The Charleroi Area School District superintendent notified parents on Monday morning about a teen recovering from TB who returned to class without clearance from doctors.

“I am writing to provide an update regarding a recent health matter involving one of our high school students. The student, who attended school today, was diagnosed with tuberculosis a couple of weeks ago. Upon learning that the student had returned without a doctor’s clearance to return to school, we immediately isolated the student and sent them home,” Superintendent Dr. Edward Zelich wrote in the letter.

Zelich continued, “Please know that we are closely monitoring the situation and will continue to work with the appropriate health authorities to ensure our students’ and staff’s safety and well-being.”

A little more than two weeks ago, Zelich called social media posts mentioning “supposed tuberculosis outbreak” fake news: “We are aware of recent social media posts circulating inaccurate information regarding a supposed tuberculosis (TB) outbreak.” 

Think tank America 2100’s Nate Hochman pointed out on X, “Charleroi is a small town in Pennsylvania. In the past few years, it’s been flooded with thousands of Haitian immigrants. The school system has seen an 1,800% increase in non-English speaking students. Now, a student just tested positive for tuberculosis.” 

Charleroi is a small town in Pennsylvania.

In the past few years, it's been flooded with thousands of Haitian immigrants.

The school system has seen an 1,800% increase in non-English speaking students.

Now, a student just tested positive for tuberculosis. pic.twitter.com/rwwdZpNdzO

— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) January 13, 2025

“Who would have thought Tuberculosis at Charleroi High School,” one X user said.

Who would have thought

Tuberculosis at Charleroi High School https://t.co/CikdnImLPy

— Morgan Rhinegelt (@rhinegelt) January 13, 2025

No comment….

That's the one!!!

— Morgan Rhinegelt (@rhinegelt) January 13, 2025

In a matter of weeks, the Charleroi Area School District shifted from calling social media posts about a potential TD outbreak as “fake news” to now acknowledging at least one student has caught the highly contagious bacterial disease that usually affects the lungs.

Was there a cover-up?

Residents are furious (via Facebook group “Charleroi Ramblings”):

The second question: Is there an active tuberculosis outbreak in the town that has been swamped with migrants from third worlds? 

The Overton Window is a concept in political science and sociology that refers to the range of policies or ideas considered acceptable in public discourse at a given time. Like most things in life, I learned about it rather late.

“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory, the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name,” Trump said at Mar-a-Lago, prying the window open so wide that nearly anything seems possible, plausible, probable.

Say such things enough times, amplify the words using our AI-enabled social media machines, and presto, nothing’s shocking. But not only that, AI will soon converge with quantum computing.

“The Willow processor performed a computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. It lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that we live in a multiverse,” wrote Google, presenting its latest breakthrough, cracking our perception of reality.

As the window widens fully, not only is nothing impossible, but almost anything can seem reasonable. The right and left tails of every distribution lengthen and fatten. And we are left unanchored, adrift, in an endless sea of wild possibility, volatility.

“I’m going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration, because I think it’s ridiculous that they’re not telling you about what’s going on with the drones,” pledged the President-Elect.

Windows

John Overton posited that ideas travel through stages, moving from being seen as extreme or unthinkable to becoming widely accepted and adopted as policy. Democracy was once considered unthinkable. Universal suffrage too. Emancipation. Most things that matter have traveled this path. Here are Overton’s six stages:

• Unthinkable – outside of acceptable thought.
• Radical – at the edge of discussion.
• Acceptable – starting to gain traction.
• Sensible – reasonable and widely discussed.
• Popular – widely supported.
• Policy – acted upon and implemented.

Overton introduced this framework to describe how the feasibility of a policy idea depends not on its inherent merits but on whether it falls within the range of public acceptance. He argued that public policy is constrained by this “window” of acceptable ideas and politicians tend to stay within the window to maintain public support. But what was yesterday’s unthinkable can become tomorrow’s policy as the window widens, shifts left, or right. And what moves the window is naturally tied into one of life’s great mysteries, the superorganism we call humanity.

