the state is empowered to reject thousands of applicants. Meanwhile, many others are left on hold. According to the complaint, the waiting list for new leases exceeds 30,000 applicants, and some have been waiting for more than 40 years.

The Department has sought to expand its efforts to meet the high demand. Last year, it purchased an 82-unit private housing complex in Kauai for a state-run rent-to-own program. But, yet again, the program was reserved for residents who were at least 50 percent Native Hawaiian. This meant that applicants like Ryan would be ineligible and, even worse, existing homeowners would be evicted because of their ancestry. In July, two residents initiated a second lawsuit against the Department. Linda Twitchell, who is not Native Hawaiian, will soon be forced to leave the apartment she has lived in for seven years. Another resident, David Kalahiki, who is 25 percent Native Hawaiian, will not be able to continue living in his home since it will go to someone on the waitlist who meets the strict ancestry cutoff. These evicted residents were forced back into a tumultuous housing market where renters struggle to find affordable homes, and a majority must spend more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent.

The dispossession of residents through these discriminatory rules unnecessarily exacerbates the housing insecurity within the state. This situation stems from an antiquated and controversial policy: the Department is empowered by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, a federal law that mandates the blood quantum requirement. It was enacted during Hawaii’s territorial period between annexation and statehood. According to a 1920 House report, lawmakers were concerned about too much social assimilation and native population decline. However, some scholars and commentators have called the requirement a tool of dispossession that was designed to reduce individual autonomy under the guise of protection.

Still, state officials claim that the Act is beneficial rather than harmful. In a statement, Hawaii Governor Josh Green vowed to defend the statute rigorously, and Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez claimed that the program has “provided opportunities, stability, and hope to generations of Native Hawaiian beneficiaries.” But the plaintiffs contend that the ancestral requirement is constitutionally impermissible and violates the guarantee of equal protection under the law.

The Kauai evictions are particularly suspect because they involve the displacement of residents, while Governor Green paradoxically claims that the Act is designed to remedy dispossession. As the complaint alleges: “The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act does not expressly authorize [the Department] to purchase private real property and convert that property into Hawaiian home lands. Rather, the purpose of the Act was to specifically preserve the Hawaiian home lands—real property previously held by the Hawaiian monarchy—for homesteading purposes.” Even if the law has conceptual merit, it is uncertain whether it still accomplishes its intended goals or works against them.

Ultimately, the courts will need to clarify whether these ancestry-based requirements can persist and, separately, whether they justify the ousting of residents from their homes. But as it stands, Hawaii can tell residents that they are insufficiently Native Hawaiian and evict them based on its rigid, government-imposed standard.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 18:25

Bessent's 'Yentervention' Does Not Fix Japan's Underlying Structural Issues

Bessent's 'Yentervention' Does Not Fix Japan's Underlying Structural Issues

Authored by Ed Dowd via 'Beyond The Narrative' substack,

...a delicate meal to cook before Midterms...

My conclusions on the Bessent yen intervention:

  • The move is a temporary Band-Aid at best and sharp yen strength can historically trigger carry-trade unwinds and risk-asset volatility, but it does not fix Japan’s structural debt or rate differentials. The Fed, BOJ and Treasury are walking a tightrope.

  • Consensus is correct that the primary driver is preventing forced sales of Japan’s $1T+ UST holdings that would spike US yields.

  • Expanding the FIMA repo facility is a backdoor start to yield-curve control, letting Japan borrow dollars against Treasuries instead of dumping them.

  • Bessent is explicitly worried about contagion in his own words by citing the Asian financial crisis trigger from a weak yen and framing the intervention as “stopping an emergency” before it spreads.

  • I believe one of the motivations was to delay any major market or yield disruption until at least the midterms.

  • Interventions like this rarely stick without fundamental policy shifts and often unleash unintended consequences down the road.

Background

On Friday last week:

July 31 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury has informed a number of ‌banks that it may intervene in the Japanese yen market on Friday and that they should “stand ready for future action,” a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The notice to banks, channeled through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, comes a day after Japanese authorities stepped in to prop up the yen, setting ​the currency up for its biggest weekly rise since February, pulling it off of four-decade lows against the dollar.

News of ​the potential intervention by the U.S. Treasury helped push the yen higher against the dollar on Friday. It last traded at ⁠159.09 to the dollar after trading as low 163.65 on Thursday.

