Zero Hedge

FBI Releases First Image Of 'Person Of Interest' In Kirk Assassination

FBI Releases First Image Of 'Person Of Interest' In Kirk Assassination

Update (1220ET): 

Moments ago, the FBI field office in Salt Lake City posted an image of a "person of interest in connection" with the political assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk.

"We are asking for the public's help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. 1-800-CALL-FBI," the FBI wrote on X. 

The New York Post shared an image of the weapon - an imported .30-06-caliber Mauser bolt-action rifle - with ammunition engraved with "transgender and anti-fascist ideology." MSM failed to acknowledge Steven Crowder was the first to report the 'transtifa'-style ammo ...  

CNN called the transgender and anti-fascist ideology engravings "cultural issues" ... 

In a separate post, we highlighted from Bluesky to Reddit, Democrats have been celebrating the assassination of Kirk. 

Meanwhile, Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins has called for a "House Select Committee on left-wing violence." 

*   *   * 

 

Utah Department of Public Safety official Beau Mason and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls briefed reporters with new details on the political assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk and the ongoing manhunt for the suspect who remains at large. Separate from the press conference, the Wall Street Journal confirmed (following an initial report by Steven Crowder) that the "older-model .30 caliber hunting rifle" used in the assassination contained "ammunition engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology inside the rifle." Additional details about the weapon will be provided at the end of this note.

The FBI also has "good video footage of this individual," and the bureau has "tracked his movements," FBI agent Bohls told reporters.  

Bohls said agents on the ground recovered "a high-powered action rifle," noting that it was found in a wooded area where the shooter had fled.

"Investigators have collected footwear impression, a palmprint and forearm imprints for analysis," the special agent in charge said. He did not provide any color about the assassin's motive. 

Answering a question from a reporter, Mason said the suspect "appears to be of college age".

Highlights of the press conference:

  • FBI has "good" surveillance images of the assassin but is not releasing them yet

  • The suspect was tracked jumping from a building and fleeing into a nearby neighborhood

  • A bolt-action rifle was recovered in a wooded area

  • Assassin is believed to be of college age

  • Assassin remains at large

Let's take a step back. Yesterday, an alleged eyewitness said Kirk was shot around the same time that someone in the crowd "was asked about trans violence."

Which brings us to Steven Crowder, who was the first to report on the political messaging found on the assassin's weapon.

Here's what Crowder wrote:

EXCLUSIVE: This morning my team received an e-mail from officer at ATF.

The email included a screen shot from what appears to be an internal message describing a weapon and cartridges located by an ATF and other law enforcement near the scene of the Charlie Kirk shooting  at Utah Valley State University.

"On September 10, 2025, at approximately 12:24PM, Conservative political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at the Utah Valley University in Orem, UT. Mr. Kirk was speaking at the University as part of the American Comeback Tour. Multiple SLC I and III agents responded immediately. The suspect fired one shot from an elevated position on a rooftop in an adjacent building on the campus and surveillance video shows the suspect, jumping off and fleeing the area on foot. ATF and other law-enforcement located an older model imported Mauser .30-06 caliber bolt action rifle wrapped in a towel in a wooded area near the campus. The location of the firearm appears to match the suspects route of travel. The spent cartridge was still chambered in addition to three unspent rounds at the top fed magazine. All cartridges have engraved wording on them, expressing transgender and anti-fascist ideology. An emergency trace has been submitted an ATF SLC is working leads generated by the trace. The firearm and ammunition have been taken by the FBI for DNA analysis and fingerprint impressions. Upon completion of forensics, the firearm will be disassembled for additional importer information. Multiple people of interest having contacted or detained because of eyewitness testimony and review of video footage. The primary suspect is yet to be identified. ATF is assisting the investigation with multiple other federal, state, and local partners and the case is co-led by the FBI and Utah SBI.""

This was followed by WSJ's report, confirming Crowder's X post:

Investigators found ammunition engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology inside the rifle that authorities believe was used in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, according to an internal law enforcement bulletin and a person familiar with the investigation. The older-model .30 caliber hunting rifle was discovered in the woods near the scene of Wednesday’s shooting at Utah Valley University, wrapped in a towel with a spent cartridge still in the chamber, the sources said. There were also three unspent rounds in the magazine, all with wording on them. Kirk, 31, was onstage going back and forth with a student about mass shootings involving transgender people when he was targeted, according to videos of the attack. The student has not been publicly identified.

Less than two weeks ago, we warned:

And this. 

*Developing.. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 16:00

Trump Claims He Was 'Blindsided' By Qatar Attack In 'Heated Call' With Netanyahu 

Trump Claims He Was 'Blindsided' By Qatar Attack In 'Heated Call' With Netanyahu 

A key question after this week's unprecedented Israeli airstrikes on Doha which killed five top Hamas officials remains who knew what and when? The US says it notified Qatar of the impending attack, but the close US Gulf ally's foreign ministry said this occurred after the attack already started.

Qatar's emir on Thursday attended a funeral for the six victims of the Israeli airstrikes. The additional victim was a Qatari security official. Doha is calling for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to be "brought to justice" for "state terrorism".

via Associated Press

President Trump's initial response was to basically issue regret for the bombing, which included very mild criticism of Israel, but to at the same time it was wholly Netanyahu's decision-making.

Yet there remains an awkward reality which is cause for skepticism of the emerging official narrative: it is by and large American Patriot systems which protect Qatar's skies, especially given that the sprawling Al Udeid Air Base - the largest US base on the Middle East - is located just west of Doha.

After all, Western media widely boasted of the US defense arsenal which protected Dohan against Iranian ballistic missiles just months ago, related to the 12-day June war with Israel and the US.

American defense systems would have had to be aware of the inbound Israeli Air Force strikes on the Hamas residence in the Qatari capital, and clearly stood down.

Trump has since held calls with Israeli and Qatar leaders, with The Wall Street Journal claiming he is "frustrated" and being "blindsided" by the attack.

"It’s unacceptable. I demand that you do not repeat it," Trump told Netanyahu, two sources told Axios.

"Trump told Netanyahu that the decision to target Hamas political leaders in Doha, Qatar’s capital, wasn’t wise. He was angry to learn about the attack as it was occurring from the U.S. military—rather than from Israel—and that it struck the territory of another U.S. ally that was mediating negotiations on ending the Gaza war, the officials said," according to the report.

Netanyahu reportedly responded that he only had a brief window to act against Hamas leadership. Some analysts accuse Trump of essentially luring the Hamas delegation back to Doha on the premise of a new Gaza ceasefire proposal.

At what point did the White House or Pentagon know about the planned Israeli attack?

But despite this supposedly "heated" phone call, the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, is unapologetic, saying that "We have put terrorists on notice, wherever they may be... we're going to pursue them, and we're going to destroy those who will destroy us."

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 15:30

Warner Bros. Soars On Majority-Cash Takeover Bid From Paramount Skydance Backed By Ellison Family

Warner Bros. Soars On Majority-Cash Takeover Bid From Paramount Skydance Backed By Ellison Family

Not even a day after Oracle founder Larry Ellison became the world's richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his son, David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, is preparing to make a majority-cash takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

WSJ sources said the majority-cash takeover is entirely "backed by the Ellison family" and would mean the deal includes Warner Bros' cable TV networks and iconic Hollywood studio. Warner had previously announced plans to split into two units (read here), one for its legacy cable operations and another for its streaming and studio operations. 

Shares of Paramount Skydance jumped 7.7% on the news. 

Shares of Warner Bros. jumped a whopping 35%. 

David Ellison's Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. deal comes just after his father became the world's richest person on Wednesday, following a massive spike in Oracle stock driven by quarterly results that beat analysts' expectations (view the chart that sent shares to da moon). According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Larry Ellison's net worth has surged to $383.2 billion, surpassing that of Elon Musk.