Overton’s framework helps us make sense of society, markets too, risks, opportunities. I try to look at emerging investment themes through this lens. With each move of the window, power structures shift, capital flows adjust, new winners emerge, incumbents struggle or fail. The nimble survive, thrive. With such stakes, those with influence are desperate to guide the process. Politicians, propagandists, business leaders, religious leaders, union bosses, authors, artists, athletes, advocacy groups, lobbyists, social media influencers, and now AI.

There was a time, not so long ago when it was radical or even unthinkable to call network news fake. No longer. And now we openly joke about Canada becoming our 51st state. Where that leads is anyone’s guess, but the window has widened. Greenland’s Prime Minister announced today that he’s ready to speak with Trump. I started trading in 1989 and never in that time has the Overton Window shifted this rapidly across so many dimensions. There’s no precedent for it in modern history. And this dynamic is becoming a new market fundamental.

But it’s not just Trump. Javier Millei has thrown open an anti-statist libertarian window that had been nailed shut for as long as I’ve been alive. Argentina had the best performing stock market in the world last year. This is breathtaking change. And in roughly two short years, we went from the FTX apocalypse to serious talk of strategic sovereign Bitcoin reserves.

That window is wide open. Intertwined with both Milei and Bitcoin is radical talk of sovereign insolvency throughout the western world. Before it’s over, make no mistake, we’ll be talking about massive entitlement cuts. But for today, that idea is stuck in the unthinkable stage.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: "The small 4,000 person town of Charleroi, Pennsylvania has experienced a 2,000% increase in the population of Haitian migrants under Kamala Harris — the schools are scrambling to hire translators for the influx of students who don’t speak English, costing local… pic.twitter.com/jvlP19ANL0

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 12, 2024

Local media outlet Pennsylvania Record reports the lawyer of Andrew Armbruster, a resident of Charleroi, filed Pennsylvania’s new anti-SLAPP law, a measure that gives defendants, in some instances, the opportunity to evade litigation. This is regarding a defamation lawsuit filed against Armbruster by the Charleroi business Fourth Street Foods

“SLAPP stands for strategic lawsuits against public participation, and anti-SLAPP laws give defendants a First Amendment argument,” Pennsylvania Record’s John O’Brien wrote.

The motion stated that Fourth Street Foods owner David Barbe filed the lawsuit against Armbruster primarily to suppress protected public expression.

“Armbruster’s rights to speak to public issues, community members, and prevailing wages without ever being accused of mentioning ‘Dave Barbe’ are an incredible encroachment on everyone in Charleroi’s right to free expression on public matters,” the motion said.

The motion continued, “Not only are they chilled from speaking about Mr. Barbe, by this lawsuit they are chilled from mentioning the hiring practices of a local employer.”

Readers might recall in September. We had the first boots on the ground in the small town outside Pittsburgh – down the street from Nemacolin, investigating staffing companies that were feeding Haitians like cattle into local factories.

• Watch: Resident Of PA Manufacturing Town Exposes Reality Of Haitian ‘Great Job Replacement’

Wow.

Charleroi, PA resident who worked for an agency which was importing migrants for cheap labor says “they didn't want no Americans, cuz they would have had to pay more."

There’s some deep corruption going on in Charleroi. This should be a bigger story. pic.twitter.com/W38Cw2FcpT

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 20, 2024

Libs of TikTok covered our on-the-ground reporting.

Incredible footage revealing an operation in Charleroi, PA where Haitians are being bussed to and from food factories operated by Fourth Street Foods.

It’s estimated that 90% of workers are now made up of Haitians.

Kamala imported 2,000 Haitians into this town of 4,000 people… pic.twitter.com/6KrjecNdmh

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 17, 2024

And this.

This is a bombshell report on Charleroi, PA from @realchrisrufo.

We went to Charleroi last month. The town has a population of 4,000. But it's been overwhelmed by thousands of Haitian immigrants.

