🇺🇸 Biden's migrant crisis to cost US taxpayers $451 BILLION a year, claims staggering report

The report, compiled by the Republican party on Monday, suggests nearly half a trillion dollars is being funnelled into paying for the crisis, including for healthcare and accommodation.

Hinting at Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s failure to stop migrants at the southern border, the report accuses the 63-year-old of accelerating illegal immigration.

“Every day, millions of American taxpayer dollars are spent on costs directly associated with illegal immigration and the unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border sparked by … Mayorkas' policies,” says the report.

“Mass illegal immigration, accelerated by Mayorkas' open-borders policies, now represents a massive cost to the federal government and state governments alike, as well as the pocketbooks of private citizens and businesses.”

US border agents have made more than 5 million arrests since Biden took office in 2021.

According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the Lone Star state has bused over 63,800 migrants to so-called sanctuary cities across the country.

🔗 https://www.gbnews.com/news/us/joe-biden-migrant-crisis-cost

🇺🇸 Greening the Void: Climate Change and Political Legitimacy

Out of all the contemporary social and political movements extant in the West today, the sprawling “green” movement ranks as one of the most—if not the most—influential.

As an ideology and a cultural zeitgeist, the green movement holds great sway among a large segment of the college-educated “knowledge workers” of Western economies. (Noticeably lower enthusiasm for green causes among working-class constituencies reflects wider cleavages between educated and affluent urban-dwellers and the various left-behind hinterlands.)

Embracing green ideas is now seen as a basic requirement for membership in many public institutions.

Accordingly, the green movement today drives—or at least seems to drive—significant economic and political decisions, particularly those relating to Western energy policy. Most notable in the United States is the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—which the EPA describes as “the most significant climate legislation in US history.” The IRA allocates nearly $400 billion in total spending, of which over $300 billion goes to energy, environment, and electric vehicles, according to McKinsey.

For every $1 that goes to “normal” manufacturing, $6 goes to green sectors. Seen in this light, the IRA could be considered a watered-down version of the Green New Deal that has been discussed by the left wing of the Democratic Party for many years.

📝Phillip Pilkington: Looks like Biden’s IRA scam isn’t delivering what it promised. It was obvious from the start that this was an insider giveaway rather than a serious industrial policy.

🔗 https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2023/11/greening-the-void-climate-change-and-political-legitimacy/

🇱🇾 Is Libya on the brink of a new civil war?

With two rival governments at either end of the country, ongoing political ruptures and now, fresh military mobilization, there are fears Libya could be heading toward more violence and fighting.

In a statement, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya said it was monitoring "with concern the recent mobilization of forces in various parts of Libya."

The organization, known as UNSMIL, urged "all parties to exercise maximum restraint and avoid any provocative military actions that could be perceived as offensive."

On Thursday, the Delegation of the European Union to Libya expressed similar concerns. 

"The use of force would harm stability in Libya and lead to human suffering. It should be avoided at all cost," it said in a statement. 

Longtime Libya watchers were more direct, suggesting that, after around four years of relative calm in the country, civil war might be about to break out once again.

The warnings came in response to last week's large mobilization of militias affiliated with one of Libya's two rival administrations.

Since 2014, Libya has been split in two, with opposing governments located in the east and west of the country. A UN-backed administration known as the Government of National Unity, or GNU, is based in Tripoli in the west, and its rival, known as the House of Representatives, is based in the east, in Tobruk.

At various times over the last decade, each government has tried — and failed — to wrest control from the other.

The government in eastern Libya is supported by former warlord-turned-politician Khalifa Haftar, who controls various armed groups in his area. It was Haftar's forces that appeared to be moving toward Tripoli late last week. In 2019, Haftar attacked the city but was eventually forced to sign a cease-fire in 2020.

🔗 https://www.dw.com/en/is-libya-on-the-brink-of-a-new-civil-war/a-69963648

🏛️ The joke goes that universities are a hedge fund, sports franchise, and scientific research institution rolled into one, and somehow this is supposed to give teenagers job training.

But this model makes sense for maintaining a dynamic, healthy elite. It's just broken now.

No serious discussion about universities can begin without acknowledging their original and unique mission which they have retained for a thousand years to the present day:

The purpose of a university is and has always been to pass down knowledge to a society's young elites.

You want your young elites to be knowledgeable, well-rounded, and physically healthy.

Even the 19th century innovation of attaching full-time scientific research to the university makes sense. Of course you want your young elites to have access to the cutting edge of science!

The university model is far from senseless; implementation has just failed and become dysfunctional in the absence of reforms.

We can go through all the things a university should be doing and isn't today, one by one, and then it's no surprise the system isn't working.

For one, the conceit that the humanities are less real or useful than the natural sciences is one that only lives on because universities have been failing to teach students the real humanities:

The art of benevolently exercising power over society through thought and speech.

Harvard graduates still become powerful in society today. But not because Harvard taught them to be wise self-made geniuses, but because it taught them how to be rule-following, authority-appealing managers.