. . .

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 14:05

Natural Gas Is Not A Bridge To Tomorrow. It's The Superhighway Of The Future

Natural Gas Is Not A Bridge To Tomorrow. It's The Superhighway Of The Future

Authored by Gary Abernathy via RealClearEnergy,

This article was originally published by The Empowerment Alliance and is re-published here with permission. 

Over the years as it grew more powerful, the climate cult’s assault on fossil fuels typically left no room for compromise. Ending all reliance on anything but so-called renewables was the position that the energy industry and the government were expected to embrace, with various just-around-the-corner end dates arbitrarily set to bury the fossil fuel industry once and for all.

But for the climate change zealots, one pesky fly in the ointment made such goals clearly unreasonable – natural gas. Instead of slowly and cooperatively dimming its flame until it was extinguished, natural gas by necessity has continued to flourish.

Fracking technology made natural gas extraction easier and more affordable than ever. Its relative cleanliness compared to other fossil fuels made it more difficult for environmental extremists to reasonably rail against it. And industries realized that there was no more effective, reliable and affordable energy source for the electricity grid than natural gas.

Of course, the most extreme environmentalists did not let the facts sway them, continuing to demand an immediate end to all fossil fuels. But those advocates of a move toward “green” energy who were interested in maintaining a level of credibility began to somewhat soften their stance. Demonstrating at least a slight grasp on reality, they began to refer to natural gas as a “bridge” to a renewable future.

One example of such thinking came from Yale Climate Connections, an initiative of the Yale Center for Environmental Communication based at Yale University. In a 2016 article presenting the pros and cons of natural gas, climate journalist Bruce Lieberman advised, “Consider natural gas a ‘bridge’ fuel for a growing renewable energy economy,” and quoted a report from the Joint Institute for Strategic Analysis that noted that natural gas and renewable energy “can help contribute to a low-carbon, resilient, and reliable electrical grid by diversifying the electricity mix and hedging risk associated with market and policy uncertainties.”

Lieberman, though, seemed skeptical that natural gas would keep pace with renewables to jointly account for future electricity generation shares. He pointed to California, where “the current oversupply of natural gas and a boom in solar, wind, and other renewable energy sectors ‘has depressed power prices and threatened the viability of natural gas plants,’” as he noted Reuters reporting at the time.

Predictions of the demise of natural gas join a long list of inaccurate energy forecasts from a decade or more ago.  As we now know, natural gas has become even more important as the demand for affordable and reliable electricity grows. In Texas, for instance, the coming expansion of AI data centers has led to plans to develop private, dedicated gas plants to bypass existing grids and make sure electricity generation is reliable and uninterrupted. Poignantly, it is those very AI programs – powered by electricity from natural gas – which will help conceive of new energy technologies of the future.

What’s becoming clear to everyone except the blindest ideologue is that natural gas is not a bridge to tomorrow. It’s the superhighway of the future. Natural gas will continue to lead the power surge of the 21st century, and, for at least the next few decades, “renewables” will at best augment natural gas or at times serve as a backup.

Because the fact is, the current demands of our energy landscape require the use of natural gas, and the predicted future electricity demands make natural gas the essential energy driver not only in the U.S., but around the world.

Whether someone can be considered a reasonable conservationist or a wild-eyed climate zealot can be determined by whether they insist on an all-or-nothing approach that will guarantee falling short of our energy needs, or balance their environment and climate concerns with the stark reality of our current and future energy requirements – choosing to support (even if grudgingly) the cleanest, safest, most abundant and effective energy resource in existence.

No blueprint for meeting future energy demands that calls for eliminating or even minimizing natural gas can be considered a serious proposal. Wind, solar, and especially nuclear are good supplements for natural gas. But we’ve already crossed the bridge to tomorrow, with natural gas leading the way and fueling a future that is cleaner, brighter and filled with promise.

Gary Abernathy is a longtime newspaper editor, reporter and columnist. He was a contributing columnist for the Washington Post from 2017-2023 and a frequent guest analyst across numerous media platforms. He is a contributing columnist for The Empowerment Alliance, which advocates for realistic approaches to energy consumption and environmental conservation. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Empowerment Alliance.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 13:45

Impressive 30Y Auction With Near Record-High Directs Keeps 10Y Yield At 4.00%

Impressive 30Y Auction With Near Record-High Directs Keeps 10Y Yield At 4.00%

After two stellar, near-record coupon auctions earlier this week, including one of the best ever 3Y auction on Tuesday, and a similarly strong 10Y yesterday, moments ago the Treasury concluded the week's auction when it sold $22 billion in 30Y paper in what was again another remarkably strong auction.

Today's 30Y sale stopped at a high yield of 4.651%, down from 4.813% last month and the lowest since March; it also priced "on the screws" with the 4.651% When Issued, following last month's badly tailing auction.

The bid to cover rose to 2.376 from 2.266, a fraction above the 2.366 six-auction average. 

The internals were solid with Foreign buyers taking down 62.03%, up from 59.52% and the highest since June. It was also above the recent average of 60.9%. And with Directs jumping to 28.01% from 23.03% and the highest going back all the way back to October 2011, or right after the first US downgrade...

... Dealers were left with just 10.0%, the lowest since June 2023.

Overall, this was a strong, if not quite stellar auction similar to the 3 and 10Y offerings earlier this week, but then again it didn't have to be: the 10Y already dipped briefly below 4.00% earlier today on expectations of a potential jumbo rate cut next week, and the strong 30Y only helped push yields back to session lows. 

 

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 13:33

Thune Moves Forward With 'Nuclear Option' To Confirm Trump's Nominees

Thune Moves Forward With 'Nuclear Option' To Confirm Trump's Nominees

Authored by Joseph Lord and Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times,

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Sept. 8 announced that Republicans will take the “nuclear option” in the Senate to allow for faster confirmation of nominees by the president.

“Democrats have made President Donald Trump the first president on record to not have a single nominee confirmed via voice vote or unanimous consent, and they are forcing time-consuming votes on noncontroversial nominees who go on to be confirmed by large bipartisan margins,” Thune wrote in an op-ed published in Breitbart on Sept. 8.

To get around Democrats’ moves to block Trump’s nominees, Thune has moved to change the rules in the Senate.

On Sept. 9, lawmakers voted to move forward with a resolution introduced by Thune to allow for the consideration of 48 executive nominees en bloc—the first step toward expediting Trump’s nominees similarly in the future.

Here’s what to know...

What Is the ‘Nuclear Option’?

The “nuclear option” in the Senate describes a situation in which the majority party changes procedures in the Senate during the middle of a congressional session.

This is possible because such rules can be changed by a simple majority vote—meaning that a majority party at any time has the power to change or amend the rules as long as enough of its members are on board with the plan.

Since President Barack Obama’s time in office, both parties have made use of the nuclear option.

In 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) invoked the nuclear option to allow lower court judges to be confirmed by a simple majority vote.

Later, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) changed the rules to allow Supreme Court justices to be confirmed by a simple majority.

Such changes to the rules are considered precedent-setting, and the other party tends to take advantage of such precedents when it returns to power.

Why Are Republicans Considering It?

Historically, the nuclear option has been used to overcome perceived obstruction or other procedural hurdles placed by the opposition party, and this case is similar.

Since Trump returned to the White House, Senate Democrats have withheld unanimous consent and required voice votes on the president’s nominees, dragging out the process. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former senator, is one of the only civilian nominees who has not faced such delays in the Senate.

Although they’re out of power in Washington, Democrats have, in recent months, taken steps to slow the confirmation of Trump’s executive appointees.

This has included taking their full allotted time to speak for each individual nominee—a divergence from norms in Washington, where lawmakers have historically confirmed dozens or hundreds of lesser nominees through unanimous consent voice votes.