Our documentary drops on Thursday. Watch the trailer here:https://t.co/YVCwHyeJBS pic.twitter.com/3QIXNFIksp

— America 2100 (@America_2100) October 8, 2024

Pennsylvania Record noted, “After Barbe sued Armbruster, Armbruster reiterated his claims in the Charleroi Rambler and said he was organizing a class action lawsuit on behalf of the citizens and workers of the town.”

Armbruster posted on Facebook:

I have taken it upon myself to say enough and to fight back.  I am organizing a Class Action Lawsuit against Fourth Street Foods and its ownership on behalf of the citizens and workers of Charleroi.  I wrote a draft of the lawsuit and printed petitions for residents to register as claimants.  I have collected several hundred participants in a few short days, and the reception to the lawsuit has been exceedingly positive. My goal is to make Americans aware that we don’t have to accept being Displaced & Replaced by the open border policy of the current federal administration.  We can and will FIGHT BACK! DM me for additional details or to join the Class Action Lawsuit.

Charleroi residents are furious…

This trucker is from Charleroi, a small PA town flooded with Haitians by Kamala

His message at the Trump rally: pic.twitter.com/aXe8TwvPeB

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 23, 2024

Armbruster’s planned class-action lawsuit could be one of the first instances in which small towns across America fight back in the court system against those responsible for globalist open-border policies that flooded their towns with migrants and led to the ‘Great Job Replacement‘ of blue-collar workers.

How is this not the biggest political talking point right now: since October 2019, native-born US workers have lost 1.4 million jobs; over the same period foreign-born workers have gained 3 million jobs. pic.twitter.com/Z5HVWmQ24C

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 15, 2024

For the politicians and companies that still can’t read the room after the presidential election: “America First.” Let’s remind you that a majority of Americans gave Trump a mandate to prioritize taxpaying citizens first—not third-world migrants.

“The facts here compellingly established fiduciary misconduct in the form of conflicts of interest and the failure to loyally act solely in the Plan’s best financial interests,” wrote US District Judge Reed O’Connor in a ruling that followed a four-day bench trial in June 2024. That duty of loyalty is imposed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

The ruling is certain to set off alarms in general counsel offices and boardrooms across America. For starters, 401(k) plans at 60% of Fortune 100 employers contain BlackRock investments, and BlackRock manages a huge chunk of the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan. Of course, BlackRock isn’t the only asset manager whose ESG problem could become an employer’s problem.

Notably, the American Airlines plan didn’t offer any explicitly-ESG investment options. The issue was BlackRock’s intrinsically ESG-oriented management of all its funds. “This is not about ESG funds at all,” Josh Lichtenstein of law firm Ropes & Gray told the Financial Times. “This, to me, looks like the same claim could be brought against literally any 401k plan in America.”

With former pilot Bryan Spence as lead plaintiff of upwards of 100,000 participants, the class action suit accused American Airlines and its employee benefits committee of choosing investment managers that “pursue leftist political agendas” — sacrificing investment returns in favor of woke environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals like promoting workplace diversity or decreasing the use of fossil fuels.

While BlackRock wasn’t a defendant, the $11.5 trillion behemoth was nonetheless front and center in the case. To make the case that BlackRock’s priorities were warped, O’Connor quoted liberally from CEO Larry Fink himself, including his 2018 threat that companies must “contribute to society . . . or risk losing the support of the world’s largest asset manager.”

“BlackRock’s ESG influence is evident throughout administration of the Plan,” wrote O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, who credited claims that ESG takes a steep toll on returns: “By focusing on non-pecuniary interests, ESG investments often underperform traditional investments by approximately 10%.”

Given its enormous size, BlackRock also has the power to reduce the profitability of the companies it holds shares in — by voting its shares in ways that are detrimental to the bottom line. Among several examples, the plaintiffs pointed to Blackrock’s infamous 2021 ExxonMobil proxy vote — in which the firm helped secure two board seats for activist investor “Engine No. 1,” with the goal of pressuring the fossil fuel company to reduce its emphasis on fossil fuels and to commit to fighting “climate change.” At the time, BlackRock was ExxonMobil’s second-largest shareholder.