On Sunday August 2nd Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed intervention on X:

The Trump Administration delivers for America’s trusted partners. Economic security is national security. And the U.S.-Japan alliance is built on both.

Friday’s coordinated foreign exchange actions countered disorderly yen movements.

Treasury remains attentive and in close communication with our counterparts at MOF and BOJ. We will not hesitate to participate in further joint intervention.

The FIMA Repo Facility is an important backstop. We would encourage it to be upsized in the coming months.

We strongly support Japan’s decisive market and monetary steps to correct the substantial undervaluation of the yen.

The Takaichi government is moving into an exciting new phase of Abenomics, as nearly 15 years of powerful stimulus have created durable, robust underlying economic dynamics.

Market commentary on X quickly coalesced around protecting the US Treasury market. Japan is one of the largest foreign holders of USTs. A collapsing yen raises the risk of liquidation to defend the currency, pushing US yields higher at a politically sensitive moment. Many skeptics noted the fix is temporary and that the yen’s weakness is rooted in Japan’s public-debt burden and policy divergences, not purely speculative overshoot. Without follow-through on BOJ rates and Japanese fiscal discipline, official buying merely delays the inevitable.

In a clip aired on Bannon’s War Room on August 4, Bessent laid out the contagion risk directly: “One of the things that triggered the Asian financial crisis was a very weak Japanese yen that caused a tsunami across Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Someone asked me, ‘What’s the emergency?’ The emergency is stopping an emergency. We don’t have to wait for the crisis. We can remediate it early.” Bannon’s own brief framing that day was that the effort ultimately keeps Japan financing US deficits so they neither sell nor stop buying Treasuries.

My analysis

I posted this right after the weekend announcement on X:

“Massive, coordinated Yen intervention announced this weekend. Traditionally large delta rapid strengthening of the yen has been associated with risk asset weakness especially global equities. So far this is a 5% down move in USD/JPY (yen strength). Rapid moves can sometimes cause the Yen carry trade to become more expensive and liquidations can occur. In August 2024 a 10% move provided some volatility especially in Japanese equities. The cooks are in the kitchen now and it’s a delicate meal they are preparing.”

Meaning the authorities want to halt the Yen slide but they also don’t want it to strengthen too much and cause the Yen carry trade unwind. The goal is stability. Put another way, we simultaneously don’t want Japanese selling our treasuries out of reserves to defend a weak Yen but we also don’t want to see rapid yen strength cause a cascading global margin call. We saw a milder version of margin call in 2024 when the Yen strengthened 10% very quickly. The market is currently applauding the move. However, a coordinated official bid changes the near-term price action, but it does not erase the underlying positioning or the rate differential that keeps the trade alive.

I agree with the consensus that the core motive is preventing Japanese sales of US Treasuries and that the FIMA expansion is a backdoor beginning of yield-curve control. By letting Japan post Treasuries as collateral for dollar liquidity instead of selling them into the open market, the authorities are effectively capping the upward pressure on US yields. It is a clever, low-visibility way to manage the curve without an explicit Fed QE announcement. Combined with the direct yen purchases, it buys some time. I believe one of the motivations was to delay any major market or yield disruption until at least the midterms. But it is temporary. Japan’s debt dynamics and the need for eventual BOJ normalization remain. History shows these interventions lose effectiveness once markets test the resolve and the size required grows with diminishing returns.

Officials can signal and buy for a while, but without sustained Japanese policy follow-through the yen will eventually drift weaker again, forcing larger and more frequent interventions. Each round raises the risk of the very asset volatility and liquidity events that the cooks are trying to manage. Keep watching the carry-trade heat and the pace of any further coordinated actions…that will tell us whether the meal is cooked well or burnt.

“But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:26-27

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 17:40

Reality Bites: Socialist NYC Mayor Mamdani Turns To Capitalist Bankers For Help

Reality Bites: Socialist NYC Mayor Mamdani Turns To Capitalist Bankers For Help

After socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani went after Citadel's Ken Griffin, created a property database of wealthy homeowners that makes the list easily accessible to "Luigi-worshipping leftist thugs," and endlessly bashed America and capitalism, all while his friend, Democratic Socialists of America's unofficial spokesperson Hasan Piker, called on his followers to "kill capitalists in the streets" and other DSA members called for the destruction of America from within, the far-left NYC mayor, who is running into roadblocks, has called on capitalist bankers for help.

Piker in his own words: "KiII those motherf**kers and murder those motherf**kers in the streets. Let the streets soak in their f**king red capitalist blood." 