The situation has been ongoing since before lawmakers left for their monthlong August recess.

In his op-ed, Thune described this as “delay for delay’s sake.”

He said Republicans would consider a rules change based on one developed in 2023 by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats.

The GOP rule change, like the one proposed by Klobuchar and King, would increase the number of nominees that the Senate can consider en bloc, or in a single vote.

Thune warned that many key slots in the executive branch will remain empty if the Senate doesn’t speed things up.

“No party should be able to weaponize the confirmation process the way that Senate Democrats are doing now,” the South Dakotan wrote.

Trump, for his part, has called on Senate Republicans to do whatever it takes to confirm his nominees.

In late July, the president proposed canceling the coveted August recess to continue considering his nominees.

In an Aug. 6 post on Truth Social, he urged Republicans to pursue changes that would expedite the confirmation of nominees in the face of Democratic opposition when they returned.

Lawmaker Reactions

Reactions have largely broken down along partisan lines.

Republicans have upheld a rule change as necessary to overcome hurdles they say were put in place by Democrats. Democrats, meanwhile, spoke critically of the possibility of a rules change.

In comments to The Epoch Times on Sept. 10, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) supported a rule change, although he acknowledged that it would “set a precedent.”

“[But] we have to do something or we’re not gonna get anybody confirmed,” Tuberville said.

​​“We’ve never had anybody that didn’t give any voice votes whatsoever to the majority. We’ve got to do something to have somebody working and filling these positions. So I’m all for it.”

Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), a freshman senator seen as one of the most moderate voices in the GOP caucus, was also supportive of the move. He noted that all 53 Republicans had supported the move on Sept. 9.

Asked by The Epoch Times whether a rules change could undermine precedent, Curtis said Democrats were “[undermining] precedent by doing what they did.”

The same sentiment was expressed by Thune during comments on the Senate floor on Sept. 10, during which he said the change would restore “Senate precedent” and “what was once understood to be standard practice.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the leaders of Democratic opposition to the rule change, said Thune’s proposal was too broad.

“It has no guardrails. They can use this for judges, for cabinet officials. They can move 100 nominees at a time. It’s a pretty stunning application of advice and consent,” Murphy told The Epoch Times.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has defended the slow pace of confirmations.

“Historically bad nominees deserve a historic level of scrutiny by Senate Democrats,” he wrote on X.

Thune and Schumer were unable to reach an agreement to move forward with the issue before the August recess.

According to Trump, Democrats at the time were demanding the release of about $1 billion in federal funding and sought promises from the administration not to rescind additional funds, in exchange for allowing the quick consideration of the president’s nominees.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 13:05

"Feels Like Some Sort Of Invisible Line Has Been Crossed..."

"Feels Like Some Sort Of Invisible Line Has Been Crossed..."

"I hope I'm wrong," begins Konstantin Kisin somberly reflecting on the assassination of Charlie Kirk, "but tonight feels like some sort of invisible line has been crossed that we didn't even know was there."

The Triggernometry podcast founder continued with a rather ominous, yet completely reasonable, perspective on what this means and what happens next:

"The last time I felt like this was 9/11 when it was clear, without knowing the how and the what, that the world was about to change forever. 

Like the rules of the game had been permanently altered and there was simply no going back to the innocent, peaceful past.

I didn't feel like this when an attempt was made on President Trump's life.

If I had to rationalise why I didn't, I guess it's because several US Presidents have been shot at and even assassinated.

Somehow it was within the realms of the possible, no matter how awful. 

But to murder a young father simply for doing debates and mobilising young people to vote for a party that represents half of America?

This is something else.

Charlie's death is a tragedy for his wife, his children and his family.

I don't pray often. I am praying for them tonight. 

But I fear his murder will be a tragedy for all of us in ways we will only understand as time unfolds. 

I hope I'm wrong."

We hope so too, Konstantin. However, we fear you are not...

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 12:45

Fact-Checking Newsom's 'Clean Energy' Claims

Fact-Checking Newsom's 'Clean Energy' Claims

Authored by Edward Ring via American Greatness,

In a recent guest op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal, California Governor Newsom claimed that “Clean Energy Powers California’s Economic Growth,” a claim that is transparently false. Aggressive “clean energy” mandates, paired with perpetually escalating restrictions on conventional energy sources, are the reasons Californians pay the highest prices in America for gasoline and electricity, and nearly the highest prices of any major state for natural gas.

Along with ignoring the fact that affordable energy is fundamental to economic growth and California has the least affordable energy in America, Newsom makes grossly incorrect statements. In the subhead of his op-ed, he writes, “More than two-thirds of the state’s electricity is from sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal.” This isn’t even close to accurate.

The California Energy Commission reports in-state electricity production by source. The most recent data is for 2023, and in that year, wind, solar, and geothermal energy accounted for a mere 31 percent of California’s total in-state electricity production. Even when adding nuclear and hydroelectric power, California’s total “clean” energy only accounted for 54 percent of the electricity generated in the state.

Newsom goes on to write that “climate change has made our summers hotter,” and that 2024 was the warmest on record. He boasts that “rapid deployment of clean energy and battery storage” got Californians through the summer of 2024 without blackouts. This is a half-truth at best. As reported in CalMatters, a left-leaning site that covers California politics, in 2023, in order to “shore up California’s straining power grid,” Newsom delayed the planned closures of three natural gas-powered generating plants that together contribute 2.2 gigawatts to California’s electricity grid. In 2022, Newsom delayed the planned 2025 closure of California’s last major nuclear-powered generating plant, Diablo Canyon, preserving another 2.2 gigawatts of baseload electricity.

Furthermore, no fact check of Newsom’s WSJ op-ed would be complete without questioning his claim that 2024 was “the warmest on record.” This is something we hear all the time. It is a statement meant to foment fear and discourage dissenting opinions. But is it true? Los Angeles County, a place where an estimated 27 percent of all Californians live, has kept temperature records since 1878. If you plot the average annual temperature, you will see a trend suggesting that overall, in Los Angeles County, it is not quite three degrees Fahrenheit hotter in the 2020s than it was in the 1880s. The trend isn’t smooth. In the 1930s, average temperatures were comparable and in some years hotter than in the 2020s. But there’s a major factor that politicians and biased activists conveniently ignore: the urban heat island effect.

Consider this animated map showing urban development in Los Angeles County over the past century. The area of paved surfaces today is easily ten times more extensive than it was in the 1930s. According to no less an authority than Cal EPA, the urban heat island effect can raise average temperatures by between 4 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit. By that logic, it’s cooler in Los Angeles County today than it was a century ago. It’s pavement, not greenhouse gas, that’s caused a modest rise in temperature.

Returning to Newsom’s dishonesty regarding energy, and to be fair, California’s sunny weather and lowering costs for photovoltaic arrays and stationary, utility-scale battery storage have allowed the state to develop an impressive renewable electricity capacity. But what stabilized the grid in 2024 was 4.4 gigawatts of natural gas and nuclear-powered electricity that, were it not for Newsom’s intervention, would have already been taken offline by the environmentalist fanatics who run the state. Even during afternoons in late summer when peak demand frequently draws over 40 gigawatts from California’s grid, 4.4 gigawatts offers a share that spells the difference between stability and crash.

Newsom’s epic mistake, one that California’s extreme environmentalist bureaucracy and state legislature would make even if the governor were as pragmatic as he claims, is to destroy California’s conventional energy industry before “renewables” are able to compete in an unsubsidized environment with the energy sources they seek to displace. Electricity use still only constitutes a fraction of California’s total energy consumption. The data is unequivocal.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, Californians in 2023 derived 30 percent of their energy from natural gas and 47 percent from petroleum. Even that total, 77 percent, understates the contribution from “combustibles” because it doesn’t take into account the quantities of coal- and natural gas-generated electricity that Californians have to import from out-of-state sources. Californians aren’t anywhere close to ending their dependence on natural gas and oil, and yet, despite possessing some of the richest reserves of natural gas and oil in the world, California imports 74 percent of its crude oil and over 90 percent of its natural gas. That’s probably going to get worse.

