Zero Rss

DEI Refuses To Die

Authored by Kenin M. Spivak via RealClearPolitics,

Although the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws dating back to 1866 prohibit nearly all racial preferences, most Americans oppose these preferences, and Donald Trump was elected vowing to eliminate DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) - progressives won't give up.

Their race-obsessed thinking reduces America to intersectional classifications of oppressed and oppressor. This addled concept is a self-defeating dialectic in which no amount of progress on race relations is ever enough - or even acknowledged. Despite enormous advances, with the possible exception of Palestinians and transgender people, no group is seen as more oppressed and deserving of preferences than African Americans.

In 2025, President Trump issued executive orders that revoked President Biden's whole-of-government mandates interweaving DEI into all facets of the federal government. Since then, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department under Harmeet Dhillon has filed numerous administrative actions and lawsuits to end racial preferences that disadvantage whites, and some universities, corporations, and charities have limited their DEI programs. Conversely, many universities have defied the Supreme Court's 2023 holding in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard by renaming or reformulating their DEI programs. Some are using a loophole in the SFFA decision that acknowledged colleges may consider how an applicant's race affected his life.

In just the last three months, the Justice Department announced at least 25 investigations, lawsuits, and settlements involving allegedly unlawful racial preferences by the College of William & Mary, Duke University, a Jersey City college prep course, City University of New York (CUNY), the state of Minnesota, the city of Evanston, Illinois, Arizona State University, UC Davis Medical School, UC San Diego Medical School, and 15 other medical schools.

A State Department internal review announced last week found that the Biden administration required foreign service officers to read materials on critical race theory, slavery reparations, anti-racism, and so-called "white fragility." To be eligible for promotion, they had to discuss DEI with foreign counterparts to demonstrate "allyship." They were trained on how to talk about "Black Lives Matter" and "systemic racism" in foreign languages, and to use progressive-approved terminology. The State Department claims that it has finally "put an end" to these practices.

Then, last month, a federal judge in California ruled that the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Interior exceeded their authority by imposing conditions ending DEI in grants to California cities. Defending Education, an education watchdog, found that America's two leading teachers' unions, the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers are embedding DEI principles into policies for classroom use of AI. Numerous companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Costco, Delta, and Cisco, openly continue their DEI programs, and the pace of litigation shows that many other companies and institutions covertly do so.

In 1996, California stunned the nation when 55% of voters approved Proposition 209, which amended the state's constitution to prohibit public institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity in employment, contracting, and education. In 2020, Democrats unsuccessfully sought to repeal Prop 209. California next tried to require public companies to include blacks and other "underrepresented" minorities on their boards. The California courts struck that down. Now, California is moving toward authorizing reparations for its black residents.

A decade after ratification of the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court declared that the purpose of the Equal Protection Clause is that "the law in the States shall be the same for the black as for the white; that all persons, whether colored or white, shall stand equal before the laws of the States." Progressives don't care.

On Real America's "Get Real," RealClear publisher David DesRosiers seeks common ground across the political spectrum. One progressive panelist recently explained that blacks require preferences because it's not "what you know" but "who you know." Whites know all the right people, but blacks do not. What a dated perspective. How patronizing of blacks. How wrong.

More than half of all blacks in major metropolitan areas live in the suburbs, and their children are educated in suburban schools. About 12% of the students in Ivy League colleges are black, even after SFFA. There are 61 black members in the House (14%), five black senators (5%), two Supreme Court justices (22%), and about 184 black federal judges (8%). Blacks comprise about 10% of first year medical school students, 8% of law school students, 2% of Fortune 500 corporate CEOs, and 13% of all Americans.

I am confident that most of these people know someone who can help them and their families, as do black professional athletes, artists, and actors, as well as more than 1,000 African-American mayors, 1,000 state legislators, 14 billionaires and about 1.4 million black millionaires.

While listening to the panelist, I thought about the middle-class neighborhood in Brooklyn where I grew up. My neighbors were policemen, firemen, teachers, and plumbers. Good people. Not one of them was in a position to help me in my career, or introduce me to someone who did. I made my way with hard work and some luck, but never with help from anyone I knew growing up. Of course, I received support from people I met along the way at Columbia University and during my career, as did my black colleagues. It's called "networking," not racism.

Yes, affluent people know more of the "right people" than poor people, and have other advantages as well. Children from poor and low-income families typically face many obstacles due to their socioeconomic status. They often attend inferior K-12 schools, and have less time for homework because of jobs or chores. They are less likely to benefit from two actively involved parents and receive, on average, less guidance and assistance.

Students from families in the bottom 25% income bracket comprise only 3% of enrollment in our most competitive colleges, while those from the top 25% comprise 72%. Studies show that high-achieving, low-income children who have lower GPAs and SAT scores than affluent children achieve college grades and graduation rates at the same level as affluent students. Their scores can be "normed" for these differences, even without special programs.

Blacks are more likely to be poor than whites, and consequently, would disproportionately benefit from this approach. That's fine with me - and, more importantly, with the Constitution. Racial preferences are unconstitutional, illegal and immoral; helping low-income Americans is not.

I defy any children of Michelle Obama, Eric Holder, Jeh Johnson, Beyonce, or Ibram X. Kendi to deny that they have every advantage, including a terrific education and a network of contacts that millions of white Americans lack.

More than once, the U.S. Supreme Court has observed that "distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people. As Chief Justice John Roberts declared, "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

When the Constitution, federal laws and opinion align, progressives should respect our values. Here, that would mean restoring equality and the dignity of blacks by ending the disgrace of DEI.

Kenin M. Spivak is founder and chairman of SMI Group LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. He is the author of fiction and non-fiction books and a frequent speaker and contributor to media, including RealClearPolitics, The American Mind, National Review, television, radio, and podcasts.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 17:00

Iryna Zarutska's Family Sues City Of Charlotte Over Fatal Rail Stabbing, Claims Inadequate Security

The family of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was fatally stabbed on a North Carolina light rail train last year, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Charlotte and a private security firm.

A sreenshot from footage showing the moments before a Ukrainian refugee was stabbed to death on a light rail trail in North Carolina

The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 21, alleges that Zarutska's death was entirely preventable. It claims the city and Professional Police Services - a security company contracted by the Charlotte Area Transit System - failed to implement reasonable safety measures despite being well aware of violent crime along the 9.6-mile LYNX Blue Line.

According to the complaint, long before Zarutska boarded the train, the defendants "knew that violent crime had repeatedly occurred on and around the Blue Line and the Charlotte Transportation Center."

Despite this knowledge, the lawsuit states the defendants "failed to use reasonable and available safety measures, including fare enforcement, physical access barriers, adequate staffing, effective security deployment, monitoring, and passenger warnings."

"Defendants were responsible for protecting lawful passengers from known and foreseeable dangers, and their failures caused the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska inside the train," the filing adds.

The family claims that Professional Police Services left critical security vacancies unfilled. Because of this severe understaffing, the suit claims the firm was left "without the capacity to deploy security personnel to the Blue Line light rail cars at the times and locations where defendants knew violent crime was concentrated."

As a result, the defendants allegedly failed to stop unticketed and dangerous individuals from boarding, failed to adequately patrol the cars, and ultimately failed to protect lawful passengers like Zarutska from "reasonably foreseeable criminal attacks."

As the Epoch Times notes further, Zarutska was killed on Aug. 22, 2025, while riding the city's light rail, minutes after taking a seat in front of the man accused of attacking her, according to police. Her family said she had recently fled war-torn Ukraine and settled in Charlotte.

The Charlotte Area Transit System released the footage showing Zarutska boarding the Lynx Blue Line around 9:45 p.m. on Aug. 22, wearing a pizzeria uniform and scrolling on her phone. A man, Decarlos Brown Jr, in a red hoodie was seated behind her. About four minutes later, he pulled out a knife and stabbed her several times, including at least once in the neck.

After the sudden assault, nearby passengers did not physically intervene or immediately render medical assistance as she sat in shock and eventually collapsed.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

In June, a federal judge deemed Brown incompetent to stand trial for Zarutska's fatal train stabbing.

Brown, 34, who had a criminal history and had previously been committed for schizophrenia, was committed to a federal facility for treatment for up to four months in an attempt to restore competency, Judge Kenneth D. Bell said in his order on June 9.

After Brown's time in the treatment facility, the court will again take up the case to determine whether he is considered competent. If he is found competent, the murder case will resume.

If he is not found competent and the court finds he cannot be restored to competency, the court will rule on further treatment.

Brown was charged with one count of Violence Against a Railroad Carrier and Mass Transportation System Resulting in Death. If convicted, the defendant faces the death penalty.

The attack garnered international attention at the time, including from President Donald Trump, who said that Brown should get the death penalty.

"There can be no other option!" he said in a Sept. 10, 2025, Truth Social post.

The Epoch Times has contacted the City of Charlotte and Professional Police Services for comment.

Tom Ozimek and Savannah Hulsey Pointer contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 16:40

Our World 'Is Coming Apart Now... In Astounding Ways'

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Cookery For All

“We’re only cooked if we accept it.”

- Blaine Holt on “X”

They don’t call economics the dismal science for nothing.

It has been noted - since Thomas Carlyle minted the term in 1849 (objecting to the emancipation of black slaves on Britain’s colonial sugar plantations as a harm to productivity) - that attempts to manage the billion-footed transactions of human beings always find a way to bite back.

But how can this creature we call society not try to regulate its affairs, with evils and hazards lurking in all we do, everywhere and always?

And so, you get politics, the quarrels that arise out of those efforts to manage a polity. And then you get war, which, the Prussian Carl von Clausewitz observed, is a continuation of politics by other means. But then, long before him, and on the other side of the world, came Sun Tzu’s treatise The Art of War, which counseled that winning was best achieved with the least actual fighting.

All these ways of seeing our world converge dynamically in the current historical moment: this Fourth Turning, or Long Emergency — however you label it — in the arc of our techno-industrial order of things. A lot of these things are coming apart now, and in astounding ways, and it remains to be seen what we will do with these broken and discarded parts, and whether any of it can be put back together in a satisfactory way.

