• Durham: Clinton Allies Spied On The Executive Office Of The President
  Durham: Clinton Allies Spied On The Executive Office Of The President

  Submitted by Techno Fog via The Reactionary,

  The Michael Sussmann case is heating up.

  On February 11, 2022, Durham filed the Government’s Motion to Inquire into Potential Conflicts of Interest in the Michael Sussmann case. Read it here. As you might recall, Sussmann was charged with giving false statements to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker regarding the interests he was representing in pushing to the FBI the Alfa Bank/Trump Organization hoax. More background information on the Sussmann indictment can be found here.

  The basis for the motion is that Sussmann’s current counsel, Latham & Watkins LLP (Latham) might have a conflict of interest because Latham previously represented Perkins Coie and Mark Elias “in this investigation.” It is alleged that Latham “likely possesses confidential knowledge about Perkins Coie’s role in, and views concerning, Sussmann’s past activities.” (Cleaned up.)

  There might also be a conflict because Latham was representing both the Clinton Campaign and Hillary for America in the Special Counsel’s investigation. Durham observes that Latham’s duties to these former clients “might cause its interests to diverge from those of [Sussmann].”

  

  Why might there be a conflict?

  Because Durham might offer evidence at trial he obtained from the Clinton Campaign and Hillary for America.

  

  We previously discussed how Rodney Joffe (identified as Tech Executive-1 in the Sussmann indictment and in the latest filing discussing the conflict) exploited proprietary – and perhaps classified – data provided by DARPA to further their own political attacks, and how that might result in charges. It was later confirmed that two former DARPA employees have given grand jury testimony, so it appears Durham is following this track.

  I provide that background because of what we just learned. Durham also divulged, to an extent, that contractors and tech experts – those same people involved in the Alfa Bank hoax – essentially spied on President Trump.

  According to Durham, Joffe and his associates exploited internet data from “the Executive Office of the President of the United States” to further their own political agenda. They had come to possess this data as part of a “sensitive arrangement” with the U.S. government. As Durham explains:

  

  Joffe and his associates manipulated this information to further a conspiracy theory that Trump and those in Trump’s orbit were continuing their secret backchannels with the Russians. This was repackaged with the Alfa Bank hoax and given to Sussmann, who then laundered it to the CIA on February 9, 2017. Sussmann alleged to the CIA that the data showed “that Trump and/or his associates were using supposedly rare, Russian-made wireless phones in the vicinity of the White House and other locations.” Durham “identified no support for these allegations.”

  One can’t help ask why Joffe (via Sussmann) risked legal exposure to continue to push false Trump-Russia allegations before and after the 2016 election. First to the FBI in 2016 then to the CIA in 2017. It seems that Joffe was desperate, and his desperation only increased after Trump’s election.

  The source of Joffe’s desperation? It’s speculation at this point, but perhaps it goes to the origins of the purported Russia/DNC hack. To revise a previous question we have asked:

  What if Crowdstrike was a patsy, there to unknowingly reach false conclusions of a “Russian hack” based on fraudulent information provided to them by Rodney Joffe and Perkins Coie and the DNC/Hillary Campaign?

  We don’t have an answer to that question – yet. Maybe we never will. But if anything, it seems likely that we will see an indictment of Rodney Joffe.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/13/2022 – 00:27

• Separation Or Purge? Sharing A Society With The Political Left Is Impossible
  Separation Or Purge? Sharing A Society With The Political Left Is Impossible

  By Brandon Smith of Alt-Market

  Of all the social drivers in history the concept of freedom is the most powerful and fascinating. There are many observable objective truths in the world and it’s always important to recognize them, but the idea of freedom is more rare because it is a universal SUBJECTIVE truth. Meaning, it exists inherently in the majority of individuals; we don’t learn it, we just know it instinctively. Most of us share the experience but there is no microscope or telescope in existence that can observe that experience. We just have to trust it, or perhaps, have faith.

  

  Freedom is not taught to us, we are born with the idea already hardwired. If anything, it has to be conditioned out of us.

  We can see the aftereffects of the human experience of freedom in the great upheavals that occur when our societies become too rigid, too controlled and too authoritarian. Some will argue that tyrants have no concept of freedom and this debunks the notion that it’s an inherent psychological quality, but this is a misconception. Many tyrants love freedom, but only for themselves. Like an obsessive compulsive, when the average authoritarian sees free movement within the rest of society all he sees is chaos that needs to be micro-managed. He is so mentally unhinged by the existence of independent activity that he is compelled to crush it and impose his brand of “order.”

  If you want to understand the thinking process of the political left today, this is where you need to start. They believe only certain special people deserve to have freedom (or deserve to live), and they are of course part of that group. The rest of us can’t be trusted with freedom because we “think the wrong way,” and so we need to be corralled and fenced in.

  This is not to say that some structure within society is wrong, it can be a good thing, but not when it is imposed by an elitist minority of psychopathic people. There will never be any justice within such a system, no fairness and no true progress. Authoritarianism is the opposite of progress; it is the antithesis, and yet these people call themselves “progressives.”

  Freedom requires boldness and courage because it demands personal responsibility. When you are free to make your own decisions you are also free to fail, and only you can be blamed for your own failures. This is a terrifying notion for most leftists and collectivists because they believe that they are owed a positive outcome regardless of their actions or merit. They believe it is their “right” to be taken care of by others if they are incapable of taking care of themselves, but this is not equality, this is “equity.” This is stealing wealth and opportunity from more worthy people in order to artificially inflate others that put in little or no effort.

  Meritocracy is the most equal system in existence because it is freedom based; equality of opportunity is the epitome of fairness; equity of outcome is the epitome of injustice.

  Leftists hyperfocus on race, skin color and sexual identity for this very reason. They are desperately searching for a way to circumvent the obstacles of freedom, merit and individualism. If everything in society can be reduced down to race, then personal accomplishment and responsibility are no longer relevant. In the mind of the leftist, if certain people are inherently oppressed and others are inherently oppressive, then equality of opportunity is not enough and equity of outcome must be enforced.

  Making everything about victim group status thereby erases freedom and meritocracy cannot function. All a person needs to do is say “I am oppressed, therefore I am entitled,” and if they meet the broad leftist criteria then they are handed a livelihood or success simply because they exist.

  I saw a commercial on YouTube a week ago for yet another social justice documentary titled ‘Everything’s Going To Be All White,’ once again attempting to pontificate on our supposed reign of dominance across every facet of the globe and I could not help but think this entire narrative is nothing more than a cowardly attempt to deflect responsibility. Yes, it’s also an attempt to divide and conquer western nations but how many people are actually watching these race hyped documentaries and TV shows un-ironically? According to the stats and reviews there aren’t very many.

  Nearly every claim made in these productions is based on previously debunked social justice misrepresentations of history from books like ‘White Fragility’ and movements like the 1619 Project. If you really want to get an accurate representation of US history in particular and the limited role slavery played in terms of modern social outcomes, then I suggest reading the works of Thomas Sowell, a brilliant black American economist and historian with no bias in his analysis.

  Slavery is a mere footnote in our past, not an all encompassing determinant of our present and future as leftists like to argue. There is no legal slavery in America, and there is no one alive today in America who has experience race based slavery or that has been affected by it. Slavery and racism were far more pervasive in nations of brown and black people in history. In fact, some of these countries still engage in various forms of slavery today. If you want to experience actual racism as a black or brown person then travel to a country like China and see how long it takes before you are kicked out of an establishment for your skin color.

  White people are not the problem, people who disrespect the benefits of freedom are the problem regardless of their skin.

  What we need to understand is that race and oppression propaganda is not really rooted in race and oppression. It appeals to a certain subset of our population because it offers them a way to rationalize their lack of merit and their fears of freedom and consequence. If you can blame white people for all your problems and have this be believed, then the temptation to fail is increased because there are no consequences. Why work hard to make something of yourself if you can do nothing and be rewarded anyway?

  By extension, the racism blame game is alluring to many in society because it can be used as a weapon to harm political enemies. When leftists complain about the evils of “white people” what they are really talking about are the “evils” of conservatives and others that do not conform to the leftist ideology. They rarely come right out and say it, but one day the documentaries will switch from “Dear White People” to “Dear Conservatives.” The fight has never been about race, it’s always been about ideals and principles and eliminating the ideals that contradict the leftist mission. This is why they are consistently hostile to anyone conservative, even more so if that person is black.

  The leftist agenda is all about diminishing freedom and societal respect for freedom by whatever means necessary. Everything is about management, everything is about centralization, everything is about control. Conservatives and many moderates stand in direct opposition to this.

  The most common mistake among newbies in the liberty movement is when they try to explain away leftist actions by bringing up the “false left/right paradigm.” These people don’t understand what this actually means. The left/right paradigm exists at the TOP of the social and political pyramid; top political and corporate leaders pretend to be in one party or the other while in reality they are all working together and implementing the same policies. At the bottom of the pyramid among regular people there is no false left/right paradigm – There is a very real left/right division.

  This is undeniable now in the face of the covid and vaccine mandates. For the longest time I have heard people claim that when the push for authoritarianism in the US arrived many conservatives would simple go along with it. Yet, today numerous conservative red states are fighting the mandates tooth and nail while leftist blue states have been suffocated by them. In fact, red states have acted as beacons of rebellion for the world – Without them it is unlikely that the Supreme Court would have dropped Biden’s federal vax mandates. The threat of war is tangible if such mandates are ever instituted, and the Supreme Court knows this.

  I have had people ask me in the past why there haven’t been any major actions on the part of conservatives in the US against the mandates and I have to break it to them that there ARE NO MANDATES in conservative places and there haven’t been for at least 18 months. None. Zero. Zip. We don’t need to protest because we stopped the mandates before they could take hold.

  As I have said from the very beginning of the pandemic response, if even a handful of states or countries can remain free from covid controls they will inspire people around the world and act as proof that the mandates are pointless. Today, as America continues to beat back the covid agenda there are mass protests in Canada and the UK has cut most of their covid restrictions. Freedom spreads like wildfire once the flames are sparked.

  Leftists hate this. Covid, like the fantasy of “institutional racism,” is a tempting vehicle to forward their ideology. If you can convince the public that they are a constant threat to themselves and each other, then it is a small matter to convince them that government needs to step in and protect society from itself and from notions of freedom that might put society at risk. Without covid as a foil the political left has nothing, and so they continue to perpetuate the lie that the virus is an imminent threat to the majority of people when the average Infection Fatality Rate is a tiny 0.27%.

  The real question here is, when a group of people hate freedom this much how is it possible to coexist with them? The answer is we can’t.

  Anyone who defends merit and liberty will always be a target of those that despise merit and liberty. They will never stop. They will forever be looking for ways to undermine both. If covid mandates and race based propaganda don’t work then they will search for another tool to do the job. If one can say anything “good” about leftists, it’s that they do not give up even when they are clearly outmatched and beaten. The problem is that this dedication to their cause is not based in love or truth, but in zealotry and cultism. They are jihadists, and nothing, not logic, not facts, not reason nor moral principle will convince them of the error of their ways.

  So what is the solution? One could suggest that we make it easy for them to leave. After all, if they hate America as much as they say they do then why are they still living here? Probably because most other places in the world are abysmal in comparison. But if we keep them around they will drag the country down to the same terrible level. It’s a conundrum. Beyond that, what country would want them? Social justice is seen as a cancer in many countries and an injection of leftist migrants would be a disaster for them economically and socially, even in nations that claim to support leftist models.

  Most leftists would also refuse to leave anyway because they believe they should decide the path of America’s future. As much as they hate this country they see themselves as its saviors.

  Then there is the option of internal separation, which I see as preferable. This is already happening in many forms as conservatives and moderates from blue states relocate by the millions to red states. In my home state of Montana there has been an influx of migrants from blue states and every single new person I have talked to is a conservative/prepper whose family lived in a blue state for generations and they finally got fed up. The vast majority of people moving are conservative minded and they are now congregating.

  Why not carry this process forward to its natural conclusion? Red states break from blue states and red counties break from blue state control and we live our lives the way we see fit. Let the leftists continue with their draconian economic and political models and see how well that goes for them. I guarantee they will be in financial ruins within a decade (the list of most indebted places in the country is dominated by blue states) and they will be begging to return to a union with red states (except for the zealots, which would lose influence as they continue to fail).

  But this will not happen peacefully because, again, leftists cannot tolerate free activity. Their OCD will not allow them to be content with living in a collectivist state of their own; ALL states must be collectivist before they are satisfied. People are property to them; property of the collective, and people who are property cannot be allowed to make decisions without oversight.

  There are people who will naively argue that the establishment wants America divided and separation plays into their hands. Guess what? There is no reconciliation with tyrants and trying to maintain a union with them is the pinnacle of idiocy. There is no union, it is a figment of your imagination. I think the establishment prefers that we stay within the box; that we continue wasting all our time and attention on on trying to hold a system together that is corrupt beyond repair. We will never be allowed to peacefully repair what has been broken.

  Unfortunately, the only path this leaves is one of violence. Leftists will have to be forced out of positions of power and influence and removed from our culture like a cancerous tumor is cut from the body to save the body. I don’t think this should be the obvious choice. I don’t want it to be. What I am saying is, leftists and their partners in government and the corporate world will force the issue because they cannot help it; like the story of the scorpion and the frog, it’s in their nature to destroy.

  They will continue to push and steal and threaten and abuse until they get the inevitable response of a punch in the teeth. Then, they will play the victim like they always do. This crying and gaslighting will have to be ignored. In the end, these people cannot be tolerated in a free culture and their power to harm and enslave others must be removed, one way or another.

  *  *  *

  If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/13/2022 – 00:00

• These Are The World Largest Cannabis Markets
  These Are The World Largest Cannabis Markets

  North America and Europe are home to some of the world’s most famous cannabis cultures, such as California and Amsterdam.

  However, as Visual Capitalist details below, even in these undoubtedly successful markets, cannabis legality varies by country – and as this graphic by Tenacious Labs explores, so does its subsequent market value.

  

  The European Cannabis Market

  Although the European Union is one single economic market with agreed upon laws and regulations, individual countries still have their say on national laws. Looking at Europe as a region reshapes things again as countries like the UK are outside the EU—further muddying cannabis laws and regulation.

  Regardless, there is immense potential in the European cannabis market—it is expected to be worth $37 billion by 2027. The biggest markets driving this are Germany, the UK, and France.

  As of December 2021, Malta became the first European country to fully legalize recreational cannabis. Three other countries have also started the process towards legalization, and a number of others are expected to fully legalize in the next few years, namely:

  • Germany

  • Luxembourg

  • The Netherlands

  • Spain

  • Switzerland

  On average, 1 in 10 Europeans use cannabis every year. With little legality for recreational cannabis, this high demand has to be met by the illegal market. As a result, yearly illicit cannabis market sales are estimated at around €11 billion (US$13 billion)—representing significant untapped potential.

  The North American Cannabis Market

  The U.S., Canada, and Mexico make up the world’s largest continental cannabis market, worth $18.1 billion in 2020. In Canada, cannabis is federally legal, and Mexico will soon be in the same boat. The U.S., however, is a different story.

  America’s stance on cannabis legality varies on a state-by-state basis. Federally, cannabis is illegal—listed as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin. But individual states have their own laws, from states with fully legal recreational cannabis to medical usage only permitted, and full illegality.

  The U.S. has the biggest cannabis market potential in North America by far.

  In states where cannabis has been fully legal for years—like Colorado—countless jobs and revenue have been added to the state’s economy and in such markets, regulation is pushing the industry towards maturity. In contrast, in states like Wyoming it is still illegal to be ‘under the influence’ of cannabis.

  This stark contrast within one country hinders the market potential of the entire continent. However, the MORE (Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement) Act was recently reintroduced in the U.S.’ House of Representatives. If passed, it would remove cannabis from its classification as a Schedule I drug.

  Cannabis Markets with Huge Potential

  North America and Europe are the most advanced cannabis markets, but without transparent and clear regulation, we have yet to experience their full potential.

  Treaties like USMCA in North America, and the economic union for most European countries, offer the chance for the world to benefit from the highly lucrative cannabis market.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 23:30

• Retired 3-Star General: Critical Race Theory Leading To Military 'Failure'
  Retired 3-Star General: Critical Race Theory Leading To Military ‘Failure’

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A retired Marine general spoke out about critical race theory training in the armed forces, arguing that the Marxist ideology will ultimately weaken the U.S.’s military capability.

  

  Writing for military magazine Task and Purpose, retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold argued that critical race theory and related ideologies run counter to the “stone-cold pragmatism” needed to win conflicts.

  “Wars must be waged only with stone-cold pragmatism, not idealism, and fought only when critical national interests are at stake,” he wrote. “Hopes for changing cultures to fit our model are both elitist and naive. The failures of our campaigns in Iraq and especially in Afghanistan confirm this.”

  Meanwhile, the tenets of critical race theory—an offshoot of the Marxist critical theory school—can ruin unit cohesion, he added.

  “A military force’s greatest strengths are cohesion and discipline,” said Newbold, who retired in 2002. “Individuality or group identity is corrosive and a centrifugal force. Indeed, the military wears uniforms because uniformity is essential.”

  “The tenets of Critical Race Theory—a cross-disciplinary intellectual and social movement that seeks to examine the intersection of race and law in the United States, but which has the unfortunate effect of dividing people along racial lines—undermine our military’s unity and diminish our warfighting capabilities.”

  If military leaders focus on differences and group identity, he added, it undermines “cohesion and morale.” After that, “failure results,” the retired general said.

  “Values that are admirable in civilian society—sensitivity, individuality, compassion, and tolerance for the less capable—are often antithetical to the traits that deter a potential enemy and win the wars that must be fought: Conformity, discipline, unity,” Newbold said.

  Last year, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested that critical race theory is being taught to cadets.

  “I want to understand white rage, and I’m white,” Milley said during a contentious House Armed Services Committee exchange in June. “I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military general officers, commissioned [and] noncommissioned officers, of being ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist.”

  Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) also claimed last year that they’ve received hundreds of tips from military whistleblowers who reported that critical race theory and related diversity training programs are being implemented in the armed forces.

  “We’ve received hundreds of whistleblower complaints about critical race theory being pushed on our soldiers,” Cotton said in a statement last year. “The problem is real—and worse than we thought.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 23:00

• China's Rare Earth Monopoly Is Diminishing
  China’s Rare Earth Monopoly Is Diminishing

  Some while ago, precious rare earths important in the production of microchips, electronics and electric motors were almost exclusively sourced in China. However, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, in recent years, several nations have picked up production again while new players entered the market, diversifying it at least to some degree.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Yet, China was still responsible for 60 percent of global production in 2021, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. 

  But since many countries are wary of depending on China, especially when it comes to technology products, nations with rare earth deposits are likely to exploit them further. The U.S., however, is still shipping its rare earths to China for processing, but is looking to add domestic processing facilities using funds of the bipartisan infrastructure deal.

  China also has the largest know deposits of rare earths, but Brazil, Vietnam and Russia also have a lot of (largely) untapped potential in the sector.

  The United States and Australia ramped up production of rare earths after 2010 and most recently, Myanmar and Thailand started to mine considerable amounts. As seen in our chart, the U.S. had in the past mined and produced rare earths for military uses and re-entered the market as rare earths were getting more important as a part of the implementation of crucial technologies.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 22:30

• Why Ideology Is The Ancient Enemy Of Civilization
  Why Ideology Is The Ancient Enemy Of Civilization

  Submitted by Victor Davis Hanson, via the Epoch Times

  What ultimately destroyed the evil empires of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were bankrupt dogmas. Crackpot ideology destroyed free expression. It ruined meritocracy and ensured unequal application of the laws—and so paved the way for far worse.

  

  The Nazi idea of a superior Aryan race adjudicated everything from physics to tank design. Soviet commissars did the same, subordinating rational thought to communist agendas.

  Zealots in both systems infiltrated the universities and schools to institutionalize indoctrination.

  Wokeism, while not yet as lethal, is similar. Racial wokeism posits that the race and gender of the vice president and the next Supreme Court justice subordinate all other considerations.

  But will the current vice president and next Supreme Court justice commensurately select their own future surgeons, or their upcoming airline pilots, on the same predetermined race and sex criteria?

  What—other than ideology—explains why rejecting nominations of African-American judge Janice Rogers Brown in 2003 and 2005 was not racist and sexist, but blocking Joe Biden’s upcoming nomination of a preselected African-American female would be?

  Why were most Antifa and Black Lives Matter criminals who looted, destroyed, and assaulted during the 120 days of summer 2020 not charged, much less tried? Why, in contrast, were the January 6 rioters or the current Canadian truckers treated disproportionately harshly by the media?

  Had the same rioters on January 6 been waving pride flags and BLM banners, would some of them have been sitting for a year in solitary confinement and still uncharged?

  Had the criminal protestors and looters of summer 2020 been wearing red MAGA hats, would they also have mostly gotten off without charges?

  What would have happened had conservative demonstrators cut out a police-free “MAGA Zone” in Seattle rather than the exempted Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone? Would police have similarly left it alone, and the media similarly romanticized such illegality?

  One of the reasons the COVID-19 lockdown and mask policies lost public confidence was their utter corruption by ideology.

  When thousands in June 2020 brazenly defied quarantines—and yet were excused by over 1,000 healthcare professionals claiming that woke agendas justified violating quarantine laws—then millions of Americans concluded government policy was as much about identity politics as saving lives.

  Which politicians in 2020 trashed the vaccine programs and declared they would likely not get inoculations—if they were endorsed by then-President Donald Trump?

  If Trump is demonized as a destroyer of election legitimacy, what then are we to say of the beatified Stacey Abrams? She lost the Georgia gubernatorial race by more than 50,000 votes. Yet for years, she has maintained the voting was rigged and the elected governor is illegitimate.

  In 2000, who challenged for weeks the vote count, despite numerous public and private audits confirming George W. Bush’s popular vote victory in Florida?

  Who in 2004–2005—for only the second time in history—challenged in Congress the Electoral College vote? In whose party were the 31 House members and one senator who forced a congressional vote in a failed effort to overturn the election?

  Who in 2016 ran ads for weeks after the election, beseeching the chosen electors to violate their constitutional duties, ignore their state vote tallies, and instead vote for Hillary Clinton?

  And who in 2016 claimed her victorious opponent was elected president illegitimately? Who bragged she was joining the “resistance” to undermine his presidency? Who advised Joe Biden in 2020 not to accept the election result if he lost?

  If conservative zealots were ransacking American stores, carjacking innocents in the major cities, and spiking murder rates to historical highs, would the Biden administration be mobilizing law enforcement to ensure arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration? Would current city and county prosecutors continue to turn a blind eye?

  If anti-communist Cubans by the millions were illegally crashing the southern border, would they be welcomed in as are those from Mexico and Central Americans?

  If, by 2024, a Republican president enjoys a Republican Congress, what would be the reaction to conservatives who advocated ending the filibuster? Ensuring a national voting law requiring IDs at all the polls? Voting to increase the Supreme Court to 15 justices to guarantee at least six new nominations for the Republican-controlled presidency and Congress?

  When ideology in places like Castroite Cuba, the old Soviet Union, and Venezuela warped the application of the law, destroyed the role of merit in assessing qualifications, silenced speech, and unequally applied the law, then society unwound.

  In such ideological dystopias, eventually even the shelves empty, the currency becomes worthless, and the nation regresses into poverty and chaos. Is that the future we await?

  Scarier still, ideology ensures that such chaos is heralded as success. Critics are demonized and hounded. And the obsequious state media assures the public that things are going just great.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 22:00

• World Economic Forum 'Insane Pro-CRT Propaganda' Video Draws Sharp Rebuke
  World Economic Forum ‘Insane Pro-CRT Propaganda’ Video Draws Sharp Rebuke

  The World Economic Forum (WEF) has come under fire for a video which initially appears as a neutral explainer on Critical Race Theory (CRT), only to quickly shift into a full-throated endorsement of the ideology. 

  CRT charges an entire demographic with a collective crime, uses the charge as grounds for framing individuals within that demographic of perpetrators of that crime, and then seeks to strip condemned individuals of rights, dignity, and equal protection based on that charge (h/t).

  

  The WEF video defines CRT as a theory “first developed by US legal scholars in the 1980s” which “argues that the laws, rules and, regulations that govern society today have been shaped by the historical subordination of people of colour and that this is a driving force behind racial inequality today,” according to Breitbart.

  As an example of the supposed racism embedded in every fiber of America’s institutions, the WEF points to the high number of incarcerated black males throughout the country.

  “Take the US criminal justice system, for example,” it says. “While everyone is seen as equal under the law, Black Americans are imprisoned at 5 times the rate of white people.“

  “CRT says this disparity is a legacy of America’s racist past,” but that opponents say it “paints all white people as bigots.”

  The video then positions CRT awareness as an honorable pursuit. Watch what opponent Chris Rufo described as an “Insane pro-CRT propaganda video.”

  This is what you need to know about critical race theory.

  Learn more about racial equality: https://t.co/aNh1BmXuyi pic.twitter.com/R0eAn4P7lJ

  — World Economic Forum (@wef) February 8, 2022

  Others condemned the WEF as well (via Breitbart):

  “Ah yes, the world economic forum promoting a radical departure from the current relations of power,” wrote video essayist and author Peter Coffin.

  “This PROVES CRT is the revolution. I’ve been wrong this whole time!” he mocked. 

  “Run from the WEF working class people,” warned clinical psychologist and psychology professor Dr. Jordan Peterson.

  Run from the WEF working class people. https://t.co/VmXzZfZHC5

  — Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) February 9, 2022

  “Why would the World Economic Forum come out in support of Critical Race Theory?” asked author and mathematician Dr. James Lindsay, who warned last month that CRT activists aim to dismantle the U.S. and establish “a total dictatorship” of the so-called “anti-racists.” 

  “Because they’re the ones who want to divide our society with this Marxist Theory or any other tool they can use to break the world and seize power,” he said.

  Why would the World Economic Forum come out in support of Critical Race Theory? Because they’re the ones who want to divide our society with this Marxist Theory or any other tool they can use to break the world and seize power. https://t.co/wpsl3JAsh9

  — James Lindsay, so emotional and sensitive (@ConceptualJames) February 9, 2022

  Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) national security adviser tweeted “I can’t believe you’re advocating for ‘equality’ at the expense of equity” in 2022. “You’re either on board or you’re not. Be better.”

  Read the rest of the comments here.

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 21:30

• The Overton Window & Bitcoin
  The Overton Window & Bitcoin

  Authored by ‘DON’ via BitcoinMagazine.com,

  As Bitcoin enters the mainstream conversation, it is becoming increasingly common for politicians to embrace or disparage the technology…

  

  As Bitcoin moves into its adolescence, many people from all walks of life, from all across the world may be pondering the question: Is Bitcoin mainstream? Is it in the process of becoming mainstream? Or is it something that may never become mainstream?

  The answer to this question will likely have profound effects on how governments around the world behave toward Bitcoin in its teenage years.

  The reason that public perception plays a large role in how governments behave toward a certain topic is related to a concept called the Overton window.

  In this article, we examine the Overton window: What it is, how it relates to Bitcoin, and whether the Overton window for Bitcoin has shifted far enough toward mainstream to warrant support from governments.

  WHAT IS THE OVERTON WINDOW?

  Wikipedia states, 

  “The Overton window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse.

  “The term is named after American policy analyst Joseph P. Overton, who stated that an idea’s political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within this range, rather than on politicians’ individual preferences. According to Overton, the window frames the range of policies that a politician can recommend without appearing too extreme to gain or keep public office given the climate of public opinion at that time.”

  At the core of the Overton window is public perception. Contrary to what many people think, politicians, at least politicians that want to stay in office, cannot enact any policy they please. Instead, they must choose from a range of policies that are politically acceptable at that time. The Overton window defines that range of ideas.

  Examples of movements that have shifted from fringe — outside the Overton window — to mainstream include women’s suffrage, racial equality and recreational marijuana use. Once these movements became mainstream, government policies began to align in support of the movements.

  HOW DOES THE OVERTON WINDOW RELATE TO BITCOIN?

  Now that we have a fundamental understanding of the Overton window, let’s examine how it relates to Bitcoin. Bitcoin turned 13 on January 3, 2022. During its first 13 years, it has gone from a network primarily used by cryptography enthusiasts, extreme privacy advocates, hardcore libertarians and Austrian economic enthusiasts to something used by everyday individuals all around the world, companies small and large and even nation-states such as El Salvador.

  With the understanding that the Overton window dictates “the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time,” we can then ask ourselves, “Has the Overton window for Bitcoin shifted far enough toward the mainstream to warrant support from governments?” To answer that question, let’s examine the U.S. government’s actions related to Bitcoin to date and then extrapolate what those actions may mean moving forward.

  UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND BITCOIN

  Contrary to what many bitcoin skeptics may say, in examining the U.S. government actions surrounding bitcoin to date, one would be hard-pressed to find anything overly burdensome. In 2014, the IRS classified bitcoin as property. The United States has some of the strongest property rights of any country in the world. Bitcoin being classified as property affords it the same legal protections as other types of personal property, such as real estate, and is an important reason that some of the largest bitcoin holders choose to own their bitcoin in the United States.

  In 2017, the CME Group, working in conjunction with the CFTC, launched a bitcoin futures market, an important step for any commodity.

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has repeatedly reiterated that bitcoin is not a security and thus not within their field of regulation. Other cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, may be in for a rude awakening when it comes to SEC enforcement.

  In 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave federally chartered banks the green light to custody bitcoin.

  In 2021, the first bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) in the United States was approved. Yes, the ETF is based on bitcoin futures and does not hold physical bitcoin, but the fact that a bitcoin ETF product was approved at all is just another feather in the cap of bitcoin when it comes to favorable regulation in America.

  So, when we review the totality of government action related to bitcoin in the United States, we can see that the U.S. government has been supportive of bitcoin overall to date. Now let’s turn our attention to what this may mean moving forward for Bitcoin as it relates to the Overton window.

  IS THE TIME RIGHT FOR POLITICIANS AND GOVERNMENTS TO LEAN INTO THE BITCOIN MOVEMENT?

  With millions of people owning bitcoin, corporations of all sizes owning bitcoin, and even nation-states owning bitcoin, it is clear that Bitcoin has, or is in the process of, passing through the Overton window in many parts of the world. That being the case, the time is ripe for politicians and governments to lean into the Bitcoin movement and use it to their advantage.

  We’re starting to see the first inklings of this play out. In the United States, politicians such as Cynthia Lummis, Ted Cruz, Aarika Rhodes, Tom Emmer and others are leaning into pro-Bitcoin politics. In doing so, they’re tapping into a large base of voters who care about the issue of Bitcoin more than they do any other issue. This large single-issue voting block is powerful for any politician to tap into, as they tend to be very vocal and, in a world of 24/7 social media influence, being vocal is important. Dennis Porter wrote a great article, “Why Bitcoin Represents The Ultimate Single-Issue Voting Bloc.” I highly suggest you read it here.

