Train Travel Trouble

Oven-heated sardines have nothing on the SNCF trains in France. [The Rude Awakening] August 17, 2023 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Train Travel Trouble - Between stacking my bags, and finding my seat, I was drenched with sweat. - The European Union is doing everything to discourage air travel so they’re tripling train capacity. - But are trains the answer to the climate change hysteria? [Tiny AI Stock Targeted For Buyout Deal?]( [A massive buyout alert has just been issued]( on a tiny AI company that could skyrocket in the coming months, weeks, even days. And according to James Altucher, a man who has made millions of dollars on these kinds of deals… This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to make a fortune. He’s revealing all of the details in the video below (including a leaked memo from Google). [Click here to learn more]( You can watch it by [clicking here](. [Click Here To Learn More]( [Sean Ring] SEAN RING Greetings from a very sweaty car 17, seat 83, on the train going from Barcelona to Paris! I’m writing this on Wednesday morning, though you won’t read it until Thursday morning. I love traveling by train; don’t get me wrong. But I must tell you it’s scorching hot. I’m soaked to the skin with sweat. [SJN] I just passed Perpignan as I finished writing this piece. I imagine, in an effort to save energy, the train operator leaves the air conditioning off until they absolutely have to turn it on when the train gets moving. That’s the Green New Scam for ya! Most Europeans don’t understand the American dream. After all, why would you want your own car when you can travel by train from city to city with someone else driving? And when I’m traveling from city to city, I absolutely get that, and do indeed take the train. But when cities are relatively far apart - let’s call that over five hours apart by train - air travel seems like a good option. Why on earth are the Europeans trying to kill air travel? [You’re Invited To A LIVE Zoom Call!]( [James Altucher]( What: An urgent Zoom call exclusively for readers of Jim Rickards. When: Friday, _______ at 10 AM Eastern. Where: Attend right from home via a virtual link. [>> Spots are limited. Click here to see how to reserve your seat.]( [Click Here To Learn More]( Ending Short Haul Flights The European Union has been making efforts to reduce short-haul flights to lower greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. The EU believes the transportation sector, particularly aviation, is a significant contributor to CO2 emissions. Short-haul flights are often seen as less efficient than other means of transportation, such as trains, particularly in regions with a well-developed rail network. By encouraging alternatives like rail travel, the EU aims to reduce the environmental impact of short journeys. This aligns with the broader goals of the European Green Deal, which seeks to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050. In some cases, incentives, regulations, or investments in infrastructure might be used to make these alternatives more attractive to travelers. From [Euronews]( France's ban on short-haul domestic flights comes into force today (23 May). Under a government decree, any journeys that are possible in less than two-and-a-half hours by train cannot be taken as a flight. France is also cracking down on the use of private jets for short journeys in a bid to make transport greener and fairer for the population. Transport minister Clément Beaune said the country could no longer tolerate the super rich using private planes while the public are making cutbacks to deal with the energy crisis and climate change. Which flights are now banned in France? The law will mostly rule out air trips between Paris Orly airport and regional hubs such as Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux. Critics have noted that the cutoff point is shy of the roughly three hours it takes to travel from Paris to the Mediterranean port city Marseille by high-speed rail. That is, the mega rich can still fly to their chalets on the Côte d’Azur. Nice. [Saint-Nazaire Cathedral, Beziers; Credit: Sean Ring] Saint-Nazaire Cathedral, Beziers; Credit: Sean Ring Tripling Europe’s Rail Network According to a July 9, 2023 [press release from Deutsche Bahn]( the "Metropolitan Network" initiative focuses on the specific expansion of rail lines for fast passenger trains across the continent and on the simulation of the resulting possible growth in transport volume on environmentally friendly rail. The starting point of the study is the European Commission's Green Deal. This intends to bring about a doubling in volume for European high-speed rail (HSR) by 2030 and a tripling by 2050, allowing it to make an important contribution to reducing carbon emissions in the transport sector. In the study, specialists analyzed what a Green Deal rail network would have to look like in order to achieve the EU's targets. According to the press release, these are the main findings: - The Metropolitan Network connects all 230 metropolitan regions (defined as urban agglomerations of more than 250,000 inhabitants) and large cities in Europe to the high-speed rail network with HSR service at least once an hour. - Around 60% of Europeans live in the metropolitan regions and would thus have direct access to high-speed rail, even in regions where there are no fast rail links at all today. - The key lies in the infrastructure: A total of 21,000 kilometers of track needs to be built and upgraded across