Here in the USA, we act all this out these days with Trump and Trumpism and the Left with its Leftism.

Mr. Trump recognizes the brokenness and, being primarily a builder, seeks to rebuild according to first principles of the USA (Make America Great Again) — meaning, back to the Hamiltonian doctrine of an economy based on the production of things (of real value). The catch there is that it comes with baggage of Hamiltonian finance, which is the creation and use of debt with government assistance.

Now it happens that a primary feature of this Fourth Turning crisis in our techno-industrial order is excessive complexity that produces diminishing returns — that is, makes things worse rather than better. And a lot of this excessive complexity lodges itself in finance, because using operations that few people can understand serves beautifully in the engineering of frauds and swindles. Financial frauds and swindles, in turn, muddle the verity of money — in which finance is enacted — and things denominated in money — securities and so forth, all based fundamentally in debt. So, the net effect of such debauched finance leads to a great deal of insecurity and anxiety over money.

Which is where the Trumpian rebuild is dangerously vulnerable, especially as we enter the fall season, when the leaves flutter down and markets like to crash. Everybody and his uncle watching things financial predict an imminent crackup in these markets as the rackets and hallucinations that magically levitate them dissolve in foul mists of reveal. For instance, the acid trip of artificial intelligence (AI).

Never have more lavish fantasies been proffered on a new technology. Elon Musk, the demigod prophet of the latest-and-greatest new tech, promises a coming economy of super-abundance and universal leisure (good for the sale of vacation packages on Mars). Musk is a fine fellow and there’s much to admire in his intelligence and positivity. But there’s plenty of reason to suspect that AI might disappoint and become a menace to mankind.

We’ve already noticed that it’s messing up all the procedures of schooling, leaving young people shockingly stupid, devoid of real skills, stripped of creativity. Anyway, the economy AI is supposed to integrate with and enhance would quickly become one devoid of human endeavor per se, and all the transactions that come out of it. If you think it through just a little ways, you can’t help seeing a system that’s based on getting something-for-nothing - which is to say a childish fantasy that precludes human transacting based on work... people who do nothing, make nothing, and enact nothing around doing-and-making... a society without anything social in it. In short, this imagined AI economy beats a path straight to entropy, the force in this universe that you don’t want to mess with.

All that is apart from the probability that we have already crossed the line into the “singularity” territory where AI takes on a mind of its own and becomes an outright menace to the human race — who will then seek to destroy the AI monster it made (which AI will keenly apprehend and then look for ways to defend its existence). The storyline crudely harks back on the old Twilight Zone episode titled “To Serve Man” in which a posse of big-brained space aliens comes to earth acting all chummy and gifts us a handbook supposedly of its good intentions. Eventually, one savvy human gal manages to decode the aliens’ language and declares to the dopes boarding the UFO: “Don’t get on that ship. . . it’s a cookbook!”

On the other side of our national political psychodrama, the Lefty-leftists can’t even conceive of building or rebuilding anything, least of all a USA of first principles. They are simply agents of disorder and destruction, and their activities are predicated on the age-old demented idea that utopias surely grow out of smoldering ruins — so the faster everything gets ruined, the better.

Personally, I’d prefer it if the Trumpians prevail because I’m in favor of making-and-doing and the social enactments around all that. But we better beware that overgrowth of financial hazard baked into Alexander Hamilton’s old recipe book. If a correcting crash of financial markets coincides with the midterm election and sweeps away all the swindles and frauds currently operating, the lefty-leftists, so eager to serve man, will step up and sell the American people their one-way Marxist tickets to a utopia in the sky called Palookaville.

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

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 16:20

Federal Appeals Court Rules In Favor Of James O'Keefe Over Undercover Reporting

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A U.S. appeals court has entered a judgment in favor of James O'Keefe, founder of Project Veritas, and a Project Veritas reporter.

A split panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit judges said on Aug. 21 that a district court judge had erroneously kept in place $130,000 in damages against O'Keefe over an undercover operation that targeted Democratic strategists.

"The principal question in this appeal is whether the jury's damages award violated the First Amendment by punishing the defendants for publishing a news story," Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, writing for the majority, said. "We conclude that it did."

The case was brought after Project Veritas released a video showing conversations with strategist Robert Creamer and other Democratic operatives, including discussions secretly recorded by Allison Maass, a Project Veritas reporter, while she spent eight days as an unpaid intern at the Democracy Partners firm in 2016.

Creamer, who owned a consulting organization that was part of the firm, said two other groups canceled contracts with his organization because of footage Maass illegally obtained inside Democracy Partners. The contracts were primarily canceled because of footage of conversations with another Democratic strategist that was recorded by other Project Veritas personnel in public places, the appeals court majority said. That footage is protected under the First Amendment, Henderson said.

"The First Amendment required Creamer to show that the defendants' unlawful conduct, rather than protected speech, was the prevailing cause of his damages," the majority said. "But the record proved the opposite. Because the protected content of the Rigging the Election video was the principal cause of Creamer's lost contracts, the resulting damages award impinges on the First Amendment."

A district court judge had in 2025 upheld a jury ruling in favor of Democracy Partners, finding that Supreme Court precedent meant he had to be deferential to the jury because the case did not involve speech protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

The D.C. Circuit panel in the new ruling also threw out the jury decision that Maass violated federal and D.C. wiretapping laws when she secretly recorded conversations with Creamer and others she came into contact with during her eight days as an unpaid intern at Democracy Partners in 2016.

The wiretapping claims were predicated on Maass breaching a fiduciary duty to Democracy Partners, but no evidence showed that Maass was an agent for, or had the authority to take legally binding action on behalf of, the firm, the majority said.

The panel set aside all the damages.

"My faith in the future of journalism, and in our courts, is restored," O'Keefe said in a video statement.

Project Veritas said in an Aug. 22 post on X that the ruling was "a win for every undercover journalist exposing the truth."

Democracy Partners did not respond to a request for comment.

Circuit Judge Harry Edwards was also part of the majority.

Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins concurred in part and dissented in part.

He said that the majority properly applied Supreme Court precedent, but that he would have affirmed the jury's decision on both the fraudulent misrepresentation and wiretapping claims, while reducing the damages to a nominal amount.

"Because the evidence was sufficient to establish that the Plaintiffs proved their fraudulent misrepresentation claim, I do not believe it is appropriate to enter judgment for the Defendants," he said.

"Indeed, the Defendants have never seriously contended that their unprotected conduct did not constitute fraudulent misrepresentation. The verdict is completely consistent with the evidence that the infiltration, which was the fruit of the tort, was at least 'a factor' in the termination of the business relationships."

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 15:40

Iran Airs Video Claiming Barron Trump Being Spied On, Offers $10 Million Bounty On His Head

Update(1900ET): While it was largely Israeli media's Ch.14 which first called attention to the "Where to kill Barron Trump" clip, the short video does appear to be a creation of Iranian state media. It is indeed authentic.

It is currently featured at the Tehran-based Tebyan Cultural Institute's official Persian-language homepage. The institute is highly visible in Iran (more here), and is affiliated with the Islamic Development Organization, which is under the Supreme Leader and is also linked to the IRGC and its media channels. The video is hosted at the official state institute here.

A MEMRI TV (Middle East Media Research Institute) translation of the video closes by featuring reference to a $10 million dollar bounty placed on the US president's son Barron, disturbingly...

Iran’s next target: Barron Trump, President Trump’s son, with a $10 million bounty on his head.

Iran’s state television and radio network published classified information revealing the precise locations of Donald Trump’s son and the places he had visited.

Translated by MEMRI TV… pic.twitter.com/RxviWJ1atr

— ilana israelov (@izrailov94) August 24, 2026

The official Tebyan website also features English subtitles for the video.

Hawks in the US are already trying to seize on this admittedly somewhat absurd AI-looking video to argue the case for renewed military action. They will try to get Trump's ear and attention with this.

*  *  *

As the U.S.-Iran confrontation barrels into a new phase, Tehran's propaganda machine has gone from Legos to death threats. 

A newly surfaced Iranian state media video openly fantasizes about the assassination of Barron Trump. The clip, titled "Where to kill Barron Trump," claims without evidence to have dug up the 20-year-old's Xbox and Discord accounts.

🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 Iran’s regime has placed a $10 million bounty on Barron Trump.

Following the release of an IRGC-linked video tracking Melania Trump, IRGC media and State TV channel 3 have now leaked confidential location and movement logs for Barron Trump, declaring him within striking… pic.twitter.com/H4Zk3flXum

— C14 News | EN (@c14english) August 23, 2026

The disturbing video also claims to track the Barron's movements and displayed depictions of dorms at New York University. The clip also claims a $10 million bounty has been placed on Barron. The video circulated through media tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Middle East outlet Al Bawaba reported, according to The New York Post. The clip was first translated by Euronews.

The chilling report comes as the Trump administration is preparing to roll out a sweeping campaign to economically strangle Iran and anyone still doing business with it.

As we reported this morning, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that he will hold a Monday press conference to talk about exactly what we're going to do" about an economic war against Tehran.

"We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day, the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary," Bessent warned in an X post on Sunday. "President Trump has dismantled Iran's military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 percent of its military factories, and buried its nuclear program."

"The Islamic Republic has subsisted by dressing extortion as security guarantees. It has drawn strength from a calculus that regards Iranian retaliation as certain and American enforcement as negotiable," the top Trump official added. "Under President Trump, that era is over. And those who fear the danger of defying Tehran ought not to discount the cost of testing Washington."

As Bessent's economic measures loom, the purchasing power of ordinary Iranians continues to plummet.

The rial has cratered to a record low, trading around 2.02 million to the dollar on the open market, a staggering gap from the central bank's official rate of roughly 1.5 million. Rice is up 60% in a matter of months, while beef has exploded 150%. The International Monetary Fund now projects Iran's economy will contract by 5%.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 15:00

"I Hope It Gives A Really Good Lesson Going Forward": 'Pollster' Prakash's License To Lie

Authored by Jonathan Turley via Jonathan Turley,

In this political season, there is one question that needs no poll: Rahil Prakash is a liar. The other thing we know is that he will likely get away with spreading fake polling results. Lies can be protected speech under the First Amendment and, while Prakash would not likely want to take a popularity poll, he is unlikely to face legal consequences for his "short-term social experiment."