  Another great example of politicians and governments leaning into Bitcoin is President Nayib Bukele and El Salvador. Bukele and El Salvador burst onto the international scene in 2020 when they announced a law that would make bitcoin legal tender. Instead of continuing to be beholden to agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for funding, El Salvador instead chose to plug into the Bitcoin network. Bukele became internationally recognized almost overnight, and the country of El Salvador went from being a small country, mostly forgotten by the West, to being on the international stage. You can bet that other countries are considering similar actions.

  Now that we’ve reviewed several examples of politicians and governments taking advantage of the shifting Overton window for Bitcoin, let’s review an example of a government trying to keep Bitcoin out of the Overton window: China.

  China has “banned Bitcoin” more times than I count. Which makes sense when you think about it. A Communist country run by a dictator doesn’t want its people having access to a global, distributed, censorship-resistant sovereign monetary system? Shocking! However, in 2021, China took its disdain for Bitcoin to a whole new level. They were serious this time. They cracked down on miners, resulting in 50% of the Bitcoin hash rate being relocated to friendlier jurisdictions. They cracked down on exchanges, forcing accounts serving Chinese citizens to be closed. They generally put enough fear into enough people to dissuade many of them from interacting with Bitcoin. China put on a classic display of attempting to keep a movement from shifting into the Overton window. In my opinion, history will not be kind to China for its grave mistake.

  CONCLUSION

  The Overton window is an important concept to understand. Simply put, the Overton window dictates a range of policies that are acceptable to the mainstream population for a given topic at a given time. As Bitcoin embarks on its teenage years, and adoption continues to grow, it is clear that the Overton window for Bitcoin has shifted, or is at least in the process of shifting. Politicians and governments around the world will be well served to lean into the Bitcoin movement, use it to their advantage to attract single-issue voters, and to strengthen their position on the global stage. In the United States and El Salvador, we are seeing this process begin to play out. In other countries, such as China, we see attempts to thwart Bitcoin before it can pass through the Overton window. In my opinion, these countries will look back and realize that trying to stop the inevitable was a grave mistake.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 21:00

• Americans Love The NFL, But Change Is Looming
  Americans Love The NFL, But Change Is Looming

  While Baseball is often referred to as “America’s favorite pastime”, the NFL has long surpassed the MLB as the nation’s favorite professional sports league.

  For several reasons however, including first and foremost its better suitability for television, Statista’s Felix Richter notes that football flew by baseball as Americans’ favorite sport to watch in the 1960s and hasn’t looked back since.

  In recent years, baseball has even been surpassed by basketball, as younger audiences prefer the action-packed, star-studded NBA over what many young viewers consider the dragging affair of a three-hour baseball game.

  According to recent findings from Statista’s Global Consumer Survey, the NFL remains the number 1 among major professional sports leagues in the U.S., at least for now.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  While 52 percent of self-declared sports fans follow the National Football League, compared to 42 percent for the NBA and 31 percent who follow the MLB, looking at the youngest group of respondents reveals a worrying trend for NFL executives.

  Among 16- to 25-year-olds, the NFL only plays second fiddle to the NBA, with just 33 percent of young sports fans following the league. The NBA reaches 40 percent of Gen X fans, who are overall less likely to follow any professional sports leagues than their older compatriots.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 20:30

• "We're At End Days Here" – US Faces Rampant Shortages Of 116 Different Pharmaceutical Drugs
  “We’re At End Days Here” – US Faces Rampant Shortages Of 116 Different Pharmaceutical Drugs

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

  Global supplies of pharmaceutical drugs are getting tighter and tighter, and this has very serious implications for 2022 and beyond.  If you depend upon a certain pharmaceutical drug in order to stay alive, I would recommend doing whatever you can to make sure that you have as much of that drug stockpiled as possible, because a day may come when you are unable to get any more for an extended period of time.  Much of our drug production has been outsourced to China, and our relations with China are not going so well right now.  In fact, the moment that China invades Taiwan we are going to have a major league national crisis on our hands.

  

  Let me try to explain this one step at a time.

  The FDA regularly keeps a list of pharmaceutical drug shortages.  According to that list, there were 112 drug shortages in the U.S. in November, and there were 114 drug shortages in the U.S. as of January 11th…

  Nationwide, more than 100 drugs are in short supply, including antibiotics, diuretics, opioids and heart failure medications, FDA data shows.

  As of Jan. 11, 114 drugs were in shortage, according to the FDA’s database of current and resolved drug shortages, which is updated daily. The current tally is a continuation of shortage levels seen last year. In November 2021, the FDA reported 112 drug shortages.

  I wanted information that was more up to date than that, so I went over and checked out the latest FDA drug shortage list for myself.

  There are 165 entries on the list right now, but 49 of them have been resolved.

  Subtracting 49 from 165 gives us a total of 116 pharmaceutical drug shortages in the United States at this moment.

  That is shocking.

  What are people supposed to do if they can’t get the drugs that they need?

  Unfortunately, this is another area where we have outsourced a tremendous amount of production to China.

  Today, a whopping 97 percent of all antibiotics purchased in the United States come from China.

  Just think about that.

  If our supplies of antibiotics were suddenly cut off, a whole lot of Americans would die.

  And it isn’t just antibiotics that we are talking about.  According to one expert, if China suddenly cut off the flow of pharmaceutical drugs many of our hospitals “would cease to function within months, if not days”…

  As the U.S. defense establishment grows increasingly concerned about China’s potentially hostile ambitions, the pharmaceutical supply chain is receiving new scrutiny.

  “If China shut the door on exports of medicines and their key ingredients and raw material, U.S. hospitals and military hospitals and clinics would cease to function within months, if not days,” said Rosemary Gibson, author of a book on the subject, “China Rx.”

  Wow.

  This is another example that shows why it was so foolish to become so dependent on manufacturing in China.

  For years, I railed against all of the outsourcing that was going on.

  But our politicians in Washington didn’t want to listen to voices such as mine.

  And so now we are in a very precarious position.  If China invades Taiwan, either we have to stand aside and let it happen or we give up most of our medicine.

  At this point, things are so bad that we don’t even have a single penicillin plant in the United States anymore…

  Other generic drugs whose key ingredients are manufactured in China include medicines for blood pressure medicine, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy and depression, Gibson says.

  “We can’t make penicillin anymore,” said Gibson. “The last penicillin plant in the United States closed in 2004.”

  Isn’t that crazy?

  The Chinese have the ability to bring us to our knees without firing a single shot.

  For a very long time I have been warning my readers that the U.S. has been playing checkers while China has been playing chess.

  They have outmaneuvered our clueless leaders every step of the way, and most Americans didn’t even realize what was happening.

  Of course it isn’t just pharmaceutical drugs that are the problem.  Western nations have outsourced the production of nearly everything, and now we are facing widespread global shortages that are unlike anything we have ever seen before.  I included the following quote in an article that I posted yesterday, but I think that it is so important that I am going to share it again…

  In a time when social networks have been swamped with photos of empty shelves from across the nation, Goldman’s head commodity strategist and one of the closest-followed analysts on Wall Street, said he’s never seen commodity markets pricing in the shortages they are right now.

  “I’ve been doing this 30 years and I’ve never seen markets like this,” Currie told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Monday. “This is a molecule crisis. We’re out of everything, I don’t care if it’s oil, gas, coal, copper, aluminum, you name it we’re out of it.”

  I don’t know if I have sufficient words to express the seriousness of what we are now facing.

  A horrifying global meltdown has already begun, and it is only going to get worse.

  Earlier today, I came across a video clip in which former BlackRock executive Edward Dowd warned that “we are at the end days here”.

  “We are at end days here” Former Executive of BlackRock Edward Dowd

  Sound ON

  pic.twitter.com/gCUnxdJcFU

  — Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Needless to say, he was specifically addressing the state of the financial markets, but his statement could definitely be applied on a much broader basis.

  We have entered a period of great crisis, but many people still don’t understand this.

  A lot of times, people don’t grasp what is taking place until it affects them personally.  In recent weeks, I have gotten emails from numerous readers about the issues that they are encountering at their local pharmacies.  In the old days, getting drugs that were prescribed was a snap, but now there are times when people have had to wait weeks or even months to get their drugs.

  If you still believe that this is “temporary”, you haven’t been paying attention.

  Our entire system is melting down, and what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.

  *  *  *

  It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 20:00

• The 20 Internet Giants That Rule The Web
  The 20 Internet Giants That Rule The Web

  With each passing year, an increasingly large segment of the population no longer remembers images loading a single pixel row at a time, the earsplitting sound of a 56k modem, or the early domination of web portals.

  Many of the top websites in 1998 were news aggregators or search portals, which are easy concepts to understand. Today however, as Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley details below, brand touch-points are often spread out between devices (e.g. mobile apps vs. desktop) and a myriad of services and sub-brands (e.g. Facebook’s constellation of apps). As a result, the world’s biggest websites are complex, interconnected web properties.

  The visualization below, which primarily uses data from ComScore’s U.S. Multi-Platform Properties ranking, looks at which of the internet giants have evolved to stay on top, and which have faded into internet lore.

  

  America Moves Online

  For millions of curious people the late ’90s, the iconic AOL compact disc was the key that opened the door to the World Wide Web. At its peak, an estimated 35 million people accessed the internet using AOL, and the company rode the Dotcom bubble to dizzying heights, reaching a valuation of $222 billion dollars in 1999.

  AOL’s brand may not carry the caché it once did, but the brand never completely faded into obscurity. The company continually evolved, finally merging with Yahoo after Verizon acquired both of the legendary online brands. Verizon had high hopes for the company—called Oath—to evolve into a “third option” for advertisers and users who were fed up with Google and Facebook.

  Sadly, those ambitions did not materialize as planned. In 2019, Oath was renamed Verizon Media, and was eventually sold once again in 2021.

  A City of Gifs and Web Logs

  As internet usage began to reach critical mass, web hosts such as AngelFire and GeoCities made it easy for people to create a new home on the Web.

  GeoCities, in particular, made a huge impact on the early internet, hosting millions of websites and giving people a way to actually participate in creating online content. If it were a physical community of “home” pages, it would’ve been the third largest city in America, after Los Angeles.

  This early online community was at risk of being erased permanently when GeoCities was finally shuttered by Yahoo in 2009, but luckily, the nonprofit Internet Archive took special efforts to create a thorough record of GeoCities-hosted pages.

  From A to Z

  In December of 1998, long before Amazon became the well-oiled retail machine we know today, the company was in the midst of a massive holiday season crunch.

  In the real world, employees were pulling long hours and even sleeping in cars to keep the goods flowing, while online, Amazon.com had become one of the biggest sites on the internet as people began to get comfortable with the idea of purchasing goods online. Demand surged as the company began to expand their offering beyond books.

  Amazon.com has grown to be the most successful merchant on the Internet.

  – New York Times (1998)

  Digital Magazine Rack

  Meredith will be an unfamiliar brand to many people looking at today’s top 20 list. While Meredith may not be a household name, the company controlled many of the country’s most popular magazine brands (People, AllRecipes, Martha Stewart, Health, etc.) including their sizable digital footprints. The company also owned a slew of local television networks around the United States.

  After its acquisition of Time Inc. in 2017, Meredith became the largest magazine publisher in the world. Since then, however, Meredith has divested many of its most valuable assets (Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune). In December 2021, Meredith merged with IAC’s Dotdash.

  “Hey, Google”

  When people have burning questions, they increasingly turn to the internet for answers, but the diversity of sources for those answers is shrinking.

  Even as recently as 2013, we can see that About.com, Ask.com, and Answers.com were still among the biggest websites in America. Today though, Google appears to have cemented its status as a universal wellspring of answers.

  As smart speakers and voice assistants continue penetrate the market and influence search behavior, Google is unlikely to face any near-term competition from any company not already in the top 20 list.

  New Kids on the Block

  Social media has long since outgrown its fad stage and is now a common digital thread connecting people across the world. While Facebook rapidly jumped into the top 20 by 2007, other social media infused brands took longer to grow into internet giants.

  By 2018, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook’s umbrella of platforms were all in the top 20, and you can see a more detailed and up-to-date breakdown of the social media universe here.

  A Tangled Web

  Today’s internet giants have evolved far beyond their ancestors from two decades ago. Many of the companies in the top 20 run numerous platforms and content streams, and more often than not, they are not household names.

  A few, such as Mediavine and CafeMedia, are services that manage ads. Others manage content distribution, such as music, or manage a constellation of smaller media properties, as is the case with Hearst.

  Lastly, there are still the tech giants. Remarkably, three of the top five web properties were in the top 20 list in 1998. In the fast-paced digital ecosystem, that’s some remarkable staying power.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 19:30

• Oakland Truckers Overwhelmed By Looming CARB Rule, Supply Chain Obstacles
  Oakland Truckers Overwhelmed By Looming CARB Rule, Supply Chain Obstacles

  By Clarissa Hawes of Freight Waves

  Besides the daily challenges drayage truckers face to keep their small businesses afloat at the Port of Oakland, some are questioning whether they still will be operating this time next year. That’s because of an emissions rule in California that is requiring them to upgrade their trucks to include 2010 model year or newer diesel engines by the end of the year.

  

  Bill Aboudi, president of AB Trucking in Oakland, planned to upgrade his aging fleet by replacing half of his trucks this spring and the remainder in the fall to comply with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Truck and Bus rule deadline of Dec. 31.

  Those plans are on hold for now, Aboudi said, as used truck prices continue to soar because of semiconductor shortages, which have caused larger fleets to hold on to their old equipment longer because of new truck order delays. He and other drayage companies typically buy their used trucks from over-the-road fleets, which are typically on a three-year depreciation schedule.

  “I get asked about a possible CARB extension every single day by owner-operators,” Aboudi told FreightWaves. “CARB is creating uncertainty if they will be able to earn a living next year.”

  The CARB rule covers all diesel vehicles with a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating greater than 14,000 pounds.

  Lynda Lambert, public information officer for CARB, said there is a provision in the Truck and Bus rule for new truck buyers who are experiencing manufacturer delays, but there’s no extension for California truckers who planned to buy used trucks but either can’t find one or can’t afford one because of supply constraints. 

  J.D. Power Valuation Services reported that used truck pricing in calendar year 2021 soared over 96% higher than in 2020 because of the chip import issues, which have drastically impacted the new truck market.

  A new truck can have up to 35 chips that are used to collect data.

  Prior to these challenges, Aboudi said, he would typically be able to find a used 2011 to 2016 model year truck for between $30,000 and $50,000 for his drayage operation. But not now.

  He recently looked at a late-model truck with over 500,000 miles. The dealership was asking nearly $130,000, his initial budget to purchase three trucks.

  Joe Rajkovacz, director of governmental affairs for the Western States Trucking Association, headquartered in Upland, California, estimates that over 40,000 trucks will be affected by the CARB rule based on the government agency’s data.

  He said WSTA is talking with other trade groups about submitting “a unified request for a delay in the CARB rule.”

  “If people think there’s a supply chain issue right now, imagine taking that many trucks out of service that can’t be replaced because of the computer chip shortage,” Rajkovacz told FreightWaves. “We believe a delay is warranted because of significant supply chain issues such as the inability to get a new truck or even buy a compliant used truck.”

  One owner-operator in California made the decision to retire after he received an offer he couldn’t refuse for his late-model truck, which had around 400,000 miles.

  “I planned to stay in trucking for another year or two and my truck wasn’t even for sale, but a guy offered me nearly triple what it would typically go for in a normal year,” the driver, who didn’t want to be named, told FreightWaves. “I’ve been at this a long time and my truck was paid off so I weighed hanging in there a little longer and possibly having a major mechanical problem, or getting out with a little money in my pocket. I took the money.”

  Two owner-operators Aboudi knew in Oakland retired this year rather than continue hunting for trucks in an already tight used market. He said some drivers with trucks that meet CARB’s 2007 diesel engine requirement want an extension. This would give drayage haulers time to fix their current equipment and let the used truck market cool down. 

  “Port truckers are under a lot of stress already and we need an extension to the CARB rule by a year or two to let prices of trucks drop a little and we can rest a little easier,” Aboudi said. “If not, some aren’t going to be able to stay in business because they just can’t afford to buy used trucks at these prices.”

  Frustration mounts among truckers, ag exporters

  Drayage companies and agricultural exporters say recent attempts to address the supply chain challenges at the Port of Oakland are shortsighted because the steamship lines and terminal operators aren’t being held accountable for appointment time cancellations or delays and short receiving windows. 

  The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced that it is partnering with the Port of Oakland to fund a 25-acre container staging area for ag exports. However, port officials and the USDA failed to mention that more than a dozen trucking companies were evicted from the Howard Terminal to make this space available. 

  Some were rehomed to the same area they were evicted from six months ago. Others decided the cost of doing business in Oakland was too high and left.

  One drayage company owner estimated the cost to relocate his company to the Howard Terminal six months ago was about $10,000, including moving his trucks and office trailers and hooking up to electricity and other utilities. Now he may be forced to move and pay those costs again.

  Bryan Brandes, maritime director for the Port of Oakland, said the export yard will open on March 1 and “is designed to assist our exporters and relieve congestion at the marine terminals in order to better utilize our waterfront land.”

  “The trucking companies dislocated by the empty yard were all offered space within the seaport and all understand these are short-term month-to-month agreements,” Brandes told FreightWaves.

  He said the empty yard will better utilize the land as the dry empty containers will be grounded instead of on chassis, “more than quadrupling the capacity.”

  The USDA will be offering a $125 incentive for each empty sourced from this yard that’s used for exporting agricultural products from Oakland, according to Brandes.

  “The Port of Oakland will continue to offer limited truck and container parking as we modernize our seaport,” Brandes said. “Truck and container parking is not traditionally found within seaports and has only been available recently in the Oakland seaport with the closure of two marine terminals in 2014 and 2016. 

  Miguel Silva, CEO of Intermodal Logistics in Oakland, has concerns about how the empty yard for ag exports will be utilized. 

  “How is the empty yard going to make ships show up on time?” Silva asked. “How is the empty yard going to make the terminals be more efficient in the import and export rows?” 

  Cory Peters, president of Best Drayage, which operates about 75 trucks in Oakland, also has questions about how the yard will be used as well. The majority of his customers export agricultural products from California’s Central Valley. 

  “The biggest hurdles for ag shippers right now are being able to get space on the vessels and terminals receiving the loads in a timely manner,” Peters told FreightWaves. “Having an empty yard is nice but the steamship lines still need to provide empties. Right now that’s one of the biggest issues is the steamship lines either don’t have enough equipment or refuse to release that equipment for export bookings so they’ll ship them back overseas empty.”

  

  Peters said some of the steamship lines’ receiving windows for export containers have dropped from four or five days to maybe four hours, if at all. 

  “If your load doesn’t make it in during those four hours, you have to take it over to your yard and store it until the next vessel opens, which may be a week or two later to find one that’s going to the same destination,” he said. “The steamship lines and terminals have made it clear they don’t care about export customers.” 

  He is concerned that some drayage truckers will quit hauling containers and switch to long-haul as freight rates continue to soar.

  “You can’t blame somebody for wanting to drive across the country as opposed to sitting at the port and getting abused all day long and spending eight to 10 hours waiting to get a load,” Peters said.

  Ryan Rotan, the controller of Minturn Nut Co. in Le Grand, California, said his company shipped 2,800 containers loaded with almonds and pistachios last year, with 90% of them being export loads.

  On average, he said his company is touching its files 10 times more often than normal due to all of the ocean carrier and terminal changes.

  Since the peak season started in October, Rotan said his company hasn’t had a consistent shipping month.

  “We’ve had two good weeks out of every four in a month that has been on a normal shipping time frame,” he told FreightWaves. 

  He blames the lack of communication and information sharing between the steamship lines and terminal operators with the shippers and truckers as the root cause for the delays.

  “We’ve completely stopped planning around here and it’s kind of frightening because it’s just the whim of what the terminals are going to tell us, what the ports are going to tell us and then we adjust from there,” Rotan said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 19:00

• Mapping The World's Major Religions
  Mapping The World’s Major Religions

  The world has become increasingly more secular in the last few decades. However, as Visual Capitalist’s Anshool Deshmukh details below, religion remains an integral part of many people’s lives, and 84% of the world’s population identifies with a religious group.

  The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world’s major religions, as well as by people switching faiths.

  With the help of data from Pew Research Center, we break down the religious composition of the major religions in countries worldwide.

  

  Religious Makeup of the World by Major Religions

  Determining the exact number of religions across the world is a daunting task. Many religions can be difficult to categorize or to tell apart for those not intimately familiar with their doctrine.

  Pew Research Center organizes the world’s religions into seven major categories, which includes five major religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism), one category that broadly includes all Folk/Traditional religions, and an unaffiliated category.

  Globally, Christianity has the largest following of these categories. Around 31% of the world’s population are Christians, closely followed by Muslims at 25%. Jews have the smallest population of major religions, with only 0.2% of the world identifying as Jewish.

  Let’s take a look at the religious composition of the world when accounting for regions:

  

  From Islam being the dominant religion in the Middle East to over 95% of Cambodians and Thais following Buddhism, here’s how prevalent every major religion in the world is.

  Christianity

  The world’s largest religion, Christianity, is practiced by about 2.4 billion people.

  The country with the highest number of practicing Christians is the United States, with a Christian population of 253 million. Brazil and Mexico follow closely with 185 million and 118 million Christians, respectively.

  

  Christianity has historically spread around the globe and today it remains a geographically widespread religion. Over the past century, it has become less concentrated in Europe while becoming more evenly distributed throughout the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.

  Islam

  Even though it’s the predominant religion of countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, by sheer number, countries in Asia have the highest percentage of practicing Muslims in the world.

  It may surprise you to know that 14.2% of Indians are Muslim. As a result, the country is home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations, surpassed only by Indonesia.

  

  Islam is also the world’s fastest-growing major religion. The number of Muslims is expected to increase by 70%, from 1.8 billion in 2015 to nearly 3 billion in 2060. The fact that they have the youngest median age, at 24, also helps this population growth.

  Judaism

  While Jews historically have been found all around the globe, Judaism is highly geographically concentrated today. More than four-fifths of all Jews live in just two countries: the United States and Israel. Israel is the only country with a Jewish majority, with 76% of the population being practicing Jews.

  

  The largest remaining shares of the global Jewish population apart from the U.S. and Israel are in Canada (about 3% of the country’s population), France (2%), the United Kingdom (2%), Germany (2%), Russia (2%) and Argentina (between 1% and 2%).

  Unaffiliated

  The religiously unaffiliated population includes atheists, agnostics, and people who do not identify with any particular religion. 720 million of the Chinese population consider themselves religiously unaffiliated, while 78% of Czechs feel the same way.

  

  However, it is worth noting that many of the religiously unaffiliated hold some religious or spiritual beliefs. For example, surveys have found that faith in God or a higher power is shared by 7% of unaffiliated Chinese adults, 30% of unaffiliated French adults, and 68% of unaffiliated U.S. adults.

  Hinduism

  Hinduism is the third-largest religion worldwide, with approximately 1.2 billion Hindus in many countries. Interestingly, however, Hinduism is the dominant religion in only three countries, India with 79%, Nepal with 80%, and Mauritius with 48%.

  

  Although Hinduism is rarely a country’s primary religion, it still enjoys a global presence. Many regions around the world support significant populations of Hindus, including the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, North America, and South America.

  Buddhism

  According to estimates, half the world’s Buddhists live in China. Still, they make up only 18% of the country’s population. Most of the rest of the world’s Buddhists live in East and South Asia, including 13% in Thailand (where 93% of the population is Buddhist).

  

  Buddhism in Asia is a matter of both identity and practice. Scholars and journalists have documented that many Asian countries may engage in Buddhist practices without considering themselves part of any organized religion.

  Folk Religion

  Folk religion is any ethnic or cultural religious practice that falls outside the doctrine of organized religion. Grounded on popular beliefs and sometimes called popular or vernacular religion, the term refers to how people experience and practice religion in their daily lives.

  

  As of 2020, an estimated 429 million people, about 6% of the world’s total population, were adherents of folk or traditional religions. Some notable folk religions include African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions, and Australian aboriginal religions.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 18:30

• Biden Admin Urges Court Not To Allow Release Of 'Secret Report' On Dominion Voting Machines
  Biden Admin Urges Court Not To Allow Release Of ‘Secret Report’ On Dominion Voting Machines

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

  Top officials at a U.S. federal cybersecurity agency are urging a judge not to authorize at this time the release of a report that analyzes Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Georgia, arguing doing so could assist hackers trying to “undermine election security.”

  

  Jen Easterly, the director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, answers questions during her confirmation hearing in Washington on June 10, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was recently provided an unredacted copy of the report, which was prepared by J. Alex Halderman, director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society.

  The report discusses “potential vulnerabilities in Dominion ImageCast X ballot marking devices,” or electronic voting devices, according to the government.

  While CISA supports public disclosure of any vulnerabilities and associated mitigation measures with election equipment, allowing the release of the report at this point “increases the risk that malicious actors may be able to exploit any vulnerabilities and threaten election security,” government lawyers said in a Feb. 10 filing in the case.

  The case was brought in 2017 by good-government groups and voters who say the lack of paper ballots undermines the voting process.

  U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg, an Obama nominee overseeing the case, was urged by CISA to reject attempts to release a redacted version of Halderman’s report for now.

  CISA officials want to review the information in the report and help Dominion resolve the vulnerabilities identified before the report is released. They said they weren’t able to provide a date by which they’ll be finished.

  Totenberg must weigh the request against the wishes of Georgia Secretary State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican and one of the defendants, who called in late January for the release to happen immediately.

  John Poulos, Dominion’s CEO and president, said in a statement released by Raffensperger’s office that Halderman’s review lacked “a holistic approach,” adding that Dominion “supports all efforts to bring real facts and evidence forward to defend the integrity of our machines and the credibility of Georgia’s elections.”

  Plaintiffs, including the Coalition for Good Governance, also support the release of the report, David Cross, one of their lawyers, confirmed to The Epoch Times.

  The plaintiffs said in a filing before a copy was sent to CISA that the agency should get a copy and begin its evaluation process, but that the evaluation “should not unreasonably delay the public disclosure of the report, which must be promptly disclosed to Georgia state and county election officials, and filed on the public docket, so that public officials can secure the upcoming May primary elections.”

  They asked Totenberg to order them to file a redacted version of the report on the docket, which would make it accessible to the public, no later than March 4.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 18:00

• "Not Going To Happen To Me Again" – Prepping Goes Mainstream In Post-COVID Era
  “Not Going To Happen To Me Again” – Prepping Goes Mainstream In Post-COVID Era

  Consumer psychology radically changed during the early days of the virus pandemic as shortages at supermarkets emerged. Bulk-buying habits were never a thing with the modern consumer in a pre-COVID world, but now ‘prepping’ has gone mainstream two years since the beginning of the virus pandemic as supply chains remain snarled and food inflation is out-of-control. Many have discovered: be prepared or be hungry. 

  The pandemic was an eye-opener for tens of millions of consumers who learned the government and big corporations wouldn’t take care of them when things go south. Even our elected officials were nowhere to be found in the early days of the pandemic when people panic hoarded food at supermarkets and fought over toilet paper in a ‘free for all battle royale’. 

  WSJ interviewed consumers across the country who’ve expressed their purchasing habits have changed. 

  “Bulk-buying habit is expected to stick as people eat more at home, supply remains uncertain and inflation rears up. Retailers and producers are shifting operations as a result,” WSJ said. 

  Alexis Abell, a 41yo mother of five, buys in bulk out of fear of economic uncertainty. 

  “I don’t want to be in a position again where I can’t get something,” Abell said, who was laid off in 2020 and decided not to return to work. Her household spends about 25% more a week on food and staples versus a couple of years ago. 

  “The stimulus money is gone, but we’ve gotten used to having more on hand and I’m cooking more at home, so I expect this to continue,” she said. 

  Many people expanded their pantries during the pandemic, bought freezers, and made space for non-perishables. WSJ calls “bulk shopping” “hoarding,” though it’s not and instead should be considered a form of prepping. 

  Bob Nolan, senior vice president of Demand Science at food giant Conagra Brands Inc, has said consumers have “made permanent changes” after they experienced the “harsh realities of pandemic shortages.” 

  “They didn’t just stock up that week, but they said to themselves, even if subconsciously, ‘That’s not going to happen to me again,'” Nolan said. 

  Research firm IRI, which tracks consumption of household goods, confirms households are transforming into preppers as their average annual growth in sales by volume of food and beverages was 3% in 2020 and 2021, compared with just 0.5% average yearly growth for that last decade. IRI said consumers want larger package sizes. 

  “Even if somebody waves a magic wand and makes Covid go away completely, we still expect elevated consumption in the home because people are accustomed to working from home, and hybrid work is here to stay,” said Krishnakumar Davey, president of client engagement at IRI.

  It’s human nature to be prepared. Take, for instance, the “Silent Generation” and “Boomers” who either lived through the 1930s Great Depression or were raised by parents from that period learned to keep a large pantry of food and save almost everything they had due to socio-economic uncertainties. Scarcity is terrifying and can easily sway an entire generation of folks, such as “Millennials” and “Generation Z,” who were accustomed to an on-demand society that abruptly came to a halt during the pandemic. Younger consumers were forever changed as their thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and perceptions of the economy changed during the pandemic. Thus what we’re observing today is that consumers are becoming preppers.

  

  Megan Crozier, Sam’s chief merchant, said most new Sam’s Club memberships in the third quarter of 2021 had been millennial households.  

  Another variable pushing younger households into prepping is the hottest consumer prices in four decades. Consumers have noticed prices are going higher and higher for some foods every week. Global food prices are at a decade high and could easily reach a new high as early as this spring. People are stocking up on food because the product could either be unavailable next week or cost 20% more. 

  Prepping is become mainstream and not as much “fringe” as it was perceived just a few years ago. This is a symptom of people losing trust in government and corporations. The evolution of thought for consumers is to break away from the matrix, buy land in a rural community with a decent internet connection and grow food and hunt. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 17:30

• Canadian Oil Exports To U.S. At Record Level
  Canadian Oil Exports To U.S. At Record Level

  By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

  Canadian oil producers are exporting crude to the U.S. at record rates, Reuters reported, adding that demand for the heavy, sour crude that Canada is producing is surging.

  

  What’s more, a growing amount of this crude is not staying at Gulf Coast refineries but is being exported to international markets. Kpler data cited by Reuters shows that the rate of Canadian heavy crude exports from the Gulf Coast topped 180,000 bpd last year, up from about 70,000 bpd in 2019 and 2020.

  In December, export rates from the Gulf Coast reached 300,000 bpd. Most of this crude is going to India, China, and South Korea, replacing lost Venezuelan barrels.