Thanks to Newsom and the state legislature’s ceaseless, unending regulatory assault on its in-state oil drilling and refining industry, the state’s petroleum infrastructure is on the brink of collapse. Newsom has been frantically backpedaling in the face of a looming gasoline supply crisis, as two oil refineries have announced plans to shut down within the next 12 months.

The entire climate crisis agenda may be based on completely false premises. A new peer-reviewed study released in July 2025, authored by five top climatologists for the U.S. Department of Energy, challenges the alarmist narrative. Concerning this study, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said, “Climate change is real, and it deserves attention. But it is not the greatest threat facing humanity. As someone who values data, I know that improving the human condition depends on expanding access to reliable, affordable energy.” Dr. Judith Curry, one of the scientists who participated in writing the study, has just released a response to the torrent of indignant criticisms it generated. She exposes most of these criticisms as political and not scientific.

What challenges to the entire climate alarm industry at this level portend for Newsom and the religious zealots who worship at the altar of climate alarm is a new era, characterized by robust debate instead of bureaucratic bludgeoning à la “the science is settled” mode. Will this save California? It would take an awful lot of soul-searching, and it would require standing up to powerful special interests. Because it isn’t just energy that the climate alarm industry has undermined in California. It’s all development, everywhere. From timber harvests to management of water resources to approving or denying building permits for new homes, “climate impact” statements are used by regulators and litigators to stop projects in their tracks.

Perhaps the biggest irony is Newsom’s recent embrace of the “abundance movement.” Newsom is joined in this new fad by a huge faction of progressives who appreciate its value as a distraction from most of their pet issues, which have turned them into a laughingstock and a menace. But “abundance” policies coming from progressive climate warriors are doomed to fail. The only abundance they will champion is renewable energy, “infill” high-density housing, and water rationing. This fatally limited approach will not enable abundance in any form, much less lead to lower prices for these essentials.

Typically, the fact checkers at the Wall Street Journal scrupulously review all assertions made in a piece they intend to publish, including any from guest writers submitting opinion pieces. That Newsom was allowed to make so many factually incorrect assertions, along with numerous errors of omission, is a disappointing lapse by one of America’s last remaining credible sources of mainstream news.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 12:25

Europe Is A Powder Keg

Europe Is A Powder Keg

Authored by J.B.Shurk via AmericanThinker.com,

Americans who don’t spend time in Europe might not fully appreciate what a powder keg the Old World has become.  

However bad social relations in the United States now are, they are at least an order of magnitude worse on the other side of the Atlantic.  European self-hatred is dissolving traditional cultural bonds.  Mass immigration is compounding age-old rivalries.  

Europe is one spark away from exploding.

Europe is a perennial battlefield.  Many of our ancestors, after all, left the old country to escape religious, economic, and cultural conflicts that had endured for centuries.  Those historic grievances — always simmering in times of peace before boiling over into outright violence — are passed from one generation to the next.  Modern European nations are the product of two thousand years of shifting borders and alliances, and native Europeans trace their family lineages back to regional tribes whose ancient territories do not fit neatly within the politically drawn maps of today.

If you think geographical accents in America make it tricky for a Mississippian or Minnesotan to communicate effectively with an English-speaker from the Bronx, consider that Europe is home to nearly three hundred native tongues.  Switzerland has four national languages — including Romansch, which derives from the spoken Latin of the Roman Empire.  The cornucopia of indigenous languages, dialects, vocabularies, and accents makes it possible for local residents of small towns to recognize “outsiders” immediately.  Even more impressively, they can usually tell — just by listening — which towns a stranger’s grandparents once called home.

Two world wars — both ignited in Europe and responsible for immense European destruction — propelled a mid-twentieth-century political movement calling for the eradication of national borders.  The European intelligentsia who became the founding members of the continent’s fledgling transnational bureaucracy blamed national pride for Europe’s carnage and effectively turned “nationalism” into a dirty word.  

Oddly, this was also a time when crumbling empires, such as France and the United Kingdom, were at least tepidly supporting the national independence of former colonies.  Likewise, it was the beginning of a half-century U.S.-led campaign to encourage national revolutions in European countries stuck behind the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain.  So Western power brokers framed nationalism as a kind of intolerable ethos on par with Mussolini’s fascism and Hitler’s national socialism while encouraging former nations or proto-nations in Central Europe, Africa, and Asia to break away from the respective empires that controlled them.  While Western leaders pushed for the integration of distinct European nations into a single “Union,” they also promoted national independence movements under the rationale that all humans possess a natural right to self-determination.

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In the eighty years since the project for European integration began in earnest, those latent contradictions have transformed Europe into a tinderbox with even greater potential energy for self-destruction than existed before WWI and II.  While the bureaucratic ruling class has actively repressed the historic identities of native Europeans, it has flooded the continent with foreigners who are encouraged to retain their own cultural identities.  In this way, a Hungarian or Pole or Dane who celebrates his country’s unique heritage is denounced as a “far-right nationalist,” while a Frenchman who insists that African and Middle Eastern immigrants assimilate to the European way of life is denounced as a “racist” and “bigot.” 

This anti-European monstrosity was created deliberately.  Simultaneous suppression of Europeans’ national identities and protections for foreign nationals create a kind of “multiculturalism dynamo” that converts Europeans into something alien.  Stripped of their native religion, culture, and historic customs and forced to praise foreign religions, cultures, and customs taking hold in the West’s civilizational void, Europeans are effectively assimilated within their own lands.  Europeans are taught to despise their own civilization and to bow down before those who seek to replicate a foreign civilization inside Europe.  Europe’s bureaucratic ruling class uses foreigners to beat the Europeanness out of Europeans.

In the United Kingdom, a grassroots movement of ordinary Brits has initiated “Operation: Raise the Colors.”  The strategy is simple: British citizens are encouraged to prominently display and wave the Cross of St. George and Union Jack flags.  

What could possibly be offensive or dangerous about raising the flags of England and the United Kingdom?  Nothing.  

Yet the globalist Establishment is losing its collective mind.  Leftists insist that the flags should be replaced with something more “multicultural” and that only “far-right racists” would stoop so low as to patriotically raise the country’s flags.  Open-borders politicians are calling the flag-waving “extremist,” “hate-filled,” and “white supremacist.”  In other words, the British people have forced Britain’s “elites” to acknowledge that they have no loyalty to and only antipathy for the United Kingdom.

This rather anodyne form of political speech is proving remarkably effective at exposing globalism’s suicidal contagion.  In London, it is perfectly normal to see so-called “gay pride” flags, “Palestinian” flags, Pakistani flags, Iranian flags, and the flags of almost every third-world nation now offloading its citizens onto the shores of the U.K.  If a British citizen were to express outrage over the fact that a panoply of foreign flags is flown brazenly throughout the capital, constables would intimidate the outspoken “offender” into silence by threatening him with prosecution for imaginary “hate speech.”  Revealingly, however, these same petty tyrants throw hissy fits when native Brits dare “raise the colors” of their own nation’s historic flags.

Similar movements are picking up steam.  Ten years ago, it was more common to see such patriotic displays on the streets of Balkan nations or amid independence parades in the Basque region or other areas of Europe seeking national recognition.  Today it is easy to stumble into a sea of Dutch, Danish, German, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, or Greek flags when crossing borders.  Eighty years after the European Union began constructing its continental empire, the “colonies” appear eager to reclaim their right to self-determination.