Characterizing American’s relationship with BlackRock as “incestuous,” O’Connor noted that BlackRock is simultaneously the largest investment manager of American’s 401(k) plan, one of American’s largest shareholders, and financier of $400 million of the company’s debt: “It is no wonder Defendants repeatedly attempted to signal alignment with BlackRock.” Further making the case that American’s disloyalty to its employees may have been driven by BlackRock’s “outsized influence,” he wrote, “As a large company [that] consumes copious amount of fossil fuels, American was potentially susceptible to a proxy fight of its own by failing to comply with BlackRock’s climate-related demands.”

Here are a few more notable quotes from O’Connor’s 70-page ruling:

• “A pursuit of non-pecuniary interests, in whole or in part, was an end itself rather than as a means to some financial end…The evidence made clear that BlackRock wanted to play its part in combating perceived social ills by bolstering DEI and climate change initiatives.”
• “The belief that ESG considerations confer a license to ignore pecuniary benefits is mistaken. ERISA does not permit a fiduciary to pursue a non-pecuniary interest no matter how noble it might view the aim.”
• Despite widespread coverage of the ESG controversy, “Defendants utterly failed to loyally investigate BlackRock’s ESG investment activities.”
• “Plaintiff proved by a preponderance of the evidence that American disloyally acted with an intent to benefit a party other than Plan participants and in a manner that was not wholly focused on the best financial benefit to the Plan.”

A ruling on damages or another form of relief will come later. Though he ruled that American breached its duty of loyalty to plan participants, O’Connor concluded American did not breach the duty of prudence — because prudence is judged by prevailing industry standards, and the asset management industry is, for now, regrettably dominated by ESG-minded firms.

In December, O’Connor fired a shot at a different strain of wokeness. He tossed out a plea deal between the Justice Department and Boeing — because the Biden administration included a requirement that diversity should be a consideration in selecting a compliance monitor. “In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency,” wrote O’Connor, whose court is in Fort Worth.

As evidenced by recent ZeroHedge headlines, the welcome ruling against ESG’s malign influence on workers’ wealth-building is just the latest in a string of victories over woke ideology in general:

• Meta Nukes DEI Program; “Morale For Queer Staff In Shitter”; Zuckerberg Joins Joe Rogan Podcast
• Another DEI-mino Falls: McDonald’s Latest To Bail On Diversity Goals
• ‘Fact-Checkers Too Politically-Biased’ – Zuckerberg Abandons Facebook Censorship For X-Like Community Notes
• Walmart Nukes DEI As Anti-Woke Crusader Robby Starbuck Sends “Shockwaves Across Corporate America”
• Celebrating The Death Of Woke And The Resurrection Of Common Sense

According to the WSJ, Eric Trump has been negotiating the purchase of the lease, though the talks are still in early stages and may not lead to a sale, said people familiar with the matter.

The hotel is currently a Hilton-owned Waldorf Astoria that operates out of the Old Post Office building – which is owned by the federal government, but was leased to the Trumps in 2016 when they opened the hotel. The family sold the lease rights in 2022 for $375 million to CGI Merchant Group, which invested additional money in the property. After they defaulted on debt related to the purchase in 2023, lender BDT & MSD Partners foreclosed on it and took control. Since then, they’ve been operating the property, which has some of the highest revenue per available room of any hotel in the city.

According to the report, the Trumps are looking for a hotel in the capital as Trump prepares his return to the Oval Office. Reacquiring the rights could cost over $300 million, according to people familiar with the hotel’s operations and revenue.

If successful, the Trumps might be able to negotiate a new deal and resume operation of the property.

Democrats seized and pounced during Trump’s first term, alleging that his financial stake in the hotel violated the ‘Foreign Emoluments Clause,’ which prohibits a president from receiving things of value from foreign or state governments. Critics claimed that foreign nationals spent lavishly on Trump hotel suites, the restaurant, and on room service. The Trump Organization hit back, saying it doesn’t market the hotel to foreign dignitaries, and that it wrote a check to the US Treasury Department for monies received from foreign government guests.