Europe. Routes designed for high-speed rail service would be nearly tripled, from about 11,300 kilometers today (Eurostat 2019) to about 32,000 kilometers by 2050. It should be possible to reach speeds of 300 km/h on the new network. - For Germany, this means that if the network upgrade were to include the lines already under construction and planned, the high-speed infrastructure in this country would grow to cover 6,000 kilometers. Poland would also be a winner, increasing its network more than tenfold, by 2,760 kilometers from today's 224 kilometers. The key for the EU is that only 7% of passengers and 17% of goods in the EU travel by rail, [according to the European Investment Bank](. Build It and They Will Come? It seems to be that the European Union is adopting a “build it and they will come” strategy. But there’s no guarantee that they will come. Libertarians are fond of saying that the profits of capitalism pay for the follies of socialism. Is this Green New Deal the ultimate in socialistic folly? In a report funded by the Fondation BBVA titled [Economic Analysis of High Speed Rail in Europe]( the conclusion states: The analysis here suggests that whilst the wider economic effects of HSR [high speed rail] can be significant, they are not always obvious or predictable and can vary significantly between different HSR projects. My guess is that they’re guessing. Wrap Up In the meantime, I finally stopped sweating. I’m in the bar car, where all civilized travelers should grab a drink and enjoy the scenery. Is it smart to take a train from Barcelona to Paris? If you have time, money, and want to chew scenery? Sure. But if you’ve got to get stuff done in a hurry and cheaply, I’d fly. I can’t predict your preference this time or next time, and neither can governments with any consistency, I suspect. Have a great day! All the best, [Sean Ring] Sean Ring Editor, Rude Awakening Twitter: [@seaniechaos]( In Case You Missed It… The Censorship Industrial Complex [Sean Ring] SEAN RING Good morning from gay Paris! First, Happy Birthday to my father, philosopher-truck driver John Ring on his 81st birthday! Have a great one, Pop! One of my most excellent colleagues, who doesn’t get enough love from the Rude, is Dave Gonigam. I suppose it’s because his Paradigm Pressroom’s 5 Bullets doesn’t hit my inbox until 7:30 pm Italy time, right when I sit down and start to watch YouTube or Netflix. So I’ve become more cognizant around that time and made an effort to read the 5 Bullets more. And it’s been well worth my time. Dave writes all sorts of great stuff on the markets, politics, and other goings-on in a no-nonsense Midwestern way that his subscribers have come to expect… and love. So today, I give you Dave and one of his best pieces on what he rightfully calls “The Censorship Industrial Complex” and its consequences. Enjoy! All the best, [Sean Ring] Sean Ring Editor, Rude Awakening Twitter: [@seaniechaos]( [Shocking Backdoor Crypto Play — LIVE on Camera!]( Crypto millionaire James Altucher just received a strange box that could COMPLETELY change how you look at cryptos: [Click here to learn more]( [CLICK HERE to See What’s In the Box]( He opens it live on camera, and shares details on the strange device that’s delivered everyday Americans over $1,170 per month in passive crypto income. [Click here to discover it for yourself now](. [Click Here To Learn More]( [Dave Gonigam] DAVE GONIGAM Thanks to Sean for letting me take over the Rude today. Let’s begin by rewinding to last March… and the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. On the Sunday night that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury were hatching a make-it-up-as-we-go-along rescue plan… Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) tweeted the following. [Thomas Massie Tweet] We know who that senator is. And how he explained himself. If you’re worried about the state of free speech in these United States, it won’t make you feel any better. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves… Five years ago this week, professional loudmouth Alex Jones was simultaneously “de-platformed” by Facebook, YouTube, Apple, and Spotify on the theory he was engaged in “hate speech.” At the risk of appearing alarmist, I devoted an entire edition of my e-letter to the topic titled, “After Alex Jones, Are We Next?” As the independent journalist Michael Tracey observed in 2021, “If you were under any illusion back in 2018 that this would ever stop with Jones — a figure believed to be sufficiently repulsive that any punishment doled out to him would not have broader implications for the average internet user — well, it didn’t take long for proof of just how wrong you were.” By now, it’s become an annual tradition for me to revisit and update the matter in early August in my 5 Bullets e-letter. This year — as Massie’s tweet above suggests — the matter has become both urgent and dire. We know who that senator is. And how he explained himself. If you’re worried about the state of free speech in these United States, it won’t make you feel any better. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves… Five years ago this week, professional loudmouth Alex Jones was simultaneously “de-platformed” by Facebook, YouTube, Apple, and Spotify on the theory he was engaged in “hate speech.” At the risk of appearing alarmist, I devoted an entire edition of my e-letter to the topic titled, “After Alex Jones, Are We Next?” As the independent journalist Michael Tracey observed in 2021, “If you were under any illusion back in 2018 that this would ever stop with Jones — a figure believed to be sufficiently repulsive that any punishment doled out to him would not have broader implications for the average internet user — well, it didn’t take long for proof of just how wrong you were.” By now, it’s become an annual tradition for me to revisit and update the matter in early August in my 5 Bullets e-letter. This year — as Massie’s tweet above suggests — the matter has become both urgent and dire. A Short History of Internet Censorship The first 18 months of the censorship campaign were mainly confined to instances of “hate speech,” like Jones’ — speech that allegedly would inspire acts of violence against someone based on skin color, sexual orientation, etc. The Establishment had a standard response for anyone who raised an objection: These are private companies. They have every right to determine who gets to play in their sandbox. Bollocks. These private companies were acting under duress. Time after time, executives were raked over the proverbial coals at congressional hearings for their alleged failure to curb “hate speech” and “misinformation.” In 2018, we cited Reason writer Zach Weissmueller: “Washington sees in Silicon Valley a chance to control speech in a way never before possible under the First Amendment, and to roll back the clock to a pre-internet age of media gatekeepers. “The way to achieve this is by continually leveraging the threat of regulation.” Worked flawlessly: Haul a tech exec before Congress, give him the third degree for a day, and watch him fold like a lawn chair a few weeks or months later. Lather, rinse, repeat. And then came COVID. Weeks before lockdown came to America in March of 2020, “misinformation” about the virus [was already cause for suspension on Twitter](. By the summer of 2021, the White House freely acknowledged it was “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation” about the virus and the jabs. At least up to that point, the censors could justify all the suspensions and cancellations on the grounds of preventing harm against others (in the case of “hate speech”) or harm against oneself (with allegedly bogus COVID treatments). But by last summer, all pretense had been dropped: Social media censorship is simply about enforcing mainstream orthodoxy. Critics of U.S. aid to Ukraine found themselves vulnerable to suspension or cancellation. YouTube demonetized the channel of a Los Angeles-based Twitch streamer, Jackson Hinkle. Even an opinion about the state of the economy was subject to the censors’ scrutiny. Meta’s Instagram restricted access to a post by streamer Graham Allen suggesting a recession was underway based on one of the traditional definitions of a recession — two consecutive quarters of declining GDP. (The Biden administration was taking issue with that definition at the time.) The power elite’s endgame is obvious and harks back to Weissmueller’s remark above about “a pre-internet age of media gatekeepers.” The goal is a 21st-century version of the “good old days” when three national evening newscasts, taking their cue from that morning’s New York Times, set the boundaries for acceptable discourse. Slender boundaries they are, akin to the 40-yard lines on a football field. Anything to the left of Joe Biden or the right of Mitch McConnell is at risk of the ban hammer. Censorship for Financial Stability! Little wonder that by the time Silicon Valley Bank went under this spring, a U.S. senator was demanding social-media censorship on the theory it would prevent bank runs. The senator was Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) — the former astronaut and husband of gunshot victim-turned-gun-rights-opponent Gabrielle Giffords. Michael Shellenberger broke the story at his Substack site. During a Sunday-night conference call with about 200 participants, Kelly “asked representatives from the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit and Insurance Corporation (FDIC) if they had a way to censor information on social media to prevent a run on the banks.” According to Fox News, “Kelly's camp denied the claim Monday evening and said Sen. Kelly asked about foreign adversaries potentially trying to take advantage of the situation by spreading misinformation.” “Foreign adversaries” — that’s always the pretext. And then, as time passes, censorship is always turned against Americans. It started after Donald Trump won the 2016 election over Hillary Clinton. Democratic Party leaders blamed everyone but themselves for running a terrible candidate and a terrible campaign. In particular, they blamed “the Russians” — as if cheesy Facebook memes like this one changed anybody’s mind about who to vote for… [Like if you want jesus to win] Within a year of Trump’s victory, two of our editors ended up on blacklists smearing them as Russian stooges — blacklists propagated by “prestigious” think tanks and media organs like The Washington Post. (For the record, they were Jim Rickards and former colleague David Stockman.) So yeah — this issue is not hypothetical. It gets to the heart of what we do at Paradigm Press. Newsletters in the Crosshairs From the earliest days of our trade, financial newsletter editors have trafficked in ideas outside the mainstream. Nearly a century ago, Roger Babson warned the Roaring ‘20s were destined to end in tears. (They did.) A half-century ago, Harry Browne urged readers to forget the “Nifty Fifty” stocks and pile into precious metals after President Nixon killed off the last vestiges of the gold standard. (Good advice, then.) Just over a quarter-century ago, James Dale Davidson warned about The Plague of the Black Debt. (It still plagues us.) Across the decades up to the present day, newsletter editors give voice to a nagging feeling people have in the back of their minds — that reality isn’t the way the mainstream gatekeepers portray it. We daresay financial newsletters were the pioneers of “alternative media.” In my 5 Bullets and its predecessor e-letter, I brought my snarky spin to the newsletter art — lobbing spitballs at central bankers, politicians, and the allegedly best-and-brightest denizens of Wall Street. I called out former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for [perjury.]