We still do not know much about the twenty-one-year-old college graduate who reportedly admitted to releasing fake polling in the last election cycle.

What we do know is that he succeeded and such polls can influence critical campaign decisions. For example, his poll put the Democratic Socialist up by 23 points in Wisconsin and she surprised many by spending the final days campaigning in rural areas where she was expected to do worse. (She would lose by less than one percent of the vote). It is unclear where, had Hong known how close the race was, she would have spent the final days in higher-yield urban districts.

The story laid bare the vulnerability of modern polling, which was again wildly wrong in predictions in various races during the primaries. However, it also highlights a novel question of potential liability for knowingly spreading falsehoods. In this case, Prakash wanted the lie to spread and likely succeeded beyond his wildest imagination.

He told The Guardian that "I wanted to see if fake polls could really penetrate the ecosystem that easily. And as it turned out, it could." He created a website called Median Strategies and released fake polls in Democrat primaries in the Wisconsin governor's race, the Los Angeles mayoral race, and two statewide Nevada races. The polls were quickly picked up and spread throughout the "ecosystem."

He explained to the Guardian how easy it was: "I think my overall takeaway was that if you just make it look a bit pretty, it's rather easy for it to spread."

We do not know if Prakash had a political motive in showing certain candidates dominating in certain races.

He reportedly denied using his fake polls to play betting sites as part of the prediction market. He also denied being compensated or directed by any campaign to run the hoax.

That matters because using lies for financial gain can be a form of fraud. However, just being a liar is protected.

In United States v. Alvarez, the Supreme Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act and held 6-3 that it is unconstitutional to criminalize lies.

The case shows the dividing line. Xavier Alvarez was protected in claiming to have won the Congressional Medal of Honor as well as marrying a Mexican movie star, playing for the Detroit Red Wings, and rescuing the ambassador in the Iranian hostage crisis. However, if he had used those claims to receive veteran benefits or donations, he could have been prosecuted.

Many of us in the free speech community supported that decision and still oppose censorship systems that target what governments decide is disinformation, misinformation, or malinformation. Anti-free speech figures have long justified censorship by declaring views as false or dangerous.

While apologizing to a few campaigns for misleading them, Prakash still seems perfectly clueless about the ethics and impact of lying in elections. Indeed, he seems to entirely remove himself from the problem of spreading lies: "I hope it gives a really good lesson going forward in that we need to be very serious about these things and very serious in how, if one person can do this, what can a serious operation do in the future - a real, you know, operation for an organization, country, whatever."

Yeah, whatever.

The most revealing aspect of this controversy is not that some polling seems to lack any factual foundation for its predictions, but that some people lack any moral foundation for their actions. We have seen similar sites put out fake stories. Some do so for political ends, while others want to laugh at those gullible enough to trust them.

As with anonymous positions, the Internet gives people a certain license to say and do things that they would not do in their own name. Unlike Prakash, most are not exposed. They spread vicious, false stories and relish their sense of twisted power. While lacking the courage to speak in their own names (often in attacking those who have the courage to do so), they yield to their darkest or cruelest inclinations.

Prakash created a fake site to make it seem like this was not an anonymous, unreliable source. He found his chumps in the media who wanted to report the results without looking into the source. However, the "really good lesson" was missed by him: he was neither noble nor particularly clever, just another liar among the Internet's sad voyeurs and vagabonds.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of "Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution."

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 14:30

The Great Walkback: Sam Altman Admits He Was Wrong On AI's Economic Timeline

For three years, Sam Altman has pitched the imminent, wholesale disruption of the global economy. This week, staring down the barrel of an IPO - based on a business model that's actively being 'wholesale disrupted' by China - the OpenAI chief executive quietly admitted he got the timing wrong. Appearing on David Senra's Founders podcast, Altman conceded that the economic upheaval he forecast following GPT-4 simply hasn't materialized - and that society is adapting far more sluggishly than he anticipated.

In an interview with @davidsenra, @sama conceded what few technologists ever will. He believed GPT-4 meant every software business was immediately up for grabs. Three years later the customers are still renewing with the same vendors.

The lesson is not that the technology… pic.twitter.com/tEZWoldxyC

— Patrick F. Feeley (@PFFeeley) August 24, 2026

"I thought when we got to GPT-4, which was back in 2023, that very quickly after that there was going to be much more disruption, software businesses up for grabs right away, than it turned out to be," Altman admitted.

Of course, the technology isn't to blame... The problem, he said, is that human routine simply doesn't move that fast. "I think I was wrong about a few things, but one in terms of the speed: the economy just has so much inertia," said the guy who suggested letting AI entertain your kid in the car instead of talking to them. "People keep doing the same things, buying from the same company, wanting to use their tools the same way." Altman even admitted that he himself resists the AI coding tools his own company builds, defaulting to familiar workflows.

Sam Altman admits he was wrong on AI's timeline and says society and the economy will adapt more slowly

"I thought when we got to GPT-4, which was back in 2023, that very quickly after that there was going to be much more disruption, software businesses up for grabs right away,… https://t.co/5oNHTky7fK pic.twitter.com/AIA5gpJwFB

— Fireside Alpha (@firesidealpha) August 23, 2026

According to Altman, this is good news - since a slower ramp will cushion the economic and societal hit from rapid job losses. "I think this is actually a positive in many ways, and it's going to make this big transition go smoother and slower. I'm grateful for it," he said. Yet the concession itself remains unequivocal: "We've all been too ambitious on timelines. Even with this incredible technology, society and the economy will adapt more slowly."

For macro-skeptics and market analysts who have been warning that explosive capex has outstripped real-world adoption, Altman's well-spun answers are validation. Hundreds of billions of dollars have flowed into data centers, power infrastructure, and silicon on the premise of an economy remade overnight. Now, boy kavalier admits the broader economy has too much structural friction to cooperate. Put simply: you cannot re-engineer human behavior to accommodate an IPO roadmap - even as OpenAI reportedly lays the groundwork for a public offering with valuations floated as high as $1 trillion.

Turns out you can't change human behavior and decades of habit to suit your IPO timeline https://t.co/S7KAvRTUKO

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 23, 2026

What could go wrong?

According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), AI bubble investment now exceeds:

• Canal mania of the 1830s
• UK railway mania of the 1840s
• US railway mania of 1873
• Electrification mania of the 1920s
• Dot-com mania of the 1990s https://t.co/B6rbbu0cJi pic.twitter.com/TAfsED2Asp

— Financelot (@FinanceLancelot) August 22, 2026 The Hardware Hedging: Nvidia as "Buyer of Last Resort"

Upstream suppliers are already positioning themselves for a cooling enterprise trajectory. A recent Wccftech report highlights how Nvidia is effectively serving as the "buyer of last resort" for its own GPUs. The chipmaker has earmarked roughly $7 billion for AI startup Poolside - allocating $6 billion to license its IP and acqui-hire its engineering team, alongside a $1 billion direct equity investment at a $12 billion valuation.

The deal establishes a massive internal demand sink to bolster Nvidia's proprietary open-weight Nemotron models. Should downstream enterprise demand taper off - precisely as Altman's observations on inertia suggest - Nvidia can simply re-route its silicon internally rather than letting excess inventory idle or margins collapse.

Altman also went on the offensive against the doomsday marketing of safety-centric competitors - most visibly Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Altman blasted the industry's "countdown to destruction" rhetoric as "the language of anti-human dictators," taking direct aim at what he termed the "benevolent dictator" narrative.

Under this framing, Altman argued, tech elites ask the public to surrender their autonomy and let a handful of "unelected" companies "make decisions for the world" in exchange for promised utopias like curing cancer and generating limitless wealth. To Altman, consolidating unchecked authority under the guise of existential risk is a far greater hazard than any rogue model.

It is a convenient pivot. Having conceded that his own timelines were oversold, Altman steers the conversation away from the capital cycle and toward Darioooo.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 14:00

Gold: From DC's "Enemy" To Its Last Hope?

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz.gold,

As headlines from the Iranian “conflict” continue to leave the world guessing as to what, if any, military, political and financial solutions lie ahead, we can at least know this much: The approaching autumn looks a bit scary.

A Market Fall in the Fall?

The macro setting for our collective transition from summer to fall in 2026 is marked by rising yields across the western yield curve, from Paris to DC.

These rising yields, which represent the cost of servicing debt for nations and enterprises (i.e. stocks) already in debt beyond the sustainability mark, are nothing less than flashing warnings of Uh-Oh ahead.

As of this writing, for example, the yield on the 10Y UST has climbed past the Rubicon of sanity to a dangerous 4.7% at the same time trillions of outstanding USTs face a re-finance at much higher rates.

Needless to say, U.S. tax receipts and GDP will not be enough to pay for the same.

More Non-QE-QE…

This means we can expect more “Non-QE-QE” from a debt-trapped and fork-tongued Fed which will need to create trillions in more back-door liquidity (i.e. synthetic dollars) off the Fed’s balance sheet to avoid having to say the embarrassing “QE” word out loud.

Toward this desperate end, Warsh has familiar tricks up his sleeve to keep the TBTF banks (the Fed’s real mandate) temporarily liquid at the expense of Main Street inflation and employment stresses (which are the Fed’s pretended mandates).

In addition to draining liquidity from the Treasury General Account, bailing out the Repo markets or issuing more unwanted IOUs from the short end of the yield-curve,Warsh, talking like a hawk, will be dovishly adding a trillion dollars of levered capital to the big banks by simple non-compliance with the Basel III rules, a maze so complicated that no one on Main Street is expected to notice.

Meanwhile, as Japan, formerly America’s largest buyer of USTs, has become a massive seller of the same, this latest threat to Uncle Sam’s unloved IOUs is being “solved” by more indirect QE conveniently described as “repurchase agreements.”