  Canada’s oil sands production is also at record levels of 3.5 million bpd, according to the Reuters report. According to a Capital Economics expert, however, Canada’s oil production is suffering from pipeline constraints.

  “The oil sector is not the driver of GDP growth that it once was,” Stephen Brown said in a note quoted by Bloomberg this week. “Due to pipeline capacity constraints, there is little supply response to rising prices, with oil production still stuck near 2018 levels. With export capacity out of their hands, producers have been using their income to pay down debt rather than invest.”

  “As there is little scope for an immediate supply response and it takes time for higher oil export earnings to feed through to the rest of the economy, for example, in the form of higher wages in the oil patch, there is a risk that higher oil prices initially have a modest negative impact on Canadian economic activity, by eating into consumers’ real spending power,” the economist also said.

  The Canadian oil industry has been hard hit by canceled pipeline projects, but, as Reuters reports, Enbridge managed to expand the capacity of the Line 3 pipeline twofold last year. At the same time, the Capline Pipeline, which normally transports crude from Louisiana to Illinois, reversed flows last year to move more Canadian crude to the Gulf.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 17:00

• Post-COVID Super Bowl Ad Costs Reach Record High
  Post-COVID Super Bowl Ad Costs Reach Record High

  When Super Bowl LVI kicks off tomorrow, the NFL championship won’t be the only title that’s on the line. With roughly a hundred million viewers glued to the TV in the U.S. alone, Statista’s Felix Richter notes that some of the world’s biggest and most popular brands will be competing for the unofficial title of “Most Memorable Super Bowl Ad”.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Since 2010, the average rate for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl broadcast has risen from $2.77 million to $6.50 million, making it by far the most expensive time slot U.S. television has to offer – a 30-second spot during the Academy Award ceremony is less than half the price.

  It’s a price that brands are willing to pay though.

  Last year, in-game ad revenue amounted to $435 million.

  According to Kantar Media that is roughly equivalent to the combined ad revenue of the four major U.S. broadcast networks in an average week.

  In return for their investment, brands not only get a huge audience (91.6 million viewers in 2021) but an audience that sticks around: during the 2013 Super Bowl, only 0.7 percent of the audience tuned away during commercial breaks. The average tuneaway rate during regular TV programming is five times as high. Consumers tend to pay special attention to Super Bowl ads, as agencies typically try to honour the prestigious occasion with especially witty and often funny ads.

  In recent years, the dawn of YouTube has added another bonus for Super Bowl advertisers seeing that the most popular ads often reach millions of additional viewers on the platform.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 16:30

• Russia Issues Rare Condemnation Of Israeli Airstrikes: "A Crude Violation Of Syria's Sovereignty" 
  Russia Issues Rare Condemnation Of Israeli Airstrikes: “A Crude Violation Of Syria’s Sovereignty” 

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  On Thursday, Russia said it has “deep” concerns over Israel’s ongoing air campaign in Syria, warning the continued airstrikes could escalate tensions in the region and threaten civilian air traffic.

  “Israel’s continuing strikes against targets inside Syria cause deep concern,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “They are a crude violation of Syria’s sovereignty and may trigger a sharp escalation of tensions.”

  

  “Also, such actions pose serious risks to international passenger flights.” She said Russia opposes “attempts to turn Syria into a scene of armed confrontation between third countries.” The statement urged: “Once again we are insistently calling upon the Israeli side to refrain from such use of force.”

  Israel claims its air campaign in Syria is meant to target Iran, but the airstrikes often kill Syrian soldiers. Syrian state media said one soldier was killed and five more were wounded in the latest Israeli attack, which happened Wednesday.

  Russia has held talks with Israel on Syria, and in January, Russia said it would begin joint air patrols with Syria. The patrols will include areas near the Golan Heights, a frequent site of Israeli attacks, and Israel is said to be considering slowing the strikes.

  Meanwhile, The Times of Israel details that this marks a change in policy for Russia: “Following the patrol, Ynet reported that Israeli military officials were holding talks with Russian army officers to calm tensions.”

  The report said, “Israeli officials were struggling to understand why Russia, which announced that such joint patrols were expected to be a regular occurrence moving forward, had apparently changed its policy toward Israel.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 16:00

• TD Bank To Surrender Convoy Donations To Court As Organizers Turn To Crypto
  TD Bank To Surrender Convoy Donations To Court As Organizers Turn To Crypto

  Canada’s TD Bank says it plans to surrender approximately $1 million in un-refunded GoFundMe donations to the Freedom Convoy, as well as some $400,000 the group had accepted through direct donations.

  

  On Friday, TD told CTV news that it would apply to surrender the funds to an Ontario court.

  “TD has asked the court to accept the funds, which were raised through crowdfunding and deposited into personal accounts at TD, so they may be managed and distributed in accordance with the intentions of the donors, and/or to be returned to the donors who have requested refunds but whose entitlement to a refund cannot be determined by TD,” said spokeswoman Carla Hindman.

  The Convoy, meanwhile, plans to fight for their donations – and is now looking to raise funding via cryptocurrency.

  Convoy lawyer Keith Wilson said that the group planned to fight to retrieve any money they had raised — and could be seen in a video promoting the group’s next play: a cryptocurrency fundraiser that has raised almost US$1 million.

  “We will be taking expedited legal steps to have the restrictions on the donated funds lifted as soon as possible,” Wilson said in an email to CTV News. -CTV

  “The principle philosophy of what Bitcoin is is freedom,” says one organizer in a Facebook video. “For everyone who had their voice stolen by “GoFraudMe”, “GoFundMe,” you should feel solace that there are now alternatives.”

  According to Ontario court filings, Ottawa Police cited the video in their affidavit, referencing the convoy’s crypto fundraising strategy.

  According to the Globe And Mail, more than $500,000 has been raised by one Bitcoin wallet.

  TD’s move is the latest hurdle faced by the Convoy – which has occupied Ottawa and other border crossings for approximately two weeks in protest of vaccine and mask mandates – sparking protests worldwide in solidarity, as well as a state of emergency declared by Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Friday.

  As CTV notes, of the roughly $10 million raised via GoFundMe, just $1 million was deposited before the fundraising site decided to cancel the campaign and refund the remainder.

  Two subsequent fundraisers launched on Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo have reached more than $9 million as of this writing.

  Late Thursday, however, the Ontario Superior Court froze funds from these accounts, after the province’s Attorney General alleged that the funds would further the criminal act of ‘mischief on the streets’ of Ottawa.

  GiveSendGo says the order doesn’t apply and is still collecting funds.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/12/2022 – 15:30

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Another Banner Year For The Military-Industrial Complex
  Another Banner Year For The Military-Industrial Complex

  Authored by William Hartung via TheNation.com,

  Twenty twenty-one was another banner year for the military-industrial complex, as Congress signed off on a near-record $778 billion in spending for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy. That was $25 billion more than the Pentagon had even asked for.

  

  It can’t be emphasized enough just how many taxpayer dollars are now being showered on the Pentagon. That department’s astronomical budget adds up, for instance, to more than four times the cost of the most recent version of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which sparked such horrified opposition from Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other alleged fiscal conservatives. Naturally, they didn’t blink when it came to lavishing ever more taxpayer dollars on the military-industrial complex.

  Opposing Build Back Better while throwing so much more money at the Pentagon marks the ultimate in budgetary and national-security hypocrisy. The Congressional Budget Office has determined that, if current trends continue, the Pentagon could receive a monumental $7.3 trillion-plus over the next decade, more than was spent during the peak decade of the Afghan and Iraq wars, when there were up to 190,000 American troops in those two countries alone. Sadly, but all too predictably, President Biden’s decision to withdraw US troops and contractors from Afghanistan hasn’t generated even the slightest peace dividend. Instead, any savings from that war are already being plowed into programs to counter China, official Washington’s budget-justifying threat of choice (even if outshone for the moment by the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine). And all of this despite the fact that the United States already spends three times as much as China on its military.

  The Pentagon budget is not only gargantuan, but replete with waste—from vast overcharges for spare parts to weapons that don’t work at unaffordable prices to forever wars with immense human and economic consequences. Simply put, the current level of Pentagon spending is both unnecessary and irrational.

  PRICE GOUGING ON SPARE PARTS

  Overcharging the Pentagon for spare parts has a long and inglorious history, reaching its previous peak of public visibility during the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Then, blanket media coverage of $640 toilet seats and $7,600 coffee makers sparked public outrage and a series of hearings on Capitol hill, strengthening the backbone of members of Congress. In those years, they did indeed curb at least the worst excesses of the Reagan military buildup.

  Such pricing horror stories didn’t emerge from thin air. They came from the work of people like legendary Pentagon whistleblower Ernest Fitzgerald. He initially made his mark by exposing the Air Force’s efforts to hide billions in cost overruns on Lockheed’s massive C-5A transport plane. At the time, he was described by former Air Force Secretary Verne Orr as “the most hated man in the Air Force.” Fitzgerald and other Pentagon insiders became sources for Dina Rasor, a young journalist who began drawing the attention of the media and congressional representatives to spare-parts overcharges and other military horrors. In the end, she formed an organization, the Project on Military Procurement, to investigate and expose waste, fraud, and abuse. It would later evolve into the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), the most effective current watchdog when it comes to Pentagon spending.

  A recent POGO analysis, for instance, documented the malfeasance of TransDigm, a military parts supplier that the Department of Defense’s Inspector General caught overcharging the Pentagon by as much as 3,800 percent —yes, you read that figure right!—on routine items. The company was able to do so only because, bizarrely enough, Pentagon buying rules prevent contract officers from getting accurate information on what any given item should cost or might cost the supplying company to produce it.

  In other words, thanks to Pentagon regulations, those oversight officials are quite literally flying blind when it comes to cost control. The companies supplying the military take full advantage of that. The Pentagon Inspector General’s office has, in fact, uncovered more than 100 overcharges by TransDigm alone, to the tune of $20.8 million. A comprehensive audit of all spare-parts suppliers would undoubtedly find billions of wasted dollars. And this, of course, spills over into ever more staggering costs for finished weapons systems. As Ernest Fitzgerald once said, a military aircraft is just a collection of “overpriced spare parts flying in formation.”

  WEAPONS THIS COUNTRY DOESN’T NEED AT PRICES WE CAN’T AFFORD

  The next level of Pentagon waste involves weapons we don’t need at prices we can’t afford, systems that, for staggering sums, fail to deliver on promises to enhance our safety and security. The poster child for such costly, dysfunctional systems is the F-35 combat aircraft, a plane tasked with multiple missions, none of which it does well. The Pentagon is slated to buy more than 2,400 F-35s for the Air Force, Marines, and Navy. The estimated lifetime cost for procuring and operating those planes, a mere $1.7 trillion, would make it the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons project ever.

  Once upon a time (as in some fairy tale), the idea behind the creation of the F-35 was to build a plane that, in several variations, would be able to carry out many different tasks relatively cheaply, with potential savings generated by economies of scale. Theoretically, that meant the bulk of the parts for the thousands of planes to be built would be the same for all of them. This approach has proven a dismal failure so far, so much so that the researchers at POGO are convinced the F-35 may never be fully ready for combat.

  Its failures are too numerous to recount here, but a few examples should suffice to suggest why the program minimally needs to be scaled back in a major way, if not canceled completely. For a start, though meant to provide air support for troops on the ground, it’s proved anything but well-designed to do so. In fact, that job is already handled far better and more cheaply by the existing A-10 “Warthog” attack aircraft. A 2021 Pentagon assessment of the F-35—and keep in mind that this is the Department of Defense, not some outside expert— found 800 unresolved defects in the plane. Typical of its never-ending problems: a wildly expensive and not particularly functional high-tech helmet that, at the cost of $400,000 each, is meant to give its pilot special awareness of what’s happening around and below the plane as well as to the horizon. And don’t forget that the F-35 will be staggeringly expensive to maintain and already costs an impressive $38,000 an hour to fly.

  In December 2020, House Armed Services Committee chair Adam Smith finally claimed he was “tired of pouring money down the F-35 rathole.” Even former Air Force chief of staff General Charles Brown acknowledged that it couldn’t meet its original goal—to be a low-cost fighter—and would have to be supplemented with a less costly plane. He compared it to a Ferrari, adding, “You don’t drive your Ferrari to work every day, you only drive it on Sundays.” It was a stunning admission, given the original claims that the F-35 would be the Air Force’s affordable, lightweight fighter and the ultimate workhorse for future air operations.

  It’s no longer clear what the rationale even is for building more F-35s at a time when the Pentagon has grown obsessed with preparing for a potential war with China. After all, if that country is the concern (an exaggerated one, to be sure), it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which fighter planes would go into combat against Chinese aircraft, or be engaged in protecting American troops on the ground—not at a moment when the Pentagon is increasingly focused on long-range missiles, hypersonic weapons, and unpiloted vehicles as its China-focused weapons of choice.

  When all else fails, the Pentagon’s fallback argument for the F-35 is the number of jobs it will create in states or districts of key members of Congress. As it happens, virtually any other investment of public funds would build back better with more jobs than F-35s would. Treating weapons systems as jobs programs, however, has long helped pump up Pentagon spending way beyond what’s needed to provide an adequate defense of the United States and its allies.

  And that plane is hardly alone in the ongoing history of Pentagon overspending. There are many other systems that similarly deserve to be thrown on the scrap heap of history, chief among them the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), essentially an F-35 of the sea. Similarly designed for multiple roles, it, too, has fallen far short in every imaginable respect. The Navy is now trying to gin up a new mission for the LCS, with little success.

  This comes on top of buying outmoded aircraft carriers for up to $13 billion a pop and planning to spend more than a quarter of a trillion dollars on a new nuclear-armed missile, known as the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, or GBSD. Such land-based missiles are, according to former secretary of defense William Perry, “among the most dangerous weapons in the world,” because a president would have only minutes to decide whether to launch them on being warned of an enemy nuclear attack. In other words, a false alarm (of which there have been numerous examples during the nuclear age) could lead to a planetary nuclear conflagration.

  The organization Global Zero has demonstrated convincingly that eliminating land-based missiles altogether, rather than building new ones, would make the United States and the rest of the world safer, with a small force of nuclear-armed submarines and bombers left to dissuade any nation from launching a nuclear war. Eliminating ICBMs would be a salutary and cost-saving first step towards nuclear sanity, as former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg and other experts have made all too clear.

  AMERICA’S COVER-THE-GLOBE DEFENSE STRATEGY

  And yet, unbelievably enough, I haven’t even mentioned the greatest waste of all: this country’s “cover the globe” military strategy, including a planet-wide “footprint” of more than 750 military bases, more than 200,000 troops stationed overseas, huge and costly aircraft-carrier task forces eternally floating the seven seas, and a massive nuclear arsenal that could destroy life as we know it (with thousands of warheads to spare).

  You only need to look at the human and economic costs of America’s post-9/11 wars to grasp the utter folly of such a strategy. According to Brown University’s Costs of War Project, the conflicts waged by the United States in this century have cost $8 trillion and counting, with hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties, thousands of US troops killed, and hundreds of thousands more suffering from traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. And for what? In Iraq, the United States cleared the way for a sectarian regime that then helped create the conditions for ISIS to sweep in and conquer significant parts of the country, only to be repelled (but not thoroughly defeated) at great cost in lives and treasure. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, after a conflict doomed as soon as it morphed into an exercise in nation-building and large-scale counterinsurgency, the Taliban is now in power. It’s hard to imagine a more ringing indictment of the policy of endless war.

  Despite the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, for which the Biden administration deserves considerable credit, spending on global counterterror operations remains at high levels, thanks to ongoing missions by Special Operations forces, repeated air strikes, ongoing military aid and training, and other kinds of involvement short of full-scale war. Given the opportunity to rethink strategy as part of a “global force posture” review released late last year, the Biden administration opted for a remarkably status quo approach, insisting on maintaining substantial bases in the Middle East, while modestly boosting the US troop presence in East Asia.

  As anyone who’s followed the news knows, despite the immediate headlines about sending troops and planes to Eastern Europe and weapons to Ukraine in response to Russia’s massing of its forces on that country’s borders, the dominant narrative for keeping the Pentagon budget at its current size remains China, China, China. It matters little that the greatest challenges posed by Beijing are political and economic, not military. “Threat inflation” with respect to that country continues to be the Pentagon’s surest route to acquiring yet more resources and has been endlessly hyped in recent years by, among others, analysts and organizations with close ties to the arms industry and the Department of Defense.

  For example, the National Defense Strategy Commission, a congressionally mandated body charged with critiquing the Pentagon’s official strategy document, drew more than half its members from individuals on the boards of arms-making corporations, working as consultants for the arms industry, or from think tanks heavily funded by just such contractors. Not surprisingly, the commission called for a 3 percent to 5 percent annual increase in the Pentagon budget into the foreseeable future. Follow that blueprint and you’re talking $1 trillion annually by the middle of this decade, according to an analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense. Such an increase, in other words, would prove unsustainable in a country where so much else is needed, but that won’t stop Pentagon budget hawks from using it as their North Star.

  In March of this year, the Pentagon is expected to release both its new national defense strategy and its budget for 2023. There are a few small glimmers of hope, like reports that the administration may abandon certain dangerous (and unnecessary) nuclear-weapons programs instituted by the Trump administration.

  However, the true challenge, crafting a budget that addresses genuine security problems like public health and the climate crisis, would require fresh thinking and persistent public pressure to slash the Pentagon budget, while reducing the size of the military-industrial complex. Without a significant change of course, 2022 will once again be a banner year for Lockheed Martin and other top weapons makers at the expense of investing in programs necessary to combat urgent challenges from pandemics to climate change to global inequality.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 23:40

• ATF Tries To Ban Forced Reset Triggers As People Begin To 3D Print At Home
  ATF Tries To Ban Forced Reset Triggers As People Begin To 3D Print At Home

  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has been coming after the Orlando-based Rare Breed Triggers (RBT), the manufacturer of a drop-in AR-15 forced reset trigger since last summer. 

  Everyone in the gun-rights world has been following the ATF’s attack on RBT. The Feds say RBT’s FRT-15 (forced reset trigger for an AR-15 platform) is classified as a “machine gun,” but the company claims otherwise. 

  Less than two weeks ago, Gun Owners of America, one of the most prominent pro-gun organizations, published an alleged leaked internal ATF email documenting plans to start seizing lawfully-owned FRT-15s from manufacturers and resellers. RBT’s president Lawrence Demonico responded to the leaked memo and said while he couldn’t confirm it, “I can tell you we’ve received word from one dealer in Illinois late yesterday afternoon stating that the ATF visited him and handed him a cease and desist order and seized FRT-15 triggers.” 

  The ATF under the Biden administration is getting bolder and could rule by executive fiat on new guidelines for gun braces, serialized uppers, and 80% lowers as early as spring. The Feds are also pursuing the ban of forced reset triggers. Many in the gun community have a bad feeling about an overreaching ATF ahead of midterms as President Biden must appease his anti-gun base. 

  With that aside, we enter the world of 3D printing and how the gun community has embraced this technology over recent years to stay one step ahead of the ATF. This brings us to one YouTuber named “Hoffman Tactical,” who released a video days ago explaining how he 3D-printed a forced reset trigger. 

  

  Parts for the drop-in trigger can easily be printed at home. 

  

  The video starts with an individual shooting an AR-15 with a custom 3D printed “FRT” trigger. One can noticeably tell the forced reset trigger speeds up the rate of fire. The remainder of the video explains the design and printing of the trigger. 

  Our point is no matter how much effort the Biden administration puts into banning guns and accessories through executive fiat. There is a rapidly growing community of law-abiding citizens 3D printing and evolving gun designs in their basements with 3D printers found on Amazon and free CAD software online, along with countless forums for discussion among other enthusiasts. Technology is far outpacing the ATF and is a countermeasure to make sure government doesn’t overstep its boundaries. 

  “The interesting thing about the design of this 3D Forced Reset Trigger is that there are only three small 3d printed components that integrate with a regular or “mil-spec” trigger group. If you looked at the 3D printed components, you’d have no idea they’re even gun parts. This is why the ATF has their new rule changes they will be trying to implement in the spring, trying to cast the widest regulatory net possible. With 3d printing and home builds, who’s to say what is, and isn’t a gun? Will the ATF regulate blocks of aluminum as 0% receivers, or will they make a push to regulate source code or books on 3d printing and CAD files. Ultimately the ATF is fighting a battle that it cannot win without a major increase in its power over taxpayers, which the Biden administration has continuously asked for from congress, but is unlikely to receive,” said gun advocacy group The Machine Gun Nest. 

  So what can the ATF do about law-abiding citizens printing guns and accessories at home? Ban printers? Regulate PLA purchases? Ban the ability to share CAD files?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 23:20

• How Much Are Americans Using Novel 'Sextech'? A New Survey Finds Out
  How Much Are Americans Using Novel ‘Sextech’? A New Survey Finds Out

  Authored by Ross Pomeroy via RealClear Science (emphasis ours),

  Emerging technologies continually reshape almost every aspect of our lives, including our sex lives. A new survey published in the Journal of Sex Research finds that some types of “sextech” are becoming mainstream.

  

  “Sextech” includes internet-based applications, platforms, or devices used for sexual pleasure.

  Online pornography may be the quintessential sextech. Hard to come by just three decades ago, today, two of the top ten most visited websites in the world are porn sites. One in six American women and nearly one in two American men view online pornography on a weekly basis. Could any other sextech reach similar levels of adoption?

  To find out, researchers at Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute conducted an anonymous online survey with just over 7,500 participants aged 18 to 65. As part of a broader questionnaire about their digital lives, participants were queried about their use of six emerging sextechs: visiting a “camming” website where performers stream sexual content for viewers, participating in a camming stream by messaging or tipping the performer, using a remotely-controlled, internet-connected “teledildonic” sex toy, viewing virtual reality pornography, playing a sexually explicit online video game, or messaging an artificially intelligent sex-focused chatbot.

  Overall, 18% of those surveyed had visited a camming website, 13% had played sex-focused video games, 11% had participated in a camming stream, 10% had used VR pornography, 9% had used teledildonics, and 8% had exchanged sexts with an A.I. chatbot. Men were about three to four times more likely than women to engage in all those activities. Wealthier, younger, and LGBT individuals were also much more likely to use emerging sextech. Of note, about a third of those surveyed between ages 18 and 20 had played sex-based video games. Only about one in fifty people aged 60+ used these novel sextechs.

  Also intriguing: religious individuals were slightly more likely than nonbelievers to use sextech, a finding which surprised the researchers.

  “Perhaps prominent religious figures have not condemned these newer technologies as heavily as more traditional forms (e.g., pornography), thereby minimizing shame,” the authors speculated.

  With a highly-publicized presence at the Consumer Electronics Show, innovative sexual technologies are clearly here and not going anywhere. Technology now pervades our lives, both publicly and intimately.

  “The current results suggest the sexual landscape has dramatically changed, with technology increasingly offering avenues for sexual fulfillment across a wide range of demographics,” the researchers conclude.

  Source: Amanda N. Gesselman, Ellen M. Kaufman, Alexandra S. Marcotte, Tania A. Reynolds & Justin R. Garcia (2022) Engagement with Emerging Forms of Sextech: Demographic Correlates from a National Sample of Adults in the United States, The Journal of Sex Research, DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2021.2007521

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 23:00

• Global Freedoms Hit 'Dismal' Record Low Amid Pandemic
  Global Freedoms Hit ‘Dismal’ Record Low Amid Pandemic

  The state of democracy worldwide fell to a record low in 2021, largely due to pandemic restrictions that have led to many nations placing a public health emergency of arguable severity over personal freedoms, according to a new report released Thursday which rated 167 countries based on various measures including civil liberties and electoral processes.

  

  According to the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), less than half the world’s population live under some form of democracy.

  Overall, the world’s score fell to 5.28 out of 10, setting “another dismal record,” with the EIU’s lowest rating since they began the index in 2006, according to the Washington Post.

  The annual decline was the largest since 2010, with the survey finding that just 6.4% of the world lived in a “full democracy” last year, while over 1/3 lied under authoritarian rule – with much of that coming from China.

  The decline did not start with the pandemic, but it has compounded negative trends. From lockdowns to travel bans, the coronavirus led to “an unprecedented withdrawal of civil liberties among developed democracies and authoritarian regimes alike,” the report said. -WaPo

  “It has led to the normalization of emergency powers, which have tended to stay on the statute books, and accustomed citizens to a huge extension of state power over large areas of public and personal life,” reads the report, which adds that the pandemic has exposed inequalities in health care, government mismanagement, and weaknesses in economic ‘safety nets.’

  The pandemic has also opened the door for governments to exploit the health crisis in order to suppress political participation.

  While North America remained the highest-ranked region in the EIU survey, Canada saw “a notable decline,” pushing the country out of the top 10, though it still scored highly, the report said.

  Meanwhile, it noted that just about 10 percent of Canadians in a separate poll felt they had “a great deal” of freedom of choice and control, with “a worrying trend of disaffection among Canada’s citizens with traditional democratic institutions and increased levels of support for non-democratic alternatives.” -WaPo

  In the United States – which received a “flawed democracy” rating from the EIU, “political and cultural divisions have become more entrenched,” despite Americans having become more engaged in politics in recent years due to “a series of high-impact events in 2020—including a politicized pandemic and a presidential election that the two main political parties framed in existential terms—boosted political engagement and participation.”

  Topping the list of ‘full democracies’ are Norway, New Zealand and Finland. At the bottom are Afghanistan, Myanmar and North Korea.

  Meanwhile, the 2021 Human Freedom Index from the Cato Institute and the Fraser Institute similarly found that freedom has declined for around 80% of the world, and that’s the ‘good news’ according to RealClear Policy.

  The HFI, the broadest available freedom index, measures economic and personal freedoms, including security and the rule of law, both needed to protect the freedom of all and enable people to safely exercise their freedom. 

  The decline in freedom is wide-ranging. It affects countries large and small, dictatorships and democracies, and all regions of the planet. The freedoms that have declined most are speech, religion, and association and assembly. Yet there is a silver lining in these darkening skies.  

  In short, the decline in freedom worldwide is higher now than at any time in human history prior to the late 20th century, when the iron curtain fell.

  Although in decline, freedom across the globe is higher now than at any time in human history prior to the late 20^th century, when the iron curtain fell freeing hundreds of millions; African dictatorships gave way to elections; Latin America’s young democracies began opening their economies; Asian nations like Indonesia and the Philippines eased suppression; and China, home to more than a billion people, continued its liberalization. Most nations now backsliding are freer than they were two generations ago. 

  Yet today, much of the good news is bad. Look at the five nations where freedom most increased between 2008 and 2019: Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Armenia.  

  Myanmar and Tunisia have since suffered coups; Sri Lanka’s former leaders, accused of human rights crimes, have returned to power; Ethiopia has fallen into a gruesome civil war (after its newly elected prime minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019), and Armenia lost a destabilizing war with Azerbaijan, which may have negative consequences for freedom internally. 

  The story is the same regionally. The Caucuses and Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa increased freedom between 2008 and 2019. However, gains in the Caucuses and Central Asia were driven by advances in freedom in Georgia where the president who led the freedom charge, Mikheil Saakashvili, is now under arrest in brutal conditions. 

  Many East Asian nations — Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Mongolia — had stable or rising levels of freedom. But most East Asians live in China, and the Chinese Communist Party has intensified its repression since 2019.  

  In South Asia — a vast region including countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka — only Bhutan escaped growing repression since 2019. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers instability in the Horn of Africa and, in the Sahel, uprisings, coups, and growing Islamic insurgences. All of this will damage freedom going forward. 

  For full disclosure, both authors’ nations, the United States and Canada, have suffered comparatively smaller losses in freedom, though they face threats going forward. Government is growing rapidly in both nations, squeezing space for free exchange. Political polarization, particularly in the United States, will almost certainly continue to have negative consequences for freedom. 

  Reasons for freedom’s decline vary. In some cases, democratically elected leaders are aspiring autocrats, amplifying their power by suppressing opposition, speech, assembly, and even religion and relationship freedom, as in the Philippines, Turkey, Hungary, Mexico, and Poland. In other nations, autocratic leaders have intensified their attacks on freedom. Russia, China, Nicaragua, Egypt, and Venezuela are on this track.  

  * *  *

  And what’s suffered the largest drop? Freedom of speech.

  

  We’re sure this will all go back to ‘normal’ once the pandemic is over, as authoritarians will surely cede the ’emergency’ powers they’ve granted themselves – right?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 22:40

• "An Absolute Mad Rush": Californians Confess Why They're Fleeing The State
  “An Absolute Mad Rush”: Californians Confess Why They’re Fleeing The State

  Authored by Jamie Joseph via The Epoch Times,

  When former Bay Area resident Terry Gilliam, 62, started the Facebook group “Leaving California” in 2018, the group attracted 200 members within six months. Four years later, the group has over 50,000 members, and the number continues to climb every week.

  “In the last 30 days, we’ve added 11,000 members, which is darn close to a record,” Gilliam told The Epoch Times.

  “And it all started on January 1st … I think there is an absolute mad rush of people who are going to get out of California this year.”

  Although he formed the group a few years ago, Gilliam didn’t take the plunge and move out of state to Florida until last year. Issues like homelessness, crime, politics, cost of housing, traffic, and exorbitant taxes pushed Gilliam away—and he’s not the only one.

  When the group first began, Gilliam said Idaho and Texas were the most popular destinations for California residents. Now, he’s seeing more people moving to Tennessee and Florida as well.

  Earlier this month, U-Haul reported that the top states for people moving within the United States in 2021 were Texas, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Arizona, while California was at the very bottom of the list.

  

  Matt Merrill, U-Haul area district vice president of the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex and West Texas, said in a statement that many people are moving to Texas from California, New York, and other states “due to the job growth—a lot of opportunity here. The cost of living here is much lower than those areas. Texas is open for business.”

  Demand was so high, U-Haul even ran out of trucks leaving California last year, according to the company.

  

  In this file photo, a worker moves a piece of furniture into a truck while moving a family in Tiburon, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2010. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

  Gilliam’s Facebook group has become a sort of haven for disaffected natives who are able to connect with local moving companies who are also in the group and eager for business. Though most of the users lean conservative, Gilliam said he didn’t start it for that reason.

  “But I think conservatives in California are the most upset with what’s happening, so they’re the first to leave,” he said.

  Mild weather, beautiful coastal beaches, and a vibrant, diverse culture bring tourists to California year-round. But for some residents, it’s not enough to keep them here anymore.

  Alexander Erwing, 30, and his wife moved from the Monterey Peninsula to Oklahoma last year.

  “The business I worked for was headquartered here, and now they’ve moved their headquarters to the Midwest, and you know, that’s just one less reason to stay here,” Erwing told The Epoch Times. “So, it’s like over the years all the reasons to stay have kind of gone away.”