I think it’s fair to say that ordinary Europeans are no longer willing to remain quiet as the bureaucratic ruling class kills what’s left of Europe and hands the carcass to foreign conquerors.  As an American with absolute fidelity to the millennia-long promises of Western civilization, I find these patriotic revivals timely rebuttals to a globalist Establishment that prefers our death.

I cannot tell you how many times I have come across the words of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas translated into one of Europe’s many native languages.  “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” show up on message boards like faint heartbeats on an EKG machine.  Many in Europe don’t want to die.  To live, they’ll have to fight.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 10:30

Machinists Union, Boeing Reach Tentative Deal To End Strike In St. Louis Area

Machinists Union, Boeing Reach Tentative Deal To End Strike In St. Louis Area

Boeing Defense and a machinists union have reached a tentative deal to end a five-week-long strike in the St. Louis area, union officials said on Sept. 10.

Workers at Boeing’s St. Louis facilities produce F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets, the T-7A Red Hawk trainer, and various advanced weapons systems for the US military.

“The five-year tentative agreement includes improvements to general wage increases and restores a signing bonus,” the union said in a Sept. 10 post on X.

As Melanie Sun reports for The Epoch Times, Boeing’s latest contract proposal comes after continued negotiations since Aug. 4, when about 3,200 union members in the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 837 went on strike over conditions in a previous offer. That contract was turned down by 67 percent of the members, who are among those assembling Boeing fighter jets at facilities in Berkeley and St. Charles in Missouri, and Mascoutah in Illinois.

Members are demanding higher wages, which they say are needed to support their families.

“IAM District 837 members build the aircraft and defense systems that keep our country safe,” Sam Cicinelli, Midwest territory general vice president for IAM, said in an Aug. 3 statement.

“They deserve nothing less than a contract that keeps their families secure and recognizes their unmatched expertise.”

Boeing Defense Vice President Dan Gillian announced the new offer in a statement on Wednesday.

“We’ve found a path forward on a five-year contract offer that grows wages by 45 percent on average,” he said.

“It remains the best deal we’ve ever offered to IAM 837, and we encourage our team to vote yes so we can get back to work building amazing products for our customers.”

The deal includes a 24 percent general wage increase over five years and a $4,000 ratification bonus, among other terms.

The previous August offer was a four-year contract for a 20 percent wage increase and a $5,000 bonus, alongside medical, pension, and overtime benefits. The new deal increases average pay by 45 percent from $75,000 to $109,000, according to the company. The previous deal would have raised compensation by 40 percent on average.

Amid the deadlock, Boeing on Sept. 4 announced plans to hire replacement workers. Gillian said that output for some programs at the sites had slowed due to the union’s strike, but non-union employees had continued with some production.

Gillian said that the new deal assures all workers of another year of raises, “So, I feel good about the offer.”

The IAM said a vote on Boeing’s new five-year contract offer has been scheduled for Friday. If the contract is approved, workers would start returning Monday evening, and production would be back to normal in about a week, Gillian told reporters on Wednesday.

A seven-week strike by IAM District 751 members in Washington and Oregon ended with a contract from Boeing that included a 38 percent wage increase and a $12,000 signing bonus.

Boeing has struggled financially in recent years, and the company’s safety culture has been the subject of increased scrutiny following multiple high-profile tragedies.

In June 2025, a Boeing Dreamliner operated by Air India crashed, killing at least 260 people. Crashes involving Boeing 737 Max aircraft in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 killed 346 people. In January 2024, the door plug of a Boeing 737 Max 9 detached mid-flight, depressurizing the cabin and forcing an emergency landing.

Boeing reported on July 28 that its losses had narrowed in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025. The company posted a loss of $611 million, down from $1.44 billion over the same period the previous year.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 10:20

What Does Dr. Copper Say?

What Does Dr. Copper Say?

Authored by Richard Woolnough via BondVigilantes.com,

We’ve spent nearly two decades on this blog exploring the economic outlook, and history shows that this is especially relevant for active bond managers.

Currently, risk markets are priced for a benign economic scenario. Credit spreads are historically tight, equity valuations are elevated, and interest rates are on a downward path as central banks unwind tight monetary policies to keep growth on track.

The global economy appears healthy, and markets seem to have rediscovered their appetite for risk.

But as always, we believe it’s worthwhile to explore alternative diagnoses.

Just as one might consult a doctor for a second opinion in life, we can do the same in economics: by turning to Doctor Copper.

Doctor Copper is simply the ratio of the price of copper divided by the price of gold. Copper, an industrial metal, reflects economic activity, while gold is traditionally viewed as a store of wealth.

The theory goes: when the economy is strong, the ratio is high; when it’s weak, the ratio is low.

When we chart the effectiveness of this diagnostic tool over time, we find that it has merit.

Source: M&G, Bloomberg

The chart suggests that previous declines in the Doctor Copper ratio have often aligned with periods of economic slowdown or recession.

While investors remain optimistic, the copper-to-gold ratio is signalling a more cautious view. Whenever the ratio has reached levels this low, it was consistent with a slowdown or even a recession.

With the ratio trending lower again, it’s worth considering whether this indicator is once more highlighting risks that broader markets may be overlooking.

Could this decline be a sign of the Markets’ Risky New Appetite (MRNA)?

Or is it a reminder to trust the traditional economic wisdom of Doctor Copper?

Either way, something is different this time, and it might be worth paying attention.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 09:30

What Does Dr. Copper Say?

What Does Dr. Copper Say?

Authored by Richard Woolnough via BondVigilantes.com,

We’ve spent nearly two decades on this blog exploring the economic outlook, and history shows that this is especially relevant for active bond managers.

Currently, risk markets are priced for a benign economic scenario. Credit spreads are historically tight, equity valuations are elevated, and interest rates are on a downward path as central banks unwind tight monetary policies to keep growth on track.

The global economy appears healthy, and markets seem to have rediscovered their appetite for risk.

But as always, we believe it’s worthwhile to explore alternative diagnoses.

Just as one might consult a doctor for a second opinion in life, we can do the same in economics: by turning to Doctor Copper.

Doctor Copper is simply the ratio of the price of copper divided by the price of gold. Copper, an industrial metal, reflects economic activity, while gold is traditionally viewed as a store of wealth.

The theory goes: when the economy is strong, the ratio is high; when it’s weak, the ratio is low.

When we chart the effectiveness of this diagnostic tool over time, we find that it has merit.

Source: M&G, Bloomberg

The chart suggests that previous declines in the Doctor Copper ratio have often aligned with periods of economic slowdown or recession.

While investors remain optimistic, the copper-to-gold ratio is signalling a more cautious view. Whenever the ratio has reached levels this low, it was consistent with a slowdown or even a recession.

With the ratio trending lower again, it’s worth considering whether this indicator is once more highlighting risks that broader markets may be overlooking.

Could this decline be a sign of the Markets’ Risky New Appetite (MRNA)?

Or is it a reminder to trust the traditional economic wisdom of Doctor Copper?

Either way, something is different this time, and it might be worth paying attention.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 09:30

What Does Dr. Copper Say?

What Does Dr. Copper Say?

Authored by Richard Woolnough via BondVigilantes.com,

We’ve spent nearly two decades on this blog exploring the economic outlook, and history shows that this is especially relevant for active bond managers.

Currently, risk markets are priced for a benign economic scenario. Credit spreads are historically tight, equity valuations are elevated, and interest rates are on a downward path as central banks unwind tight monetary policies to keep growth on track.

The global economy appears healthy, and markets seem to have rediscovered their appetite for risk.

But as always, we believe it’s worthwhile to explore alternative diagnoses.

Just as one might consult a doctor for a second opinion in life, we can do the same in economics: by turning to Doctor Copper.