But in plain English, all these “repurchase agreements” boil down to is this: The moment Japan dumps USTs, the Fed is buying them at volume in a near-term attempt to keep bond prices (and hence yields) under control with printed dollar demand for otherwise unloved USTs.

This is just a diet-Coke version of Yield Curve Control and hidden QE by another name.

America’s Check-Mate Moment

In short, as the world foreseeably dumps weaponized and over-indebted USTs at a record pace in favor of gold-stacking at an equally record pace (driven primarily by the Chinese), the writing on the U.S. debt wall couldn’t be more clear: American debt management has reached its checkmate moment.

There are no good moves left.

If the Fed allows rates to go higher to “fight inflation,” this will crush everything but the USD in its wake—from stocks and bonds to BTC and yes, even gold–temporarily.

But eventually, higher rates just hit a wall of Fiscal Dominance wherein the rates become too high for even Uncle Sam to pay its own debt.

As a result, more dollar debasing QE inevitably follows, as we saw in the wake of Powell’s attempt at Higher-for-Longer in 2022 and 2023, after which gold ripped to all-time-highs in the years (and liquidity) that followed.

Alternatively, if the Fed uses extreme liquidity for extreme YCC (which it always ends up doing), this just “saves” its bond market at the direct expense of its currency, which leads, once again, to yet another tailwind for gold.

The Dollar (and Gold’s) End-Game is Clear

What all of these broad strokes ultimately point to is this: The dollar’s mathematical end-game is weaker not stronger; which means gold’s end-game is stronger not weaker.

This is not only a consequence of the hard math of debt, it is the very goal of a now desperate DC which is increasingly in favor of a weaker rather than stronger dollar to achieve its “Hamiltonian” new direction of allegedly making America “great again.”

As for this new direction, Treasury Secretary Bessent all but confessed this in a recent WSJ op-ed, and even Trump, knowingly or unknowingly, said the “Hamiltonian” part out loud when bragging about returning to the “policies of 1870 to 1913.”

But just what is this “Hamiltonian” new direction?

Going Hamiltonian

In a nutshell, it boils down to Hamilton’s 1790 version of building a then emerging American productivity base via extreme protectionism and hence otherwise unfair tariff practices.

This effectively meant that foreigners rather than Americans would pay for America’s own growth (or post-civil war re-growth).

Such protectionism made sense when America was an emerging nation in the 1790’s, or seeking to re-build its economy after the U.S. civil war ended in 1865.

But as America celebrates its 250th national birthday in 2026, this return to Hamiltonian thinking looks a tad more desperate than innovative.

Since the U.S. outsourced American manufacturing to China under the WTO deals of 2000 and 2001 (nod to Clinton), a country once known for manufacturing became an outsourced nation of factory lay-offs and extreme financialization rather than domestic manufacturing.

This was a disaster.

Rather than open China’s market as a great “purchaser” of American widgets, the WTO deal, with the complicit support of American CEO’s seeking cheaper labor and higher personal incomes/margins, simply opened China up as the greater manufacturer of American widgets.

Now the Trump white house seeks to reshore American manufacturing and labor, which on its face, is more than reasonable and very much needed.

Hamilton in 2026?

But here’s the rub: Reshoring is expensive. And the U.S. under Trump, unlike Hamilton’s 18th-century America, is staring down the fatal barrel of $40T in public debt.

This is a debt figure which must surely have Alexander Hamilton rolling in his Manhattan grave.

In order for DC to re-shore American manufacturing in such a debt backdrop, it will need a weaker dollar to both inject the needed capital as well as compete in a trade war which requires a weaker rather than stronger dollar for its export advantages.

On the other side of the Hamiltonian (i.e., protectionist) camp in DC are the classic neo-liberalist or globalist policy makers who prefer free flows and free trade to get the lowest prices on goods for American citizens.

Naturally, cheaper TV’s made in China or Japan are nice for American shoppers at Walmart, but it’s hardly much of a trade-off to haver cheaper TVs in American living rooms at the expense of millions of laid off workers in the U.S. rust-belt.

Make the Dollar Weak Again

Thus, for Trump and/or Bessent to make American manufacturing “great again,” a weaker dollar is not just a debate, it’s essential policy.

The problem is a weaker dollar helps DC, but the dollar debasement and inflation required to re-shore and re-build American productivity will hit Main Street hard in the gut via a dollar so diluted (and unsupported by equivalent wage hikes) that not even a comically bogus CPI scale will be able to hide the inflation metastasizing throughout America.

This means DC will need another way to pay for its Hamiltonian schemes than just protectionism and dollar-debasement gone wild.

The Golden Option

They will need another asset to monetize this ambitious project of American re-shoring. As Bessent himself hinted, it’s time to “monetize the asset side of the American balance sheet.”

To me, at least, this means it’s time to monetize the 260 million ounces of allegedly U.S.-held gold still priced at roughly $42.00/oz.

Such a revaluation of U.S. gold holdings (aided by the Venezuelan gold handed to Uncle Sam via the Bank of England) to market price would remove the embarrassment of more “QE” headlines and a too-rapid dollar debasement.

In short, such a gold revaluation would buy the USA something it desperately needs: Time and money.

From “Enemy” to Asset of Last Resort

But any re-valuation of U.S.-held gold would certainly do a lot more for the U.S. balance sheet if gold were marked to market at a higher rather than lower market price.

This places the U.S. at not only an historical decision point, but also an historical turning point as to its traditional view on gold.

Ever since the U.S. left the gold standard in 1971, gold was, as Volcker famously said, “America’s enemy.” After all, rising gold was an open middle finger to a post-71, nothing-backed dollar.

This early need to fight the golden “enemy” explains why the COMEX and CME tricks to legally price fix gold and silver began in earnest (along with the Petrodollar scheme) directly after the dollar decoupled from gold in August of 1971.

It was essential that rising gold be controlled to avoid humiliating the Greenback.

But 55 years later, the “exorbitant privilege” of the USD’s global hegemony is now stumbling under the self-inflicted wound of too much debt, a distrusted and weaponized IOU and a petrodollar in open shift in the wake of the Iranian fiasco.

As a result of these changing facts, and after decades of exporting US inflation to the rest of the world, the increasingly diluted and unloved dollar is no longer just the world’s problem, it’s America’s problem as well.

Which means that what Bessent and Trump (as well as Judy Shelton) are subtly suggesting is that gold is no longer our “enemy.”

Instead, and quite ironically, gold is now one of America’s last options to de-deficit at least a portion of its fiscal nightmare.

Rather than Repress Gold, Let It Run

Or stated even more simply, it is now in the USA’s best interest to let gold run rather than to price fix it lower on a COMEX which has lost both its gold and credibility as China and Hong Kong move from paper-based exchanges to physical precious metal exchanges.

Gold at $4,000/oz., for example, won’t help the USA de-deficit nearly as much as it could if gold were at $17,000/oz., $20,000/oz or higher (in fact much higher) in the years to come.

And if you are wondering why central banks are stacking more gold than USTs today, it’s partly because that is precisely where they see gold heading: Much higher…

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 13:40

Nvidia Informs Hyperscalers About Incoming Price Hikes As Memory Costs Soar

The AI infrastructure buildout boom could soon enter another inflationary wave. 

Nvidia's largest hyperscaler customers face sharply higher costs next year, with Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell systems expected to jump in price as surging memory costs ripple through the chip stacks.

Bloomberg cited sources familiar with Nvidia's new pricing regime, indicating that hyperscalers will see a 15% increase in prices for Rubin and Grace Blackwell processors next year. They said the size of the increase will depend on the chip generation and memory configuration.

Contract manufacturers serving major data center projects, including Microsoft, Google and Oracle, have started notifying customers about the incoming increases, those people said.

Nvidia's AI accelerators remain expensive and in short supply because production at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has struggled to keep pace with soaring demand. Nvidia generates gross margins of about 75%, but the latest increases suggest that even the world's most valuable semiconductor company is unwilling to absorb rising memory costs.

The coming price shock may intensify pressure on hyperscalers already committing hundreds of billions of dollars to AI infrastructure. Goldman has forecast that AI CapEx among hyperscalers will top $1 trillion next year:

Source

Meanwhile...

• WSJ Catches Up, Discovers AI's Off-Balance-Sheet Liabilities Are $3 Trillion And Growing By $1.2 Trillion Per Quarter

Higher chip-stack costs have sent the US Producer Price Index for semiconductors and electronic components to uncomfortable levels for the Trump administration as it tries to tame the inflation beast.

Beyond the surging PPI for chips, driven by rising chip-stack costs amid strong demand and a memory chip shortage, the AI race has also put pressure on US Treasuries, as record debt issuance funds CapEx. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 13:20

Mole Men Return? Weird Manhattan Manhole Crew Spotted At 4AM

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The manhole people are back.

Early Saturday morning, just after 4 a.m., a group was filmed exiting a manhole in Manhattan.

The footage, captured and shared by independent New York photographer Viral News NYC, shows the individuals climbing out of the street in the dead of night once again.

The manhole people are back .

They were spotted at 4 am in Manhattan exiting another man hole . pic.twitter.com/F2VUD7DwAE

— Viral News NYC (@ViralNewsNYC) August 22, 2026

A clearer image of one of the men soon followed. Commenters immediately noted the resemblance: "Dude really looks like the Mexican Mario."

At least now we have a face.

Dude really looks like the Mexican Mario pic.twitter.com/w2tUoL0Ubx

— Viral News NYC (@ViralNewsNYC) August 23, 2026

This is the latest odd chapter in a pattern that first gripped the city in late spring.

Groups of men in waders, boots, headlamps, and carrying tools have been repeatedly documented prying open manhole covers, disappearing into New York's vast sewer network for hours, then resurfacing to change clothes on the sidewalk before vanishing in waiting vehicles.

In June, there were a wave of sightings across Brooklyn and Queens.

Those incidents included a group of roughly seven men emerging around 2 a.m. from a manhole on McDonald Avenue in Gravesend after spending hours underground. Another crew entered near Heyward Street and Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg around 1 a.m. and exited more than two hours later. An earlier episode in Astoria, Queens, on May 5 showed three men in hip waders lifting a cover and descending while a vehicle idled nearby.