  The state has the highest top income tax rate at 13.3 percent, with an 8.84 percent tax rate for businesses, in addition to permits and regulatory costs depending on the county and city. With a high cost of living and rent prices averaging $2,500 in competitive markets, mom-and-pop shops have to turn an incredible profit to stay afloat.

  In the first six months of 2021, more than 70 company headquarters left California, according to a Hoover Institution of Stanford University report (pdf), which found the exodus was accelerating. Later that year, Elon Musk’s Tesla made headlines by relocating to Texas.

  

  An aerial view of the Tesla Fremont Factory in Fremont, Calif., on May 13, 2020. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

  “Our findings identify the California counties that lost headquarters facilities, the states to which migrations occur, and extensive discussion of the reasons, including high tax rates, punitive regulations, high labor costs, high utility and energy costs, and declining quality of life for many Californians which reflects the cost of living and housing affordability,” the report said.

  California’s own Legislative Analyst’s Office found that the state’s “outmigration is increasingly concentrated among older, more affluent people” in a report from last July. Data from the office also showed “a persistent, long-term net outmigration.”

  “A key driver of migration between California and other states is living costs, particularly the cost of housing,” the report read.

  The median cost for a house in the Golden State as of 2021 is more than $800,000, up 34.2 percent from the previous year, according to the California Association of Realtors. The U.S. national average is perched around $400,000.

  U-Haul isn’t the only moving company getting a piece of the massive demand. Joey Childs, 22, co-owner of San Jose-based Silicon Valley Moving & Storage told The Epoch Times the past two years “have been like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

  “December, January, February, was a little slow. But last year was it was ridiculous—I mean, we were booked four or five months out in advance,” he said. “It’s getting very expensive to live here too … with very high taxes. A lot of people that we move are also small business owners too, and it’s getting very hard for them to operate their business here. So, they’re just leaving, and it’s a no brainer.”

  

  A closed restaurant in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2020. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)

  Childs said his family is also looking to relocate to Ohio soon and open a second location of their moving company there.

  Nonpartisan policy research group California Policy Lab examined exits from the state amid the pandemic. The study revealed that fewer people are moving to California since the start of the pandemic in 2020, while the number of residents leaving has gone up significantly.

  “At the end of September 2021, entrances to California were 38% lower than at the end of March 2020,” the study noted. “Exits, following a dip early in the pandemic, have rebounded and are now 12% higher than pre-COVID levels—on pace with pre-pandemic trends.”

  California native Kathy Kean, 62, moved from Yorba Linda to Spring Ranch, Texas last year with her husband. She said she had noticed an increase in crime in her region.

  “It’s not what we remembered our area to be,” Kean told The Epoch Times. “Some of the crime, like the gangs, were getting worse in our area from L.A. and Riverside coming in.”

  The Public Policy Institute of California examined the state’s crime trends in 2021 and found an increase in property and violent crime numbers—with homicides increasing—in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco.

  “An increase in property crime in 2021, driven by car break-ins and auto thefts, returned property crime numbers close to pre-pandemic numbers,” the policy institute memo read. “The need to continue monitoring crime trends, investigating underlying causes, and identifying effective solutions remains high.”

  Homelessness has also been an explosive issue for voters as the November election remains on the horizon. In total, California has the highest number of homeless people in the country, with 161,548 people. Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated an aggressive investment of $2 billion to address homelessness in his 2022 budget.

  

  Homelessness in Venice Beach, Calif., on Jan 27, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

  San Mateo resident and union pipe fitter Michael Bentley, 53, is moving to Colorado in June. He said he was never into politics until a few years ago and would always vote alongside his labor union’s suggestions.

  Then, he noticed an increase in homelessness in the Bay Area. He began avoiding downtown due to the crime and squalor he saw on the streets.

  “When I first came here, there was wasn’t very much homelessness,” Bentley told The Epoch Times. “Now, I mean, it is freaking crazy. I mean, I avoid San Francisco at all costs. I don’t go downtown, I mean, I feel sorry for these people.”

  Others who have left, like former Fontana resident Michael Welter, 63, packed up due to the pandemic restrictions the state imposed. He now resides in Arizona.

  “The freedoms that we experienced here, particularly around the pandemic, has been a breath of fresh air, literally, because we don’t wear a mask anymore,” Welter told The Epoch Times. “And you know, we can make decisions for ourselves. I like that I can carry a gun without getting a permit. It’s just freedom—it’s just what America should be.”

  All of the subjects interviewed said they only miss the weather in California, while their quality of life has now improved, especially financially. Many had family already in other states they were moving to, or moved with their families. They also uniformly said taxes were one of the top reasons they chose to leave, with some mentioning recent policy disagreements.

  “I think the Democrats in legislature and the governor have been emboldened by the failed recall,” Gilliam said.

  “And they’re going to double down on everything. They they think that everybody agrees with what they should be doing. Instead, they’re going to lose the middle class because of it.”

  After forming the Leaving California Facebook group, Gilliam also created a “Life After California” group, which focuses on former residents posting about their new lives after moving away. That group now has 79,000 members.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 22:20

• "It's A Mess" – Shocking Image Reveals Baltimore Parking Garage Transformed Into Make-Shift Morgue
  “It’s A Mess” – Shocking Image Reveals Baltimore Parking Garage Transformed Into Make-Shift Morgue

  A wild story out of Baltimore says hundreds of bodies are piling up in a make-shift morgue in a parking garage. 

  Baltimore Banner’s first newsletter broke the story Thursday. It said, “more than 200 bodies are awaiting autopsies by doctors at Maryland’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the agency located in downtown Baltimore responsible for investigating deaths statewide.” 

  Baltimore Banner’s Tim Prudente, the lead reporter on the story, called the backlog of bodies awaiting the medical examiner “unprecedented.” He said the number of bodies at the make-shift morgue is “growing by the day and filling up the morgue refrigerators.”

  “The backlog snowballed from 50 bodies awaiting autopsy in late December to 150 bodies in late January. State officials estimate the number will exceed 300 bodies this month. They blame office turnover and the coronavirus pandemic that’s kept employees sick at home. Staff shortages come amid increasing numbers of murders and drug overdoses, cases that require autopsies,” Prudente said. 

  Space in the parking garage of the old Social Security Administration building in the downtown area of Baltimore City appears to be filling up quickly. 

  

  Prudente interviewed Patrick Moran, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, whose members include autopsy assistants, lab techs, and forensic investigators with the office, and confirmed the make-shift morgue in the parking garage and said, “it’s a mess.” 

  The situation worsens and has caused alarm among Dr. Victor Weedn, the chief medical examiner for Maryland, who has requested help from the federal mortuary disaster teams. 

  

  The Baltimore Banner obtained an internal email from Weedn to his staff who wrote:

  “The entire Chief Medical Examiner Office staff is struggling to cope. We are receiving endless calls from families, who have to wait without being given an answer to their questions when their loved one will be released. We have no good answers for them.”

  Despite the increasing body count, there’s a growing concern about labor shortages among morgue workers that limit body processing. 

  “If the federal government is paying more, if cities and counties are paying more, that’s where people are going to go,” Moran said. We are having bodies piling up in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner because they can’t bring anybody to work because the conditions are miserable, unsanitary and the pay is awful.”

  A spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan chimed in on the discussions and said the problem isn’t state salaries but too few pathologists.

  “There is a critical shortage of forensic pathologists – there are only about 500 board-certified pathologists in the entire country, so this is not a challenge unique to Maryland,” said Michael Ricci, a spokesman for Hogan.

  Baltimore Banner’s first news story appears to have broken a disturbing development in the liberal state where out of control murders and drug overdoses, along with staffing shortages, has created a perfect storm for the medical examiner. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 22:00

• Nebraska Joins Call For Convention Of States To Amend US Constitution
  Nebraska Joins Call For Convention Of States To Amend US Constitution

  Authored by Isabel van Brugen via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Nebraska on Jan. 28 became the 17th state to push for a convention of states to make changes to the U.S. Constitution—an unconventional process that’s never been used before.

  

  Under Article V of the Constitution, calling a convention to amend the U.S. constitution would require approval from two-thirds of U.S. states, or 34 of 50 states. According to the National Constitution Center, the measure is used to bypass Congress, but has never been accomplished before.

  Constitutional amendments can also be made if two-thirds of both chambers of Congress agree on a proposal and it is ratified by three-fourths of states. Since the U.S. Constitution was adopted, 27 amendments have been made.

  The Nebraska Legislature in its resolution, similar to other states, put forward changes that will “impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.”

  State lawmakers reached a compromise with an amendment that would let the call expire in February 2027.

  Nebraska state Sen. Steve Halloran, a Republican who sponsored the resolution, told Fox News that he believes an “overreach on the part of the federal government” is driving states to push for change.

  “The Founding Fathers had anxiety that that might happen,” Halloran said. “I don’t believe they imagined that it would get to this point.”

  Halloran decried the $30 trillion national debt as “unsustainable.”

  “It’s become abundantly clear with the history of Congress that they have no sense of limiting their spending and the accrued debt that’s happening upon our nation,” Halloran said.

  “We have effectively kicked that can down the road on repayment of any of that, but we cannot kick the can down the road every year,” he added.

  The senator called on other states to join on calls to amend the U.S. Constitution.

  “It’s an exercise in what the Constitution is,” he said. “I think it would be a great civics lesson once it happens.”

  In a message aimed at state leaders, Halloran told Fox News he believes the nation can no longer be operated on “fear, uncertainty, and doubt.”

  He separately told Newsweek that states need to move to exercise their constitutional authority by “proposing amendments through an Article V Convention of States to restrain the federal government from driving our country into insolvency.”

  According to the Convention of States Action, so far Georgia, Alaska, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arizona, North Dakota, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Utah have approved a call for the convention, while 24 others are considering doing so.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 21:40

• Meteorologists Closely Monitor ​​​​​​​"Big Storm" For Next Week
  Meteorologists Closely Monitor ​​​​​​​”Big Storm” For Next Week

  Meteorologists at private weather forecaster BAMWX are monitoring weather models that suggest a change in the jet stream will create cooler weather for the central part of the country and, by the end of next week, set up the possibility for the next “big storm.“

  “A big storm one week from today [Thursday] continues to show itself on all global weather data,” according to Kirk Hinz, the chief meteorologist at BAMWX. The timing of the storm, remember, nothing is locked in, is between Feb. 17-19 for areas of the central US, including Northern Texas to Omaha to Minneapolis to Chicago. He noted there could be “a severe side to this along with a wide side.” 

  There are still many unknowns about the storm a week out, but Hinz has produced a storm risk threat map that gives readers a general idea of where the storm may strike late next week. 

  

  It appears a new jet stream configuration this weekend could pave the way for the storm. In recent days, the southern Plains and Rockies and even Southern California experienced abnormally warm temperatures. 

  

  The latest round of warmer weather in the central and western part of the US resulted in declining heating demand which sent US natural gas futures tumbling this week, the most significant weekly drop this year. 

  

  BAMWX meteorologists will continue to monitor weather models as they change, and a more accurate threat map will be produced in the days. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 21:20

• Blinken Reassures Pacific Allies The Asia 'Pivot' Still On Despite "Working 24/7" On Ukraine
  Blinken Reassures Pacific Allies The Asia ‘Pivot’ Still On Despite “Working 24/7” On Ukraine

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on a tour of the Asia Pacific where he is reassuring regional allies that the US is still committed to its Asia “pivot” despite the recent focus on Russia and Ukraine.

  “There are a few other things going on in the world right now, some of you may have noticed. We have a bit of a challenge with Ukraine and Russian aggression. We’re working 24/7 on that,” Blinken said Thursday in Australia.

  

  “But we know, the president knows and each of you knows this better than anyone else, that so much of this century is going to be shaped by what happens here in the Indo-Pacific region,” he added.

  Early on in Biden’s presidency, officials made it clear that the foreign policy priority was meant to be on countering China and increasing the US footprint in the region. As part of this strategy, the US working to boost military cooperation in the region, and signed the new AUKUS military pact with the UK and Australia.

  The Biden administration has also been working to strengthen the Quad, an informal alliance that consists of the US, India, Australia, and Japan. Blinken is meeting with officials from the other Quad countries in Melbourne on Friday.

  Ahead of the meeting, Blinken insisted the Quad is not primarily meant to counter China. “This is not about standing against anyone in particular,” he said. “It is about standing up for a rules-based order, making sure that we uphold those rules and principles if they’re being challenged.”

  US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Australia with in a bid to bolster Indo-Pacific partnership and counter China’s growing power and influence pic.twitter.com/xWJTW6eA6l

  — TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) February 10, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  But it’s clear that the Quad is about China, and the so-called “rules-based order” is jargon for the US-dominated world order that Washington thinks Beijing is threatening. After Australia, Blinken is due to visit Fiji, where he plans to reassure Pacific island leaders that the US is committed to the region.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 21:00

• Nobel Laureate Who Discovered HIV And Was One Of The First To Claim A COVID Lab Leak, Dead At Age 89
  Nobel Laureate Who Discovered HIV And Was One Of The First To Claim A COVID Lab Leak, Dead At Age 89

  Luc Montagnier, the French Nobel laureate who co-discovered HIV – and who we pointed out one was of the first to claim that Covid-19 had come from a lab, as early as April 2020 – has died at the age of 89, France 24 reported yesterday. 

  In 2008, Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi were awarded the Nobel Prize for work they did at the Pasteur Institute in Paris isolating HIV, the report says. Montagnier was also known for a “bitter rivalry” with U.S. scientist Robert Gallo in identifying HIV.

  His HIV work began in January 1983 after “tissue samples arrived at the Pasteur Institute from a patient with a disease that mysteriously wrecked the immune system.”

  Unfortunately for the hero in his field, as French media put it, Montagnier was “later dismissed by the scientific community for his increasingly outlandish theories, notably on Covid-19”. 

  But his “outlandish” theories, as they are still being called – disregarded in early 2020, when we first commented on them – appear to have panned out. Recall, Montagnier claimed that SARS-CoV-2 was a manipulated virus that was accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

  He also claimed at the time that the lab, known for its work on coronaviruses, tried to use one of these viruses as a vector for HIV in the search for an AIDS vaccine.

  

  Montagnier, interviewed by Dr Jean-François Lemoine for the daily podcast at Pourquoi Docteur, said in early 2020:

  Indian researchers have already tried to publish the results of the analyses that showed that this coronavirus genome contained sequences of another virus, & the HIV virus (AIDS virus), but they were forced to withdraw their findings as the pressure from the mainstream was too great.

  In a challenging question Dr Jean-François Lemoine inferred that the coronavirus under investigation may have come from a patient who is otherwise infected with HIV.

  “No,” says Luc Montagnier, “in order to insert an HIV sequence into this genome, molecular tools are needed, and that can only be done in a laboratory.”

  A plausible explanation for Covid-19’s release would have been an accident in the Wuhan laboratory, he said at the time. He also added that the purpose of this work was the search for an AIDS vaccine.

  Montagnier also predicted that altered elements of the virus are eliminated as it spreads:

  Nature does not accept any molecular tinkering, it will eliminate these unnatural changes and even if nothing is done, things will get better, but unfortunately after many deaths.

  Two years later, at the time of his death, Montagnier appears to have been right about the lab leak all along. Now, what other of his assertions will prove to be true?

  “In any case, the truth always comes out, it is up to the Chinese government to take responsibility.” – Montagnier, 2020

   

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 20:40

• "Systems Issue" Knocks Out Trucking Giant Schneider National's Computer Network
  “Systems Issue” Knocks Out Trucking Giant Schneider National’s Computer Network

  By Clarissa Hawes of FreightWaves

  Trucking giant Schneider National confirmed Friday that a “temporary systems issue” is to blame for a massive outage that has knocked out the company’s network since Thursday afternoon.

  

  In a statement to FreightWaves, Schneider, headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, said the company has “implemented our contingency plan and we are executing business manually.”

  Sources told FreightWaves early Friday that an ongoing computer systems outage has left the trucking company unable to receive or book freight, update its invoicing system or pay its carriers.

  Schneider, which posted $5.6 billion in operating revenue in 2021, said it is currently “manually accepting orders and dispatching drivers.” 

  No date was given for when its computer systems would be operational again.

  “We have contacted affected customers,” the Schneider statement said. “Our trucks are still moving. We are working to address the situation.”

  Kara Leiterman, media relations manager for Schneider, told FreightWaves that it’s unclear whether the publicly traded company fell victim to a cyberattack.

  “At this point, we don’t have evidence of that,” Leiterman said. “The situation remains under investigation.”

  The company, which has been in business for 87 years, said it plans to send out an update later in the day on Friday.

  “We will continue to keep associates, professional drivers, customers and suppliers informed as we learn more,” Schneider said in a statement.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 20:20

• As The Super Bowl Nears, This Is The State Of Sports Betting In The US
  As The Super Bowl Nears, This Is The State Of Sports Betting In The US

  According to estimates by the trade association American Gaming Association (AMA), the upcoming Super Bowl will invite about 18.2 million U.S. Americans to place a bet on the matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams via retail sportsbooks or traditional bookies.

  While illegal sports betting is still an issue, Statista’s Florian Zandt details below that a majority of U.S. states have now legalized gambling on sporting events.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  As the chart above shows, ten more states passed corresponding laws in 2021, increasing the number of states where sports betting is legal to 31. Among the newcomers are Arizona, Maryland and the state of Washington. While North Carolina has so far only allowed sports betting in Native American casinos, a bill proposing statewide legalization has already passed the state Senate and could become enshrined in law in 2022. The same is true for New Mexico, which hasn’t officially passed legislation concerning sports betting, but some tribes do offer betting services under a Class III gaming compact.

  Overall, 31.5 million U.S. residents are expected to place bets on the Super Bowl either officially or via private pools or casual bets between friends and family, an increase of 35 percent compared to 2021. Similarly, bets are expected to sum up to $7.6 billion, which is an increase of 78 percent from last year. Bill Miller, CEO of the AMA, shone a positive light on the developments concerning legalization across the country in a press release.

  “Americans have never been more interested in legal sports wagering,” he said. “The growth of legal options across the country not only protects fans and the integrity of games and bets, but also puts illegal operators on notice that their time is limited.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 20:00

• ABA Forcing Wokeness On Law Schools
  ABA Forcing Wokeness On Law Schools

  Authored by William A. Jacobson & Johanna E. Markind via RealClear Politics (emphasis ours),

  Legal education is about to undergo a revolutionary change, with the American Bar Association poised to mandate race-focused study as a prerequisite to graduating from law school. It’s another instance of woke ideology being forced on the nation, and may necessitate that states revisit the ABA’s government-granted near-monopoly accrediting power.

  

  This race-focused educational mandate is being forced on law schools through the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar (ABA). Much of ABA’s power stems from the federal government. Law students must attend schools whose accreditor is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to receive federal student loans. The ABA is the only federally recognized law school accreditor.

  Yet, ABA’s accreditation power doesn’t depend only on federal law. Graduating from a law school accredited by ABA is required in almost every state for applicants seeking admission to the bar. All 50 states recognize ABA accreditation. With only a small number of exceptions, most accept only ABA accreditation.

  Why governments gave the ABA near-monopoly power is disputed. Some say the purpose was to guarantee quality legal training. Others argue that, like any guild, the ABA’s primary motivation was to limit competition.

  Whether or not ABA accreditation previously ensured quality, the ABA has become partisan, using its power to promote an ideological agenda.

  The liberal bias of the ABA itself is not new. A study of ABA evaluations of judicial nominees from 1977-2008 found “strong evidence of systematic bias in favor of Democratic nominees,” who were likelier to be rated “well-qualified” than similarly qualified Republicans. Republicans have long recognized this. That’s why President George W. Bush discontinued ABA pre-screening of judicial nominees. Most Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans now treat the ABA merely as an advocacy group.

  That may explain why ABA membership dropped from 300,000 (over 50% of the bar) in 1980 to 194,000 (14.4%) in 2017. ABA may once have been a proxy for the American legal community, but now it’s just a proxy for the left wing of the American legal community. Yet its accrediting power continues.

  For example, in 2016, the ABA amended Model Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4 to impose a “heckler’s veto,” barring lawyers from saying or doing anything someone else could consider harassing or discriminatory. As law professor Eugene Volokh wrote at the time, “My inference is that the ABA wants to … limit lawyers’ expression of viewpoints that it disapproves of.”

  Now, the ABA wants to limit law student and faculty freedom of expression. Its proposed revision to Standard 303 (which will be presented to the ABA House of Delegates in mid-February 2022) mandates “educati[ng] law students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism.” Proposed Interpretation 303-7(3) suggests satisfying the new requirement with “[c]ourses on racism and bias in the law.” Proposed Interpretation 303-6 converts the existing professional responsibility requirement into teaching lawyers’ “obligation … to promote a justice system that provides equal access and eliminates bias, discrimination, and racism in the law.”

  Without saying so openly, the revised standard in reality dictates that law schools should “institutionalize dogma,” as a group of Yale Law School professors objected. The obsessive focus on systemic racism, a subject of scholarly dispute, reveals the new standard’s Critical Race Theory underpinnings.

  The ABA pretended to address the problem by adding Interpretation 303-8: “Standard 303 does not prescribe the form or content” of the required education. This doesn’t fix the problem, because law school faculties overwhelmingly lean hard left. Only the naïve or dishonest would expect schools to teach anything other than CRT and a “systemic racism” approach.

  This all reflects a politicized sea change. Existing ABA legal education standards stick to general principles of legal education. The ABA requires schools to inculcate “knowledge and understanding of substantive and procedural law,” “legal analysis and reasoning, legal research,” and legal writing (Standard 302). The only specific requirements are a professional responsibility course (added post-Watergate), an experiential course, and two legal writing experiences (current Standard 303).

  By contrast, the proposed “bias” education requires specific and non-legal content. As the Yale professors observed, “mandating the content of [required courses] misconstrues the accreditation function.”

  The other problematic proposal concerns Standard 206, regarding diversity. The ABA’s original proposed revision met with so much pushback that ABA delayed moving forward with it. The recently revised proposal (which likely won’t be adopted before August) aims to increase student admissions and faculty-staff hires of members of groups underrepresented in law compared to the U.S. population overall. Although the ABA Council has denied seeking to impose quotas, its effort to guarantee a proportional share of admissions/hires is likely unlawful.

  The current federal administration will not rein in the ABA. But states, which helped create the ABA monopoly, are not helpless. They should act.

  The most important action that states can take is to stop requiring bar applicants to graduate from an ABA-accredited school. Because state structures vary, in some states this may require changes implemented through state supreme courts or quasi-independent bar agencies. States also can substitute state licensing, as already takes place in Alabama, California, Massachusetts, and Tennessee, which allow graduates of local non-ABA law schools take their bar exams. States also should consider whether a law school degree is needed, by revisiting self-study and apprenticeship in lieu of increasingly politicized law school curriculum and related student debt.

  Whatever the reform approach, action is needed. States enabled the ABA’s near-monopoly accrediting power, which now is being abused for ideological purposes. What the states gave the ABA, the states can and should take away.

  William A. Jacobson is a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to free expression and academic freedom on campuses.

  Johanna E. Markind is Research Editor and Counsel at Legal Insurrection Foundation.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 19:40

• Biden Orders Seizure Of $7 Billion In Afghan Funds, With Half Going To 9/11 Victims
  Biden Orders Seizure Of $7 Billion In Afghan Funds, With Half Going To 9/11 Victims

  President Biden on Friday signed a hugely controversial executive order which effectively steals $7 billion in assets from Afghanistan’s central bank held in the US, which had previously been frozen by the administration.

  The new Biden action is intended to make half of the $7 billion available as compensation for families of 9/11 victims, with the other half going to humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan. This comes as both international human rights bodies and activists have called for the unfreezing of the assets to help stave off Afghanistan’s total economic collapse under the Taliban, which is leading to starvation and widespread malnutrition, particularly impacting already impoverished families and children in the war-torn country.

  

  The White House has said the action will ensure the funds stay out of the hands of the Taliban and “malicious actors”. The statement described it’s “designed to provide a path for the funds to reach the people of Afghanistan while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban and malicious actors.” 

  Specifically the order will force all American financial institutions holding Afghan central bank assets to transfer the funds to a consolidated account at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. As The Hill observes, “The effort is unusual, as it involves money held by a foreign government on U.S. soil. It is likely to be the subject of complex litigation.”

  As for the $3.5 billion to be set aside for humanitarian aid for the Afghan population, there will still likely be strings attached determining whether it actually gets released. The Hill cites an admin official as follows:

  The senior administration official said the Biden administration will spend the coming months setting up a third-party trust fund to administer the $3.5 billion in funds to support Afghanistan, as officials await a court ruling. 

  A senior administration official cautioned that the signing of the executive order is “a step in a process that might lead to the unlocking of these funds for the benefit of the Afghan people,’ noting that the situation involves complex litigation.   

  Previously Washington set as a condition for the release of funds that the Taliban undertake specific urgent reforms, including in women’s rights and education, eradicating terrorism, and allowing US passport holders to freely and safely leave the country.

  After a dry winter & weak harvest, drought & food insecurity continue in Afghanistan. Almost 14 million #children don’t have enough food to eat. #UNICEF warns that over 1 million #Afghan children could die from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) unless they get urgent treatment. pic.twitter.com/ceSAmhBUlp

  — UNICEF Afghanistan (@UNICEFAfg) November 19, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Recently the United Nations warned that one million children under the age of five could die from severe acute malnutrition if the current dire food and medicines shortage in the country persists. Critics have warned that the US sanctions and assets seizure regimen is greatly exacerbating the crisis, and that ultimately it will be the common populace that bears the brunt of the punitive US measures.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 19:20

• Trapped In IMF Debt, Argentina Turns To Russia And Joins China's Belt & Road
  Trapped In IMF Debt, Argentina Turns To Russia And Joins China’s Belt & Road

  Authored by Benjamin Norton via Multipolarista.com,

  Argentina is trapped in $44 billion of IMF odious debt taken on by corrupt right-wing regimes. Seeking alternatives to US hegemony, President Alberto Fernández traveled to Russia and China, forming an alliance with the Eurasian powers, joining the Belt and Road Initiative.

  

  Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández meets with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping in February 2022

  The United States constantly intervenes in the internal affairs of Latin America, organizing coups d’etat, destabilizing independent governments, trapping nations in debt, and imposing sanctions. Washington sees the region as its own property, with President Joe Biden referring to it this January as “America’s front yard.”

  Seeking alternatives to US hegemony, progressive governments in Latin America have increasingly looked across the ocean to form alliances with China and Russia.

  Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández did exactly that this February, taking historic trips to Beijing and Moscow to meet with his counterparts Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

  Fernández signed a series of strategic agreements, officially incorporating Argentina into Beijing’s international Belt and Road Initiative, while expanding economic partnerships with the Eurasian powers and telling Moscow that Argentina “should be the door to enter” Latin America.

  China offered $23.7 billion in funding for infrastructure projects and investments in Argentina’s economy.

  In the meetings, Fernández also asked for Argentina to join the BRICS framework, alongside Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Xi and Putin reportedly both agreed.

  “I am consistently working to rid Argentina of this dependence on the IMF and the US,” Fernández explained. “I want Argentina to open up new opportunities.”

  The Argentine president’s comments and meetings with Putin and Xi reportedly angered the US government.

  Argentina is trapped in odious debt with the US-controlled IMF

  Argentina is a Latin American powerhouse, with significant natural resources and the third-largest economy in the region (after Brazil and Mexico, both of which have significantly larger populations).

  But Argentina’s development has often been weighed down by debt traps imposed from abroad, resulting in frequent economic crises, cycles of high inflation, and currency devaluations.

  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) – a de facto economic arm of the United States, over which Washington alone has veto power – has significant control over Argentina, having trapped the nation in huge sums of odious debt.

  In 2018, Argentina’s right-wing President Mauricio Macri requested the largest loan in the history of the IMF: a staggering $57.1 billion bailout.

  Macri was notorious for his corruption, and this was no secret at the time. By agreeing to give such an enormous sum of money to Macri’s scandal-plagued government, the IMF knew it was ensnaring Argentina in debt it would not be able to pay off. But this was far from the first time the US-dominated financial instrument had trapped Argentina in odious debt.

  In December 2021, the IMF published an internal report admitting that the 2018 bailout completely failed to stabilize Argentina’s economy.

  But when Argentina’s center-left President Alberto Fernández entered office in December 2019, his country was ensnared in $44.5 billion in debt from this bailout that the IMF itself admitted was a total failure. ($44.5 billion of the $57.1 billion loan had already been disbursed, and Fernández cancelled the rest.)

  The Argentine government has tried to renegotiate the debt, but in order to do so the IMF has imposed conditions that severely restrict the nation’s sovereignty – such as appointing a British economist who “will virtually be the new economic minister,” acting as a kind of “co-government,” warned prominent diplomat Alicia Castro.

  Seeking ways around these US debt traps, Fernández decided this February to turn to the two rising Eurasian superpowers.

  Argentine President Fernández travels to Russia to meet with Putin

  On February 3, Argentine President Alberto Fernández travelled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin.

  “I’m certain Argentina has to stop being so dependent on the [International Monetary] Fund and the United States, and has to open up to other places, and that is where it seems to me that Russia has a very important place,” Fernández said, explaining his motivation for the trip.

  🇷🇺🇦🇷 | “Estamos dando un paso importante para que la Argentina y Rusia profundicen sus lazos”, expresó el presidente @alferdez en una declaración conjunta que brindó junto a su par Vladímir Putin. #GiraPresidencial

  📍 @KremlinRussia_Ehttps://t.co/aHl8tOuPZy pic.twitter.com/APoQR6VHtU

  — Casa Rosada (@CasaRosada) February 3, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Fernández added that, for Russia, Argentina “should be the door to enter” the region, telling Putin, “We could be a venue for the development of your cooperation with Latin American nations.”

  The two leaders discussed Russian investment in the Argentine economy, trade, railroad construction, and energy technology.

  Fernández also thanked Moscow for collaborating with his country in the production of its Sputnik V covid-19 vaccine. Argentina was the first country in the western hemisphere to do so.

  The Argentine president even pointed out in their meeting that he has received three doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. Putin added, “Me too.”

  Putin said the two countries agree on many issues, calling Argentina “one of Russia’s key partners in Latin America.”

  Es un honor haberme reunido con Vladímir Putin, presidente de Rusia.

  Tuvimos la oportunidad de intercambiar ideas sobre cómo podemos complementar mucho más el vínculo entre nuestras naciones. pic.twitter.com/ntmDGn6jtD

  — Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) February 3, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Argentine President Fernández travels to China to meet with Xi

  Just three days after meeting with Putin, President Alberto Fernández travelled to China on February 6 to meet with President Xi Jinping.

  In this historic trip, Argentina officially joined Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive global infrastructure program.

  Fernández and other top Argentine officials signed agreements for $23.7 billion in Chinese financing, including investments and infrastructure projects.