Maryland and DC attorneys general filed lawsuits claiming violations of the emoluments clause, however they were dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2021, shortly after President Biden took office.

So of course – if the Trump Organization is able to buy back the rights to the hotel, those same conflict-of-interest issues are likely to resurface.

The Trump Organization paused or pulled back from many of its business ventures during his presidency, though it has revived its global expansion in recent years. The company is building a second golf course in Scotland and has branding deals with residential projects in India and resort developments in Indonesia.

Trump agreed to manage and brand a golf and resort project in Oman, teaming up with Dar Al Arkan, a Saudi real-estate firm. The firm also has resorts, condominiums and other ventures in more than 10 countries. -WSJ

The Trump Organization interest in the DC hotel goes back to 2012, when they won a heated bidding contest for a long-term lease, with extensions running close to 100 years. The family beat out other real-estate investors and hotel companies, including Hilton and Marriott, for the right to run the property.

During the 1st Trump presidency, the hotel became ‘something of a Republican clubhouse,’ according to the report, which notes that fans, lobbyists, lawmakers and others flocked to the hotel to hang out.

The hotel boasts some of the largest guest rooms in the capital, some of which have 18-foot high ceilings. A Saturday stay at a suite starts at $1,395 per night according to the Hilton website.

The brief order – which ensures Trump will be branded a “convicted felon” at his inauguration in 10 days – noted that Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh would have granted the application. In other words, Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett sided with the liberals on the bench. In retrospect, CNN belief that Justice Barrett might be the “last best hope for Supreme Court liberals” proved to be accurate.

Thanks to Barrett’s defection, the Supreme Court will stand by as Judge Juan Merchan sentences Donald Trump over felony offenses that many legal analysts consider to be a sham.

The Supreme Court offered two reasons it said it refused to grant the application. “First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal. Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge’ after a brief virtual hearing,” a note on the Supreme Court’s docket read.

After the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump wrote on TruthSocial that he appreciated the “time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to me.”

He went on to say that he was innocent and would appeal the case.

“For the sake and sanctity of the Presidency, I will be appealing this case, and am confident that JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL,” Trump wrote.

Trump’s application for a stay was submitted on Jan. 8 and argued that “the prospect of imposing sentence on President Trump just before he assumes Office as the 47th President raises the specter of other possible restrictions on liberty, such as travel, reporting requirements, registration, probationary requirements, and others—all of which would be constitutionally intolerable under the doctrine of Presidential immunity.”

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has indicated that he wouldn’t impose a punishment including incarceration. He denied Trump’s request to halt proceedings as did two state appeals courts this week.

Trump told the U.S. Supreme Court that Merchan had erroneously admitted certain evidence of his official acts as president and failed to acknowledge a form of immunity for presidents-elect. He asked the court to take up his case and consider those issues, as well as whether he was entitled to an automatic stay due to an appeal on presidential immunity.

Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying records in relation to an alleged payments to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford. Merchan is expected to enter a judgment of conviction on Jan. 10 and potentially offer a statement criticizing Trump’s behavior.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the indictment against Trump in 2023, told the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 9 that it should reject Trump’s application and allow the state courts to continue handling the issue. Bragg said Trump was asking for an extraordinary intervention by the justices and that Trump had not yet exhausted his state-court remedies.

“Any stay here risks delaying the sentencing until after January 20, when defendant is inaugurated and his status as the sitting President will pose much more severe and potentially insuperable obstacles to sentencing and finality,” Bragg’s brief read.

The president-elect said that the opinion written by Merchan “goes against our Constitution, and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.”

“I can’t comment on that. They’ll raise the price,” Errol replied when asked by Times Radio about the unconfirmed report. When pressed again, the elder spilled the beans.

"Does your son want to buy Liverpool Football Club?"

"I can't comment on that. They'll raise the price."