Bloomberg reports that Mamdani is seeking top capitalist bankers for a new business advisory council as he attempts to mend relations with Wall Street after spewing dangerous rhetoric against the very people who make the city go 'round.

Those invited include former UBS Americas Chief Executive Officer Robert Wolf, former Lazard investment-banking chief Antonio Weiss, and Bank of America's New York City President Jose Tavarez, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The people said the group would provide advice and feedback from key industries, including real estate, finance, and technology.

"The administration is in the process of reaching out to business executives to form a Business Advisory Council," a spokesperson for the Mayor's Office said in an emailed statement to the outlet.

The spokesperson added, "The purpose of the council is to engage with business leaders for their insights and input as we build an economic development strategy that improves life for all New Yorkers."

Mamdani's outreach to capitalist bankers comes as his team of socialists dismantles a separate corporate advisory board connected to the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City. The mayor has clashed with business leaders over his push for higher taxes on wealthy residents and large corporations, while redirecting city institutions toward socialist causes.

Bill Cunningham, a political strategist who served under former Governor Hugh Carey and later as former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's communications director at City Hall, told the outlet, "I don't know how the mayor will go about creating a group that he can interact with that can help him manage the city. That should be the goal."

With his socialist agenda encountering institutional, fiscal, and political resistance, Mamdani's decision to tap capitalist bankers is more of an acknowledgment of governing reality: NYC cannot maintain its tax base, finance its ambitions, or remain a global business center while pushing anti-American socialist policies. 

Yet another example of how socialism sounds great on paper but, in reality, is an unmitigated disaster once the resources are depleted.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 17:20

Meet The Lab-Leak Proponent Set To Take Fauci's Old Job

Meet The Lab-Leak Proponent Set To Take Fauci's Old Job

Authored by Paul D. Thacker via The DisInformation Chronicle,

Politico reported that physician-scientist Steven Quay is going through final vetting to take over Tony Fauci's job at the NIH, reporting that aligns with rumors I've been hearing from sources inside the administration for several months. Quay sat for an interview with me on the DisInformation Chronicle podcast last June to talk about changes NIH should make to ensure we don't have another pandemic caused by dangerous virus research, and I ran an excerpt of his book "The Code As Witness: How the COVID Genome Reveals Its Lab Origins."

The Politico leak comes as Fauci is in the hot seat with Senators passing a resolution yesterday morning that found him in contempt for failing to answer questions during a hearing last week. Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has released thousands of pages of internal documents about the pandemic, including Fauci's own diary which was found on government servers.

I'm on vacation and haven't had time to go through all the documents - actually, I don't think anybody has gone through all the new revelations - but I did discover that Fauci wrote in his diary that he didn't like my 2022 interview with former CDC Director Robert Redfield. In a September 2022 entry, Fauci called me a "totally weird person" and complained that Dr. Redfield was a "bizarre personality" for telling me that he thought the pandemic started in a lab.

I also ran across a surprising article in the New Yorker that belittled Big Tony for his self-obsessive diary where he seemed much more interested in fame and ties to celebrities than trying to protect the public from the COVID virus. Here's one passage:

Fauci does not seem to see a relationship between the adulation and the villainization - to understand that he's hated for being beloved, perhaps more than for loving the truth. One day, he is doing a podcast interview with Alec Baldwin ("Without a doubt, from a intellectual and substantive standpoint it was one of the best if not the best interview that I have ever given"). The next, he is confronted with a poll suggesting "that middle to right people want me to retire and are not getting vaccinated because I'm the messenger telling them to get vaccinated." But the emotional charge of his celebrity defies his self-conception as a neutral arbiter. One of the sharpest ironies in the diary is how often the good press that he quotes praises him for his modesty and his lack of ego. The Fauci mythos was incompatible with the actual work of being Fauci.

The New Yorker long ago morphed into a die-hard cheerleader for Democratic Party interests, and finding something so negative about Democrat's COVID demigod is pretty shocking. Has Fauci lost his hypnotic hold over Woke reporters?

Even as the public has been buried in a ton of new Fauci documents, a Senate Committee revealed that they have a copy of Big Tony's cell phone that he used during the pandemic. So this is not going to stop. Big Tony is on the run.

To learn more about Big Tony's replacement, Steven Quay, see my interview with him, and check out his book excerpt where he details the science pointing to a lab accident as the cause of the COVID pandemic.

Enjoy the summer!