Doctor Copper is simply the ratio of the price of copper divided by the price of gold. Copper, an industrial metal, reflects economic activity, while gold is traditionally viewed as a store of wealth.

The theory goes: when the economy is strong, the ratio is high; when it’s weak, the ratio is low.

When we chart the effectiveness of this diagnostic tool over time, we find that it has merit.

Source: M&G, Bloomberg

The chart suggests that previous declines in the Doctor Copper ratio have often aligned with periods of economic slowdown or recession.

While investors remain optimistic, the copper-to-gold ratio is signalling a more cautious view. Whenever the ratio has reached levels this low, it was consistent with a slowdown or even a recession.

With the ratio trending lower again, it’s worth considering whether this indicator is once more highlighting risks that broader markets may be overlooking.

Could this decline be a sign of the Markets’ Risky New Appetite (MRNA)?

Or is it a reminder to trust the traditional economic wisdom of Doctor Copper?

Either way, something is different this time, and it might be worth paying attention.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 09:30

Russia-Belarus Kick Off War Games Near Polish Border As NATO Tensions Soar

Russia-Belarus Kick Off War Games Near Polish Border As NATO Tensions Soar

Given the last 48 hours of extreme tensions between Russia and NATO after Poland said it shot down Russian drones which breached its airspace coming over from Ukraine, causing NATO assets to go on high alert, Moscow is now taking great pains to warn the West that its newest military drills must not be seen as a threat and provocation.

The Zapad-2025 drills will kick off Friday and run through September 16, held in Belarus and involving wide-ranging drills between the Russian and Belarusian militaries. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing Thursday that the drills are not aimed at any third country. His words come as Poland is alleging Russian intentionally sent waves of drones into its airspace.

"There indeed are going to be drills. They are routine drills, not aimed against anyone else. It’s about a continuation of defense cooperation and efforts to improve interaction between two strategic allies," Peskov said.

He further said that Russia's intent with these exercises "is absolutely no secret to anyone" - and "I would like to reiterate that none of these actions is directed toward third countries," he added.

The drills will kick off as tensions with NATO are at their highest. BBC reviews of the avalanche of condemnations directed at Moscow coming in:

  • UK PM Keir Starmer called it a "barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and Nato airspace by Russian drones"
  • US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: "What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go!". Our reporter at the White House says Trump's frustration with Putin is evident
  • Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte condemned Russia's "reckless behavour" and said Nato allies stood in solidarity with Poland and Ukraine
  • Defence ministers from the E5 group of nations - Italy, Germany, France, Poland and UK - held a press conference in London, and condemned the incident, during which the UK's Defense Minister John Healey said he has asked the British armed forces to "look at options to bolster" Nato's air defence over Poland
  • Canada's PM Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron also decried the "reckless and escalatory", with Carney saying it was proof that Putin has "total disregard for the path of peace"

During the alleged drone breach, airports in Poland were briefly closed, including Warsaw's main international airport, and NATO and Polish aerial assets were scrambled. In at least one instance a Polish couple said a drone crashed into their house.

The Zapad drills have of late been happening every two years, and this year it is expected to comprise nuclear weapons and Russian-made hypersonic missiles. Anti-sabotage warfare will also be a focus.

Poland will actually host drills which mirror the Belarus-hosted war games, holding Iron Defender-25 joint military exercise with NATO, including an estimated 34,000 troops and 600 units of military hardware.

Poland has also sealed its border with Belarus during this time. Earlier this month, Warsaw warned of "special measures" in response to potential "provocations" during the upcoming joint exercises.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 09:15

Russia-Belarus Kick Off War Games Near Polish Border As NATO Tensions Soar

Russia-Belarus Kick Off War Games Near Polish Border As NATO Tensions Soar

Given the last 48 hours of extreme tensions between Russia and NATO after Poland said it shot down Russian drones which breached its airspace coming over from Ukraine, causing NATO assets to go on high alert, Moscow is now taking great pains to warn the West that its newest military drills must not be seen as a threat and provocation.

The Zapad-2025 drills will kick off Friday and run through September 16, held in Belarus and involving wide-ranging drills between the Russian and Belarusian militaries. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing Thursday that the drills are not aimed at any third country. His words come as Poland is alleging Russian intentionally sent waves of drones into its airspace.

"There indeed are going to be drills. They are routine drills, not aimed against anyone else. It’s about a continuation of defense cooperation and efforts to improve interaction between two strategic allies," Peskov said.

He further said that Russia's intent with these exercises "is absolutely no secret to anyone" - and "I would like to reiterate that none of these actions is directed toward third countries," he added.

The drills will kick off as tensions with NATO are at their highest. BBC reviews of the avalanche of condemnations directed at Moscow coming in:

  • UK PM Keir Starmer called it a "barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and Nato airspace by Russian drones"
  • US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: "What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go!". Our reporter at the White House says Trump's frustration with Putin is evident
  • Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte condemned Russia's "reckless behavour" and said Nato allies stood in solidarity with Poland and Ukraine
  • Defence ministers from the E5 group of nations - Italy, Germany, France, Poland and UK - held a press conference in London, and condemned the incident, during which the UK's Defense Minister John Healey said he has asked the British armed forces to "look at options to bolster" Nato's air defence over Poland
  • Canada's PM Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron also decried the "reckless and escalatory", with Carney saying it was proof that Putin has "total disregard for the path of peace"

During the alleged drone breach, airports in Poland were briefly closed, including Warsaw's main international airport, and NATO and Polish aerial assets were scrambled. In at least one instance a Polish couple said a drone crashed into their house.

The Zapad drills have of late been happening every two years, and this year it is expected to comprise nuclear weapons and Russian-made hypersonic missiles. Anti-sabotage warfare will also be a focus.

Poland will actually host drills which mirror the Belarus-hosted war games, holding Iron Defender-25 joint military exercise with NATO, including an estimated 34,000 troops and 600 units of military hardware.

Poland has also sealed its border with Belarus during this time. Earlier this month, Warsaw warned of "special measures" in response to potential "provocations" during the upcoming joint exercises.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 09:15

Remembering 9-11: "That Feeling That We Were Really All One People"

Remembering 9-11: "That Feeling That We Were Really All One People"

Authored by Susan D. Harris via The Epoch Times,

Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Most folks who were adults at that time remember it like it was yesterday.

Many of us have also had years when we’ve felt like distancing ourselves from the anniversary commemorations. Even for those not directly impacted, memories of that day—and the days that followed—still bring back traces of a trauma we’d never felt before. A feeling of insecurity we’d never experienced. Perhaps actor Tony Danza summed it up best when he said “I don’t like revisiting how I felt.”

In some ways the trauma seems to deepen with time, as new layers of grief emerge–like memories of loved ones who shared those moments but are now gone.

This year I decided to crack open the door and look back, if only for a little while.

In doing so, I came across some videos I’d never seen before–interviews with celebrities of that time period discussing where they were on 9-11.

Ten years after the attacks, producer and director David P. Levin released his documentary “When Pop Culture Saved America: A 9-11 Story.” Originally produced for A&E Networks, it explored how entertainment, comedy, and music helped Americans cope and rebuild in the months that followed. Levin spoke with numerous celebrities for the documentary, later posting extended interviews on his “Pop Goes the Culture” YouTube channel.

Tony Danza told a riveting, highly emotional story about his role as host of the 75th Miss America Pageant, which was set to be held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Sept. 22—not long after the attack.

Pageant organizers had called him to let him know they were thinking of canceling the event. Danza, a Brooklyn native, argued passionately against it, saying, “You can’t let these guys disrupt our lives.” Ultimately, the contestants themselves voted that the show must go on, and officials asked Danza to write a speech befitting the circumstances.