Errol Musk confirms that his son, @ElonMusk, is interested in buying Premier League side Liverpool.@KaitBorsay pic.twitter.com/2xcRPH0b6k

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) January 7, 2025

“Oh, yes. But that doesn’t mean he’s buying it,” he replied. “He would like to yes, obviously. Anybody would want to – so would I!” he said. “His grandmother was born in Liverpool, and we have relatives in Liverpool, and we were fortunate to know quite a lot of the Beatles because they grew up with some of my family. So, we are attached to Liverpool, you know.”

Liverpool is presently owned by Fenway Sports Group, an American sports investment firm that acquired the Merseyside club in 2010 for an estimated £300m. Since then, the Reds have thrived under their ownership, clinching both the Premier League and Champions League trophies.

Meanwhile, the $400 billion man has yet to comment on the matter.

Musk has previously spoken glowingly of his grandmother, describing nana Cora Amelia Robinson as an important part of his upbringing in South Africa. Cora was born in 1923 and passed away in 2011 at the age of 87 years old.

“My Nana was one of the poor working-class girls with no one to protect her who might have been abducted in present-day Britain,” Musk wrote on X of his grandmother. “She was very strict, but also kind and I could always count on her. She grew up very poor in England during the Great Depression only to be bombed in WW2,” he added.

My British grandmother, Cora Amelia Robinson, was an important part of my childhood. She was very strict, but also kind and I could always count on her.

She grew up very poor in England during the Great Depression only to be bombed in WW2. To earn money for food, she cleaned…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2025

According to Musk, his nana didn’t have it easy. “To earn money for food, she cleaned houses, leaving me with a lasting respect for those who do so,” he said.

Upon the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 2013, Musk paid tribute to the “Iron Lady,” referring to her as “tough but sensible and fair like my English Nana.”

Gold and BTC “appear to have become more important components of investors’ portfolios structurally” as they increasingly seek to hedge against geopolitical risk and inflation, the bank said, citing the “record capital inflow into crypto markets in 2024.”

The debasement trade refers to increasing demand for gold and BTC due to factors ranging from “structurally higher geopolitical uncertainty since 2022, to persistent high uncertainty about the longer-term inflation backdrop, to concerns about ‘debt debasement’ due to persistently high government deficits across major economies,” among others, JPMorgan said.

Institutional inflows

Investment managers including Paul Tudor Jones are longing Bitcoin and other commodities on fears that “all roads lead to inflation” in the United States.

US state governments are also adding Bitcoin as “a hedge against fiscal uncertainty,” asset manager VanEck said in December.

In October, JPMorgan cited spiking open interest on BTC futures as another indicator that “funds might see gold and Bitcoin as similar assets.”

In 2024, net open interest on BTC futures rose from approximately $18 billion in January to upward of $55 billion in December, according to data from CoinGlass.

“In addition, the fact that Bitcoin [exchange-traded funds] started seeing inflows again in September after an outflow in August suggests that retail investors might also see gold and Bitcoin in a similar fashion,” JPMorgan said in October.

In November, US Bitcoin ETFs broke $100 billion in net assets for the first time, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence.

Crypto ETF inflows are among the most important metrics to watch because they are “more likely than other trading activity to be new funds/market participants entering the crypto space,” according to a December report by Citi shared with Cointelegraph.

Surging institutional inflows could cause positive “demand shocks” for Bitcoin, potentially sending BTC’s price soaring in 2025, asset manager Sygnum Bank said in December.

*  *  *

[ZH: The structural rise of gold in investors’ portfolios is best shown in the chart below, which proxies gold allocation globally via the stock of gold that is held for investment purposes by central banks or private investors holding gold via coins, bars or physical gold ETFs (or similar products) as % of the stock of equities, bonds and cash held by non-bank investors globally.

The most viewed Wikipedia articles of 2024 reflect the key figures, events, and cultural moments that defined the year.

While ChatGPT was the most visited article last year, ‘Deaths in 2024’ topped this year’s list, a trend seen frequently over the past decade. Moreover, political topics took center stage, driven by a historic number of people going to the polls.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the most viewed Wikipedia pages in 2024, based on data from the Wikimedia Foundation.