ZH: See our previous reporting on Quay here

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 17:00

"Fire Is... Beautiful": Suspect In Spokane Wildfire Confesses He Planned Arson For Weeks

"Fire Is... Beautiful": Suspect In Spokane Wildfire Confesses He Planned Arson For Weeks

The suspect charged on Aug. 3 with starting the Old Trails fire in Spokane, Washington, that forced more than 60,000 people to evacuate told police he had planned the attack for weeks.

The suspect, Aaron Farinacci, told police in an interview that “fire is powerful, beautiful, and that things that go through fire experience a kind of rebirth,” according to Spokane County Detective Michael Drapeau in a court filing Wednesday.

Farinacci, 37, was scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, but is now being held on $2 million bond while Spokane Superior Court Judge Jeremy Schmidt reviews his lawyer’s request for a competency evaluation.

Farinacci was booked into the Spokane County Jail.

According to a press conference by Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels, Farinacci was arrested after a concerned citizen provided a description of Farinacci near the area where the fire started, moments before smoke was seen.

According to an arrest affidavit, Farinacci initially denied setting the fire when questioned by law enforcement.

The arrest warrant was executed around 5 p.m. on Aug. 4, and the suspect was detained about a mile from where the fire started.

Farinacci was in possession of matches and a lighter at the time he was arrested, which is believed to be how the fire was started.

As Savannah Hulsey Pointer reports for The Epoch Times, the Old Trails fire, which has burned at least 700 buildings, is one of three that have been burning in the Spokane area that have consumed more than 10,500 acres in total. Two of the three fires are 13 percent contained, and the third is 5 percent contained.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson sent a letter to President Donald Trump the day before Farinacci’s scheduled arraignment, asking to speak on behalf of the people of his state and request emergency assistance.

“Your team has been nothing but helpful and quick to respond during this extremely challenging time,” Ferguson said.

Farinacci was previously convicted of manslaughter and aggravated assault in Arizona for shooting and killing his father.

According to court documents, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2012 for his crime. Nowels said Farinacci also had a preceding arrest in the same case for premeditated murder.

Roughly 1,100 firefighters are battling the fires, which are still not contained. No injuries or fatalities have been reported so far, though authorities say there is a high probability that will change as teams reach previously inaccessible areas, as an unspecified number of people are reported as missing.

More than a dozen wildfires are blazing across the Western United States. In Washington state alone, at least 390 square miles have burned, as federal, state, and local agencies are stretched to their limits.

In Idaho, Oregon, and Utah, crews are using bulldozers, helicopters, and other resources to fight a fire that has burned almost 525 square miles. That area is home to cattle ranches, and authorities say the fire also threatens 600 homes and 800 other structures.

In central Utah, another blaze doubled in size over the weekend. By the morning of Aug. 3, more than 57 square miles were burned, killing more than 100 head of cattle.

Officials called the fire “catastrophic,” with heavy winds pushing the flames over containment lines.

The fire is moving north toward a town of around 2,600 people in Millard County, and mandatory evacuations were ordered on Sunday evening.

The National Weather Service has issued air quality warnings across the northwest, and red flag fire warnings were posted for parts of Utah, Montana, and western Nebraska. Extreme heat warnings were issued for the southern parts of Arizona, California, Nevada, and northern Montana.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 16:40

The Democratic Party's Four-Way Squeeze

The Democratic Party's Four-Way Squeeze

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“. . . it’s subversion and nothing about it is accidental. it’s a well worn playbook to use the democratic institutions of a high trust state to destroy a civilization.” 

- El Gato Malo on Substack

The days might still be long, but this is a dark season in our country’s politics. Everybody’s nervous and many are furious, and yet all that emotion goes nowhere, just eats you up while you watch and wait for signs that help is on the way. What would that help even look like? Maybe a concerted effort to bum-rush a whole lot of bad ideas out of American life and replace them with better ideas that are worth building a life around.

Of the two political parties that used to vie between the interests of property and of labor, there is almost nothing left — nothing coherent, anyway.

Mr. Trump & Co. still stand outside a feckless Republican establishment that can only say “no.” That is bad enough, when it comes to vital matters like election reform and sound fiscal policy. But the President is methodically wearing them down with tactical work-arounds such as this week’s use of State Department visa control to prevent foreign visitors coming here just to drop birthright citizens.