  The funding will be disbursed in two parts: one, which is already approved, will provide Argentina with $14 billion for 10 infrastructure projects; the second, for $9.7 billion, will finance the South American nation’s integration into the Belt and Road.

  There are three joint Chinese-Argentine projects that were reportedly at the top of Fernández’s list: creating 5G networks, developing Argentina’s lithium industry, and building the Atucha III nuclear power plant.

  Tuve una cordial, amistosa y fructífera reunión con Xi Jinping, presidente de China. Acordamos la incorporación de Argentina a la Franja y la Ruta de la Seda.

  Es una excelente noticia. Nuestro país obtendrá más de US$ 23 mil millones de inversiones chinas para obras y proyectos. pic.twitter.com/LGyIJ6zWdG

  — Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Fernández also discussed plans for Argentina to produce China’s Sinopharm covid-19 vaccine, in addition to Russia’s Sputnik V.

  Argentina and China signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding, including 13 documents for cooperation in areas such as green energy, technology, education, agriculture, communication, and nuclear energy.

  Fernández and Xi discussed ways to “strengthen relations of political, commercial, economic, scientific, and cultural cooperation between both countries,” according to an Argentine government readout of the meeting.

  The two leaders apparently hit it off very well, with Fernández telling Xi, “If you were Argentine, you would be a Peronist.”

  🇨🇳🇦🇷 | El presidente @alferdez mantuvo reuniones sobre el proyecto de producir en Argentina la vacuna de Sinopharm, participó de la inauguración de los JJOO de Invierno #Beijing2022 y visitó el Museo de la Historia del Partido Comunista. #GiraPresidencialhttps://t.co/acSH9rvpM7 pic.twitter.com/Edz7hHRLE8

  — Casa Rosada (@CasaRosada) February 4, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Argentina’s incorporation into the Belt and Road comes mere weeks after Nicaragua joined the initiative in January, and Cuba in December.

  Latin America’s growing links with China and Russia show how the increasingly multipolar international system offers countries in the Global South new potential allies who can serve as bulwarks against and alternatives to Washington’s hegemony.

  While right-wing leaders in Latin America keep looking north to the United States as their political compass, progressive governments are reaching across the ocean to the Eurasian powers of China, Russia, and Iran, building new international alliances that weaken Washington’s geopolitical grip over a region that the US president still insists is its “front yard.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 19:00

• The Companies Getting Paid The Most By States
  The Companies Getting Paid The Most By States

  According to a recent report by watchdog group Good Jobs First and the union federation UNI Global Union, Amazon has amassed a total of $4.7 billion in subsidies around the world since 2012. Even though this is a sizable number, Statista’s Florian Zandt shows below that the tech giant doesn’t even make the top 8 when it comes to last year’s biggest subsidies. Its tech and media competitors, on the other hand, do as the following chart shows.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Leading the pack in government subsidies is automaker Ford, which received $1.3 billion in funding from Kentucky and Tennessee for planning to build electric vehicle and battery plants in the corresponding states. While these plants do lead to new jobs in the area, the need for government subsidies in such a relevant and well-funded sector can be called into question, especially with Ford rebounding from a comparatively weak 2020 to $136 billion in revenue and $17 billion in net income in 2021.

  Electronics manufacturer Samsung comes in second with a total of $1.2 billion in various tax rebates and grants rewarded by the state of Texas, the city of Austin and the Taylor School District in exchange for building a chip fabrication plant in the area. Other tech and media companies with net incomes in the billions like Apple, Disney and Oracle are also featured on the top list with projects like R&D centers, relocations of corporate offices and office campuses netting them hundreds of millions in tax abatements, grants and other government funding.

  As evidenced by publicly available data collected by Good Jobs First, courting large companies with subsidies has a huge effect on the tax revenue flow in the corresponding state and local governments. Analysis of 37 of the 50 U.S. states shows a total loss in taxes of $8.4 billion in 2020 alone, with New York, Texas and Florida offering up the most money to make their state more attractive to big corporations. The data does have its limitations, though: Not all states disclose their subsidies, and local grants and abatements are not comparable with previous years due to the unfeasibility of complete data collection.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 18:40

• China's Digital Currency Is A Surveillance Tool Threatening US: Former US Rep.
  China’s Digital Currency Is A Surveillance Tool Threatening US: Former US Rep.

  Authored by Frank Fang and Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times,

  Beijing’s new digital currency is a tool that could prop up authoritarian regimes around the world, including China, and the Chinese paperless money could also undermine U.S. leadership in finance, warned a global finance professional.

  “This is a surveillance tool and it’s disguised as a payment mechanism. It’s going to allow the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), their central bank to look into, peer into everyone’s purchasing history,” said Erik Bethel, who once served as the U.S. representative to the World Bank.

  Bethel sounded the warning during a recent interview on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program.

  

  The Chinese regime is making the currency—known as digital yuan, digital renminbi, and e-CYN—available to foreigners for the first time during the 2022 Winter Games, as athletes and visitors can use the money either through a physical card or via a mobile app that can be downloaded at China’s domestic app stores.

  Since the digital yuan is backed by the PBOC, it is a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or simply the digital form of China’s fiat currency. Before rolling out the digital money at the Winter Games, Beijing began carrying out pilots tests in several cities in 2020 after the PBOC began developing the system in 2014.

  Now, American athletes and visitors to the Games are the only ones exposed to the app but Bethel warned that this is only Beijing’s first step, given the communist regime’s desire to export its technology around the world.

  “Inevitably, let’s fast forward several months, every American multinational working in China is going to have to use a version of the Chinese digital technology, the digital currency technology,” Bethel said.

  And Beijing won’t stop there either, he continued.

  “Let’s fast forward even further, a U.S. multinational, let’s say, an oil company working in an African nation will have to use eventually the digital currency of that nation, which might be powered by China,” he said.

  “How can that be good for us?”

  Eventually down the line, Bethel said that Beijing would start demanding other countries to use the digital yuan instead of the U.S. dollar to settle foreign exchange transactions, such as commodities like oil, copper, or soybeans.

  

  Erik Bethel, former U.S. representative to the World Bank, in Coral Gables, Fla. on Jan. 28, 2022. (Otabius Williams/The Epoch Times)

  What’s more, he said the Chinese regime may offer countries mired in Chinese debts, such as Zambia, some debt relief in exchange for helping these nations set up their own digital currency using Chinese technology.

  Zambia is one of many developing countries that are in financial trouble because they cannot pay back Chinese loans for infrastructure projects under China’s “Belt and Road” initiative.

  “So my concern from a national security perspective is that now China has access to the payments of millions of individuals around the world, not just in China, but it extends that power to other places,” he said.

  Even more troubling is how other authoritarian regimes would behave once they possess such a surveillance tool.

  “Think of Venezuela in this hemisphere, or Cuba, or North Korea, or Iran,” he said.

  “Do you not think that the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela would relish the opportunity to have a digital currency … [that] can peer into what the opposition is doing? Of course, they would.”

  Ultimately, Bethel said the digital yuan is going to “hurt the cause of freedom,” “prop up authoritarian regimes,” and “could potentially undermine the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.”

  Inside China, where Chinese citizens are already subjected to oppressive surveillance, the digital yuan would allow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to keep even tighter control, according to Bethel.

  “There are a lot of ways that the Chinese government could use this [digital yuan] as an instrument of surveillance, tying it to their social credit score, and ultimately keeping an authoritarian regime alive, in effect, forever,” he explained.

  The Chinese regime enforces a social credit system, which assigns each citizen a score of “social trustworthiness.” People can have points taken away from their social credit score by committing behaviors deemed undesirable by the CCP such as jaywalking. Those with low social credit scores are deemed “untrustworthy” and thus deprived access to services and opportunities. They could be barred from traveling by plane or attending schools, among other things. Critics have slammed the system as a violation of human rights.

  “So if China’s allowed to propagate their digital technology for their digital currencies around the world, it could be very problematic from a national security perspective. And it’s the thing that nobody’s thinking about right now. I mean, there are a few people that are thinking about it, but not very many,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 18:20

• Biden Fed Vice Chair Nominee Successfully Lobbied For Former Employer
  Biden Fed Vice Chair Nominee Successfully Lobbied For Former Employer

  Sen. Pat Toomey has accused Sara Bloom Raskin, President Biden’s nominee to replace Randall Quarles as the Fed’s Vice Chair for Supervision, of helping an obscure fintech firm obtain an “unusual” degree of access to the Fed’s payment system. Now, CNBC has corroborated Toomey’s suspicions by confirming that Raskin did indeed lobby Kansas City Fed President Esther George in 2017.

  Raskin placed the call to George with the intent to lobby for her employer, a small fintech firm called Reserve Trust, to receive a Fed “master account”. The lobbying occurred during 2017, when Raskin had left her role as the Treasury Department’s deputy secretary. Prior to her Treasury work, she spent more than three years at the Fed as one of its governors.

  

  After initially denying RT’s request for a master account, the Kansas City Fed approved the company’s second request for an account in 2018 after Raskin called and lobbied for them with Quarles.

  Earlier this week during Raskin’s confirmation hearing before the Senate, Toomey blased Raskin with questions about her relationship with Reserve Trust. Specifically, Toomey asked Raskin to turn over documents and to answer a series of detailed questions regarding her work for Reserve Trust, including what actions she took to help it obtain a Fed master account and any communications between Raskin and the Kansas City Fed or the Fed regarding Reserve Trust’s application.

  In a letter sent to the Kansas City Fed, Toomey claimed that George had told him about the call that Raskin had made in 2017.

  “On the evening of February 2, 2022, you and your staff spoke with my staff,” Toomey told George in his letter.

  “On that you call, you revealed that Ms. Raskin had, in fact, personally called you about Reserve Trust’s master account application after it had been denied.”

  The letter from Toomey, the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, came more than a week after Raskin was grilled by Senate Republicans during her confirmation hearing to become the next Fed vice chair for supervision, replacing Randal Quarles.

  Bloom Raskin has been facetious about her work for Reserve Trust: Sen. Cynthia Lummis asked Raskin several times whether she had lobbied on behalf of Reserve Trust, but Raskin repeatedly refused to answer that question during her public confirmation hearing.

  Later, She suggested to Toomey that she didn’t recall making any outreach on behalf of Reserve Trust to help it secure approval.

  Raskin received equity in Reserve Trust when she joined its board, but sold her financial stake upon her 2019 departure from the company for about $1.5 million.

  To this day, Reserve Trust’s master account remains the company’s single greatest asset to potential customers, and potential acquirers. The company brags about this access on its website in a prominent spot.

  “Reserve Trust is the first fintech trust company with a Federal Reserve master account,” reads the homepage for ReserveTrust.com. “We provide payments services that financial institutions and fintechs have previously only been able to obtain from correspondent and sponsor banks.”

  The White House has doubled down on its support for Raskin while insisting that she has been ethically beyond reproach.

  “Sarah Bloom Raskin has always taken her ethical obligations very seriously during and after her public service,” the White House told CNBC on Feb. 3.

  But at the time Raskin called the Kansas City Fed to lobby for her new employer, she was a freshly retired top government official. There were no suggestions that Raskin’s actions were illegal – but rather an example of the “revolving door” between corporate interests and politics. On Wednesday, Raskin and two other people nominated by Biden to Fed governor posts – Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson – promised “not to seek any employment or compensation” from a financial services company after they leave the Federal Reserve.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 18:00

• San Diego County School Retracts "Wheel Of Privilege" Teaching Tool
  San Diego County School Retracts “Wheel Of Privilege” Teaching Tool

  Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times,

  A school in San Diego County claims it has removed a “Wheel of Privilege” graphic from its professional development training materials after the image was exposed on social media and parents objected.

  

  The image was touted as part of professional development training by the Black Mountain Middle School in Poway Unified School District (PUSD), according to the Californians For Equal Rights Foundation (CFER), whose executive director posted the graphic on Twitter.

  The “Wheel of Power/Privilege” teaching tool was designed to rank people by power and privilege based on skin color, body size, and gender identity, as well as citizenship, language, wealth, and other factors.

  CFER stated in a Feb. 9 newsletter that it was “alarmed by such a such divisive narrative, rooted in critical race theory (CRT) and intended for middle-schoolers.”

  “We exposed the issue on social media. In the meantime, PUSD parents and residents contacted the school leadership to demand explanations,” CFER stated.

  

  (Courtesy of CFER)

  The school’s principal, Scott Corso, indicated in an email sent to a parent on Feb. 7 that the graphic was shared as one idea at a Big IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity Equity Awareness) committee meeting “for a future professional growth day with educators.” The virtual meeting was open to the public.

  “After further reflection on feedback received and working with Shawntanet Jara, PUSD Director of Equity and Improvement, we have modified our activities. We have decided not to use the graphic entitled ‘Wheel of Privilege,’ nor the video related to intersectionality,” Corso said in the email obtained by The Epoch Times.

  Corso claimed in the email that the school is not teaching CRT.

  “We have no interest in promoting Critical Race Theory. That is not our intent,” he wrote.

  “Our intent, as educators, is to examine our own personal biases in order to support all students and be the most inclusive school we can be.”

  CFER disagrees.

  “While the education establishment stubbornly denies their engagement with CRT, mounting evidence shows otherwise,” CFER stated in its newsletter.

  “By now, it’s a moot point,” Wenyuan Wu, CFER’s executive director, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 9.

  “We’re not talking about teaching critical race theory as a legal doctrine or legal hypothesis. We’re talking about propagating and inculcating key tenants of critical race theory such as race essentialism, intersectionality, and anti-racism as a bandage or solution to all observed problems in our society,” Wu said.

  The claim CRT isn’t being promoted or is not “widely taught” in California schools is more than just an argument of semantics, Wu suggested. Rather, she contends, it’s a deliberate subversive tactic the “education establishment” commonly uses to hide from parents that they’re teaching “pseudoscientific ideas” based on the tenets of CRT to their children.

  “Call it whatever you want. Call it Mickey Mouse. It does not change the fact that it’s teaching or indoctrinating our kids with very bad illiberal and un-American ideas about race in our society,” Wu said.

  CFER sees the removal of the “Wheel of Power/Privilege” as small victory in its battle against CRT concepts. It encourages a “robust rebuttal to the narrative of victimhood and disempowerment.”

  The next Big IDEA meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 6 p.m. on Zoom, Corso said in the email.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 02/11/2022 – 17:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Dystopia Disguised As Democracy: All The Ways In Which Freedom Is An Illusion
  Dystopia Disguised As Democracy: All The Ways In Which Freedom Is An Illusion

  Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

  – Frank Zappa

  We are no longer free.

  We are living in a world carefully crafted to resemble a representative democracy, but it’s an illusion.

  We think we have the freedom to elect our leaders, but we’re only allowed to participate in the reassurance ritual of voting. There can be no true electoral choice or real representation when we’re limited in our options to one of two candidates culled from two parties that both march in lockstep with the Deep State and answer to an oligarchic elite.

  We think we have freedom of speech, but we’re only as free to speak as the government and its corporate partners allow.

  We think we have the right to freely exercise our religious beliefs, but those rights are quickly overruled if and when they conflict with the government’s priorities, whether it’s COVID-19 mandates or societal values about gender equality, sex and marriage.

  We think we have the freedom to go where we want and move about freely, but at every turn, we’re hemmed in by laws, fines and penalties that regulate and restrict our autonomy, and surveillance cameras that monitor our movements. Punitive programs strip citizens of their passports and right to travel over unpaid taxes.

  We think we have property interests in our homes and our bodies, but there can be no such freedom when the government can seize your property, raid your home, and dictate what you do with your bodies.

  We think we have the freedom to defend ourselves against outside threats, but there is no right to self-defense against militarized police who are authorized to probe, poke, pinch, taser, search, seize, strip and generally manhandle anyone they see fit in almost any circumstance, and granted immunity from accountability with the general blessing of the courts. Certainly, there can be no right to gun ownership in the face of red flag gun laws which allow the police to remove guns from people merely suspected of being threats.

  We think we have the right to an assumption of innocence until we are proven guilty, but that burden of proof has been turned on its head by a surveillance state that renders us all suspects and overcriminalization which renders us all lawbreakers. Police-run facial recognition software that mistakenly labels law-abiding citizens as criminals. A social credit system (similar to China’s) that rewards behavior deemed “acceptable” and punishes behavior the government and its corporate allies find offensive, illegal or inappropriate.

  We think we have the right to due process, but that assurance of justice has been stripped of its power by a judicial system hardwired to act as judge, jury and jailer, leaving us with little recourse for appeal. A perfect example of this rush to judgment can be found in the proliferation of profit-driven speed and red light cameras that do little for safety while padding the pockets of government agencies.

  We have been saddled with a government that pays lip service to the nation’s freedom principles while working overtime to shred the Constitution.

  

  By gradually whittling away at our freedoms—free speech, assembly, due process, privacy, etc.—the government has, in effect, liberated itself from its contractual agreement to respect the constitutional rights of the citizenry while resetting the calendar back to a time when we had no Bill of Rights to protect us from the long arm of the government.

  Aided and abetted by the legislatures, the courts and Corporate America, the government has been busily rewriting the contract (a.k.a. the Constitution) that establishes the citizenry as the masters and agents of the government as the servants.

  We are now only as good as we are useful, and our usefulness is calculated on an economic scale by how much we are worth—in terms of profit and resale value—to our “owners.”

  Under the new terms of this revised, one-sided agreement, the government and its many operatives have all the privileges and rights and “we the people” have none.

  Only in our case, sold on the idea that safety, security and material comforts are preferable to freedom, we’ve allowed the government to pave over the Constitution in order to erect a concentration camp.

  The problem with these devil’s bargains, however, is that there is always a catch, always a price to pay for whatever it is we valued so highly as to barter away our most precious possessions.

  We’ve bartered away our right to self-governance, self-defense, privacy, autonomy and that most important right of all: the right to tell the government to “leave me the hell alone.” In exchange for the promise of safe streets, safe schools, blight-free neighborhoods, lower taxes, lower crime rates, and readily accessible technology, health care, water, food and power, we’ve opened the door to militarized police, government surveillance, asset forfeiture, school zero tolerance policies, license plate readers, red light cameras, SWAT team raids, health care mandates, overcriminalization and government corruption.

  In the end, such bargains always turn sour.

  We asked our lawmakers to be tough on crime, and we’ve been saddled with an abundance of laws that criminalize almost every aspect of our lives. So far, we’re up to 4500 criminal laws and 300,000 criminal regulations that result in average Americans unknowingly engaging in criminal acts at least three times a day. For instance, the family of an 11-year-old girl was issued a $535 fine for violating the Federal Migratory Bird Act after the young girl rescued a baby woodpecker from predatory cats.

  We wanted criminals taken off the streets, and we didn’t want to have to pay for their incarceration. What we’ve gotten is a nation that boasts the highest incarceration rate in the world, with more than 2.3 million people locked up, many of them doing time for relatively minor, nonviolent crimes, and a private prison industry fueling the drive for more inmates, who are forced to provide corporations with cheap labor.

  We wanted law enforcement agencies to have the necessary resources to fight the nation’s wars on terror, crime and drugs. What we got instead were militarized police decked out with M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers, battle tanks and hollow point bullets—gear designed for the battlefield, more than 80,000 SWAT team raids carried out every year (many for routine police tasks, resulting in losses of life and property), and profit-driven schemes that add to the government’s largesse such as asset forfeiture, where police seize property from “suspected criminals.”

  We fell for the government’s promise of safer roads, only to find ourselves caught in a tangle of profit-driven red-light cameras, which ticket unsuspecting drivers in the so-called name of road safety while ostensibly fattening the coffers of local and state governments. Despite widespread public opposition, corruption and systemic malfunctions, these cameras are particularly popular with municipalities, which look to them as an easy means of extra cash. Building on the profit-incentive schemes, the cameras’ manufacturers are also pushing speed cameras and school bus cameras, both of which result in hefty fines for violators who speed or try to go around school buses.

  We’re being subjected to the oldest con game in the books, the magician’s sleight of hand that keeps you focused on the shell game in front of you while your wallet is being picked clean by ruffians in your midst.

  This is how tyranny rises and freedom falls.

  With every new law enacted by federal and state legislatures, every new ruling handed down by government courts, and every new military weapon, invasive tactic and egregious protocol employed by government agents, “we the people” are being reminded that we possess no rights except for that which the government grants on an as-needed basis.

  Indeed, there are chilling parallels between the authoritarian prison that is life in the American police state and The Prisoner, a dystopian television series that first broadcast in Great Britain more than 50 years ago.

  The series centers around a British secret agent (played by Patrick McGoohan) who finds himself imprisoned, monitored by militarized drones, and interrogated in a mysterious, self-contained, cosmopolitan, seemingly idyllic retirement community known only as The Village. While luxurious and resort-like, the Village is a virtual prison disguised as a seaside paradise: its inhabitants have no true freedom, they cannot leave the Village, they are under constant surveillance, their movements are tracked by surveillance drones, and they are stripped of their individuality and identified only by numbers.

  Much like the American Police State, The Prisoner’s Village gives the illusion of freedom while functioning all the while like a prison: controlled, watchful, inflexible, punitive, deadly and inescapable.

  Described as “an allegory of the individual, aiming to find peace and freedom in a dystopia masquerading as a utopia,” The Prisoner is a chilling lesson about how difficult it is to gain one’s freedom in a society in which prison walls are disguised within the trappings of technological and scientific progress, national security and so-called democracy.

  Perhaps the best visual debate ever on individuality and freedom, The Prisoner confronted societal themes that are still relevant today: the rise of a police state, the freedom of the individual, round-the-clock surveillance, the corruption of government, totalitarianism, weaponization, group think, mass marketing, and the tendency of mankind to meekly accept his lot in life as a prisoner in a prison of his own making.

  The Prisoner is an operations manual for how you condition a populace to life as prisoners in a police state: by brainwashing them into believing they are free so that they will march in lockstep with the state and be incapable of recognizing the prison walls that surround them.

  We can no longer maintain the illusion of freedom.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, “we the people” have become “we the prisoners.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 23:40

• The Countries Where COVID-19 Vaccination Is Mandatory
  The Countries Where COVID-19 Vaccination Is Mandatory

  Some European countries have recently barged ahead by introducing wide-ranging Covid-19 vaccine mandates, but, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, such major vaccination obligations also exist in Latin America and Asia.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Austria’s new law that mandates all adults to be vaccinated against the coronavirus went into effect last week amid controversy, while neighboring Germany is mulling a similar move. Aging societies Italy, Greece and Czechia meanwhile opted for mandatory vaccines among at-risk age groups. These are defined as those over the age of 60 in Greece and the Czech Republic and those over the age of 50 in Italy.

  As our map shows, the obligation to be vaccinated against Covid-19 also exists for all adults in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vatican City, which were the first countries to introduce these mandates. Indonesia and Micronesia followed later, as well as Ecuador, which mandates coronavirus vaccinations for everyone above the age of five. In Costa Rica, it is eligible minors for whom coronavirus vaccines are mandatory.

  Elsewhere, obligatory vaccinations are in place for healthcare workers or certain other professions requiring a high level of human contact. Some countries also opt not to issue mandates but enact tight regulations surrounding unvaccinated individuals that amount to a de-fact vaccine mandate.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 23:20

• The Mystery Of The Migrant Kids The Feds Are Spiriting Into The U.S. Interior
  The Mystery Of The Migrant Kids The Feds Are Spiriting Into The U.S. Interior

  Authored by James Varney via RealClearInvestigations (emphasis ours),

  After months of delay, the Department of Homeland Security replied late last month to a Congressional demand for information about the number of illegal migrants the department has flown from border towns to communities around the country. In 2021, it said, 71,617 were dropped off in nearly 20 cities including locales as far from the Mexican border as Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.

  

  Immigration experts critical of the Biden administration’s permissive immigration policies believe those numbers are incomplete, especially regarding the most vulnerable migrants, those under 18, whom DHS classifies as “unaccompanied children.” The agency says some 40,000 of the total transported are such minors, but that number is only a fraction of the 147,000 “encounters” the agency reports having with unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border between January and October 2021.

  Paramount among the questions raised by the transports is what happens to the unaccompanied children once they leave the airport?  The major cities DHS lists, the experts say, are probably simply way stations rather than final destinations.

  “Everyone wants to know where they’re going, but nobody knows,” said Todd Bensman, a national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank. “Well, somebody knows,” he adds. “The government knows. But they are being as opaque and ‘darkened-windows’ as they can be about the entire matter.”

  

  🚨 🚨🚨Gov’t contractor talking about the secret midnight flights from southern border into Westchester (NY) Airport:

  “If it gets out… the government is betraying the American people.”

  Stop lying to us.
  Secure the border.
  Uphold rule of law.https://t.co/Gd7UmTz7Ct pic.twitter.com/vAyGO1GvkQ

  — Rob Astorino (@RobAstorino) January 27, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The lack of information raises a host of questions regarding the health and welfare of the children, and more:

  • What security checks are being performed — and background checks to ensure these minors are going to safe homes? How can checks be conducted on family members in the U.S. illegally who wind up taking custody of the children (a problem highlighted in a 2019 study)? 
  • What processes are in place to ensure that these children have enough to eat, are receiving any necessary medical care, or are enrolled in school?
  • What traumas or crimes have they suffered along the way, at the hands of human traffickers, for example, and how are the cases being handled? (Through a public records request, Judicial Watch last year obtained a list of 33 incidents of alleged sexual abuse in a one-month period in 2021.)
  • What pandemic precautions have been taken, beyond masks seen in some furtively taken images of the transportees, by an administration that professes to be aggressively dedicated to eradicating COVID-19? (Illegal immigrants dispersed on commercial flights in 2021 were not tested for covid, and agencies did not follow preventive procedures, according to preliminary findings of a DHS Inspector General’s report reviewed by RealClearInvestigations.)
  • Who is responsible for making sure the migrants, children in particular, check in with the government and show up for court immigration hearings?

  The difficulty of getting answers from the Biden administration is frustrating many state and local officials who say that tracking the thousands of illegal immigrants apparently melting into their communities is a maddening endeavor.

  “The Biden administration is running a clandestine, covert, middle-of-the-night, special ops mission using the same tradecraft the military does in operations against foreign enemies,” said Larry Keefe, a senior policy adviser to Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. “We don’t know what’s going on because the states are not designed to mount intelligence-gathering operations against our own government.”

  The situation is complicated by the layers of groups involved. After a gumbo of federal agencies – CBP, DHS, DHHS, ICE, ORR – the government largely relies on nonprofit contractors to handle unaccompanied minors. While those groups present a rosy picture on their websites, it is unclear how they can handle what has proved a massive increase.

  In 2021, DHS shelters near the border and further inland took in 122,000 unaccompanied children, according to its figures, which shattered the previous record 69,000 in 2019. The unaccompanied children are but a portion of the illegal immigrants who flooded across the southern border in 2021. For the fiscal year ending last October, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 1.6 million “encounters” — an all-time record and four times the figure the previous year. Although the number of encounters does not equal the number of people who crossed, given that some are repeat offenders, the actual figures are even higher, because CBP does not release the number of “got-aways” it records.

  

  Neither Homeland Security nor Health and Human Services nor the Office of Refugee Resettlement would answer questions about the resettlement process from RealClearInvestigations.

  But the huge increase in numbers means the organizations dealing with them are swamped. In many cases, responsibilities for placing unaccompanied children with families or sponsors are subcontracted through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR. In 2020, the most recent year for which figures were available, under the far more restrictive immigration policies of the Trump administration, taxpayers spent more than $1.5 billion among 42 various non-profit and religious groups that offer help with housing, educational, medical, legal and other services.

  More than $1 billion of that 2020 total was paid to six groups. The major recipient, Southwest Key Programs, received $400 million and a global nonprofit called BCFS received at least $253.1 million, according to tracking of ORR contracts by Maya Pagni Barak, a professor of criminology and criminal studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

  None of the six groups would answer questions from RealClearInvestigations, instead referring them back to federal agencies in the kind of loop that has bedeviled others seeking information.

  “This is all being done under the cover of darkness and no one really knows what is happening,” said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA, a group that favors immigration limits. “Plus, there’s so much confusion over who has custody over which groups.”

  The groups handling unaccompanied children have sites scattered across the U.S., according to their websites. Southwest Key, for example, says it runs such shelters in 18 states, while BCFS lists shelters in a dozen states, from California and New York, to Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and elsewhere. A fact sheet from ICE notes that altogether there are sites for unaccompanied children in 22 states.

  Regarding shelter conditions, the operators’ blanket silence beyond rosy website depictions is not a new development. In 2018, when the Trump administration’s border policies were under scrutiny, Southwest Key barred Democratic Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley from inspecting its Casa Padre facility in a former Walmart in Brownsville, Texas. At that time, Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi declared the system “barbaric.”

  In an effort to shed some light on the situation in Florida, Gov. DeSantis issued an executive order in September that told state law enforcement and other officials to begin gathering information on the number of illegal immigrants federal agencies were bringing to Florida and where they wind up.

  DeSantis took that step after accusing President Biden of abandoning any pretense of protecting the southern border.

  In the face of what Keefe and other Florida officials described as continued intransigence on the part of federal agencies flying and busing illegal immigrants into the Sunshine State, DeSantis has proposed a package of laws now pending before the legislature in Tallahassee that would codify the steps laid out in his executive order. The proposed measures would also “prohibit state and local agencies from doing business with any private entities that facilitate the resettlement of illegal aliens in the state of Florida from the southern border.”

  Florida’s Department of Children and Families published an emergency rule in December that directly addresses the various non-profits and religious groups that contract with the federal government. The rule “prohibits the issuance or renewal of any license to provide services to UAC who seek to be resettled in Florida,” unless the state and the federal agencies can craft some “cooperative agreement.”

  Keefe said the governor’s moves will also put a crimp in human smuggling. Because the children lack documentation to board international flights from Central American airports and others, someone is paying to have them brought from their country of origin to the U.S. border. These are often criminal organizations that are most likely paid by family members – with whom the children may be eventually reunited – or human trafficking syndicates posing as legitimate sponsors that might exploit them for nefarious purposes.

  “We don’t have laws in place to investigate the federal government,” Keefe said. “We’re being kept in the dark by our own country on something that’s definitely contributing to human smuggling because this is about bringing their kids here. Somebody drops the kids off at the border and then HHS is handing off to taxpayers the cost of flying them to illegal immigrant parents.”

  Pennsylvania lawmakers are facing a similar situation. Keystone state senators remain dissatisfied with answers they have sought on flights packed with immigrants from the southern border that landed in the middle of the night in Scranton and other Pennsylvania airfields.

  In December, there were at least two so-called “ghost” flights into the Lehigh Valley, a tiny fraction of the more than 900 such domestic or “lateral” flights ICE’s air arm flew around the U.S. in 2021.

  Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano and others sought answers from Pennsylvania Gov.  Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro, both Democrats. While Wolf said Scranton was simply a transit point, he offered no information on passengers that landed in the early morning darkness in Scranton. In a familiar refrain, the state lawmakers were told to direct their questions to the feds.

  Mastriano has now filed a series of FOIA requests of DHS and ICE, but he remains perplexed and angered at the reluctance of those involved in the system to provide clear answers.

  “On two flights from El Paso to Scranton there were 120 passengers, many of which were minors,” Mastriano said. “Imagine that. I don’t know who pays for their schooling or the impact on our community, and there is something fishy going on with all of it.”

  The scant information that has been provided is unlikely to offer a complete picture, Mastriano told RCI.

  “I think these findings are just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “We need to further examine the total number of illegal immigrants being sent [here] by plane and bus. It’s not just minors they are sending to Pennsylvania, its adults, too.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 23:00

• Guac Shock: Avocado Prices Have Never Been This High For A Super Bowl
  Guac Shock: Avocado Prices Have Never Been This High For A Super Bowl

  Countdown to Super Bowl 56 is four days away (as of Thursday morning). The annual playoff championship game of the National Football League (NFL) will feature the Los Angeles Rams versus Cincinnati Bengals. There are estimates that 117 million viewers will watch the game, increasing 21% compared to the 2021 Super Bowl. It’s a US tradition that many households host Super Bowl parties, an excuse to drink beer and eat game-day finger foods with friends, family, and even co-workers. 

  For the millions of Americans hosting SuperBowl parties, they’re likely to pay some of the highest food costs on record as global food prices surge to near-record highs. We want to concentrate on everyone’s favorite game-day finger foods besides chicken wings, that is, guacamole and chips. 

  

  According to Bloomberg data, the price of a 20-pound box of avocados from the state of Michoacan, Mexico (the central hub of Mexican avocado production) is around $26.89, the highest ever for this time of year with data going back to 1998. 

  

  This year alone, avocado prices are up 31%. 

  

  There are many reasons for rising avocado prices, including widespread supply-chain bottlenecks, increased freight costs, labor shortages, and higher commodity costs to operate farms, among many other variables. 

  One sure thing is higher food costs for SuperBowl parties will impact the pocketbooks of Americans. On Thursday morning, the consumer price index came in like a smoking hot tamale, +7.3% YoY (Core +5.9% YoY), but was underestimated as the headline printed a shocking +7.5% YoY – the highest since March 1982.

  

  Below shows how food prices are soaring and becoming significant drivers drivers of overall inflation. 

  

  Let’s not stop at avocado. Americans will also be paying exorbitantly high prices for chicken. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 22:40

• China Was Never On Path to Meet "Phase 1" Purchase Commitments: Report
  China Was Never On Path to Meet “Phase 1” Purchase Commitments: Report

  By Michael Washburn of The Epoch Times

  China’s failure to meet the import targets agreed to under the “phase one” trade agreement with the United States signed in January 2020 can’t be blamed wholly on the global COVID-19 pandemic and supply-chain disruptions, according to a new report issued by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).

  

  The failure reflects unrealistic import targets that China was never actually on track to meet, while some degree of bad faith on both sides of the deal also came into play, the report states.

  Under the “phase one” trade agreement, Beijing committed to increasing its purchase of U.S. products across the agricultural, energy, and manufacturing sectors in 2020 and 2021 by at least $200 billion beyond what China had purchased in 2017. The targets were at least $227.9 billion worth of U.S. products in 2020 and at least $274.5 billion in 2021, totaling $502.4 billion for the two years in question.

  Besides the import targets, the deal contained provisions about opening up China’s financial services sector and better protecting the intellectual property of Western businesses that engage with China. Then-President Donald Trump hailed the deal as a breakthrough, calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping his “very, very good friend.”

  In particular, Trump hoped to turn the United States from a minor supplier of energy to China to a major one and incorporated especially high targets for coal, crude oil, liquefied natural gas, and refined energy products in the agreement. It was expected that the deal would help put an end to the escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing, during which hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tariffs were put in place by both sides.

  But the final figures tell a different story. In the end, China ended up purchasing only 57 percent of the U.S. exports it had agreed to buy, achieving a total of only $288.8 billion worth of imports. Energy was a particular area of failure, with imports in only one area, liquefied natural gas, reaching its target number, coming in at 129 percent of the targeted figure. Imports of crude oil reached only 33 percent of the target, coal only 73 percent of the target, and refined energy products only 22 percent of the target.

  The PIIE report set out to analyze all of the factors behind this failure.

  The Role of the Pandemic

  The report makes no attempt to discount the disruptive effects of COVID-19, which spread throughout the world in 2020. For all the optimism, the agreement had the misfortune of being signed just two months before the global pandemic really took hold, causing lockdowns and staff shortages worldwide.

  “The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic undermined any chance of success. Public health-related lockdowns and a short economic recession were accompanied by a temporary collapse in goods trade globally, even if China’s imports were mostly spared. Restrictions on mobility also decimated U.S. services exports like tourism and business travel,” the report reads.

  The economic recession that beset the United States in April 2020 and May 2020 hurt gross domestic product growth for the year, and in the first of those two months, global trade briefly broke down, according to the report. Companies struggled to adjust to new remote work arrangements and to find their way in the uncertain environment.

  Having said all of that, the report shows abundant data that militate against trying to blame China’s import shortfall on the pandemic.

  “Global goods trade rebounded in the second half of 2020 and boomed in 2021, in part because COVID-19 shifted consumer demand toward goods and away from services,” the report reads.

  While this did put stress on supply chains, especially on the U.S.–China route, some price inflation might actually have helped China meet purchase goals, given that the “phase one” agreement’s targets are stated in value (a dollar amount) rather than volume of goods, the report states.

  Hence, the failure to meet “phase one” targets can’t simply be dismissed as an expected and perhaps inevitable consequence of the pandemic.

  Warning Signs

  It should have been clear as far back as 2020 that China wouldn’t reach the import targets established under the deal, given the rate of its imports of U.S. goods, according to the report.

  “The Biden administration was not to blame, as China was never on pace to meet its purchase commitments,” the report reads.

  After the deal’s signing on Jan. 15, 2020, it should have been clear from prorated import goals and totals that the rate and total value of imports were falling short, the report states. At the end of June 2020, China had taken in 54 percent of the prorated target for that juncture. When the end of 2020 rolled around, China had realized only 59 percent of the year-end commitment. It wasn’t possible to catch up from that point given the rate of imports.

  By this point, the trade deal took on a “back-loaded” character, according to the report. Further commitments for 2021 were more than 60 percent higher than commitments for 2020.

  It should have been clear to CCP officials that China wasn’t taking in enough goods to meet the “phase one” pledge and that a net shortfall at the time of the deal’s expiration was inevitable, absent a marked shift in trade policy and a vastly accelerated intake of goods.

  “China ended up buying none of that extra $200 billion of U.S. exports it had promised to purchase,” the report reads.

  Dennis Shea, a former deputy U.S. trade representative and U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO), told NTD Television, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, that structural problems within the Chinese economy account for the import shortfall.

  “There are state enterprises that are funded by state-owned banks and are pursuing state-created industrial policies and are benefiting, frankly, from state cyber-espionage and industrial theft. These structural problems within the Chinese economy are massive,” Shea said.

  In light of China’s deal-breaking, Shea urged the Biden administration to “show strength,” and be willing to “impose costs” on the regime.

  “China has just not lived up to its commitments. Its non-market economic system is completely incompatible with WTO norms of transparency, openness, and market orientation grounded in the rule of law,” he said. “These are the norms and values that are supposed to underpin the multinational trading system and the WTO. And clearly, China’s economic system is incompatible with those sets of norms.”

  Myron Brilliant, head of international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters on Feb. 9 that closer collaboration between the United States and allies, with a view to presenting a strong united front against Beijing over its failure to follow fair and transparent trade practices, is one of a number of options on the table for the Biden administration.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 22:20

• World's Largest iPhone Assembler Says Congested Supply Chains Are About To Ease
  World’s Largest iPhone Assembler Says Congested Supply Chains Are About To Ease

  Global supply chains have faced severe disruptions for almost two years, including port congestion and vessel bottlenecks that have resulted in soaring shipping rates and longer delivery times, adding to some of the hidest consumer inflation in four decades. Electronic component shortages have also been a significant issue and have led some manufacturing facilities to limit and or even halt production of finished goods. Now there are emerging signs and growing speculation that supply chains could ease in the second half of this year. 

  Bloomberg reports not any consumer electronics assembler but the world’s largest one, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., otherwise known as Foxconn Technology Group (too many of us in the West), the assembler of BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Kindle, Nokia devices, PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Xbox One, among many another popular consumer electronics, is expecting significant improvement in sourcing semiconductors in the first quarter and an overall improvement in their supply chain by summer. 

  

  James Wu, a spokesman for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, was quoted at a company event in Taipei on Thursday, who said parts shortages are easing now and “overall supply constraints” will ease in the second half of this year. 

  Wu said the Hon Hai purchases upwards of $55 billion in semiconductor chips every year and aims to minimize disruptions later this year. The company forecasts first-quarter revenue to be the same (or little changed) compared to a year ago. 

  In the last two years, a shortage of semiconductor components has crippled parts of the complex global supply chain as pandemic-related shutdowns and soaring demand for electronics due to fiscal stimulus checks induced shortages. Severe disruptions led some automakers in the US to shut down manufacturing facilities due to the lack of critical chips, forcing the Biden administration to address the alarming issue by producing more chips domestically. 

  Even though Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and other peers have said chip supply will remain tight this year, there are emerging signs that supply chains are easing. 

  On Wednesday, AP Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipper, suggested the climax of global supply-chains snarls has passed, and bottlenecks will alleviate in the second half of the year. A leading indicator of this would be major transpacific shipping freight rates likely topping out. 

  

  And it’s not just Maersk. JP Morgan recently told clients that global supply chain constraints would begin to ease later this year. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 22:00

• San Francisco's Slow-Motion Suicide
  San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

  Authored by Michael Shellenberger via Substack,

  The city is carrying out a bizarre medical experiment in which they are helping homeless drug addicts use drugs… “It’s handing a loaded gun to a suicidal person”…

  

  Homeless men sleep on Larkin Street in June 2019. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

  At this point all I can say is: go and see it. 

  Over the past two years, more than 1,360 people have died from drug overdoses in San Francisco. That is more than double the number who have died from Covid.

  But you don’t need more stats. You don’t need more numbers about how the tent encampments are exploding. Or about the amount of money that the city is paying for each person doing drugs on the sidewalks. You need to see it.

  I’m serious. Everyone in San Francisco should make a trip downtown.

  Walk around. And do not avert your eyes to the people dying slowly on the streets.

  The politicians that run my hometown are relying on you not noticing what’s going on because it’s been bad for so long and who cares if it gets a little worse.

  Don’t let them. Go see it.

  The city is using intimidation. They used it on me when I went to see what was going on at a new addict-services facility, which they’d set up in a public plaza.

  And they tried to intimidate my friend Michael Shellenberger, as you’ll read below. 

  The people in charge of homelessness and addiction want to bully people into giving up public streets and parks. They want to take your tax money and let your suffering neighbors die gentle, stoned deaths while they watch and call it justice. They think the mothers who want to get their sons out of the jaws of death are suspect. (It’s conservative to want your kid to live, don’t you know?) The city would like a little privacy please. Fentanyl use is an intimate moment between our officials and our addicts.

  Do not listen to the propaganda. Skip Golden Gate Park. Bring your friends downtown instead. Stand in UN Plaza and just watch. Use your eyes, those great weapons. 

  — Nellie Bowles

  When San Francisco Mayor London Breed promised last month that she would “put an end to all the bullshit destroying our city,” everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Over the past decade, the city had come to resemble “Night of the Living Dead,” with Covid accelerating its decline. At last, someone was promising to take charge. Finally we would see a crackdown on the open-air drug use and drug dealing that is fueling an epidemic of slow-motion death by the bay.

  I praised Breed and defended her from skeptics who claimed hers was an empty promise. I was wrong to be so naive.

  Right now, in the heart of downtown San Francisco, “the bullshit” the mayor spoke about is worsening by the day. The city is running a supervised drug consumption site in United Nations Plaza—just blocks away from city hall and the opera house—in flagrant violation of state and federal law. (Two weeks ago, my colleagues and I brokethe story. The San Francisco Chronicle confirmed our reporting.) There, city-funded service providers supervise people smoking fentanyl and meth they buy from drug dealers across the street. 

  

  A sanctioned and fenced-in homeless encampment across from City Hall in May 2020. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)

  The police do nothing. Indeed, the mayor, through the Department of Emergency Management and the Department of Public Health, is running the site. 

  Tom Wolf, a recovering homeless addict who served on the city’s drug-dealing task force, compared the department to “the mafia.” Everyone sees that the situation is untenable, he added, but “nobody wants to go on record” because “everyone is afraid of the backlash.” 

  Let me say off the bat that I am not a drug prude. I support the decriminalization of marijuana and psychedelics for medical and spiritual purposes. I have favored needle exchanges since the late 1990s, and I have always strongly supported using Narcan to reverse overdoses, and methadone or Suboxone as opioid replacement.

  I am also not completely opposed to supervised drug consumption sites. In my new book, San Fransicko, I praise Portugal, which has decriminalized drug use, and the Netherlands, where there are 28 drug consumption rooms. (In some, addicts are even given heroin.)

  But both of those countries condemn hard drug use and intervene when addicts break laws, including laws against public drug use and public camping. “There’s a clear sign of disapproval in our society to the use of drugs,” the head of Portugal’s drug program, João Goulão, told me. 

  They are also not opposed to coercion. In Portugal, someone caught using heroin in public is arrested, brought to the police station, and either prosecuted for drug dealing or forced to appear before something called a Commission for the Dissuasion of Addiction comprised of a combination of social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and family members who confront addicts in a formal intervention.  

  Something very different is happening in San Francisco. The city is carrying out a bizarre medical experiment whereby addicts are given everything they need to maintain their addiction—cash, hot meals, shelter—in exchange for . . . almost nothing. Voters have found themselves in the strange position of paying for fentanyl, meth and crack use on public property. 

  You can go and witness all of this if you simply walk down Market Street and peek your head over a newly erected fence in the southwest corner of United Nations Plaza. You will see that the city is permitting people to openly use and even deal drugs in a cordoned-off area of the public square.

  The city denies that they are operating a supervised drug consumption site.

  “This site is about getting people connected with immediate support, as well as long-term services and treatment,” a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Emergency Management told the Chronicle. 

  The official line is that they are running what they call a “Linkage Center” in a building next to the open drug market in the plaza. The idea is that the center is supposed to link addicts to services, including housing and rehab. When Mayor London Breed announced it, she promised it would get people into treatment so they could stop using drugs, not simply hide their use.

  But city officials have told me that in the 19 days that the site has been open, just two people total went to detox so far. And they serve some 220 people per day. 

  “In that tent on Market Street everyone is shooting dope,” complained a senior employee of a major city service provider, speaking of the scene at the plaza.

  “It’s insane. All the staff standing around watching them. It’s fucking ridiculous. I don’t know how anybody thinks that helping a drug addict use drugs is helping them.”

  “What’s happening is that everyone that comes in gets a meal, can use the bathroom, gets drug supplies (needles, foil, pipes) and signs up for a ‘housing assessment,” a person with firsthand information about the operation told me over text message. “But there’s no housing. So nothing happens. They just get added to a list.” 

  The parents whose children live on the streets are adamant that the status quo is broken. “I agree with the Linkage Center,” Gina McDonald told me. Her 24-year-old daughter Samantha is a heroin and fentanyl addict who has been on and off the streets for the last two years. “But allowing open drug use does not help. It’s handing a loaded gun to a suicidal person.”

  Last Thursday I returned to the Linkage Center to find out what, if anything, had changed since I first visited. I saw (and video recorded) much more drug use within the supervised drug consumption site, and much more drug dealing around it, than I had two weeks ago.

  I counted at least 30 drug users crowded together and sitting on a cement stoop or on outdoor tables. Many were gaunt, stooped over, and had open wounds consistent with substance use disorder, from meth, fentanyl, or a combination of the two, which has become increasingly common. There were also more employees on site than when I had first visited; they were watching as people smoked fentanyl and meth. 

  The security guards at the site work for a new, fast-growing nonprofit contractor called Urban Alchemy. Urban Alchemy is composed of ex-cons and “lifers” released early, many of whom have gone through recovery from addiction themselves. Their first contract was to clean and police the public toilets that, without security guards, are used for drug consumption and prostitution.

  I admire the organization’s ethos, which emphasizes self-control, discipline, and turning past mistakes into something positive. One morning in early December I shadowed Urban Alchemy employees, known as “practitioners,” as they told street addicts in the Tenderloin to pack up their tents and cleaned up after them. 

  But the practitioners did not appreciate my presence in the consumption area and asked me to leave. After I pointed out that the site was public property, and therefore open to the public, they said I could stay if I registered at the front desk. Within seconds they changed their mind and threw me out of the site. 

  My last visit to the site had frightened me, so I was wearing a body camera clipped to my jacket. They grabbed my body camera and another camera from my hand and rushed me outside of the facility. Eventually the police came and returned my property to me.

  Urban Alchemy is not just paid by the city to provide security for the Linkage Center. It also oversees a city-sponsored homeless tent village, which the city has dubbed a “Safe Sleeping Site,” just one block away. There, late-stage addicts living in tents spend their days smoking fentanyl and meth. Meantime, Urban Alchemy practitioners bring them three hot meals a day, provide them with clean clothes, and even clean their toilets. 

  The Safe Sleeping Site, which was created in 2020, is one of six similar sitesthroughout the city with about 250 tents between them. The city’s taxpayers spend about $57,000 per tent per year—or twice the median cost of a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco.

  Addiction experts—and I spoke to dozens for my book, including senior officials in Europe— are appalled by San Francisco’s radical drug experiment. 

  “If you’re coming into a place that’s supposed to guide you toward the end of seeking treatment and recovery, and there are people using drugs around you, that becomes an incentive to keep going,” said Stanford University School of Medicine addiction expert, Keith Humphreys.

  “It’s like trying to have an AA meeting in a bar.”

  Wolf, the recovering addict who is the founder of The Recovery Education Coalition, told me that “some service providers are refusing to go to the [supervised drug consumption] site because they don’t feel safe.” He added that “a lot of workers for these nonprofit service providers are in recovery and they don’t want to be around the drug use.”

  In obeisance to woke ideology, the official position of the Department of Public Health and progressives on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is that police should not be involved except perhaps to revive people with Narcan after they overdose. Many on the Board of Supervisors and the District Attorney believe that drug dealers—who the latter refers to as victims—should not be prosecuted.

  The result is that the city is spending roughly $100,000 per year per homeless person, or over $1 billion annually, to maintain a large, unemployed, and very sick addict population in San Francisco’s public squares at the cost of human life and the loss of peace, walkability and livability—the very qualities that have long attracted so many to San Francisco.

  People blame the pandemic for increasing crime & homelessness but Sheriff Villanueva of Los Angeles, a Democrat, says two of the biggest causes were letting 28,000 people out of prison and Gov. @GavinNewsom inviting homeless to come to California from out-of-state pic.twitter.com/yvg4WUDA3E

  — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  For decades, San Franciscans have been fed the line that people are not on the street primarily because they are addicts, but because of high rent and lack of housing. The most powerful proponent of this view is Jennifer Friedenbach of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. She blocks the closure of open drug scenes, calls people who disagree with her fascists and racists, and organizes protests at the homes of politicians. “They’re screaming for housing,” she has said of the city’s homeless population.

  But that is not what addicts on the street tell me. On Saturday, I talked to a 37-year-old heroin addict originally from Alabama who has been living on San Francisco’s streets for seven years. He told me that for the majority of homeless people “addiction is the main driving force.”

  People say high rent causes homelessness but Ben, who has been homeless in San Francisco for 7 years, says the “vast majority” are homeless due to addiction. Just 6-7% are from SF. Ben says he “boosts” (shoplifts) and breaks into cars to pay for his $60/day heroin habit. pic.twitter.com/uewKTtBuOS

  — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  It makes good sense. Homeless shelters have rules, like no drug use. The streets do not. 

  And simply giving addicts and the mentally ill their own apartment units—the so-called “Housing First” approach pioneered in San Francisco—doesn’t even keep people housed long-term. In the spring of 2021, a team of Harvard medical experts found that after 10 years, just 12 percent of the previously homeless remained housed. 

  In 2018, a National Academies of Sciences review of the scientific literature of Housing First concluded that there was “no substantial evidence” that the policy of Housing First “contributes to improved health outcomes.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise given that it doesn’t deal with addiction.

  But in the name of Housing First, San Francisco’s elected leaders have deliberately chosen to leave a significant portion of the homeless unsheltered on the logic that anything short of a permanent apartment, no strings attached, for any addict who wants one is immoral.

  People say lack of housing forces local residents into the streets, but James says he came from Texas to San Francisco for the drugs, the non-enforcement of anti-camping laws, and the $820/month in welfare & food stamps. James says he sold fentanyl, 2 weeks ago, to a 15-year-old. pic.twitter.com/5qMr6tmlWs

  — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 9, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  It didn’t have to be this way. “New York has made the decision that everyone should have an exit from the street,” noted Rafael Mandelman, one of the city’s 11 supervisors. “San Francisco has consciously chosen not to make that commitment. And the conditions on New York’s streets versus San Francisco streets are somewhat reflective of what that means.”

  It seems like it cannot get worse. But it can. 

  In Canada, taxpayer-funded service providers have been delivering fentanyl directly to addicts living in homeless drug encampments. This is where many fear the San Francisco program is headed.

  The backlash is building, though. It is made up of fed-up city residents, addiction experts, and the relatives of addicts. 

  On Saturday morning, mothers of homeless addicts and mothers of kids killed by drugs gathered to protest the supervised drug site in front of the Linkage Center. They call themselves Mothers Against Drug Deaths, and they are part of the California Peace Coalition, which I co-founded last May.

  Gina McDonald, Samantha’s mother, was there. She opened up to me about her own past addiction. She was an alcoholic, then turned to opioids, then to meth.

  “Within six months I was in a psychiatric ward with meth-induced psychosis.”

  In May, she will have been sober for 10 years.

  “I don’t want to know what she has to do to survive out there,” McDonald said of her daughter.

  “I know because I was an addict. But I don’t want to hear it from her. Can you imagine what those girls have to do out there to not be dope sick?” 

  I no longer believe that change in the city will come from Mayor Breed. If it comes, it will come from mothers like Gina McDonald. When she took the microphone on Saturday she didn’t hold back. “Mayor Breed,” she said, “I’m tired of the bullshit, too.”

  *  *  *

  Michael Shellenberger is a Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment,”Green Book Award winner, and the founder and president of Environmental Progress. He is author of just launched book San Fransicko (Harper Collins) and the best-selling book, Apocalypse Never (Harper Collins June 30, 2020). 

  If you appreciate groundbreaking reporting about important stories that are overlooked, please consider becoming a subscriber to Michael’s substack here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 21:40

• Watch: DARPA Flies 'Smart' Black Hawk Helicopter With No Pilot On Board
  Watch: DARPA Flies ‘Smart’ Black Hawk Helicopter With No Pilot On Board

  For the first time the famed Black Hawk helicopter has flown entirely unmanned as part of an experimental project by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Lockheed Martin.

  The project, which has been in development for six years, is called ALIAS – or the “Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System” – and proved successful after days ago a UH-60 Alpha-model Black Hawk helicopter performed its first flight with no human pilot on board.

  

  The maiden flight included the helicopter taking off and landing successfully with no human pilot. It also navigated simulated aerial obstacles in between.

  Lockheed Martin published footage of the historic flight to its website this week, describing… “Sitting on the runway in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, one of Sikorsky’s pilots in an S-70 Black Hawk helicopter flips the optionally piloted cockpit switch from two to zero, exits the aircraft and walks across the runway.” 

  The helicopter is seen completing “a pre-flight check list, starts its engines, spins up its rotors and takes off with no crew onboard,” according to the press release. “All of it happens fully autonomously.”

  So far it’s completed two test flights over Fort Campbell, Kentucky with no person inside the cockpit. The aircraft is monitored at a remote station from on the ground. 

  The helicopter literally has a simple switch that enables autonomous flying, as Defense News described:

  There’s a switch in the helicopter called the “210 switch,” Igor Cherepinsky, director of Sikorsky Innovation, told reporters during a Feb. 8 virtual press briefing. The switch indicates how many pilots are present in the aircraft; for the first time before the flight, it was turned to zero.

  For 30 minutes, the ALIAS Black Hawk flew without anyone inside over Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on Feb. 5 and then again on a shorter flight on Feb. 7.

  The ALIAS technology has cost some $160 million so far, with Lockheed touting that “This unique combination of autonomy software and hardware will make flying both smarter and safer.”

  As AI becomes more advanced, we can imagine that in the not-so-distant future ALIAS will be combined with instant AI-driven battlefield decision-making, in a worrisome ‘Skynet’ type scenario which skeptics of DARPA and its creepy AI-robot projects are frequently warning about.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 21:20

• Time For Conservatives To Crack Down On The Postal Service
  Time For Conservatives To Crack Down On The Postal Service

  Authored by Cesar Ybarra via RealClear Policy (emphasis ours),

  A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers are considering giving the politically-troubled and financially-insolvent United States Postal Service (USPS) a $58 billion taxpayer and Medicare bailout, unless House and Senate conservatives step in and stop this from happening. 

  

  For those who haven’t been keeping tabs on the Postal Service, the agency has recently focused on politically-motivated activity instead of adhering to its mission of delivering mail to the American people in a cost-effective, efficient, and timely manner. 

  One report uncovered a Postal Service effort to produce a mobile voting system by secretly testing it on a blockchain-based system. The USPS conducted this test without involving the federal agencies tasked with overseeing the security of our elections infrastructure and then buried the results that showed how easy it was for hackers to penetrate the mobile system. 

  Another troubling report sheds light on the Postal Service’s Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP), a surveillance campaign that aimed to track “inflammatory” content on social media sites and flag it for relevant government agencies–ultimately, adding yet another layer to our federal surveillance state.

  From unwinding its politically-charged operations to addressing its financial shortfalls, the Postal Service is in serious need of reform. Members of Congress have responded to the necessity for reform; but, in typical congressional fashion, their legislative proposal exacerbates the problems rather than solves them. 

  Enter the Postal Service Reform Act (PSRA), a bill spearheaded by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and Ranking Member James Comer. This legislation was introduced to ostensibly “put the USPS on the path towards fiscal sustainability and efficiency.” However, the text of the legislation indicates otherwise. 

  Current law requires the Postal Service to prefund payments for future retirees’ health care benefits. But because the USPS has been unable to meet these obligations for years, postal union bosses are now strongly advocating for the repeal of this requirement and looking to shift the financial burden to taxpayers and Medicare funds. The Postal Service Reform Act will create a $58 billion bailout for an agency that cannot get its finances under control. 

  Simply erasing debts doesn’t mean that the red ink will stop flowing or that the nefarious accounting of the USPS will change in the least. Fiscally damaging practices, like underpricing USPS packages by $1.46, are sure to continue in perpetuity unless something is done. The fiscal relief that the Postal Service seeks would do nothing more than force everyone else to pay for the collateral damage.    

  More specifically, the PSRA further burdens the Medicare program with new debt by integrating USPS retirees into the soon-to-be insolvent program. Not only would this cause Medicare to hemorrhage further, but it would also hurt retirees by raising costs and reducing benefits. That’s why the National Active and Retired Federal Employees expressed concerns about Medicare integration, saying that integration “could raise premiums for federal employees and retirees.”

  Proponents of the PSRA also falsely claim that the bill is needed to restore service quality. In reality, the bill would actually make postal service quality worse by allowing USPS to unilaterally hurt delivery times and “relax service standards.” 

  Buried within the proposal lies another damaging provision, which states, in part: “The Postal Service shall maintain an integrated network for the delivery of market-dominant and competitive products.” This proposed integrated network mandate would make it impossible for the USPS to know where it makes money and where it does not as it gives the USPS the authority to bundle expenses and earnings of its package business alongside its letter mail service. The last thing Congress should be considering is the creation of shady accounting mechanisms that let the USPS off the hook for their troubled financial and accounting shortfalls. 

  Unfortunately, there is a bipartisan group of lawmakers willing to let the USPS off the hook for its unaccountable finances and deeply hurt Medicare in the process. House conservatives must demand answers from the USPS on their politically-charged operations and work towards thorough fiscal transparency and better legislative solutions than those offered in the Postal Service Reform Act. 

  Cesar Ybarra is the Vice President of Legislative Affairs at FreedomWorks.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 21:00

• Soaring Cooking Oil Prices Could Push Global Food Prices To Record
  Soaring Cooking Oil Prices Could Push Global Food Prices To Record

  Just days ago, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) Food Price Index (FFPI), a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, printed near a record high, a level not seen in more than a decade. We theorized last week that food prices were “set to hit a record high soon. “

  We now expect the Rome-based FAO index could be heading for a record high sometime this quarter and or as early as this month due to a rise in cooking oil prices. Malaysian palm oil futures powered to another all-time high late last week. 

  “This matters because palm oil is the world’s most-consumed edible oil and is used in everything from cooking to chocolate, lipstick, and fuel,” according to Bloomberg. Higher palm oil prices could increase global food inflation to a record high when the next FFPI is released. 

  

  Bloomberg explains the dynamics behind soaring edible oil prices. 

  Supplies of soybean oil are under threat because heat and drought have cut soybean production in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. That followed a canola crop disaster in top producer Canada last summer. So little relief is in sight for consumers until the U.S. and Canadian oilseed harvests later this year. Concerns are also rising about sunflower oil because any potential conflict between top producers Russia and Ukraine could reduce supplies from the Black Sea. 

  All this means is that the only way for food prices is up. The United Nations index climbed close to a record in January driven by more expensive vegetable oil and dairy prices. A further rise this month could potentially push prices beyond that mark to a fresh all-time high. -Bloomberg

  The threat of record-high food prices isn’t hitting everyone equally. Lowest income households are crushed the most worldwide. More than a year ago, everyone’s favorite permabear, SocGen’s Albert Edwards, explained soaring food inflation has the risk of triggering social upheavals, especially in emerging market countries first. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 20:40

• Rep. Roy Introduces Bill To Reinstate Troops Discharged For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine
  Rep. Roy Introduces Bill To Reinstate Troops Discharged For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine

  Authored by Isabel van Brugen via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A group of Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) unveiled a bill on Feb. 8 that would reinstate troops fired for not complying with the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

  

  The Service Restoration Act (pdf) would “ensure that American servicemen and women in uniform are not fired for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and that those already fired can return to military service,” a release from the Republican’s office said.

  Roy’s office noted that hundreds of “battle-ready service members” have been separated from the Armed Forces as a result of the mandate, which was announced by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in August 2021.