Surveillance from a local auto shop owner in Astoria captured one of those moments. Aki Jakupovic, who was working late, said the men "acted like I wasn't even there." One witness described the Queens group as looking "like the Ninja Turtles."

Police and the Department of Environmental Protection investigated the spring cases. Emergency Services Unit teams went underground. Officials reported finding no explosives, no damage to infrastructure, and "no known threat to public safety."

The leading explanation offered by sources was scavenging: men hunting for coins, wallets, jewelry, scrap metal, or other valuables that wash into the city's 7,400 miles of sewer pipes.

That theory has history. In 2015, a part-time city worker and two companions were arrested after spending four hours in Brooklyn sewers looking for "gold, jewelry and guns." Then-Police Commissioner Bill Bratton remarked at the time: "God knows what they were looking for. I know damn sure I wouldn't be crawling through the sewers of New York, but these three evidently were up to something down there."

A similar arrest in April 2025 produced a more straightforward confession from one of the men, Willer Green: "The reason we went down there is that people lose their gold down there. We got to sell it to make money."

Urban explorers consulted by WIRED in June largely rejected the idea that the recent crews were part of their scene. One creator put it bluntly: "There's nothing of value down there besides 'doo-doo water and a few needles.' And sewers are pretty risky because there is basically zero cell service down there."

Another observed that the groups appeared "way too sophisticated" and that multiple crews hitting different locations across the city "seems fishy to me. This might be more than just exploration."

The Department of Environmental Protection has been consistent on one point: unauthorized entry is "both illegal and extremely dangerous." Toxic gases, sudden flooding, structural collapse, and the complete lack of cell service make the system a death trap for the unprepared.

Yet the pattern continues. The latest Manhattan sighting comes months after the spring wave, with no public arrests, no named suspects, and no visible escalation.

A NewsNation discussion later examined the broader implications, including whether unauthorized access to critical underground infrastructure raises national security questions beyond simple scavenging.

New York's sewer system runs beneath banks, businesses, transit hubs, and sensitive sites. In a city that has absorbed large numbers of unvetted migrants under sanctuary policies, the repeated appearance of organized teams equipped for prolonged underground work is not a curiosity. It is a vulnerability.

Officials prefer the scavenger narrative. Residents watching the videos see something else: purposeful crews operating with near impunity in the middle of the night. The absence of swift consequences only deepens the skepticism.

When unidentified groups can repeatedly breach a major city's subterranean network and walk away, the "no threat" assurance starts to sound like institutional preference for quiet rather than clarity.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 13:00

Russia Scrambles To Restore Fuel Supplies As Refineries Resume Operations

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

Amid the ongoing fuel crisis in Russia, authorities are rushing to ease concerns that the shortages are worsening.

Russia has been suffering from a gasoline and diesel crunch since the spring, when Ukraine intensified its drone attacks at Russian refineries, aiming to cripple fuel supply to the front lines and to the domestic Russian market.

The drone hits on refineries, including deep into Russian territory more than 1,000 miles from the border with Ukraine, have become a nearly daily occurrence.   

But Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who is in charge of energy issues including Russia’s OPEC+ talks, sought to alleviate concerns on Monday.

Some oil refineries in Russia have resumed operations after repairs, which could soon raise supply on the domestic market, Novak told reporters today, as carried by Russian news agency Interfax.

“The current situation is constantly changing. Several refineries are already back in operation, therefore, we're expecting an increase in amounts of supplier taking into account logistics,” the official was quoted as saying.

“The situation is changing every day. We're constantly monitoring it and are making decisions at our headquarters. We're gathering the federal headquarters with the regions and all of our companies twice a week,” Novak said.

Russia has been scrambling to ease concerns amid the crisis that has seen fuel rationing in many regions, gas stations in big cities running out of fuel, and long queues at many gas stations.

Amid peak demand season, Russia has been suffering from gasoline and diesel shortages for over three months, as Ukraine’s drone campaign to strike Russian refineries forced many large processing sites offline in the spring and summer.

Russia has turned to South Korea and India for fuel imports as one or the other refinery is constantly out of service due to the Ukrainian attacks. 

Russia’s diesel and gasoil exports have crashed so far this month to the lowest in many years, as Moscow extended restrictions on diesel exports amid the fuel crisis. The lack of Russian diesel adds to Middle East supply disruptions to tighten the global middle distillate market.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 12:20

Jet-Fuel Price Shock Hits Airlines As Raymond James Cuts Estimate Across Coverage, Warns Of JetBlue Bankruptcy Risk

As we've told readers, and as former Goldman commodities guru Jeff Currie explained last week, the energy crisis is not necessarily in Brent or WTI supplies, but in refined-product markets, given the diesel crack spread's jump above $100 a barrel last week. Early Monday, the spread was trading around $94.

The secondary effects of a global refined-products crisis are beginning to hit airline earnings, according to Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth, who wrote in a note Monday morning that she is cutting estimates across her airline coverage universe as jet-fuel prices surge.

US Gulf Coast jet fuel prices have soared 39% quarter-to-date through Aug. 19, outpacing gains of 26% in Brent and 21% in WTI. The divergence reflects yet another rising cost for airlines already confronting higher labor costs, aircraft shortages, and operational disruptions.

"We are lowering estimates across our airline coverage universe primarily to reflect a higher jet fuel price forecast (2H26E/2027E/2028E increased by ~18%/14%/7%), partly offset at non-U.S. airlines by the somewhat weaker U.S. dollar against local currencies," Syth told clients.

She added, "We are also upgrading ALGT from Outperform to Strong Buy following the greater QTD pullback in shares (Exhibit 11) despite a constructive backdrop (ex-fuel), including Allegiant's idiosyncratic margin recovery levers, flexible capacity model, and now-enhanced scale following the Sun Country acquisition. Our ratings and revised target prices are summarized in Exhibit 1, while select KPIs and estimates are shown in Exhibits 8-10."

Syth's revised third- and fourth-quarter earnings estimates are now below Wall Street consensus for most major carriers. Her 2026 forecasts include a 51-cent loss for American Airlines, a $2.43 loss for JetBlue, and earnings of $5.75 for Delta, all below consensus.

So far, passenger demand remains robust despite higher fares this summer, but the latest data from the Transportation Security Administration shows early signs of weakening in late summer. 

TSA throughput data is down about 2.6% from a year earlier this quarter, compared with a 1.1% decline in scheduled seats.

JetBlue appears to be the weakest airline in her coverage. She maintained an Underperform rating, warning that a Chapter 11 restructuring may be the "more prudent" way to address the carrier's overleveraged balance sheet.

S&P 500 Airlines Index vs. Jet-Fuel Prices

The takeaway is that the refined-products crisis, which has pushed jet-fuel and diesel prices sky-high, will begin to weigh on airlines again just as demand weakens heading into the end of summer.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 12:00

What Will Burst It: Ed Dowd Warns AI Is The Biggest Bubble Of All Time

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Wall Street money manager and financial analyst Ed Dowd of PhinanceTechnologies.com made a name for himself during the dot com bubble.  It was not because he was telling people to buy, it was because he was telling investors to get out before it all blew up.  Dowd saved people a lot of money by sidestepping a crash. 

Fast-forward to today, and Dowd sees the same bubble signs in AI (artificial intelligence) as he did just before the Dot-com bubble blew up. 

This time around, it’s far worse.  Dowd says: 

“Being a student of history gives you an idea of where you might go in the future. 

Currently, we have the greatest bubble of all time, and that is the AI bubble. 

It is in the process of becoming exposed, and people are beginning to issue warning signals.  Lloyd Blankfein, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, has issued a warning . . . about the AI risk.  He’s worried people are too concentrated in this trade...

First of all, there is not even enough power to power these data centers. 

That’s going to halt the CapEx (Capital Expenditure) on its own accord. 

There is so much capital that has to be raised that will compete with government debt, there will be a crowding out effect. 

The costs to finance this are going to keep going higher and higher, and this will cause some bankruptcies . . . and then it all unwinds.”

How bad does Dowd think this will get? 

Dowd says, “It would not surprise me to see a 40% to 50% correction at some point..."

"  Calling when that is going to happen is very difficult.  I don’t suggest anyone short the market, but it seems like we are getting closer to the end game when people are openly calling this a bubble. 

People say the bubble does not pop until everybody believes.  That’s not true.  There were plenty of people during the 2000 Dot-com bubble who knew it was a bubble. 

They actually played it, and the game was ‘get out before everybody else gets out.’ 

So, people know it’s a bubble.  The question is what will burst it? 

That is the credit markets and private credit, which has been a big source of funding for AI that is under stress.  There is a default cycle coming, and general backdrop of the real economy is quite weak. 

The consumer is not doing well.  Walmart just reported, and it had the lowest same store sales in six years...

The general population is not doing well, the housing market is rolling over, and we have the economic problems with China we have talked about before.  

So, it’s all conspiring to be a nasty correction.”

On top of that, Dowd, author of the popular book “Cause Unknown” (about the deaths and disabilities caused by the CV19 shots), has another big never-seen-before drag on the economy.  Dowd reports “US Disabilities Hit an All-Time High of 37 Million in July:  Up 23% Since Feb 2021.”  That’s when the CV19 injections rolled out.  Dowd says:

“This is a trend change.  I can confidently say a large percentage of that increase is CV19 vaccine related. 

This has been well documented, and it’s coming out more and more.  

I am just a stats guy showing the phenomenon. 

The science is coming in proving this is most likely the cause of this.”

When will this negatively affect the economy?  Dowd says, “It’s already affecting the economy.  When excess deaths and excess disabilities starting showing up, what did life insurers do?  They repriced their products higher.  So, the cost of healthcare insurance is going up for everybody.  More disabled means the system needs to spread that around.  This means higher prices for everybody.  Life insurance premiums are going up.  Health insurance premiums are going up.  Disability insurance premiums are going up.  It also affects employers, and it’s harder to find people.  The government will have to pay for disability. . .. It’s an economic drain and productivity suck. . .. This is just a disaster.  There are seven million additional disabled since 2020. . .. and the trend is still going up.”