As he wrote his monologue, heart heavy with grief and the added weight of having to inspire a nation, the tears flowed. Unable to come up with a proper conclusion, he reached an impasse.

Danza’s son, who had read a draft of his father’s speech, came to his assistance.

“When is the last time you said ‘The Pledge of Allegiance’?” he asked.

That was it. Danza realized that was the ending he needed.

On the night of the pageant, emotions were high and security was tight. Danza was so stressed he was afraid he’d mess up the Pledge of Allegiance. As he concluded his speech and began to recite the pledge, he became aware of strange noises.

“I began to hear a weird sound ... bang, bang bang, bang,” he said. Pausing, he tried to identify the noise. His mind whirled as he remembered the risks and beefed-up security. The “bangs” increased.

He finally realized the source of the noise:

“It was the people jumping to their feet to say the pledge with me! And they had just refurbished the convention center and those seats were popping back [up], ‘pop, pop pop, pop ...’ It was the wildest feeling of all time. ... Then I said, ‘Are you ready for Miss America?’ And they went nuts!”

Other compelling stories came from interviews with “Frasier” stars Jane Leeves (Daphne Moon) and Peri Gilpin (Roz Doyle).

Leeves, who had been at home in Los Angeles with her husband and 8-month-old baby when the planes hit the twin towers, said she went into survival mode.

“I thought, ‘I’d better go to the supermarket and stock up on stuff.’”

She said she remembered an eerie silence when she arrived at the store.

“It was so quiet,“ she said. ”I mean there were lots of people there; the music wasn’t playing; everybody was walking around sort of solemnly being very polite to each other. ... It was just an eerie feeling.”

Like the rest of us, Leeves said she was glued to her television.

“I don’t think I turned my television off that first few days because ... I was just wanted information. I just wanted to know we were safe, you know? I felt if I turned the TV off, I would miss something. I would miss, you know, some sort of warning.”

Peri Gilpin’s husband was in New York. She was sound asleep in Los Angeles when he called to tell her to turn on the TV, explaining that he was in lower Manhattan because the World Trade Center had been struck by an airplane. Not yet realizing the enormity of the situation, he and his friends–who included a newspaper photographer–were walking toward the site of the buildings to see what was going on. After the second plane struck, Gilpin lost contact with her husband for about an hour as he ran through the streets to escape the infamous thick cloud of dust and rubble. He finally got a call through to let her know he was OK.

Both Leeves and Gilpin became emotional when discussing the death of their colleague, who was a passenger on one of the hijacked airplanes. David Angell was a cocreator, executive producer, and writer for “Frasier.” A key figure in sitcom television history, he also cocreated “Wings” and wrote for and produced the iconic show “Cheers.” He had 37 Emmy nominations and 24 wins. David Angell and his wife, Lynn, died on American Airlines Flight 11, which hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center on that sunlit morning.

While it seems like it should get easier to attend commemorations and discuss the events of that day, for many of us it still holds disturbing nuances.

Tony Danza said: “What’s so hard about talking about this is that you never feel like you did it justice. You never feel like you were able to convey ... how you felt, and how you want people to understand how you felt. That’s why it’s so much easier to not [talk about it].”

He concluded that it was “[his] generation’s Kennedy assassination.”

Then, mixing philosophy with humor he added: “It’s too bad that ... we couldn’t keep a grasp of that incredible spirit that we had right afterwards. ... Unfortunately, in L.A., we made a big sacrifice ... we put flags on our cars and stopped giving each other the finger for a couple of days.

“But you know, we had that feeling that we were really all one people–that we were in it together. It was really something.”

Click here to see Pop Goes the Culture TV’s playlist “Remembering 9-11.” Highlights include interviews with Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Jackie Mason, Mookie Wilson and many more.

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

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 09:00

Remembering 9-11: "That Feeling That We Were Really All One People"

Remembering 9-11: "That Feeling That We Were Really All One People"

Authored by Susan D. Harris via The Epoch Times,

Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Most folks who were adults at that time remember it like it was yesterday.

Many of us have also had years when we’ve felt like distancing ourselves from the anniversary commemorations. Even for those not directly impacted, memories of that day—and the days that followed—still bring back traces of a trauma we’d never felt before. A feeling of insecurity we’d never experienced. Perhaps actor Tony Danza summed it up best when he said “I don’t like revisiting how I felt.”

In some ways the trauma seems to deepen with time, as new layers of grief emerge–like memories of loved ones who shared those moments but are now gone.

This year I decided to crack open the door and look back, if only for a little while.

In doing so, I came across some videos I’d never seen before–interviews with celebrities of that time period discussing where they were on 9-11.

Ten years after the attacks, producer and director David P. Levin released his documentary “When Pop Culture Saved America: A 9-11 Story.” Originally produced for A&E Networks, it explored how entertainment, comedy, and music helped Americans cope and rebuild in the months that followed. Levin spoke with numerous celebrities for the documentary, later posting extended interviews on his “Pop Goes the Culture” YouTube channel.

Tony Danza told a riveting, highly emotional story about his role as host of the 75th Miss America Pageant, which was set to be held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Sept. 22—not long after the attack.

Pageant organizers had called him to let him know they were thinking of canceling the event. Danza, a Brooklyn native, argued passionately against it, saying, “You can’t let these guys disrupt our lives.” Ultimately, the contestants themselves voted that the show must go on, and officials asked Danza to write a speech befitting the circumstances.

As he wrote his monologue, heart heavy with grief and the added weight of having to inspire a nation, the tears flowed. Unable to come up with a proper conclusion, he reached an impasse.

Danza’s son, who had read a draft of his father’s speech, came to his assistance.

“When is the last time you said ‘The Pledge of Allegiance’?” he asked.

That was it. Danza realized that was the ending he needed.

On the night of the pageant, emotions were high and security was tight. Danza was so stressed he was afraid he’d mess up the Pledge of Allegiance. As he concluded his speech and began to recite the pledge, he became aware of strange noises.

“I began to hear a weird sound ... bang, bang bang, bang,” he said. Pausing, he tried to identify the noise. His mind whirled as he remembered the risks and beefed-up security. The “bangs” increased.

He finally realized the source of the noise:

“It was the people jumping to their feet to say the pledge with me! And they had just refurbished the convention center and those seats were popping back [up], ‘pop, pop pop, pop ...’ It was the wildest feeling of all time. ... Then I said, ‘Are you ready for Miss America?’ And they went nuts!”

Other compelling stories came from interviews with “Frasier” stars Jane Leeves (Daphne Moon) and Peri Gilpin (Roz Doyle).

Leeves, who had been at home in Los Angeles with her husband and 8-month-old baby when the planes hit the twin towers, said she went into survival mode.

“I thought, ‘I’d better go to the supermarket and stock up on stuff.’”

She said she remembered an eerie silence when she arrived at the store.

“It was so quiet,“ she said. ”I mean there were lots of people there; the music wasn’t playing; everybody was walking around sort of solemnly being very polite to each other. ... It was just an eerie feeling.”

Like the rest of us, Leeves said she was glued to her television.

“I don’t think I turned my television off that first few days because ... I was just wanted information. I just wanted to know we were safe, you know? I felt if I turned the TV off, I would miss something. I would miss, you know, some sort of warning.”

Peri Gilpin’s husband was in New York. She was sound asleep in Los Angeles when he called to tell her to turn on the TV, explaining that he was in lower Manhattan because the World Trade Center had been struck by an airplane. Not yet realizing the enormity of the situation, he and his friends–who included a newspaper photographer–were walking toward the site of the buildings to see what was going on. After the second plane struck, Gilpin lost contact with her husband for about an hour as he ran through the streets to escape the infamous thick cloud of dust and rubble. He finally got a call through to let her know he was OK.