( I called out Warren Buffett for [outrageous acts of crony capitalism.]( I called House Speaker Paul Ryan a phony [years before it was fashionable.]( I called out JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for [all-around douchebaggery.]( I could do this for the longest time while flying under the radar. The newsletter biz was a niche thing with a limited audience. But then comes 2016 and 2017, and my colleagues show up on blacklists. Criticize the Federal Reserve or the big banks? Well, you’re “amplifying Russian talking points” and “sowing discord” among everyday Americans. At the time, I didn’t realize that these were the early acts of an emerging “censorship industrial complex” — encompassing government agencies, Big Tech, academia, and mushrooming nonprofits devoted to rooting out “disinformation.” Introducing the Censorship Industrial Complex Only in the last eight months has the stupefying extent of the censorship come out into the open — laying bare how the censorship industrial complex works. First came the “Twitter Files” last December — revealing internal communications at Twitter during the years before Elon Musk bought the company. Musk and his team shared the memos, emails, and chats with a half-dozen writers led by ex-Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi and the aforementioned Michael Shellenberger. (It’s Shellenberger who coined the term “censorship industrial complex.” The Twitter Files demonstrated a clear pattern of harassment and intimidation on the part of three-letter agencies — browbeating Twitter’s pre-Musk leadership to suppress speech that flew in the face of government-approved narratives. For instance: “Hi team, can we get your opinion on this? DHS flagged this.” Or “Please see attached report from the FBI for potential misinformation.” In short order, these “flags” and “reports” would lead to the suspension of people’s accounts. True, Twitter’s “woke” managers were frequently eager to cooperate — but many of the Twitter Files also show them frustrated with the feds’ demands they uncover evidence of, say, “a Russian op” when none existed. In addition to the Twitter Files, more damning documents emerged in the federal court case Missouri v. Biden. The case was brought by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana — joined by epidemiologists Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff. Perhaps you recognize their names as co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration of October 2020 — a statement challenging the politicized “science” behind COVID lockdowns, restrictions, and mandates. Both were subject to social-media bans. Likewise for another plaintiff, psychiatrist Aaron Kheriaty — author of The New Abnormal: The Rise of the Biomedical Security State. As Kheriaty wrote in June, “Documents we have reviewed on discovery demonstrate that government censorship was far more wide-ranging than previously known, from election integrity and the Hunter Biden laptop story to gender ideology, abortion, monetary policy, the U.S. banking system, the war in Ukraine, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and more. [Emphasis mine.] “There is hardly a topic of recent public discussion and debate that the U.S. government has not targeted for censorship.” And the censorship is as blatant as it gets. You can click on the following tweet for compelling documentary evidence… [Matt Taibbi]( Elsewhere in the Missouri v. Biden documents, we learn that during the first week of the Biden administration, the White House sent a “request” for Twitter to delete a tweet by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [Missouri v. Biden documents] Last month, a federal judge [issued a stay]( – ordering the Biden administration to stop badgering Big Tech to censor. But for the moment, that order has been overturned on appeal as the case moves closer to trial. The Real Issue: Who Decides the Truth? The nature of the stakes came into focus only last month when RFK Jr. testified to Congress. The proceedings before the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government were surreal — especially the conduct of the committee’s Democrats. Our former colleague Jeffrey Tucker, now running the Brownstone Institute, watched it all. “They tried to shut down RFK. They moved to an executive session so the public could not hear the proceedings. The effort failed. Then they shouted over his words when they were questioning him. “They wildly smeared him and defamed him. They even began with an attempt to block him from speaking at all, and eight Democrats voted to support that… “The protests against his statements were shrill and shocking. They moved quickly from ‘Censorship didn’t happen’ to ‘It was necessary and wonderful’ to ‘We need more of it.’ “Reporting on the spectacle, The New York Times said these are ‘thorny questions’: ‘Is misinformation protected by the First Amendment? When is it appropriate for the federal government to seek to tamp down the spread of falsehoods?’ “These are not thorny questions. The real issue concerns who is to be the arbiter of truth?” declares Mr. Tucker. Exactly. Those are the stakes. As Matt Taibbi wrote two weeks ago, “The authors of the Constitution understood that giving anyone the authority to decide questions of fact would create incentives for censorship, especially since government offices tend to be occupied by people with strong political beliefs.” And as Current Affairs editor Nathan Robinson tweeted, “Restrictions on ‘misinformation’ are bad because they inevitably empower a fallible authority who cannot be trusted to distinguish truth from falsehood. Restricting it doesn’t cause lies to vanish. It just gives one person or entity a power nobody should have.” Finally, Libertarian Institute executive editor Sheldon Richman: “Let’s remember that much of the challenge to the government’s take on the pandemic and other matters — criticism belittled as ‘tin-foil’ conspiracy-mongering — turned out to be true. “Contrary to the government’s position, searching for the truth requires the freedom to disagree and debate openly. That search abhors centralization, coercion, and the exclusion of anyone but the politically anointed ‘experts.’” Beyond Censorship: Financial Cancellation Worse, behind the censorship, is the ever-looming threat of “financial cancellation.” As Taibbi testified to Congress last spring, “Ordinary Americans are not just being reported to Twitter for ‘de-amplification’ or de-platforming, but to firms like PayPal, digital advertisers like Xandr, and crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. These companies can and do refuse service to law-abiding people and businesses whose only crime is falling afoul of a distant, faceless, unaccountable, algorithmic judge.” One of PayPal’s founding executives, David Sacks, saw the slippery slope in 2021: “As with the censorship of speech, financial de-platforming often begins as something that seems narrow and reasonable — who wouldn’t want to ban the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys? But once the power is granted, it metastasizes into widespread use.” Yep. Last year, PayPal and Venmo canceled the accounts of the aforementioned Jackson Hinkle, the Twitch streamer who refused to toe the Washington line on the Ukraine war. PayPal delivered the same treatment to the venerable alt-news website Consortium News, evidently for the same reason. Of course, the ultimate example of financial cancellation was the Canadian truckers in February 2022 — locked out of their bank accounts for protesting vaccine mandates. In 2023, the closing of British pundit Nigel Farage’s bank accounts [backfired badly]( – but stateside, JPMorgan Chase canceled[several accounts]( linked to Dr. Joseph Mercola, the alternative health guru. Free Speech Today, a Felony Offense Tomorrow The more significant threat now is that all manner of speech, once considered protected by the First Amendment,might soon open you up to criminal prosecution. One of the disturbing documents that’s shown up in Missouri v. Biden is a memo from a Department of Homeland Security advisory committee — recommending DHS draw up steps to halt the “spread of false and misleading information” — especially anything that undermines “key democratic institutions, such as the courts, or by other sectors such as the financial system, or public health measures.” [Emphasis mine.] Yeah, there’s “the financial system” again. Now… couple that document with the new federal indictment filed against Donald Trump last week. On the first page of the indictment, you find peculiar language about how Trump aimed to “create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger and erode public faith in the administration of the election.” Matt Taibbi again: “Instead of focusing on overt acts in the individual states, episodes which clearly make even some Trump supporters nervous, the prosecutors are after bigger game. They want to argue that by spreading ‘lies’ Trump created an ‘atmosphere of mistrust and anger’ that, by the end, they will argue led to the ‘violent’ ‘attack’ on the Capitol.” You don’t have to believe Trump won the 2020 election — I don’t — to appreciate the gravity of the threat here. If Special Counsel Jack Smith can make these charges stick, ponder the legal precedent. For now, talking smack about the Federal Reserve’s incompetence or JPMorgan Chase’s serial felonies is still free speech. But an ambitious prosecutor of the future might decide it undermines confidence in “monetary policy” or “the U.S. banking system” or “the financial system” — resulting in, well, a bank run. Yeah, I know; that feels like a stretch at the moment. But five years ago, did you ever imagine Alex Jones’ de-platforming would bring us to where we are now? Best regards, [Dave Gonigam] Dave Gonigam For theRude Awakening [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( © 2023 Paradigm Press, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your Rude Awakening e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from Rude Awakening, feel free to [click here.]( Please note: the mailbox associated with this email address is not monitored, so do not reply to this message. We welcome comments or suggestions at feedback@rudeawakening.info. This address is for feedback only. 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