  “Worse, the Department of Defense (DOD) has denied many medical and religious exemptions, which has resulted in forcing service members to choose either their faith or livelihoods,” it said.

  The bill would prohibit federal funds from being used to require a member of the Armed Forces to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and would require Austin to reinstate members of the Armed Forces who wish to return to duty at the same rank.

  It would also ensure that Austin counts the service members’ time separated from the military toward their retirement benefits, and expunge from the service members’ record any adverse action due to refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

  Co-sponsors to the bill include Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.), Michael Cloud (R-Texas), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Van Taylor (R-Texas), Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), and Bob Good (R-Va.).

  “Because of President [Joe] Biden’s power-hungry, anti-science COVID-19 vaccine mandate, hundreds of valuable American service members are being forced out of our military, taking with them years of subject-matter expertise, careers of selfless sacrifice, and lifelong dreams of military service. This is strategically foolish, profoundly unamerican, and completely unacceptable,” Roy said in a statement on the legislation.

  The lawmaker added, “I introduced the Service Restoration Act to ensure that the brave men and women of our armed forces are not fired over this wrong-headed mandate—whether it be for a medical, religious, conscientious or any reason—and that those already dismissed are able to get back to honorably serving their country with their time of service and their records rightfully restored.”

  The measure came as the Air Force on Tuesday became the second U.S. military branch to approve religious exemptions to the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine, although the nine approved so far represent just a fraction of the more than 6,400 requested by Air Force troops.

  The Marine Corps is the only other military service to grant any religious accommodations, allowing three so far. On Jan. 13, it granted religious exemptions to the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, nearly two months after the vaccination deadline for active-duty Marines.

  The Army and Navy have not approved any religious exemptions. As of Jan. 26, the Army had rejected 266 requests for permanent religious exemptions.

  The Navy in its latest release on Feb. 2 noted that there have been 118 “separations” so far for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. Court documents dated Feb. 3 note out of 4,095 total initial requests, the Navy has denied 3,278 and 285 are under review.

  As of Feb. 3, a total of 3,458 requests for religious accommodation out of 3,539 initial requests have been rejected by the U.S. Marine Corps, while 81 requests are pending review, court papers show.

  The U.S. Coast Guard has denied 578 of 1,308 initial requests for religious exemption from the vaccine mandate, and 715 requests are under review.

  The military services have come under criticism for their failure to grant religious exemptions, with members of Congress, the military, and the public questioning if the review processes have been fair. Altogether, the services have received more than 14,000 requests for religious exemptions.

  Austin and military leaders have argued that the vaccine is critical to maintaining military readiness and the health of the force. And all of the services have now either discharged personnel for refusing the vaccine or put a system in place to do so.

  Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 20:20

• Hertz Customers, Suing For Being Falsely Arrested For Auto Theft, Are Making Progress In Delaware Court
  Hertz Customers, Suing For Being Falsely Arrested For Auto Theft, Are Making Progress In Delaware Court

  Hundreds of customers who are suing Hertz, claiming they were “falsely arrested for auto theft after renting cars”, are making headway against the company in court.

  Hertz was ordered by a federal judge this week “to disclose how many renters it accuses every year,” according to Bloomberg and Yahoo Finance. The decision was made by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath.

  Suing the company are advocates for 220 people who have been trying to make Hertz’s internal anti-theft program details public. 

  Hertz has been arguing against releasing the data in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, on the grounds that rivals could then have access to the information, which could then be used to tarnish the company’s reputation. The U.S. Trustee has argued the opposite: that the information should be made public. 

  

  Some people who rented Hertz vehicles were jailed – and in one case held at gunpoint – just hours after paying for their rental cars, the report says. 

  “Some 165 Hertz Car Rental customers have filed claims in bankruptcy court saying they were stopped, detained, and even spent months in jail because the car rental company filed stolen car reports on vehicles they had rented and paid for,” Inc. had reported back in late 2021, detailing the practice. 

  The company’s statement at the time was:

  Hertz cares deeply about our customers, and we successfully provide rental vehicles for tens of millions of travelers each year. Unfortunately, in the legal matters being discussed, the attorneys have a track record of making baseless claims that blatantly misrepresent the facts. The vast majority of these cases involve renters who were many weeks or even months overdue returning vehicles and who stopped communicating with us well beyond the scheduled due date. Situations where vehicles are reported to the authorities are very rare and happen only after exhaustive attempts to reach the customer.

  Now it looks as though we may get a peek at what the company was saying internally about the practice. We’ll continue to monitor this story for developments.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 20:00

• Supreme Court May End Affirmative Action In College Admissions, Experts Say
  Supreme Court May End Affirmative Action In College Admissions, Experts Say

  By Matthew Vadum of Epoch Times

  The Supreme Court may end the use of race-based so-called affirmative action in college admissions in cases later this year, legal experts told The Epoch Times.

  

  Although left-wing activists such as advocates of Marxist-derived critical race theory say race-conscious government policies are essential to dismantle the systemic racism they say pervades the American experience, critics say using race in the college admissions process is both anachronistic and wrong.

  Critics quote then-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who believed the policy was a necessary evil. In Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), she wrote: “We expect that 25 years from now the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”

  Making race-focused admissions decisions is “dangerous,” O’Connor wrote, calling it a “deviation from the norm of equal treatment.” Such programs must “be limited in time,” she stated, adding that “all governmental use of race must have a logical end point.”

  Although 2028, the year O’Connor said the policy might no longer be needed, is still six years away, two lawyers interviewed by The Epoch Times said the use of race in admissions may come to an end sooner–if enough conservative justices on the nine-member Supreme Court are willing to show the courage needed to make history.

  Some speculate that liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced Jan. 27 he would retire at the end of the court’s current term, might have voted with a majority against affirmative action in the upcoming cases, but he almost certainly will not be a member of the court when the cases are heard, probably in the fall or winter.

  Breyer voted with the 6-3 majority in Grutter’s companion case, Gratz v. Bollinger, to strike down the University of Michigan’s system, in which points were automatically distributed to every applicant from an underrepresented minority. That system ignored the individualized consideration requirement from Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), the court found. In Bakke, the court struck down racial quotas, but found that a narrower use of race to bring in more minority students could be constitutional in some circumstances.

  Justice Clarence Thomas was also on the court for the Michigan case. He, too, voted to find the system was unconstitutional.

  President Joe Biden is under pressure from the base of the Democratic Party to replace Breyer with a justice who is significantly to his left, and who would presumably favor affirmative action.

  Background

  On Jan. 24, the court agreed to hear Students for Fair Admissions Inc. (SFFA) v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, court file 20-1199, and SFFA v. University of North Carolina (UNC), court file 21-707. The cases were consolidated and will be heard together. Both of the federal judges who heard the cases at the trial court level were appointed by then-President Barack Obama.

  Considered a conservative group, SFFA calls itself “a nonprofit membership group of more than 20,000 students, parents, and others, who believe that racial classifications and preferences in college admissions are unfair, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.”

  Harvard and UNC are, respectively, the oldest private college and the oldest public college in the United States.

  In the Harvard case, U.S. District Judge Allison Dale Burroughs found after a 15-day non-jury trial for Harvard, ruling its admission policy that was said to discriminate against Asian American applicants was not motivated by “racial animus … or intentional discrimination” and was “narrowly tailored to achieve diversity and the academic benefits that flow from diversity.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld the lower court’s decision, ruling against SFFA.

  The Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) weighed in, siding with SFFA in an appeals court brief that stated the evidence at trial showed “Harvard actively engages in racial balancing that Supreme Court precedent flatly forbids.”

  But the Biden administration is siding with the college.

  In a brief (pdf) filed Dec. 8, 2021, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar urged the Supreme Court to reject the case, arguing that overturning Grutter and “other precedents authorizing consideration of race in university admissions,” would cause upheaval among “colleges and universities around the Nation” that rely on those precedents.

  In the North Carolina case, U.S. District Judge Loretta Copeland Biggs held an eight-day non-jury trial to determine if UNC was complying with existing precedent.

  The court approved the school’s admissions policy because it uses race “flexibly as a ‘plus’ factor” and only as “one among many factors.” The court found UNC had no viable race-neutral alternatives to help it “achieve the educational benefits of diversity about as well as its current race-conscious policies and practices.”

  The court stated that providing admissions preferences based on socioeconomic status instead of race would not work because “the majority of low-income students are white,” so the schools would just “be choosing more white students.” Race should be used by UNC indefinitely because it is “interwoven in every aspect of the lived experience.” Until the U.S. one day resolves its “struggle with racial inequality,” minority students would continue to be “less likely to be admitted in meaningful numbers on [race-neutral] criteria.”

  SFFA promptly filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, but before that court could rule on the case, also sought review from the Supreme Court, which was granted.

  SSFA President Edward Blum said in a statement  that his group hopes “the justices will end the use of race as an admissions factor at Harvard, UNC, and all colleges and universities.”

  Surveys from both Pew Research Center and Gallup show nearly 75 percent of Americans of all races “do not believe race or ethnicity should be a factor in college admissions.”

  “The cornerstone of our nation’s civil rights laws is the principle that an individual’s race should not be used to help or harm them in their life’s endeavors.”

  Blum said his group hopes the court “will use these cases to begin the restoration of the colorblind legal covenant that holds together Americans of all races and ethnicities.”

  Legal Experts

  Curt Levey is president of the Committee for Justice, a nonprofit that describes itself as “devoted to restoring the Founders’ vision of a federal judiciary governed by the rule of law and anchored by the Constitution.” Levey said he was part of the legal team for the plaintiffs who challenged affirmative action policies in the Grutter and Gratz cases.

  Unlike in the past, the five votes needed on the nine-member Supreme Court to abolish affirmative action may finally be there, Levey told The Epoch Times in an interview.

  Although Chief Justice John Roberts may be “a squish” on many issues important to conservatives, he has been “quite clear” on this issue, Levey said.

  Levey was referring to Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007), which Roberts wrote. Roberts said the court was rightly concerned “that racial balancing has no logical stopping point.”

  “Racial balancing,” he wrote, “is not transformed from patently unconstitutional to a compelling state interest simply by relabeling it racial diversity.”

  “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Roberts concluded.

  Given the presence of the six-member conservative bloc, there appears to be majority support for ending the diversity rationale for racial preferences, Levey said.

  “The question is, do they have the guts to do it?”

  If they go against establishment thinking on affirmative action and banish race-based admissions, the justices will face “the ire of the elites” and minority enrollment at institutions of higher learning “would probably significantly fall,” Levey said.

  This would prove “very embarrassing to all of these progressive university presidents,” he said. The justices are “under as much pressure to save affirmative action as they are to save the constitutional right to abortion, and only time will tell whether they have the courage to stick up for their principles.”

  Levey said he was “hopeful” but also “a realist.”

  Roberts is “very concerned with the legacy of the Roberts court and [Justice Brett] Kavanaugh is obviously worried about his reputation and [Justice Amy Coney] Barrett — we just don’t know.”

  Striking down affirmative action “would be bold, [but] it would be the right thing to do.”

  Wen Fa is an attorney at the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation, a national public interest law firm that filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the upcoming SFFA cases.

  University admissions have been “plagued with racial preferences” since the Grutter ruling, Fa told The Epoch Times in an interview.

  The decision, which “allowed for the use of racial preferences to further an amorphous interest in diversity,” was “wrongly decided.”

  “We think that the principle of equality before the law prohibits racial discrimination, and just as the principle of equal protection prohibits the use of racial discrimination elsewhere, it should also prohibit racial discrimination in the context of college admissions,” Fa said.

  “We hope that the Supreme Court took both of these cases to overrule the Grutter decision, and to say–once and for all–that racial preferences have no place in the context of university admissions,” he said.

  “Schools should treat individuals as individuals and judge them based on their own individual abilities, achievements, and aspirations and not on the basis of their membership in a broad arbitrary racial group.”

  Race-based discrimination hurts people and can lead to stereotyping, Fa said.

  For example, college guidebooks counsel Asian American students “not to say that they want to be a doctor, or they want to major in math and sciences, because that would be a negative on their application.”

  Asian American applicants generally have higher academic scores and higher extracurricular scores, so “to suppress the number of Asian American students at Harvard, and to get at Harvard’s desired racial balance, the admissions officers score Asian American applicants lower on these personal ratings, which is a subjective metric that purportedly judges students by likability, courage, kindness, [and] things like that.”

  Fa said this leads to Asian American applicants being “stereotyped as unkind, cowardly, unfriendly, even though the alumni interviewers who actually meet these students routinely disagree, and that’s just one example of the type of pernicious stereotypes that racial preferences can lead to.”

  Liberal Resignation

  Meanwhile, liberal supporters of affirmative action have considered the ideological inclinations of the justices and seem resigned to the fact that the Supreme Court is not going to do what they want. Some are already writing affirmative action’s epitaph.

  Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, expressed alarm.

  The court’s decision to hear the cases “seriously threatens the nation’s ideals of equality,” she said, and “comes amidst the backdrop of widespread efforts to erase and deny the experiences of people of color.”

  “As our country experiences a resurgence of white supremacy, it is as important now as ever before that our future leaders be educated in a learning environment that exposes them to the rich diversity that our country has to offer, so they may be fully prepared for the many challenges ahead.”

  Opting to hear the cases is in itself “a very, very significant threat to the continued constitutionality of affirmative action,” Tanya Washington, a law professor at Georgia State University, told ABC News.

  “This is not just going to impact the elite,” she said.

  “What we are going to see, what I predict, is a cataclysmic drop in the numbers of Latino, black and indigenous students attending institutions of higher ed.”

  William Spriggs, a professor of economics at Howard University, lamented that the court will probably “by hook or by crook, find our way back to 1950. Whatever it takes. And that would be really unfortunate.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 19:40

• Trump Says National Archives Documents Return "No Big Deal"
  Trump Says National Archives Documents Return “No Big Deal”

  Former President Trump on Thursday called reports of his handling of White House records “no big deal,” after questions were raised over the recent transfer of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) from his Florida resort.

  

  “The media’s characterization of my relationship with NARA is Fake News. It was exactly the opposite! It was a great honor to work with NARA to help formally preserve the Trump Legacy,” said Trump in a Thursday statement, in which he says he arranged for boxes containing “letters, records, newspapers, magazines, and various articles” to be transported to NARA after “collaborative and respectful discussions.”

  According to the Washington Post, 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from Mar-a-Lago – which the New York Times added may have contained classified documents.

  “The papers were given easily and without conflict and on a very friendly basis, which is different from the accounts being drawn up by the Fake News Media,” said Trump. “In fact, it was viewed as routine and ‘no big deal.’ In actuality, I have been told I was under no obligation to give this material based on various legal rulings that have been made over the years.”

  Trump added that reports he flushed papers down the toilet was fake news, calling it “categorically untrue and simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book,” referring to Times correspondent Maggie Haberman’s new book, “Confidence Man.”

  Last month, the National Archives transferred more than 700 pages of presidential documents that Trump had sought to block to the House elect committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

  In a lawsuit filed against the committee, Trump called the request a “vexatious, illegal fishing expedition openly endorsed by Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration.”

  However, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision to allow the documents to be transferred, saying in its decision that Trump’s “status as a former President necessarily made no difference to the court’s decision.” –The Hill

  Perhaps Democrats will launch another impeachment?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 19:20

• Maryland State Senator Pushes For Right To Carry As Baltimore Spirals Out Of Control
  Maryland State Senator Pushes For Right To Carry As Baltimore Spirals Out Of Control

  Submitted by The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN).,

  Even if you don’t live in Maryland, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about how dangerous Baltimore City is. Often making the national news about violence, Baltimore stands as a testament to failed liberal policies, especially on the subject of gun control.

  We often use Baltimore as a great example of how gun control has little to no effect on violent crime in the firearms world. This is ironic because Maryland law is a gun control advocate’s paradise, receiving an “A-“from Giffords on their annual “Gun Law Scorecard.” Giffords also ranks Maryland 6th for “strong” gun laws in the country. Here in Maryland, we have the whole package; an assault weapons ban, licensing requirements, training requirements, a registry for handguns, and to cap it all off; Maryland is a “May Issue” state.

  For those living in Free America, a “May Issue” state is where the burden is on the citizen to prove why they should be allowed to have a concealed handgun permit. You’d need to provide a good and substantial reason why you should be “allowed” to exercise your right. Often, “self-defense” is not an acceptable reason for the permit because these licensing schemes exist only as a gatekeeping method for the elite to keep firearms out of the hands of the average citizens that need them.  

  On the other side, in free states, the burden is on the state. Shall Issue makes better legal sense because, just like in the court system where your innocence is assumed, you can carry a firearm if you pass a background check.

  So with Baltimore having just gotten through one of its most violent months on record State Senator Justin Ready has proposed SB327, a bill clarifying that self-defense is a “good and substantial reason” and qualifies an individual to carry a handgun.

  It’s simple logic that crime would decrease after allowing citizens to arm themselves responsibly. But it’s also backed by data. After Florida changed their laws in the 90s, it saw its murder rate fall from 36% above the national average to 4%. The safest states statistically in the country (According to actual data, not Giffords) are constitutional carry, where a permit to carry isn’t even required!

  

  It’s also a fact that when times are tough, people want to take their defense into their own hands. Concealed Carry Permits skyrocketed in 2020/2021 along with gun sales due to the pandemic and civil unrest. It’s no wonder that Baltimore’s violent crime rate is so high when the populace can’t defend themselves due to the state’s unconstitutional policies. Maryland should be empowering its citizens to have agency over their lives and their self-defense.

  If Sen. Ready manages to pass this bill, we’d fully expect violent crime in Baltimore to decrease drastically.  

  Listen to the full interview with Sen. Ready, who said, “criminals don’t like when people can shoot back.” He also said something that would spark liberal outrage, that if law-abiding citizens of Baltimore were able to conceal, you would see a reduction in violent crime.  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 19:00

• US State Dept Issues Highest-Level "Do Not Travel" Warning For Ukraine
  US State Dept Issues Highest-Level “Do Not Travel” Warning For Ukraine

  Despite Ukraine and NATO agreeing that the threat of a Russian invasion is “low”, the US State Department has cranked up the propaganda dial to ’11’ on the amplifier of fearmongering by issuing a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for US citizens in, or considering traveling to, Ukraine.

  

  As a reminder, on Sunday Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged his fellow citizens to ignore “apocalyptic predictions” that a Russian invasion is imminent. Kuleba sought to calm his country by further saying, “Different capitals have different scenarios, but Ukraine is ready for any development.” It reaffirms President Volodymyr Zelensky’s words from a week ago saying there are “no tanks in the streets” and that foreign media must stop stoking unnecessary panic.

  NATO’s most senior military officer said Monday that in his assessment, Russia has yet to place enough of a troop force near Ukraine at this point for any kind of large-scale invasion…

  Admiral Rob Bauer, NATO’s most senior military officer, said that Russia will have assembled enough military forces to potentially stage an operation against Ukraine at the end of February. But he added that officials cannot determine Putin’s intention or plans regarding Kyiv and that NATO doesn’t currently envision a direct threat to alliance members.

  “Up until now, we don’t see an intent, we don’t expect an attack on NATO soil by Russia -– either directly or via Belarus,” he said Monday at a news conference in Vilnius.

  But, none of that matters to the US State Department:

  

  Do not travel to Ukraine due to the increased threats of Russian military action and COVID-19; those in Ukraine should depart now via commercial or private means. If remaining in Ukraine, exercise increased caution due to crime, civil unrest, and potential combat operations should Russia take military action. Some areas have increased risk. Read the entire Travel Advisory.

  On January 23, 2022, the Department of State authorized the voluntary departure of U.S. direct hire employees (USDH) and ordered the departure of eligible family members (EFM) from Embassy Kyiv due to the continued threat of Russian military action. U.S. citizens should not travel to Ukraine, and those in Ukraine should depart now using commercial or other privately available transportation options.

  There are continued reports of a Russian military build-up on the border with Ukraine, indicating potential for significant military action against Ukraine. The security conditions, particularly along Ukraine’s borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea, and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice. Demonstrations, which have turned violent at times, regularly occur throughout Ukraine, including in Kyiv.

  U.S. citizens in Ukraine should be aware that the U.S. government will not be able to evacuate U.S. citizens in the event of Russian military action anywhere in Ukraine. Military action may commence at any time and without warning and would also severely impact the U.S. Embassy’s ability to provide consular services, including assistance to U.S. citizens in departing Ukraine.  For more information, please review  what the U.S. government can and cannot do to assist you in a crisis overseas.

  The Department asks all U.S. citizens in Ukraine to complete an online form so that we may better communicate with you. This is especially important if you plan to remain in Ukraine.

  Crimea – Do Not Travel

  Russia occupies and has attempted to annex Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, and there is extensive Russian Federation military presence in Crimea. Occupation authorities continue to abuse and arbitrarily imprison foreigners and the local population, particularly individuals who are seen as opposing Russia’s occupation of the peninsula. The U.S. government prohibits its employees from traveling to Crimea and is unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Crimea.

  Donetsk and Luhansk – Do Not Travel

  Russia-led forces control areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, where the ongoing armed conflict has resulted in more than 14,000 deaths. Individuals, including U.S. citizens, have been threatened, detained, or kidnapped for hours or days after being stopped at checkpoints controlled by Russia-led forces. The U.S. government restricts USDH from traveling to the eastern parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and adjacent regions, which limits the ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in these regions.

  Crime targeting foreigners and property is common. Politically targeted assassinations and bombings have also occurred. There are reports of violent attacks on minority groups and police by radical groups.

  So, after seeing inflation hit a 40 year high (after saying he would control it) and various establishment types starting to flip-flop on the most draconian and anti-science COVID containment policies, President Biden needs something, anything, to get his approval rating back above 40 (a record low for him)… and it appears that ‘fear’ is the unifier of choice. in this case of Russia.

  

  Biden followed this warning up with an  interview with NBC News’ anchor Lester Holt, saying that “American citizens should leave now.”

  “It’s not like we’re dealing with a terrorist organization. We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It’s a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly.”

  Holt asked Biden what scenario could prompt him to send troops to rescue Americans fleeing the country. Biden replied:

  “There’s not. That’s a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another.”

  “We’re in a very different world than we’ve ever been,” he added.

  Be afraid. Be very afraid.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 18:40

• Ontario Premier Orders GiveSendGo To Freeze Funds For Anti-Mandate Protesters
  Ontario Premier Orders GiveSendGo To Freeze Funds For Anti-Mandate Protesters

  Less than a week after GoFundMe, at the behest of the Mayor of Ottawa and Justin Trudeau, summarily closed their fundraiser which had exceeded $10 million, Ontario’s Premier, Doug Ford, has issued an order that essentially freezes any funds that have been raised thus far from the alternate crowdsourcing site ‘GiveSendGo’.

  Freezing money from gofundme and givesendgo does not happen in a democratic country.

  That is a full blow communism move.

  Canadians are not allowed to do what they want with their own money.

  If this is allowed with no recourse, it will eventually be much worse.

  — Alexander Roberto (@alexrnicholas) February 10, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  As April McAbee reports via CitizenStringer.com, the order specifically states that the fundraising platform Give Send Go is prohibited from doing anything with the funds.

  Statement from the Office of the Premier of Ontario

  “Today, the Attorney General brought an application in the Superior Court of Justice for an order pursuant to section 490.8 of the Criminal Code prohibiting any person from disposing of, or otherwise dealing with, in any manner whatsoever, any and all monetary donations made through the Freedom Convoy 2022 and Adopt-a-Trucker campaign pages on the GiveSendGo online fundraising platform.

  This afternoon, the order was issued. It binds any and all parties with possession or control over these donations.”

  Ivana Yelich

  Executive Director of Media Relations Office of the Premier of Ontario

  According to Katie Simpson, a CBC correspondent, “a spokesperson for the Premier’s office says this essentially means the funds are frozen for now.”

  And the Americans are coming…

  NEW – a White House official says members of the Biden administration held a series of high level calls with their Canadian counterparts, urging them to use their federal powers to end the blockades, offering the full support of the Department of Homeland Security.

  — Katie Simpson (@CBCKatie) February 10, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Give Send Go has yet to make a statement on the order.

  In a statement on Twitter, GiveSendGo wrote in an apparent response to the court order:

  “Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo.”

  It adds:

  “All funds for EVERY campaign on GiveSendGo flow directly to the recipients of those campaigns, not least of which is The Freedom Convoy campaign.”

  John Carpay, president of the legal group Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is providing legal help to the Freedom Convoy organizers, told The Epoch Times that their lawyers are looking into the issue.

  In a statement on Monday when the company agreed to host the fundraiser, the platform stated, “GiveSendGo stands for hope and freedom. We recognize the freedoms we have are God-given, not authorized by governments, but rather freedoms that ought to be protected by our governments.”

  The GiveSendGo fundraiser had raised almost 8.5 million dollars at the time the order was issued.

  Just as Mark Jeftovic exclaimed last week, this proves bitcoin’s use-case, and just as we anticipated, it looks like a crypto-based crowd-funding platform Tallycoin remains as a method for Canadian truckers re-route their donations to help support the people on the front lines of the protest.

  Anybody interested in the new platform can donate as little as a single Satoshi (presently, about 2,400 satoshis make up $1), and the fundraiser has a target of 2,100,000,000, and has raise 1.594 billion Sats so far (around $700,000).

  

  The fundraiser on Tallycoin has the following message affixed to it:

  “The Canadian Bitcoin community would like to have a second financial access point for #FreedomConvoy2022. Legacy financial infrastructure can sometimes be politicized and clamped down upon, whereas Bitcoin is a truly censorship resistant method of communicating value. Don’t allow your voices to be silenced, and don’t allow your financial sovereignty to be trampled upon.

  Love, unity and freedom – let’s raise some hard money for hard workers!”

  As Jeftovic explained, needless to say Bitcoin fixes this.

  Today it is GoFundMe. In the future, when central banks roll out Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), it’ll be all economic activity that falls within the purview of national and Supra-national government and bureaucracy.

  When those days arrive, everybody who will be reliant on government economic entitlements will be enduring a type of neo-Fuedalism: veritably digital slavery.

  …Donating to #FreedomConvoy? Listening to Joe Rogan Experience? Those aren’t approved activities. That’ll cost you some demerits.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 18:20

• "Slash The Tires, Arrest The Drivers": Harvard Professor And CNN Analyst Calls For Violence Against Freedom Convoy
  “Slash The Tires, Arrest The Drivers”: Harvard Professor And CNN Analyst Calls For Violence Against Freedom Convoy

  Harvard professor, CNN analyst and former Obama admin undersecretary of Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem has called for violence and vandalism against Freedom Convoy protesters who have amassed on the bridge that connects Detroit, Michigan to Windsor, Ontario.

  “The Ambassador Bridge link constitutes 28% of annual trade movement between US and Canada,” tweeted Kayyem. “Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks.”

  

  In addition to a monumentally stupid idea considering the logistics of moving trucks with no fuel and slashed tires, one has to wonder if Kayyem is saying the quiet part out loud when it comes to how Democrats respond to non-BLM protests.

  Can you elaborate on your brilliant plan to “move” trucks with no tires and no gas off of a bridge?

  — Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 10, 2022

  You’re a “professor,” right? You’re advocating violence and property damage for peaceful protestors? Were you this outspoken when BLM and Antifa were torching businesses and killing people? That was an economic and security issue, too.

  — Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) February 10, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The blockade, now in its fourth day, has drawn the attention of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who called on Canadian authorities to reopen the bridge, according to the Epoch Times.

  “The blockade is having a significant impact on Michigan’s working families who are just trying to do their jobs. Our communities and automotive, manufacturing, and agriculture businesses are feeling the effects. It’s hitting paychecks and production lines. That is unacceptable,” the Democratic governor said in a Thursday statement.

  “It is imperative that Canadian local, provincial, and national governments de-escalate this economic blockade,” she added, without suggesting how. “They must take all necessary and appropriate steps to immediately and safely reopen traffic so we can continue growing our economy, supporting good-paying jobs, and lowering costs for families.”

  According to Kayyem, slashing tires, stealing gas, arresting the protesters, and somehow moving all the trucks is the way to go.

  That’s the point of worker’s strikes, Herr Professor.

  — Kyle Becker 🚚🚜🐎 (@kylenabecker) February 10, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  This is the most brilliant plan to be hatched at Harvard since the Vietnam War

  — David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 10, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/aZGunm9crr

  — they call me bruce (@ringtrick) February 10, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  pic.twitter.com/qpIAmDWIjP

  — Mark E D’s House Parties (@ffresh_batch) February 10, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 18:00

• Police Beating Of Unconscious Trump Supporter Was "Objectively Reasonable," Department Rules
  Police Beating Of Unconscious Trump Supporter Was “Objectively Reasonable,” Department Rules

  By Joseph M. Hanneman of The Epoch Times

  The beating of an unconscious Trump supporter by a DC Metropolitan Police Department officer on January 6 was deemed to be “objectively reasonable” after an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, The Epoch Times has learned.

  

  The Internal Affairs investigation was opened in September 2021 based on a complaint filed by a Texas man who assembled video evidence of the officer striking an unconscious Rosanne Boyland with a steel baton and a large wooden stick at the entrance to the West Terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

  Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Ga., was pinned under a pile of protesters who fled the tunnel when police deployed a crowd-control gas. After several minutes of being crushed by the weight of other fallen protesters, Boyland lost consciousness and stopped breathing, witnesses have said.

  Boyland traveled to Washington D.C. that day to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally and hear then-President Donald Trump speak at the Ellipse. She became trapped in a crowd that sought entry to the Capitol through the West Terrace tunnel.

  As Boyland lay unconscious on the ground DC Metro Police Officer Lila Morris repeatedly struck her with a steel baton and what appeared to be a wooden walking stick, according to a video recording.

  

  The sudden attack horrified Boyland’s friend and traveling companion, Justin Winchell, who pleaded with police and protesters to provide first aid to Boyland. Police bodycam video shows Winchell’s shock when he saw Morris strike Boyland in the head.

  “She’s gonna die! She’s gonna die! …I need somebody! She’s dead!” Winchell cried.

  Boyland was not pronounced dead until more than 90 minutes later, although she appeared lifeless when police dragged her body from the West Terrace tunnel entrance into the Capitol at 4:31 p.m.

  During the 11 minutes after Boyland fell, protesters made repeated attempts at CPR—efforts that were frustrated in part by the beating and police spraying pepper spray into the faces of those trying to help Boyland, video shows.

  There is confusion about what lifesaving efforts were made by police after Boyland was moved into the Capitol. Testimony before a Congressional committee suggested police attempted CPR at 4:26 p.m., which wasn’t possible since at that time Boyland still lay on the concrete outside, being given CPR by protesters Jake Lang and Ronald McAbee.