Ranked: The Top 10 Most Popular Wikipedia Articles

Below, we show the articles that captured the most views across English Wikipedia up to November 22, 2024:

As we can see, Kamala Harris was the most popular public figure, at 29 million views, while the 2024 U.S. presidential election followed closely behind at 28 million views.

While several polls predicted Harris would win the election by a slim margin, the exact opposite occurred, with Donald Trump securing all seven swing states and the popular vote. Overall, three of the top 10 articles of 2024 related to the Republican party.

Following a trend seen in recent years, readers in India drove substantial readership, particularly on the Indian Premier League, a professional cricket league, and India’s general election. With 642 million people casting their votes, it marked the largest democratic election in history.

Meanwhile, the release of a Netflix documentary series on Lyle and Erik Menendez, brothers who murdered their parents in 1989, spurred millions of pageviews. Also ranking in the top 25 is cartel leader Griselda Blanco, whose life is the focus of the series Griselda, featuring Sofia Vergara.

Most Viewed Wikipedia Pages by Month

In the table below, we show the most visited Wikipedia pages by month, highlighting the key trends over the course of the year:

As we can see, U.S. vice president JD Vance was the most viewed page in July, after being announced as Trump’s running mate.

Later, in November, the U.S. presidential election was the most popular page as over 155 million Americans went to the polls. In a highly polarized election, it marked the second-biggest voter turnout in U.S. history.

To learn more about this topic from a global perspective, check out this graphic on the top Google searches worldwide in 2024.

Rogan O’Handley, aka “DC Draino” on X, floated two scenarios about Livelsberger’s final moments:

Now that we know the Vegas suspect was found with a bullet in his head, I see 2 possible scenarios:

1. He shot himself – he was planning to commit suicide & didn’t want to risk being burned alive
2. He was shot by someone else & the Tesla was auto-pilot navigated to the Trump hotel

Now that we know the Vegas suspect was found with a bullet in his head, I see 2 possible scenarios:

1. He shot himself – he was planning to commit suicide & didn’t want to risk being burned alive

2. He was shot by someone else & the Tesla was auto-pilot navigated to the Trump… https://t.co/OqU5ecdy6e

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 2, 2025

“A long fuse could’ve been lit, a timer could have been set, or the bomb could have been remotely detonated I wonder if anyone in the vicinity heard a gunshot That would help confirm where the car was when he was shot,” O’Handley wrote in another post.

A long fuse could’ve been lit, a timer could have been set, or the bomb could have been remotely detonated

I wonder if anyone in the vicinity heard a gunshot

That would help confirm where the car was when he was shot

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 2, 2025

Tesla’s Elon Musk quickly dismissed the second scenario, stating, “Autopilot will not function unless it detects an attentive person in the driver’s seat.”

Autopilot will not function unless it detects an attentive person in the driver’s seat

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2025

Tesla vehicles have a cabin camera that monitors driver attentiveness and provides audible alerts when FSD is engaged. The camera is mounted above the rearview mirror.

“Like other Autopilot features, Full Self-Driving requires that the driver pay attention to the road, their surroundings, and other road users,” Tesla wrote on its website under the “Driver Attentiveness” section of FSD.

Tesla said, “The cabin camera does not require full visibility of the driver’s eyes in order to monitor attentiveness. The system is still active, for example, if the driver is wearing sunglasses.”

“If the cabin camera does not have clear visibility of the driver’s hand and arm locations, Full Self-Driving periodically displays a message reminding the driver to apply slight force to the steering wheel,” Tesla continued.

It noted, “If the driver repeatedly ignore prompts to apply slight force to the steering wheel or to pay attention, Full Self-Driving displays a series of escalating warnings and, if those warnings are ignored, disables for the rest of the drive and displays the following message.”

What’s apparent from Tesla’s description of how FSD works suggests any scenario with Livelsberger shot in the head well before the bombing would be extraordinarily hard to trick the camera.

X users should call on Musk to release the cockpit camera footage and any other recordings from the high-tech EV truck to disprove O’Handley’s second scenario. Additionally, footage from charging stations could provide valuable insights into what happened leading up to the bombing. We’re sure the FBI is already doing this…