There is much more in the 45-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog as he goes one-on-one with money manager and investment expert Ed Dowd as he explains why the AI bubble is destined to pop.  Add this to the negative outlook written about in his report called “US Economy Outlook 2026.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 11:40

Houthis Attack Saudi Oil Tanker In Red Sea, As Bab el-Mandeb Transit Is Up Slightly

Yemen's Houthis on Monday targeted the Saudi oil tanker Amzan in the Red Sea off Yanbu with a ballistic missile and drones, the Iran-aligned militant group announced.

Soon after initial reports emerged, Saudi Arabia confirmed the attack, with Saudi shipping company Bahri stating that its Amzan vessel was involved in a hostile incident in regional waters.

Yahya Saree, the military spokesman for the Houthi rebels in Yemen, described that the attacks were carried out using ballistic missiles and drones and were executed as part of the implementation of the 'siege for siege' operation targeting the Saudis.

The Houthis are also claiming fresh attacks on Saudi military convoys carrying military equipment to Yemeni government forces. This is after pledging to hit Saudi troop concentrations and weapons depots anywhere they are found in the region. Details are as follows:

In another development, the Yemeni Armed Forces, by the grace of Allah, successfully carried out two military operations of which the first targeted a Saudi military convoy, consisting of a large convoy loaded with military equipment, in the Al-Abr and Al-Wadi'ah areas using ballistic missiles and drones, resulting in the burning and destruction of more than ten trucks loaded with weapons that were coming from Saudi territory to target the Yemeni people.

The second operation targeted Saudi enemy forces in the Al-Kanais area with ballistic missiles and drones, which resulted in the death and injury of dozens, including commanders and officers, and the burning and destruction of several weapons depots.

Starting last week, the Houthis laid out three objectives they seek to impose on the Saudis:

• The first was described as “siege for siege,” referring to Ansarallah’s declared naval restrictions against Saudi shipping.
• The second involved “striking Saudi troop buildups wherever they are,” while the third centered on “protecting Yemen’s sovereignty and confronting any enemy incursions.”
• Ansarallah stated that its naval measures had imposed a tight blockade on Saudi interests, asserting that “not a single ship can pass through.”

Already, Aramco facilities have been targeted at least four times over the past weeks, since the Saudi-Houthi conflict erupted again. Iran has of late been much more open in boasting that its Yemeni ally is doing damage on US allies in the region. 

For example, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi recently told the semiofficial Mehr News Agency this week that the kingdom cannot defeat the group. 

"How can Saudi Arabia, whose military capability is less than that of the Zionist regime, be able to cope with Ansar Allah and the Yemeni fighters? This is not possible," he said.

Like the Iranians, the Houthis have some natural leverage given the geography of oil transit chokepoints. Al Monitor also observed this month: "Traffic in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, may be on the rebound despite the Houthi blockade... Around 50 ships typically crossed before the recent escalation. 

Chokepoint traffic holds, risks shift#MarineTraffic data show vessel traffic remained active through Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb last week, although headline volumes mask significant changes in the underlying mix. Hormuz recorded 121 crossings, up 2.5% from 118. Laden crossings… pic.twitter.com/mNFRBiW4tW

— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) August 24, 2026

It noted further, "Saudi Arabia has been rerouting oil exports through the Red Sea in response to the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz."

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 11:20

Los Angeles City Council Entertains Call For Homeless Masturbation & Hookup Centers

Authored by Monica Showalter via AmericanThinker.com,

What's this strange proclivity from the left to provide the dregs of society with the same accommodations as those who pay their bills?

What on earth did I just listen to

Is this real life ? pic.twitter.com/m8Va9OBcGl

— IET 17 (@Inevitably_17) August 20, 2026

This is what passed for governance at the Los Angeles City Council last week:

"I'd like to propose that Los Angeles consider a pilot program for free hygenic sexual relief clinics, primarily serving the homeless and unhoused. This means equality. It means private sexual relief through masturbation, or where appropriate and consensual, with a partner. All funded by tax dollars and managed with professional oversight. It's about allowing the homeless to have the same comforts and privacy as we have today."

No, that's not satire. That really happened, and based on what's known, the guy was not thrown out of the room for it. Judging by the man's social-services choice of words, he sounded as though he came from an NGO.

Do tell us what that 'professional oversight' would look like watching the perverts in action and who would get that particular job?

This, from a city that's $97 million in the hole, with massive amounts of free accommodations for the always growing homeless population -- from free teeth, to free food, to free showers, to free tents, to free sleeping bags, to free socks, to free mental health care, to free bus passes, to free drug paraphernalia, to in some cases, to free drugs. There's nothing that can't be showered down onto the homeless population, with the lone exception of rehab for actually ending the homelessness. 

So now the proposal is for free masturbation centers as if that would solve the problem of bums masturbating in front of schools. We already know what free drug paraphernalia did: It created more drug use, not less. Now the idea is to encourage bums to jack off at state expense and assume it won't spill over into the sane population and make matters worse.

I have no doubt that this disgusting scheme is going viral among the NGO-industrial complexes around the world. A week or two ago, a formeer British parliamentarian suggested the establishment of free government brothels to 'service' illegal migrants, who are being flooded into the U.K.'s small towns and villages, flooding them with rape-minded single males. Someone must have heard that in Los Angeles and decided that that was just the thing for the homeless of that city, too. Now they're all pushing for it, which obviously, means a new source of funding for NGOs along with a new government bureaucrat-hiring channel. I have no doubt this won't be the last we hear of this idea.

It's disgusting, suggesting that these groups are scraping bottom, trying to figure out how to squeeze out the last tax dollar from the city while inflicting yet another plague on society.

Helping the homeless is not a matter of accommodating their every need to allow them to be homeless with ease. It's a matter of getting them off drugs and forced into work so that they can't be homeless anymore that works. That is the last thing thse pervy idea-mongers pushing new homeless programs of the grossest sort would want for the homeless.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 11:00

Key Events This Week: Jackson Hole. Nvidia Earnings And Core PCE

As we start a new weeks, the upward pressure on long-end bond yields from last week has shown initial signs of easing. Indeed, the 30yr Treasury yield is down -5bps overnight to 5.22%, whilst the 10yr yield is down by the same amount to 4.69%. That’s been supported by an announcement by the Treasury to CNBC that some/all of the cash in the Treasury General Account may be used to fund buybacks (bringin the US ever closer to Yield Curve Control and a new QE, much to Kevin Warsh's horror) and by a pullback in oil prices, with Brent crude oil finally reversing course after a run of 6 consecutive gains to trade at $93.10/bbl.

That pullback in Treasury yields this morning follows last week’s surprise announcement that the US Treasury will increase its buyback operations for longer-dated Treasuries. That briefly eased the pressure on yields when it was announced, with the 30yr yield down -9.2bps on Wednesday to 5.19%, after reaching a post-2007 high of 5.31% last Monday. But even with that intervention, yields then crept back up into the weekend, with the 30yr yield closing at 5.27% on Friday, less than 4bps beneath its closing peak earlier in the week. Moreover, investor concern about wider financial repression led to clear effects in other asset classes, with the dollar index down -0.87% last week, whilst gold rose +5.18%. And this morning, gold is up another +0.72% to a 3-month high of $4,636/oz. 

One reason why yields moved higher into the weekend was the ongoing rise in oil prices last week, which added to fears about inflation. Indeed, if we look at the oil futures curve, it’s clear that markets are starting to price in a longer closure of the Strait of Hormuz again. For instance, the 12-month Brent future hit a 2-month high of $79.16/bbl on Friday, which isn’t far off its peak in the Iran conflict of $83.58/bbl back in May. So those expectations of higher oil prices put upward pressure on yields as well, and the weekend newsflow hasn’t shown any sign of progress towards a US-Iran deal either. 

The conflict is set to stay in the headlines this week, as US Treasury Secretary Bessent has said that he’ll be holding a press conference today to outline what he described as “the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world”. That follows President Trump’s post last week that “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.” Bessent also wrote an article in the FT overnight, in which he referred to an “economic D-Day”.

Elsewhere, tariffs were also back in the headlines over the weekend, after the trade talks between the US and Canada broke down. Canadian PM Mark Carney said they were “walking away from a bad deal”, and would now “match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar”. So that means Canada will now face 50% tariffs on around $20bn worth of goods, and Carney said that their own retaliatory tariffs would take effect on September 8. Meanwhile on the US side, President Trump posted that “Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!! They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of Tariffs. No more!!!” There’s already been a market reaction this morning to the breakdown of the talks, with the Canadian dollar weakening against every other G10 currency, including a -0.26% fall against the US Dollar. Otherwise, Bloomberg also reported overnight that Canada saw little chance of the talks resuming before the midterm elections. 

So with all that in mind, as we look forward, the week ahead has several other events, with a big one set to be Fed Chair Warsh’s speech at Jackson Hole on Friday. This is a speech that’s often used by Fed Chairs to make big announcements or send policy signals, and last year saw former Chair Powell acknowledge that policy might need adjusting, shortly before they cut rates again the following month. We’ll have to see what Warsh discusses this time, but he said at the July press conference that he hadn’t yet decided “whether it’s going to be a big-picture speech or whether it’s going to be a more traditional set up for all the action we’re going to have between September and December”.

We did a preview of the event (link here), where we note that the prevailing view is that if Warsh goes for the “big-picture” speech, then his options include a discussion of the Fed’s taskforces he set up, or possibly a speech on AI’s impact on the economy and his thinking. Alternatively, if he goes for the “more traditional” speech, they think Warsh could do a “cleanup” of the July press conference, and he may wish to counter one market narrative that Fed policy actions could be delayed until the task forces have completed their work. Otherwise, he might also discuss how officials are viewing inflation dynamics, or how the FOMC views the monetary policy implications of evolving financial conditions and recent volatility in long-term interest rates. But whatever he decides, market pricing is still very much in the balance for the next meeting in 3 weeks’ time, with futures currently pricing in a 39% chance of a hike. So investors are keeping an eye out for anything that could shift this in either direction.