Things will get super-serious when the president has to manage the government’s functional bankruptcy, the bond market crack-up under our impossible debt-burden, and all its knock-ons. It’s coming for sure, and will require a stringent reorganization of American finance, probably even of our money itself. That will be a moment when the nation understands what leadership really means, not just endless deception and fakery.

Speaking of which, you have the other party, the Democrats.

The Dems, unmoored from the interests of labor (whatever is left of it), are now strictly just the party of bad ideas and crime.

One way, or another, we’re gonna find you, we’re gonna gitchya gitchya gitchya. . . .

The party is also, at this juncture of history, caught in a gruesome four-way squeeze that could easily drag it into extinction. Let’s count them.

First, is the basic basket of ideas that comprise the party’s platform, readily identifiable for some years now as the “Woke” catalog. Virtually all of them are ideas that a majority of the public rejects as insane. A wide-open border. We tried that for four years under the fake president “Joe Biden.” Didn’t work out so well. Added many millions to the free everything dole that actual citizens resentfully have to pay for. Took jobs away from said citizens. Got a lot of (mostly) women murdered and raped. Let in Gawd knows how many foreign terrorists.

“Woke” also includes the DEI products of manufactured race animus and gender confusion, especially as applied in school from K all the way to PhD. Apart from the sheer hatred and idiocy these things generated, they also led to the scrapping of merit and excellence as organizing principles for civilization. Americans increasingly reject all of that.

The second squeeze point is the Democratic Party’s criminal portfolio. The Covid-19 operation was basically theirs. It killed and injured millions, wrecked the integrity of medicine, and brought on the deliberate perversion of our election procedure. It gave us fake President “Biden” and the autopen gang that ran him. Along the way, the party weaponized the law and produced one hoax after another: RussiaGate, Impeachment, J-6, the 2024 Trump trials — treason, sedition, deprivation of rights under color of law, obstruction of justice and much more. These crimes are a huge burden for the party and they are in the process of being adjudicated, and a lot of the party’s heroes will end up in prison.

The third squeeze is the party’s widespread and atrocious racketeering operation. The process of uncovering it has been going on since Jan 20, 2025, but still has a long way to go in terms of courtroom action. The Somali Learing Center in Minnesota, fake hospices by the hundreds in California, Medicaid fraud in state after state. It was generally allowed to go on by state officialdom. We await the eventual indictments of Governor Tim Walz, Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Janet Mills and many other Democratic politicians.

The Democratic Party racketeering apparatus also included the money-laundering system that kicked back millions of dollars from a matrix of NGOs that washed taxpayer money into the party coffers. USAID was a major mechanism, and has been mostly shut down, but thousands of NGOs still exist and function as employment centers for young party “activists” who otherwise would have to work the espresso machines. A lot of that activism depends on funding from the likes of George Soros, the Tides Foundation, Bill Gates, Neville Roy Singham, and other criminally-tinged philanthropy outfits. Justice is coming for them now, too.

Which redounds directly to the fourth squeeze: the rise of communism and jihad as the Party’s new rallying cries while the other three squeezes work to put the party’s old guard out of business. Communism is the fad-du-jour among Democratic Party youth because the over-production of elites (i.e., college graduates) are increasingly closed out of cushy jobs in the besieged NGO matrix, threatened further by the advent of artificial intelligence, and have been trained-up by the lefty-left college faculties to fall in love with the utopian nostrums of Karl Marx.

Communism is the Party’s last resort and most of America will not buy it, no matter how heartfelt the youth faction appears these days. Americans believe in property rights. They want to own things. They don’t really enjoy being pushed around by kommissars. They want to keep Thanksgiving and Christmas.

As for jihad, it’s hard to imagine a less likely route to the hearts and minds of America. No matter how pissed off you are about Israel, jihad is not the answer to America’s problems. No, Dorothy, Kansas will not be joining the Ummah. You will not have to don the burka. Sharia will not replace English common-law. This is a hill that somebody’s going to die on, and in America it’s not going to be Americans.

Personally, I don’t see how the Democratic Party as currently configured survives this four-way squeeze. If President Trump can succeed in starting to reindustrialize the country — even considering A-I and robots — there will still be a need for human labor and labor will seek some kind of political representation. Maybe they can find it in the hollowed out husk of the thing that used to be the Democratic Party. Otherwise, fuggeddabowdit. The party is toast.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 16:20

Vance: Federal Government Has Identified $230 Billion In Fraud Since March

Vance: Federal Government Has Identified $230 Billion In Fraud Since March

Authored by Emel Akan via The Epoch Times,

Vice President JD Vance said on Aug. 5 that the Trump administration has identified $230 billion in fraud and prevented $56 billion in fraudulent payments since the president’s Fraud Task Force was established in March.