Both Leeves and Gilpin became emotional when discussing the death of their colleague, who was a passenger on one of the hijacked airplanes. David Angell was a cocreator, executive producer, and writer for “Frasier.” A key figure in sitcom television history, he also cocreated “Wings” and wrote for and produced the iconic show “Cheers.” He had 37 Emmy nominations and 24 wins. David Angell and his wife, Lynn, died on American Airlines Flight 11, which hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center on that sunlit morning.

While it seems like it should get easier to attend commemorations and discuss the events of that day, for many of us it still holds disturbing nuances.

Tony Danza said: “What’s so hard about talking about this is that you never feel like you did it justice. You never feel like you were able to convey ... how you felt, and how you want people to understand how you felt. That’s why it’s so much easier to not [talk about it].”

He concluded that it was “[his] generation’s Kennedy assassination.”

Then, mixing philosophy with humor he added: “It’s too bad that ... we couldn’t keep a grasp of that incredible spirit that we had right afterwards. ... Unfortunately, in L.A., we made a big sacrifice ... we put flags on our cars and stopped giving each other the finger for a couple of days.

“But you know, we had that feeling that we were really all one people–that we were in it together. It was really something.”

Click here to see Pop Goes the Culture TV’s playlist “Remembering 9-11.” Highlights include interviews with Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Jackie Mason, Mookie Wilson and many more.

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

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 09:00

Texas Sparks Unexpected Surge In Jobless Claims To Highest In 4 Years

Texas Sparks Unexpected Surge In Jobless Claims To Highest In 4 Years

Time's Up!

After four years of showing no signs of life, initial jobless claims surged higher last week with 263,000 American filing for jobless benefits for the first time - the most since Oct 2021...

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood, Texas massively dominated the surge in jobless claims last week (we are struggling to figure out why)...

The spike in Texas looks anomalous (still no details)...

Continuing claims remain above 1.9 million Americans - also the highest in four years...

Source: Bloomberg

Tiffany Wilding, an economist at Pimco, tells Bloomberg Television: 

“We are getting what we expected on inflation. The more concerning news from the data this morning is a jump in claims.

“It has been relatively contained, despite the labor market really slowing to a halt over the last year. and now the jump in claims today looks a little more concerning. We are moving out of a period of very little activity or very little hiring or firing to potentially some more separations. That is going to be super concerning, for the Federal Reserve.”

...get back to work Mr.Powell!

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 08:47

Texas Sparks Unexpected Surge In Jobless Claims To Highest In 4 Years

Texas Sparks Unexpected Surge In Jobless Claims To Highest In 4 Years

Time's Up!

After four years of showing no signs of life, initial jobless claims surged higher last week with 263,000 American filing for jobless benefits for the first time - the most since Oct 2021...

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood, Texas massively dominated the surge in jobless claims last week (we are struggling to figure out why)...

The spike in Texas looks anomalous (still no details)...

Continuing claims remain above 1.9 million Americans - also the highest in four years...

Source: Bloomberg

Tiffany Wilding, an economist at Pimco, tells Bloomberg Television: 

“We are getting what we expected on inflation. The more concerning news from the data this morning is a jump in claims.

“It has been relatively contained, despite the labor market really slowing to a halt over the last year. and now the jump in claims today looks a little more concerning. We are moving out of a period of very little activity or very little hiring or firing to potentially some more separations. That is going to be super concerning, for the Federal Reserve.”

...get back to work Mr.Powell!

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 08:47

US Consumer Prices Rise More Than Expected In August From Services Not Tariffs

US Consumer Prices Rise More Than Expected In August From Services Not Tariffs

Following yesterday's cooler-than-expected PPI (MoM deflation), expectations for this morning's Consumer Price Inflation were for the further acceleration.

Headline CPI rose 0.4% MoM (hotter than the 0.3% expected, lifting prices up 2.9% YoY - the highest since January...

Source: Bloomberg

CPI rose 0.4% in August, after rising 0.2% in July; over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.9% before seasonal adjustment.

  • The index for shelter rose 0.4% in August and was the largest factor in the all items monthly increase. The food index increased 0.5% over the month as the food at home index rose 0.6% and the food away from home index increased 0.3 percent. The index for energy rose 0.7% in August as the index for gasoline increased 1.9% over the month.

  • The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.3% in August, as it did in July. Indexes that increased over the month include airline fares, used cars and trucks, apparel, and new vehicles. The indexes for medical care, recreation, and communication were among the few major indexes that decreased in August.

  • The all items index rose 2.9% YoY in August, after rising 2.7% in July. The all items less food and energy index rose 3.1 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index increased 0.2 percent for the 12 months ending August. The food index increased 3.2 percent over the last year.

Core Services were the big driver of the increase, not driven by tariff pressures...

Source: Bloomberg

Core CPI rose 0.3% MoM as expected, lifting prices more than 3% YoY for the first time since February...

Source: Bloomberg

Core Services also dominated the rise in core CPI...

Source: Bloomberg

More details on the core CPI print which rose 0.3% in August, same as July:

  • The shelter index increased 0.4% over the month, and was the largest factor in the all items monthly increase

    • The index for owners’ equivalent rent rose 0.4 percent in August and the index for rent increased 0.3 percent.

      • August rent inflation up 0.34% MoM, highest since Dec 24; but up 3.49% YoY, lowest since Dec 2021

      • August shelter inflation up 0.39% MoM, highest since Jan 25; but up 3.63% YoY, lowest since Oct 2021

  • The lodging away from home index rose 2.3 percent over the month.

  • The index for airline fares increased 5.9 percent over the month, after rising 4.0 percent in July.

  • The used cars and trucks index rose 1.0 percent in August and the apparel index rose 0.5 percent.

  • The index for new vehicles rose 0.3 percent over the month and the index for household furnishings and operations increased 0.2 percent.

  • The recreation index and the communication index both declined 0.1 percent in August.

  • The medical care index decreased 0.2 percent over the month, following a 0.7-percent increase in July.

  • The index for dental services decreased 0.7 percent in August and the index for prescription drugs declined 0.2 percent.

  • The physicians’ services index increased 0.3 percent over the month, while the hospital services index was unchanged.

It looks like auto costs are starting to tick up again. New vehicles rose by 0.3% while used cars and trucks rose by 1.0%. But the real sting was in motor vehicle maintenance and repairs, which jumped by 2.4%. 

When we look at some import-exposed categories:

  • Household furnishings are up 0.1% on the month, the least since March, and appliances within that category are up 0.4%, the most since June. A sort of mixed reading there.

  • Apparel (clothing) is up 0.5%, the largest gain since February, so, an acceleration there.

  • Video and audio products are up 0.5%, which is the smallest rise since May.

At least looking at these categories, there’s no overall broad story of acceleration in inflation pressures. 

Interesting, SuperCore CPI slowed in August to 3.52% YoY...

Source: Bloomberg

Transportation Services were the biggest driver of the rise in SuperCore CPI...

Source: Bloomberg

Comparing CPI to PPI shows that there is no margin pressure on firms and could suggest price pressures being passed through to end users...

Source: Bloomberg

Together with August PPI, the CPI report suggests that the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the core PCE deflator (due out Sept. 26) will edge up to 3.0% for August year over year...

All of this is to say, while the overall inflation numbers are in line with what economists had expected, within the details there are pockets of price pressure. 

We highlighted auto repairs and airline tickets earlier, but take a look at fruit and vegetable costs: up 1.6% on the month. Motor fuel rose by 1.8%, while tobacco costs rose 1.0%, and food-at-home jumped 0.6% on the month, the biggest gain in almost three years. 

To be clear, the overall number won’t hold the Fed from cutting, but it’s clear there’s inflation pressure in some corners of the economy. 

...not enough to scare The Fed from its rate-cutting path.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/11/2025 - 08:42

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