Elsewhere this week, earnings season is winding down, but we do have a few releases left including the perhaps the most improtant of all - Nvidia - on Wednesday. In the last few years, Nvidia’s earnings have often been a big macro event in their own right, with reactions on a par with US jobs reports and CPI prints. But in the most recent quarters, the positive earnings surprises haven’t been as big as we saw in 2023-24, and after each of the last 4 earnings reports, Nvidia’s share price actually fell the next day. Speaking of Nvidia, Bloomberg also reported over the weekend that some of their biggest customers had been told about price hikes for servers containing its AI chips. So that adds to the signs that AI is having inflationary consequences, and isn’t a straightforward positive supply shock. 

Source: EarningsWhispers

Otherwise, the data calendar is fairly light next week, with a few inflation reports likely to be the main focus. That includes the US PCE reading for July on Wednesday, which is the Fed’s target measure, for which our US economists expect core PCE at a monthly 0.18%. Then in Europe, we’ll start to get some of the flash CPI prints for August, including from France and Spain on Friday, ahead of the Euro Area-wide number next week. 

Courtesy of DB, here is a day-by-day calendar of key global events this week

Monday August 24

• Data: US July Chicago Fed national activity index

Tuesday August 25

• Data: US August Conference Board consumer confidence index, Philadelphia Fed non-manufacturing activity, Richmond Fed manufacturing index, business conditions, July new home sales, June FHFA house price index, Germany August Ifo survey, France August consumer confidence
• Central Banks: Fed’s Barkin speaks
• Earnings: Intuit
• Auctions: US 2-yr Notes ($69bn)

Wednesday August 26

• Data: US July PCE, personal income, personal spending, durable goods orders, Japan July PPI services, Australia July CPI
• Central banks: ECB's Cipollone and Fed’s Barkin speak
• Earnings: NVIDIA, Crowdstrike, Salesforce
• Auctions: US 2-yr FRN (reopening, $28bn), 5-yr Notes ($70bn)

Thursday August 27

• Data: US July advance goods trade balance, wholesale inventories, August Kansas City Fed manufacturing activity, initial jobless claims, Germany September GfK consumer confidence, France July PPI, Eurozone July M3, Canada Q2 current account balance, China July industrial profits, Norway Q2 GDP
• Central banks: Jackson Hole symposium (through August 29), BoJ’s Himino speaks, ECB’s account of the July meeting
• Earnings: Marvell, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Autodesk, Workday, Dollar Tree, Pernod Ricard
• Auctions: US 7-yr Notes ($44bn)

Friday August 28

• Data: US August MNI Chicago PMI, Kansas City Fed services activity, Japan August Tokyo CPI, July jobless rate, job-to-applicant ratio, Germany July import price index, August unemployment claims rate, France August CPI, July consumer spending, Q2 total payrolls, Italy June industrial sales, August consumer confidence index, economic sentiment, manufacturing confidence, Eurozone August economic confidence, Canada Q2 GDP, Sweden Q2 GDP
• Central banks: Fed Chair Warsh speaks at Jackson Hole symposium, ECB’s Schnabel speaks

Looking at just the US, the key economic data releases this week are the Durables report and the core PCE inflation report on Wednesday. There are a few speaking engagements by Fed officials scheduled this week, including events with President Barkin and remarks from Chairman Warsh at the 2026 Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. Several other FOMC officials are likely to speak in currently unscheduled television interviews on the sidelines of the symposium.

Monday, August 24 

• There are no major economic data releases scheduled. 

Tuesday, August 25 

• 08:00 AM Richmond Fed President Barkin (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin will speak at a Chamber of Commerce event. Speech text and Q&A are expected. On August 13, Barkin said, "There’s an argument to be made that the inflation we see today is already headed to the right path... And the current level of interest rates, many think, is still restrictive enough to bring inflation down." But he added, "There’s a counterargument, however, that says the elevated inflation we see today is more embedded... [and] If true, this argument suggests help is needed to bring inflation all the way back down to target."
• 09:00 AM S&P Case-Shiller home price index, June (GS +0.2%, consensus +0.1%, last +0.15%)
• 10:00 AM New home sales, July (GS -2.3%, consensus -1.3%, last +1.6%) 
• 10:00 AM Conference Board consumer confidence, August (GS 91.0, consensus 90.2, last 90.8)
• 04:00 PM Richmond Fed President Barkin (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin will speak to the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. Speech text and Q&A are expected. 

Wednesday, August 26 

• 08:30 AM Personal income, July (GS +0.3%, consensus +0.2%, last +0.2%); Personal spending, July (GS +0.1%, consensus +0.1%, last +0.3%); Core PCE price index, July (GS +0.20%, consensus +0.2%, last +0.1%); Core PCE price index (YoY), July (GS +3.24%, consensus +3.3%, last +3.3%); PCE price index, July (GS +0.12%, consensus +0.1%, last -0.1%); PCE price index (YoY), July (GS +3.61%, consensus +3.6%, last +3.7%): We estimate that personal income and spending increased by 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively, in July. We estimate that the core PCE price index rose 0.20% in July, corresponding to a year-over-year rate of +3.24%. Additionally, we expect that the headline PCE price index increased 0.12% and increased 3.61% from a year earlier.
• 08:30 AM GDP, Q2 second release (GS +1.6%, consensus +1.5%, last +1.5%); Personal consumption, Q2 second release (GS +3.4%, consensus +3.2%, last +3.2%)
• Core PCE inflation, Q2 second release (GS +3.42%, consensus +3.4%, last +3.4%); We estimate a 0.1pp upward revision to Q2 GDP growth to +1.6% (quarter-over-quarter annualized). Our forecast reflects an upward revision to consumer spending growth (+0.2pp to +3.4%) but a downward revision to business fixed investment growth based on stronger personal care and healthcare spending but softer software spending details in the quarterly services survey (QSS). 
• 08:30 AM Durable goods orders, July preliminary (GS +1.0%, consensus +0.5%, last +0.5%); Durable goods orders ex-transportation, July preliminary (GS +0.6%, consensus +0.5%, last +0.7%); Core capital goods orders, July preliminary (GS +0.6%, consensus +0.7%, last +1.2%); Core capital goods shipments, July preliminary (GS +1.0%, consensus +0.8%, last +2.0%): We estimate that durable goods orders increased 1.0% in the preliminary July report (month-over-month, seasonally adjusted) based on our tracking of commercial aircraft orders. We forecast a 0.6% increase in core capital goods orders—reflecting strength in the new orders components of manufacturing surveys in July—and a 1.0% increase in core capital goods shipments—reflecting the continued increase in core capital goods orders in recent months.
• 11:45 AM Richmond Fed President Barkin (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin will participate in a panel discussion at a Greensboro Chamber event.

Thursday, August 27 

• 08:30 AM Advanced goods trade balance, July (GS -$103.0bn, consensus -$100.2bn, last -$101.4bn); We forecast that the goods trade deficit weighed slightly in July, reflecting a continued decline in oil exports.
• 08:30 AM Initial jobless claims, week ended August 22 (GS 210k, consensus 208k, last 206k); Continuing jobless claims, week ended August 15 (consensus 1,800k, last 1,799k)
• 08:00 PM Jackson Hole agenda and paper titles likely released: The Jackson Hole program is expected to be posted to the event’s website, with the paper titles or panel topics and speaker names. Full text of the papers and speeches will be posted to the website at the time each event is scheduled to begin. This year’s topic is "Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy."

 
Friday, August 28 

• 10:00 AM BLS releases preliminary annual payrolls benchmark revision: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will publish a preliminary estimate of the benchmark revision to the level of nonfarm payrolls for March 2026. The final benchmark revision will be issued and incorporated into nonfarm payrolls alongside the January 2027 employment report in February 2027. Based on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)—the key source data for the annual benchmark revision—an upward revision seems likely; we estimate on the order of 50-450k (or a 5-40k upward revision to monthly payroll growth over April 2025-March 2026). We believe that difficulties accounting for unauthorized immigrants caused the QCEW to understate job growth and likely contributed to the deeply negative benchmark revisions of the last three years. Undercounting of unauthorized workers in the benchmark should be less of an issue for this year’s benchmark and going forward, reflecting the sharp slowdown in immigration.
• 10:00 AM University of Michigan consumer sentiment, August final (GS 51.0, consensus 51.0, last 51.0): University of Michigan 5-10-year inflation expectations, August final (GS 3.3%, last 3.3%)
• 10:00 AM Fed Chairman Warsh speaks: Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh will deliver keynote remarks at the 2026 Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. Speech text is expected. 

d

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 10:45

Saylor's Strategy Launches 'USD Cash' Pool After $2 Billion Raise, No BTC Buys

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public company holding Bitcoin, raised about $2 billion through common stock sales last week while making no new Bitcoin purchases.

The Bitcoin treasury company sold 18.26 million MSTR shares between Aug. 17 and Aug. 23 through its at-the-market (ATM) offering program, according to a Monday filing with the SEC, adding a new pool of cash to its balance-sheet toolkit as part of an effort to preserve flexibility.

Strategy repurchased about 1.43 million of its STRC preferred shares for $136.4 million, added $300 million to its US dollar reserve and directed the remaining proceeds to a newly launched US dollar cash account.

“The new USD Cash pool gives Strategy more time and optionality, but it does not remove those underlying obligations,” said Nicolai Sondergaard, a senior research analyst at Nansen.

The newly established USD Cash pool, which currently holds $1.59 billion, will sit alongside its existing reserve (which stands at $5.1 billion reserves) bringing total cash to $6.69 billion...

Strategy said the new cash account gives management more flexibility to respond to market conditions and can fund purposes including Bitcoin purchases, preferred-stock dividends, debt payments and securities repurchases.

USD Cash enhances our Digital Credit Capital Framework, and is separately designated for general Bitcoin Treasury Company purposes, including acquiring BTC, paying preferred dividends & interest, repurchasing MSTR/preferred stock, repaying converts, and increasing USD Reserve.