Maybe the biggest failure of universities is explaining to their students that they are an elite at all.

Instead they try to LARP being oppressed victims of society, a situation that can quickly become comical.

Universities are meant to produce elites with knowledge of both society and nature, with the conscience to use this power for the good of all.

Instead they now produce knowledge-less functionaries skilled at following rules. But not even at interpreting or manipulating them!

🔗 https://fxtwitter.com/palladiummag/status/1824045567099404538

🇩🇪☢️ Germany blew up the cooling towers of the Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant today.

It was in operation between 1981-2015.

After Fukushima, Angela Merkel took the decision to close down all Germany’s nuclear power plants by 2022.

Today, none are left

@CIG_telegram

🇨🇳🏭 With the easing of infrastructural investment in China, what to do with this much steel capacity?

If only there’s an event that we could conduct to better utilize all that capacity…

War is the easiest way to spend yourself out of a slump.

🔗 ZhaoDaShuai

🇺🇸🇨🇦 Illegal crossings from Canada to United States reach record levels

Across more than 290 miles of international border with Canada, U.S. authorities say illegal crossings are happening at an unprecedented level.

Some residents in Derby agree that the situation in their backyard is getting out of hand.

“It’s getting worse by the year,” said Alain De La Breure, who has lived in Derby for four years and whose property sits right on the Canadian border.

At all hours of the day, he sees people crossing through his backyard to get into the U.S. Video from De La Bruere’s home surveillance camera shows four people crossing through his backyard in the middle of the night, loading into a truck outside his home, and speeding away. One of many instances he’s experienced. “The border people told me not to interfere because they may have weapons. They want to get through, they’re going to have nobody stopping them,” he said.

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows a sharp rise in the number of encounters in recent years. Between October and June, there have been 12,860 encounters in the Swanton Sector alone. Apprehensions are higher than all those recorded in the area in the past 13 years combined. While July’s data is not out yet, officials say the total is much higher.

“I can say that we are currently over 15,000 thousand apprehensions for that period of time. That is something we’ve never seen before,” said USCBP’s Joshua Cozzens. He says while illegal entry is a crime itself, there are other concerns including drugs, guns, and human smuggling. Although they’ve added extra patrols along the Swanton Sector, he says nothing seems to be slowing the problem down.

🔗 https://www.wcax.com/2024/08/14/illegal-crossings-canada-united-states-reach-record-levels/

🇺🇸🇮🇷 U.S. naval assets in the Middle East — new map

• ~30% of U.S. Navy fleet en route or in theater
• Guided-missile sub USS Georgia left Crete
• ABE CSG days away

Iranian attack against Israel delayed to allow time for a ceasefire deal & will take place at a later date (NYT)

U.S. force posture today in the Middle East is similar to the surge following the October 2023 attack:

Tehran appears to be allowing mediators time to pursue cease-fire talks: NYT

• By Friday, Israeli intelligence had assessed that Hezbollah and Iran had lowered the level of alertness in their rocket and missile units, according to five Israeli officials.

• Israel now believes the Iranian-led response — already apparently delayed several times — will take place at a later date.

• The officials have cautioned that their assessments are rapidly changing given the fluidity of events. Intelligence has been sparse and changes frequently, and Iran and Hezbollah are known to be constantly assessing the situation.

Supercarrier USS Abraham Lincoln steaming toward the Middle East from the Indo-Pacific, transited the Strait of Malacca & entered the Indian Ocean today, 16 August.

The Wasp ARG is still ripping donuts in the eastern Med, most recently operating northwest of Cyprus.

USS Georgia (SSGN 729) departed Crete, Greece, on/around 15 August.

Ceasefire updates from a senior U.S. official in Doha today on background:

- Put down a final bridging proposal on every issue
- Most constructive 48 hours in many months
- Package is basically there & now in the end game
- Aim to close out this process next week once & for all

U.S. warns of “cataclysmic consequences” should Iran attack Israel.

🧵 Ian Ellis

🇱🇧⚡️📉❗️ — Lebanon Electricity Authority to Sky News Arabia: Electricity supply has been completely stopped throughout all Lebanese territories, including basic facilities

https://fxtwitter.com/SkyNewsArabia_B/status/1824808040802968018

🇱🇧⚡️📉❗️ — Electricité du Liban: Power cut to basic facilities, including the airport and port

https://fxtwitter.com/AlArabiya_Brk/status/1824815739917783130

🇹🇷🤝🇱🇾 Turkey's March 2024 MoU with the GNU, extending Ankara's former MoUs, has been submitted by Erdogan for parliamentary approval.

Its provisions grant Turkish forces sweeping privileges in Libya - reinforcing perception of their presence as occupation.

🔗 https://nordicmonitor.com/2024/08/turkey-libya-agreement-grants-turkish-forces-expansive-operational-freedoms-and-legal-immunity/