Vance discussed the task force’s initiatives at a roundtable in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building attended by more than a dozen Republican lawmakers. He said the work by the task force so far is starting to show results.

“We have been able to identify $230 billion of fraud just since the Fraud Task Force was set up, and that’s frankly by conservatively estimating it,” Vance said.

He urged Congress to codify certain anti-fraud actions taken by the administration to ensure that they remain in effect under future administrations.

“This effort will fundamentally always have a limitation unless our colleagues in the House and the Senate are working with us,” Vance said.

“We don’t want the next administration ... to undo all the incredible work that we’ve been doing.”

The vice president said one of the first steps Congress can take is to force data sharing between state and federal governments to crack down on fraud.

He said that if a state gives food stamp benefits to an illegal immigrant or a violent criminal, the federal government often cannot detect who is receiving those benefits.

The vice president also called on Congress to make fraud harder to commit and to ensure that convicted fraudsters receive longer prison sentences that better reflect the seriousness of their crimes.

On March 16, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a task force after large-scale fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid and federal assistance programs drew national attention late last year. He then appointed Vance to lead the new task force while also creating a fraud-focused division in the Justice Department.

Speaking at the event, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who co-chairs the task force, said that fraudsters target federal assistance programs because they are relatively easy to exploit. He said one reason is that “the punishments associated with much of the fraud are relatively low.”

Hence, the administration wants to work with Congress to significantly increase sentences for all levels of fraud, he said, to deter potential fraudsters from targeting these programs.

On Aug. 4, authorities announced that 19 people have been charged with Medicaid fraud for allegedly submitting more than $4 million in false home care bills. The investigation was a joint effort by several federal and state law enforcement agencies.

The White House on Aug. 6 announced that it has launched a new website to track the administration’s moves to eliminate alleged fraud, waste, and abuse in government agencies.

“Each partner agency reported three figures” to the task force led by Vance, the site states, noting that the “fraud uncovered” section on the site “represents total estimated fraud identified through data analysis” while the “fraud stopped” portion “counts the dollars saved annually through administrative actions such as provider suspensions and rule changes.”

Vance said in a recent interview with Fox News:

“I don’t care where you came from, I don’t care what your name is. If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should ... try to throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”

A similar initiative was established under the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was associated with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and which was wound down by July 2026. DOGE’s website also included contracts, leases, and other items that were targeted for elimination by the Trump administration.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 15:45

Consumer Credit Jumps More Than Expected In June As Credit Card Debt Spikes

Consumer Credit Jumps More Than Expected In June As Credit Card Debt Spikes

One month after the May consumer credit posting a shocking decline - the first since late 2024 - driven by a plunge in revolving credit, things are mostly back to normal, with the Fed reporting in its latest G.19 report that in June, US consumer credit posted a healthy $14.17BN bounce - a full reversal of the May drop of $1.1 billion - and above the $11.9 billion median estimate. 

The rebound was driven by a sizable reversal in last month's drop in revolving credit (i.e., credit card debt), as consumer resumed buying on credit to the tune of $6.7BN...

... bringing the total amount of outstanding credit card debt to $1.351 trillion, just $1 billion away from the all time high set in October 2024.

Meanwhile, non-revolving credit rose by its slow and steady monthly pace of $7.4 billion, lifting the total amount of student and auto loans to a new record high of $3.816 trillion.

What is interesting, is that while auto loans have barely budged since late 2023, staying around 1.6 trillion for nearly three years, and hitting a record $1.571 trillion at the end of June, student loans have resumed their ascent, and after a modest decline in late 2023, student loans are once again at all time highs although in June we saw a tiny decline of $4.5 billion.

Finally for those keeping tabs, after a modest decline in the previous two quarter, the average interest rate on credit card accounts assessed interest rose to 22.15%...

... a level last seen three years ago, when the Fed rates was almost 2% higher, which confirms our long-running observation that credit card rates go up but they never go down.

One final observation: after a period of about 6 years when the average amount financed by auto loans was around $25,000 (from 2008 to 2014), this amount has grown dramatically, and in Q1 2026 it hit a new record high of $42,500, the highest on record. Just in case there was confusion what is behind the relentless increase in car prices...

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 15:32

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