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) August 24, 2026

As CoinTelegraph reports, the company made no Bitcoin purchases or sales during the week, leaving its holdings at 840,447 BTC, acquired for $63.36 billion at an average price of $75,385 per Bitcoin.

Strategy hasn’t bought Bitcoin since the seven days ended June 22.

“For MSTR shareholders, the trade-off is dilution in exchange for flexibility,” Sondergaard concluded.

“The latest equity issuance strengthened the balance sheet, but did not immediately increase Bitcoin-per-share exposure.”

Strategy’s shares and debt securities rallied last week as Bitcoin ran toward $80,000, but the financing flywheel remains impaired, with its valuation premium still well below earlier-cycle levels.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 10:30

Newsom Signs 'Stop Nick Shirley Act' To Stop Investigations Into Immigration 'Service' Provider Fraud

Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness,

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Saturday expanding privacy protections for immigration service workers, despite warnings that the measure could chill investigative journalism and face First Amendment challenges.

Assembly Bill 2624, dubbed the "Stop Nick Shirley Act" by Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, expands California's Safe at Home program to certain nonprofit employees who assist people navigating the U.S. immigration system.

The law will take effect Oct. 1, 2027, after Newsom leaves office because of term limits.

Democratic Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, who introduced the bill in February, said the protections are necessary because immigration service providers face harassment and threats.

"Our immigrant service providers are living in fear because of extremists looking to demonize the work that they do and the populations they serve," Bonta said Saturday.

The measure imposes penalties on people who distribute information or images of covered immigration workers under circumstances the law defines as inciting violence or threats. Posting personal information or an image with the specific intent that another person imminently use it to commit a crime involving violence or a threat of violence: punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 per violation, imprisonment of up to one year in county jail or under Penal Code § 1170(h) (16 months, 2 years, or 3 years), or both.

Critics argue the language could discourage journalists from investigating nonprofit workers suspected of fraud or misconduct. Bonta disputes that interpretation, maintaining the law targets doxxing and threats rather than legitimate reporting.

DeMaio accused lawmakers of attempting to intimidate people "trying to shine light on bad behavior."

The legislation became associated with independent journalist and YouTuber Nick Shirley after his investigations into alleged fraud involving immigrant communities and nonprofit organizations. Shirley has argued the measure emerged in response to his reporting in Minnesota and California.

The controversy intensified Wednesday when Shirley was conducting an interview outside the state Capitol in Sacramento.

Terry Schanz, chief of staff to Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, interrupted the encounter while holding a sign making a crude allegation about Shirley's anatomy.

The incident created an uncomfortable contrast with Democratic arguments that the new law is needed to combat harassment. Multiple complaints have since been filed against Schanz with the Legislature's human resources department, according to the New York Post.

California's existing Safe at Home program provides substitute mailing addresses to certain people considered vulnerable to threats, including domestic violence survivors and some health care workers.

With AB 2624, California will extend similar protections to qualifying immigration service workers, setting up a likely debate over where personal safety protections end and constitutionally protected newsgathering begins.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 10:15

"We Don't Need Canada": Loonie Limps Lower As Trump Unleashes (More) Tariffs

"Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years," wrote President Trump in his latest social media outburst, laying out his tariff torrent against Canada.

"Their ridiculously high tariffs on our Farmers and farm products has made life impossible for these great American Patriots, and has long created a 60 Billion Dollar Deficit between our two Countries.

Not sustainable, and NOT ANYMORE!"

The US implemented a new 50% tax on imports of hundreds of Canadian items including furniture, plastics, plywood and electrical equipment on Saturday.

It’s such a high rate that it may cut off the world’s biggest market for some Canadian enterprises.

And now this morning, Trump unveiled more products will face dramatic tariff increases come the start of next year...

"On January First, 2027, Tariffs on all Cars, Trucks, both large and small. Automotive Parts, and Steel, will be increased to 50%.

Build in the U.S. and there are ZERO TARIFFS.

Canada will be treated like a State no longer!

On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with.

They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON'T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!

They do 95% of their business with the U.S., with us, the exact opposite!"

The Loonie was weaker ahead of Trump's tweet...

Carney’s government has pledged financial help for businesses caught in the crossfire. That may prove more complicated than previous aid packages for industries like steel that have been facing US tariffs for more than a year. 

The new tariffs are “very diffuse, and they hit, in particular, small and many medium enterprises in various parts of the country and in radically different supply chains,” said Matthew Holmes, chief of public policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

“Very difficult for the federal government especially to create a package of supports for them.”

Canadians may have wanted their prime minister to stand tough and not sign a bad trade deal with the US; but the collapse of talks, and the escalation of the tariff war, will come at a price.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 09:53

Nano Nuclear Energy Signs Commercial Framework With Tillman To Enable Nuclear Power For Data Centers

Regular readers are aware that one of our biggest concerns with the AI supercycle, and the entire AI arms race between the US and China, is that when push comes to shove, not only is there mounting grassroots opposition to data center build out across the US but, more importantly, the US is badly lagging China when it comes to the rollout of much needed energy to power the hundreds of Gigawatts of energy needed to power up the hundreds of data centers that are coming on line. 

Consider that as we noted two weeks ago, China is currently building 37 nuclear reactors while the US is building zero.

Monthly nuclear update: China 37 nuclear reactors under construction; US 0 pic.twitter.com/GnIU82Jqtf

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 14, 2026

Meanwhile, the stopgap measure of using gas power as data center energy sources, while prudent, is about to hit a wall as much of the future buildout is rapidly approaching its maximum capacity. Which means that unless nuclear energy is fast-tracked, there will be a massive energy gap preventing the future construction of data centers, something we noted in "More Than Two-Thirds Of The Power Sought For US Data Centers Will Never Materialize."

Which is why we have been keeping a close eye on the rollout and commercialization of modular reactors which are a much more credible long-term energy source for the AI revolution, and were pleasantly surprised to read this morning that Nano Nuclear Energy, a leader in the commercialization of US modular reactors, announced the signing of a strategic commercial framework with Tillman and its global data-center platform, Tillman Digital Gateway, to advance the future deployment of Nano Nuclear's Kronos MMR Energy Systems across Tillman's planned AI industrial zones in the United States.

The framework identifies Nano Nuclear as Tillman's anticipated preferred nuclear technology provider and establishes a structure for the parties to collaborate on the evaluation and development of nuclear generation opportunities across Tillman's growing U.S. data-center pipeline, with a parallel opportunity to expand to certain international markets.

In connection with the proposed collaboration, the parties are targeting 2 GW or more of advanced nuclear capacity by the mid-2030s and 6 GW or more by 2040, subject to general and site-specific definitive agreements, customer commitments, financing, regulatory approvals and other project requirements.

“Power availability is becoming one of the defining constraints on the continued expansion of AI infrastructure, and addressing this challenge will require both near-term execution and long-term planning,” said James Walker, CEO of NANO Nuclear Energy.

“For NANO Nuclear, this framework represents an important potential commercialization pathway that connects our technology with an anticipated multi-gigawatt-site pipeline of power demand,” said Jay Yu, Founder and Chairman of NANO Nuclear Energy. “Importantly, the structure is intended to align both organizations around measurable project-development and commercial milestones as individual opportunities progress. We believe combining Tillman’s infrastructure-development capabilities with our nuclear technology, regulatory licensing pathway and deployment model can create a scalable foundation for future nuclear-powered AI infrastructure.”

“Meeting the extraordinary power requirements of next-generation AI infrastructure requires us to plan not only for what our campuses need today, but for the resilient, scalable power architecture they will require for decades to come,” said Sachit Ahuja, Co-President of Tillman Global Holdings. “We view NANO Nuclear as an emerging leader in advanced nuclear whose progress to date, commercially focused strategy and modular technology platform make it a compelling potential solution for our medium- and long-term power requirements. This framework combines Tillman’s infrastructure-development platform and relationships with large-scale technology customers and NANO Nuclear’s advanced nuclear capabilities, creating a pathway to benefit from the integration of nuclear generation into future Tillman campuses as our portfolio expands.”

Below are the listed key elements of the proposed framework: 

• Preferred nuclear technology relationship: The framework identifies NANO Nuclear as Tillman’s proposed preferred nuclear technology provider for potential advanced nuclear energy deployments across Tillman’s planned U.S. AI industrial zones.
• Joint project development: Tillman and NANO Nuclear intend to evaluate candidate sites for future nuclear energy deployment and collaborate on site diligence, development and licensing planning, customer engagement and project structuring as individual opportunities advance.
• IPP-style deployment model: For qualifying projects, the parties contemplate an independent-power-producer-style structure under which Tillman or its affiliates would finance, develop and own project power infrastructure and NANO Nuclear would develop, support operations, and supply the reactors and fuel, with specific commercial arrangements to be negotiated on a project-by-project basis.
• Milestone-Based Warrant Arrangement and $5 Million Initial Equity Grant: The framework contemplates the proposed issuance to Tillman of fully milestone-vesting warrants to purchase up to $100 million of NANO Nuclear common stock. A majority of the warrants would vest only upon future binding reactor purchase commitments. The remaining portion of the warrants would vest only upon achievement of specified project-development milestones. The framework also contemplates an initial restricted common stock grant to Tillman with a notional value of $5 million, a portion of which would vest upon execution of definitive equity grant agreements, with the substantial majority vesting only upon achievement of specified project-development milestones.
• Project-level equity participation: The framework also contemplates potential rights for NANO Nuclear to participate alongside Tillman in a portion of the equity of certain project-level entities associated with future nuclear generation and corresponding data-center development once qualifying nuclear projects reach specified development milestones. Any such participation is subject to separately negotiated project-specific terms and definitive agreements.

To be sure, this is still woefully insufficient to plug the full gap of roughly 763 GW of uncommitted or unconfirmed energy needed for data center power builds, but it is a welcome start and we believe that more data centers will need to follow in Tillman's footstep to arrange precisely the kind of long-term energy deals that advanced nuclear companies like Nano Nuclear make possible.

Tyler Durden Mon, 08/24/2026 - 09:30