  The DC medical examiner said Boyland died of an accidental overdose of Adderall, a prescription medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. That ruling has drawn skepticism and outrage from Boyland’s friends and family. Her father, Bret Boyland, said Rosanne had been taking Adderall for about 10 years.

  

  The attack on Boyland troubled Gary McBride of Decatur, Texas so much, he filed a police brutality complaint with the Metropolitan Police Department on Sept. 14, 2021.

  Citizen Complaint Filed in September 2021

  McBride assembled a library of videos recorded at the Capitol on Jan. 6. McBride, who spent most of his career in the oil and gas industry, has turned into a professional video sleuth after studying thousands of hours of Jan. 6 footage.

  McBride went back and forth with various Metropolitan Police Department officials over more than two months, before being told via email on Nov. 15 that Morris had been cleared of any wrongdoing.

  “The use of force within this investigation was determined to be objectively reasonable,” wrote Capt. David K. Augustine, director of the Risk Management Division of the MPD Internal Affairs Bureau. “Officer Morris is still employed with the MPD and not facing criminal charges related to the use of force on January 6.”

  McBride said he found the reasoning and conclusion shocking.

  “It told me right there that it’s OK for them to do what they do. They are doing exactly what they want to do. They don’t care if you know or see,” McBride said.

  “They just showed me that they’re going to go beat somebody and kill them, but they have the power to say, ‘That was objectively reasonable.’ And we’re supposed to accept that and say, ‘Okay.’ ”

  Officer Morris, who had just reached the front line in the West Terrace tunnel, is seen on bodycam video picking up what appears to be a walking stick or a tree branch. She raised the weapon over her head with both hands and struck Boyland at least four times in rapid succession. The stick broke at one point. Morris continued to strike at Boyland until other officers pulled her back.

  Morris was hailed as a hero after Jan. 6. She was feted as a guest of honor at Super Bowl LIV in Tampa.

  Philip Anderson of Mesquite, Texas, who was at the bottom of the same pile that crushed Boyland, called MPD’s use-of-force ruling “absolute bullsh*t.”

  

  “There is nothing reasonable about hitting a non-responsive woman lying on the ground over the head with a baton,” Anderson, 26, told The Epoch Times. “They say it’s reasonable because she (Boyland) was a Trump supporter.”

  Anderson said there was cause from the beginning for an independent investigation by a special prosecutor or a grand jury.

  “The fact that they have been lying from the beginning is reason enough for investigation,” Anderson said. “The only reason why anyone even knows this is because I barely survived and am here to now call out their blatant lies (about) the woman that they killed.”

  McBride sent two videos as evidence along with his police-brutality complaint. One of the videos was removed from YouTube but is available on Rumble. The other video is still accessible on YouTube.

  Bret Boyland asked the Metropolitan Police Department for copies of bodycam video from various police officers in the terrace tunnel. That request was denied.

  “Wednesday was nine months from our daughter’s passing and we still have many unanswered questions to what happened to her that day,” Boyland wrote in a Freedom of Information Act request in fall 2021.

  On Oct. 12, Shania Hughes, a Freedom of Information Act specialist with the Metropolitan Police Department, told Boyland MPD would not release any bodycam footage.

  “It has been determined that the information you are seeking is part of an ongoing investigation and criminal proceeding,” Hughes wrote. “With exception of the portions of the video that has been shown publicly, MPD cannot fulfill your request. The release of this information could interfere with the enforcement proceedings by revealing the direction and pace of the investigation.”

  The Epoch Times also made a FOIA request for Officer Morris’ bodycam footage for her entire shift on Jan. 6, 2021. That request was denied, but for different reasons than those given to Bret Boyland. The department cited privacy grounds for denying the newspaper’s request.

  Officers Attempted CPR After Boyland was Moved Inside Capitol

  Bret Boyland said the family was initially denied a copy of Rosanne’s full autopsy report, but since has obtained the document.

  “Through our lawyer and additional FOIA requests, we have obtained the full autopsy report, which has been forwarded to the pathologist,” Bret Boyland told The Epoch Times.

  The family contracted with its own forensic pathologist to review the DC medical examiner’s report on Boyland’s death.

  Bret Boyland said heavily redacted bodycam footage he obtained shows that police did attempt CPR on Rosanne after she was moved into the Capitol.

  “There were two BWC (body-worn camera) videos that started with the officers pulling Rosanne into the building past the police line,” Boyland said, “and it did show multiple officers attempting to revive Rosanne and gave CPR for about 10 – 12 (minutes) straight; then they appeared to load her on some kind of mail-room cart and moved her somewhere else.”

  McBride said one thing he found especially troubling on one of the videos is that despite being unconscious during the attack, it appeared Boyland could feel the blows to the head.

  “When she takes that second hit to the head, watch her left arm, her left arm straightens up and lifts off the ground,” McBride said.

  Winchell told an Atlanta television station in 2021 that when Rosanne was struck by Officer Morris for the final time, Rosanne’s nose started bleeding. “In our mind, she was still alive at that point,” Bret Boyland said.

  Rosanne also suffered 3-4 broken ribs on each side of her chest, her father said. Those injuries could have come from repeated CPR attempts, the pressure of being under the large pile of bodies, or from the baton blows from Officer Morris, he said.

  Augustine said a report on Morris’ use of force has not been released to the public. He said the factors involved in police use of force are outlined in MPD’s online policy (pdf), updated in January 2021.

  “Members of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) shall value and preserve the sanctity of human life at all times, especially when lawfully exercising the use of force,” the policy states. “In situations where the use of force is justified, the utmost restraint should be exercised.”

  Bret Boyland said the family wants to know why Morris attacked Rosanne.

  “She had a choice; that officer had a choice,” Boyland said. “She could have helped her right there at that point in time. But she chose to grab the stick and start hitting her.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 02/10/2022 – 17:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• COVID "Conspiracy Theories" Have Now Magically Become "Fact-Checked" Mainstream Narrative
  COVID “Conspiracy Theories” Have Now Magically Become “Fact-Checked” Mainstream Narrative

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  I started out 2022 by predicting that capitalism and common sense would catalyze a massive pivot in how the mainstream media reports on Covid.

  I believed that the media would eventually start the process of pivoting from hysteria and that politicians, understanding full well that they can’t get re-elected during mid-terms this year on a platform of locking people in their homes, would follow.

  All I can say one month into the year is holy shit, does it look like I was right.

  So far in 2022, innumerable U.S. states, in addition to countries like Sweden, Norway and Denmark, are lifting Covid restrictions.

  Connecticut and Delaware are planning on lifting school mask mandates by the end of March. Oregon officials have also announced that general mask mandates would be lifted March 31. Even New Jersey and California announced they would ease mandates in coming weeks.

  And the media narrative has very quickly changed, too.

  Dr Leana Wen, columnist with The Washington Post and CNN medical analyst who has, in the past, gushed non-stop about following the government’s Covid guidance, has now completely changed her playbook for her appearances on CNN.

  On Monday of this week, she told CNN:

  “There was, and is, a time and place for pandemic restrictions. But when they were put in, it was always with the understanding that they would be removed as soon as we can. And, in this case, circumstances have changed. Case counts are declining. Also, the science has changed. The responsibility should shift from a government mandate imposed from the state or the local district of the school … it should shift to an individual responsibility by the family, who can still decide that their child can wear a mask if needed.”

  In addition to sounding like she was erring on the side of freedom of choice, a concept Democrats may only now be conveniently adopting ahead of mid-terms, she also promptly took to Twitter to represent “the other side” of the Covid argument that, days ago, would have been written off as “conspiracy theory”. She Tweeted on Tuesday night:

  • “It can BOTH be true both that covid-19 causes illness and harm, and ALSO that its continued prioritization, to the exclusion of other issues, does, too.”

  • “It can BOTH be true that masks reduce respiratory infections and ALSO that they can have unintended harms”

  • “We must have an honest conversation about masking in schools. Two things can be true at once. Masks work to reduce transmission. And they could cause harm to kids, especially to young learners. There needs to be an ongoing risk-benefit analysis, as there is for any intervention.”

  She also retweeted this statement from David Rubin, Policy director at CHOP:

  “This is a moment to start removing the restrictions that have been placed on kids. Because the risk to their mental health, learning loss, those types of things are now far greater than the virus itself.”

  She’s right: we do need to have an honest conversation. But the question is why are we having it now and why weren’t we allowed to have it just weeks ago?

  In fact, where the fuck was this woman 6 months ago?

  On New Years, she was urging people to mask up while heading outdoors to watch the ball drop:

  “Make sure that you’re vaccinated and boosted. Make sure that you’re wearing a mask even though it’s outdoors. There are lots of people packed around you, wearing a three-ply surgical mask.”

  In Spring of last year, she was expressing “fears” about the U.S. not being able to reach herd immunity.

  

  In Summer of last year, she was spreading the narrative that “we can’t trust the unvaccinated”.

  Heading into the Fall, she was writing op-eds called “Why Covid-19 Vaccines Should Be Required For All Americans”.

  And now – and only now that millions of vaccines have been distributed and the public’s trust in the President and in his Covid response is at all time lows – she has completely and totally changed her tune.

  ---

  The left is also starting to talk about concepts that they were completely silent on for the last 2 years. Most notably, natural immunity.

  It was less than a month ago that I wrote a piece arguing why I thought “Capitalism and Common Sense Would End Vaccine Mandates in 2022”.

  As part of that article, I wrote that natural immunity would soon have to be talking point due to omicron potentially acting as “nature’s vaccine”:

  First, after this omicron wave passes, it should hopefully stir up a discussion about natural immunity that’s about 18 months overdue. Putting vaccine mandates aside, Omicron, given its extremely infectious nature and mild effects, may wind up acting like nature’s vaccine for almost everybody anyway. People will start to understand this concept and push harder on “the science” as to why it has conveniently ignore the topic of natural immunity – which has been proven to be more robust than vaccination – thus far.

  And lo and behold, as The Hill pointed out this week, the CDC is – all of a sudden – starting to talk about natural immunity. A report published by the CDC on January 28, 2022, “finally acknowledges what many have suspected for a long time — that surviving COVID-19 provides excellent natural immunity not only repeat infection but also to hospitalization and death for the delta variant of COVID-19.”

  

  Once again, where was this analysis during the Soviet style campaign to roll out vaccines throughout the country over the last 12 months?

  We’re seeing articles like this now:

  

  But we’ve known about the robust immunity provided by natural immunity for many months already. Studies in mid-2021 were showing “durable and robust” immunity from natural immunity. According to a large collection of data and trials by Dr. Larry Istrial in his post “Covid 19 Natural Immunity: A Deep Dive”, studies dating back to 2020 continued to confer that natural immunity against Covid was effective.

  His comprehensive collection of sources is worth examining closely – not the least of which is Dr. Fauci’s own e-mail exchanges from the inception of the pandemic in March 2020.

  

  Even Senator Rand Paul was exasperated when he called out the administration’s odd penchant for not mentioning anything involving natural immunity. Speaking about Dr. Fauci’s constant media appearances, Paul said in Fall 2021:

  “Hey, this guy [Fauci] has an opinion on baseball, hockey, tinder, and Christmas, but he was asked the other day about natural immunity that you acquire after the disease [COVID-19], he is like, “Oh, that is really interesting thought, I never thought about that. I don’t have an opinion because I haven’t thought about naturally acquired immunity.” 

  He has and he is lying to you. 

  The reason he won’t bring up natural immunity is because it foils his plans to get everybody possible vaccinated. He thinks it might slow down vaccination. 

  And I’m for people getting vaccinated particularly people at risk, but the thing is, if you ignore naturally acquired immunity then you’re saying we don’t have enough people, you have to force it on younger people.”

  What then may have seemed more of a conspiracy theory – that Fauci was purposely ducking the question of natural immunity – today starts to look like the most realistic scenario.

  If we have FOIA e-mail from Fauci in early 2020, we know it was on his mind essentially as soon as the pandemic started. That begs the question of why were we so quiet about natural immunity for so long?

  ---

  Today’s blog post has been published without a paywall because I believe the content to be far too important to deny to anyone. However, if you have the means and would like to support my work by subscribing, I’d be happy to offer you 22% off for 2022:

  Get 22% off forever

  ---

  In addition to natural immunity, we have seen a drastic shift on numerous major points of contention by “conspiracy theorists” during the pandemic.

  Remember when questioning whether people were in hospitals for Covid or with Covid was written off as a conspiracy theory in 2020?

  

  Rolling Stone went for the exacta by using the terms “anti-vax” and “conspiracy theory” when describing these questions.

  

  Scientific American also took their shot in October of 2020, stating that inflated death counts were “false”.

  

  Well, in early 2022, CDC director Rochelle Walensky took to Fox News and admitted she wasn’t exactly sure “on how many of the COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. were directly due to the virus and how many were individuals who died with COVID-19 yet had underlying conditions.”

  Even CNN’s Jake Tapper was astonished about the revelation and called it “misleading”:

  ---

  Then, of course, there was the lab leak “conspiracy theory” that, after costing many people their social media accounts, has now widely been accepted as the leading likely genesis of Covid-19.

  In February 2020, Zero Hedge lost its Twitter handle and its million followers for asking the question of whether or not the virus may have come from the lab:

  

  There was then the wonderful op-ed written by Peter Daszak which charged that the lab leak was a “conspiracy theory”. We would later find out that Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance was at the center of gain-of-function research taking place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

  

  As soon as June 2021, Forbes was writing that the lab leak was a conspiracy theory.

  

  Of course now what we know, per a report by the Telegraph last month, is that scientists believed that Covid did leak from a lab, but didn’t want to interrupt “international harmony” by discussing it:

  

  ---

  Among the other “conspiracy theories” that have become mainstream are the ideas that cloth masks don’t work – now part of the mainstream’s talking points – and what I believe is going to be a massive pivot on the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for use in treating Covid – as has been supported in recent leaked DARPA documents.

  Finally, we’re learning that the vaccines, while helpful in reducing harm the first time someone gets the virus, also carry with them substantial side effects and may do more harm than good when administered to people who have already been infected with Covid.

  Dr. Rand Paul noted that this week, during an interview with The Dana Show, stating: “If your 15 year-old [boy] has already had COVID and you vaccinate them, you put them at risk for myocarditis.”

  “This is without question. The data is in on this. Each subsequent vaccination is a higher risk for myocarditis.”

  ---

  Other than mass hysteria, if there’s one thing that the pandemic has been littered with, it has been hypocrisy.

  What began as a small taste of hypocrisy with house speaker Nancy Pelosi going to get her hair done after shuttering all of the salons in the state she represents eventually turned into what felt like weekly examples of politicians ignoring their own mandates and adopting an elitist “do as I say, not as I do” attitude.

  If that was the only extent of the hypocrisy, I might be able to write it off. After all, politicians are extremely well known for being full of shit and, to some degree, we unfortunately expect it at this point.

  But the hypocrisy didn’t stop there – the magnitude with which it continued, as the facts of the pandemic started to reveal themselves, became beyond egregious.

  

  Anyone who dared question the “official” findings of the NIH, CDC and WHO was quickly marginalized and sent for social-media-re-education camps in the form of suspensions or outright bans. For some citizens, regular common sense and everyday critical thinking not only had them dismissed as lunatics, but also cost them their jobs.

  Looking back on some of these major issues now, it is still stunning to see the pivot – even though I knew it was coming.

  In fact, it is both stunning and sickening to look back on and, when presented collectively, it paints a picture of either gross incompetence or nefarious ignorance to advance an agenda.

  The one question that remains about the entire narrative, and now the pivot: what was it all for? To get the world vaccinated? Forgive me if I’m skeptical.

  

  ---

  Now read:

  1. Is Joe Rogan Ready To Rumble Against Cancel Culture?

  2. Has The Red Carpet Been Rolled Out For A Mainstream Pivot On Ivermectin?

  3. Cancel Culture Is Now Officially A Snake Eating Its Own Tail

  4. Bill Maher Is Right: The Left Has Lost Its Mind

  5. Shipping Expert Talks His Favorite Stocks For the Supply Chain Crisis

  6. George Gammon: Covid Is In The “Rearview Mirror” Only Because Politicians Know They “Can’t Win Votes Locking You In A Cage”

  7. The St. Louis Fed Thinks $30 Trillion In National Debt Is No Big Deal

  8. Millionaire Book-Writer And Professional Board-Sitter Chelsea Clinton Attacks Substack Authors As “Grifters”

  9. Waking Up And Derailing The Great Reset

  10. Inflation Is The Kryptonite That Will End Our Decades-Long Monetary Policy Ponzi Scheme

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 23:30

• Grizzly Cartel 'Killing Field' Found In Mexican Border State
  Grizzly Cartel ‘Killing Field’ Found In Mexican Border State

  Mexican authorities said they had discovered a new killing field in the border state of Tamaulipas, just south of the Texas border, an area known for widespread territorial disputes between drug cartels, according to Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles. 

  The Tamaulipas State Police revealed to Breitbart that the discovery occurred last week in Jimenez, a rural community northeast of Ciudad Victoria, less than four hours away from Brownsville, Texas. 

  

  Here’s Breitbart’s reporting on the muder field: 

  The discovery took place this week in Jimenez, a rural community northeast of the state capital Ciudad Victoria, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the Tamaulipas State Police revealed. During the discovery, authorities also found five vehicles, a tractor-trailer with fuel remains inside, and signs of the location having been used as a camp by a drug cartel.

  

  At the narco-camp, authorities collected several charred bone fragments consistent with the incineration of victims. Those samples are expected to undergo testing, authorities revealed in a statement. Authorities did not disclose how long the killing field had been in operation or how many bodies are believed to have been disposed of there.

  According to Tamaulipas state authorities, one of the vehicles found at the cartel extermination site is believed to be one that was used in a kidnapping over the weekend. As Breitbart Texas reported, a group of gunmen kidnapped a motorist in Ciudad Victoria and then clashed with state authorities in a series of shootouts.

  The violence in Ciudad Victoria comes at a time when the Gulf Cartel has been trying to take over areas that were controlled by their rivals with the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas. The reignited turf war has led to several murders and gun battles in the central part of the state. –Breitbart

  Last month, Mexican authorities found 19 charred corpses across the Rio Grande from Texas, also in Tamaulipas. 

  The north-eastern state is known for violent killings and disappearances, linked mainly to powerful drug cartels fighting for territorial expansion. 

  Meanwhile, President Biden and the Democrat’s border security has failed as cartel violence and large amounts of illegal immigrants have spilled into the US. Law and order need to be restored on the U.S.-Mexico border.

  To combat the terror on the border, the federal government has adopted robo-hounds equipped with advanced sensors to monitor cartel activity and illegal crossings. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 23:10

• Here's How Big Tomorrow's New CPI Adjustments Will Be
  Here’s How Big Tomorrow’s New CPI Adjustments Will Be

  Earlier today, when previewing tomorrow’s critical inflation number, which JPM said it was hearing “whispers that [it] will print below expectations”, and which Biden – whose approval rating is imploding as fast as inflation is soaring…

  

  … will do everything in his power to show the lowest possible (or impossible) reading, we joked that if the BLS is forced to use the nuclear option once it gets the tap on the shoulder, it may just get a little crazy in revising the January 2022 CPI weights which we previewed back in December, is set to take place tomorrow (similar to last week’s magical payroll “seasonal adjustments“).

  

  Joking aside, it appears our speculation that the seasonal and weights adjustments could have a material (political) impact on tomorrow’s unadjusted number has sparked quite a firestorm within the investing community, and as Goldman’s economics team writes late on Wednesday, “ahead of tomorrow’s CPI release, many clients have asked how the biennial change in category weights and annual seasonal factor update will affect inflation in January and the remainder of 2022.”

  Before we share Goldman’s answer, a little background:

  Every two years the BLS updates the category-level weights used in the calculation of the consumer price index (CPI). These weights—which are based on expenditure data collected in the Consumer Expenditure Survey—were last updated in January 2020, and tomorrow’s release will be the first to incorporate consumer expenditure data from 2019-2020 (vs. 2017-2018 previously). Tomorrow’s report will also incorporate updated seasonal factors, as is typical in January.

  With that in mind, and following our recent concerns that the BLS may once again make generous use of seasonal adjustments to paint the Biden administration in the best possible light, similar to what it did last Friday with the laughable January payrolls report…

  

  … Goldman’s Jan Hatzius writes that “many clients have speculated that the changes in the category weights may be larger than normal due to the pandemic, particularly because the BLS had previously announced that they would not adjust their methodology in response to the atypical spending patterns—namely, the shift in spending towards durable goods—in 2020.” Almost as if the BLS was told to scrap its previous plans and to revise inflation 10 months ahead of the midterms.

  Adding to the complexity of tomorrow’s revision, the directional implications of the weight changes were hard to predict according to Goldman, since the standing CPI weights already reflect a spending shift towards categories like durable goods that experienced relatively high price growth since the weights were last updated.

  Perhaps to avoid accusations of data manipulation, the BLS has posted updated weights and seasonal factors on their website ahead of tomorrow’s report.

  So what to expect from tomorrow’s revisions, which similar to the payrolls adjustments will likely smoothen out the recent spike in inflation data series making recent outlier prints appears much more mild in retrospect? Well, nobody knows for sure until the BLS reveals its latest gimmick, but Goldman has tried to estimate the adjustments.

  As shown in the first and second columns of the chart below, changes in weighting are generally modest but imply a larger share of spending on private transportation services (+1.1pp), used cars (+0.7pp), OER (+0.6pp), and new cars (+0.2pp), and lower spending on recreation (-0.5pp), public transportation (-0.4pp), personal care (-0.4pp) and rent (-0.3pp).

  Combining these changes with Goldman’s component forecasts for January, the bank has modestly upgraded its January core CPI forecast by +4bps to +0.56%, mainly reflecting a larger contribution from used cars and similarly upgraded the bank’s headline CPI forecast by +3bps to +0.53%, raising year-over-year core CPI forecast to +6.01% and year-over-year headline CPI forecast to +7.33%. In addition to further upward pressure from auto prices, the Goldman forecast also assumes a boost from start-of-year price hikes that should help offset an Omicron-driven drag on virus-sensitive service prices.

  

  The implications for Goldman’s medium-run year-on-year core CPI forecast are also fairly modest, with the new weights implying a peak upward revision of +6bps this spring due to the increased weight on auto prices, but essentially no change at end-2022 and a -10bps downward revision at end-2023 due to a larger drag once auto and durable goods prices start to normalize.

  

  As Goldman concludes, “while the changes in weights have modest implications for our CPI forecast, it is worth noting that there is no read-through for PCE inflation since PCE spending weights are updated each month to reflect the current composition of spending.”

  The other implication is that if the BLS’ weight and seasonal adjustments should not amount to almost nothing – as Goldman previews – and if tomorrow’s CPI print ends up being as shocking as what the BLS unveiled in last Friday’s payrolls report, and the CPI print is not just a small miss but an outright collapse designed to somehow make Biden look good, then it will finally become obvious that the fix is in and that no data the US government publishes has any credibility.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 22:50

• Fed Refuses To Release 60 Pages Of Correspondence On Pandemic Trades Scandal
  Fed Refuses To Release 60 Pages Of Correspondence On Pandemic Trades Scandal

  Having cost the jobs of three top Fed officials, including the Dallas and Boston Fed presidents as well as that of Vice Chair Clarida, one would think that matters relating to (potentially extremely lucrative) insider trading by members of the Federal Reserve should be fully in the public domain. One would be wrong.

  In response to a Reuters Freedom of Information Act, the Fed said that there are about 60 pages of correspondence between its ethics officials and policymakers regarding financial transactions conducted during the pandemic year 2020 which have become an extremely sore spot for the Fed, with members of Congress demanding full transparency as to who knew and did what, when. The only problem: nobody is allowed to see them, as the Fed “denied in full” to release the documents, citing exemptions under the information act that it said applied in this case. Exemptions traditionally involve matters of national security, so how exactly alleged insider trading by a bunch of millionaires threatens “US Democracy” is something we would love to understand.

  The disclosure of trading by two regional reserve bank presidents during the pandemic led them to resign last fall, and prompted Fed chair Jerome Powell to overhaul Fed ethics rules and request the central bank’s inspector general to investigate.

  The FOIA responses to Reuters for the first time quantify how much back and forth may have occurred over policymakers’ personal trading in a year when markets first cratered, then rebounded on the basis of both massive federal fiscal stimulus and an aggressive rescue effort by the Fed.

  Reuters reports that it had requested release under the information act of any 2020 communication “regarding the propriety of individual financial transactions” exchanged between the Fed’s general counsel or ethics staff and members of the Board of Governors, then Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan, or then Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren.

  Fed FOIA officer and deputy board secretary Margaret McCloskey Shanks responded to Reuters that staff had identified “approximately 47 pages of information” involving Fed board members and around 13 pages involving either Kaplan or Rosengren. However release of the documents was denied.

  “The responsive documents contain predecisional and deliberative information, as well as information that is subject to attorney-client privilege,” she wrote. There was, she said, nothing in the documents that was “reasonably segregable” and not exempt from release under FOIA.

  Gunita Singh, a staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the FOIA exemption cited by the Fed is meant to “protect agency candor” so U.S. government staff and officials can discuss issues freely as decisions are being made.

  The response from Shanks did not detail what current discussions or deliberations warranted withholding the information.

  Demands for more disclosure from the Fed about the ethics scandal has been widespread, with public interest groups and elected officials including Elizabeth Warren calling on the central bank to release more details about policymakers’ stock trading and the guidance or opinions provided to them by ethics officials.

  The inspectors general’s investigation of Fed trading during the pandemic is still underway. The Fed is also still finalizing the procedures and rules for the new ethics regulations adopted because of the controversy.

  The Fed has released the substance of one email sent from its ethics office to policymakers at the height of the crisis. In late October, after a New York Times report, the Fed released a March 23, 2020, email from its ethics officer which noted that Fed rules were meant to avoid even the appearance that officials used their access to market moving information for personal profit.

  Policymakers were advised to “consider observing a trading blackout and avoid making unnecessary securities transactions for at least the next several months,” or until Fed meetings and decisions moved back to normal from the emergency footing of that spring.

  The advice was ignored by at least three Fed officials.

  The ethics scandal blindsided the Fed last fall after reports in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg about Kaplan’s active trading in stocks during the pandemic and Rosengren’s investment in real estate securities.

  That activity was noted in the annual financial disclosure reports that Fed policymakers are required to file. Both officials initially responded that their trades complied with Fed ethics rules, but said they planned to divest nevertheless. They eventually resigned.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 22:30

• Pentagon Ramps Up Involvement In Yemen War As Biden Reverses Course
  Pentagon Ramps Up Involvement In Yemen War As Biden Reverses Course

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), visited the UAE this week and vowed more support for Abu Dhabi’s war against the Houthis as the US escalates its involvement in the war in Yemen.

  In the wake of recent Houthi attacks on the UAE, the US is deploying the USS Cole to the country, and McKenzie said a squadron of US F-22s would arrive next week. “We’re going to bring in a squadron of F-22 fighter jets, the best air superiority fighters in the world,” he said, according to UAE state media.

  

  McKenzie said the F-22s will work with the UAE to “help defend the nation.” In recent weeks, the US helped Abu Dhabi intercept Houthi missiles. He said the USS Cole will “patrol the waters of the UAE, working closely with UAE air defenders to protect their nation.”

  The cooperation is framed as “defensive” in nature, but it’s important to note that the Houthis wouldn’t be attacking the UAE if the country hadn’t been waging war on Yemen since 2015. The UAE’s support for militant groups on the ground in Yemen has brought the Saudi-backed government recent success on the battlefield against the Houthis.

  McKenzie said the US is also working to give the UAE the ability to hit Houthi drones inside Yemen before they’re launched. “We are working with our partners here in the region and with the industry back in the United States to develop solutions that would work against drones. We would like to work against drones what we call ‘Left of Launch’, [which means] before they can be launched,” he said.

  The Biden administration recently approved a $65 million arms sale to the UAE to upgrade Abu Dhabi’s Hawk, THAAD, and Patriot missile defense systems.

  Biden has merely rebranded the brutal war against Yemen. Searing piece from @shireen818 outlining Biden’s duplicity on the war on Yemen and how he should make proper efforts to keep his word and end it #StopArmingSaudi #YemenCantWait https://t.co/zPVn3P5QWz

  — London CAAT (@londoncaat) February 9, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Israel is also looking to bolster the UAE’s missile defenses and is reportedly considering selling Abu Dhabi the Iron Dome. On Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Michael Kurilla, who is nominated to be McKenzie’s replacement, said Israel’s cooperation with the UAE and other Gulf nations in missile defense is promising.

  “That’s probably the area with some of the greatest opportunity: working toward an integrated air and missile defense. I think the addition of Israel… will help with that,” Kurilla said.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 22:10

• Fashion Houses Use Inflation As Excuse For Massive Price Hikes On Luxury Goods
  Fashion Houses Use Inflation As Excuse For Massive Price Hikes On Luxury Goods

  As the CEO of one prominent luxury-goods conglomerate said during a recent earnings call, practically every luxury goods brand has been raising prices by larger-than-typical margins over the past year or two. But Chanel’s price hikes have been particularly egregious.

  As the WSJ reported in a piece on luxury-goods inflation published over the weekend, few products have seen price hikes like Chanel’s small Classic Flap bag – an item that’s practically ubiquitous in places like Manhattan, Milan and London.

  

  The bag cost $5,200 as recently as 2019. But after three price hikes in 2021, the price tag on a new purse has risen to $8,200.

  Wall Street analysts are warning that these egregious price hikes (which outpace those from other brands) might risk alienating consumers. And some megafans of the brand who were quoted in the WSJ story agree. While a Chanel spokesperson insisted that the price hikes were intended to offset increases in raw materials costs, brand superfans insist that the brand is actually producing more products of a sub-standard quality, exposing price hikes for what they – in all likelihood – are: cash grabs spurred by expectations of higher prices in the future.

  Dee Gables, a novelist who tracks handbag prices “as a hobby” told WSJ she has seen examples of shoddy workmanship in the products displayed inside the company’s boutiques.

  “We expect price increases of a couple hundred dollars,” said Dee Gables, a 32-year-old novelist who lives in Clawson, Mich. “But to go up $2,000 in six months upset a lot of Chanel lovers.”

  Gables, who tracks handbag prices as a hobby, said the quality hasn’t kept pace with the rising prices. She has seen bags in Chanel boutiques in recent years with crooked pockets, missing stitches and chain straps that don’t lie flat.

  And she wasn’t the only Chanel customer who went on the record to complain. Imagine spending nearly $10K on a luxury handbag only to have the clasp break a few months later. Does that sound like an effective strategy for customer retention?

  Valerie Chan, a 33-year-old financial analyst who lives in Forest Hills, Queens, said the clasp on a Chanel camera case broke a few months after she bought it at one of the brand’s boutiques in 2018. “If you’re going to pay such a high price, the materials and craftsmanship should keep up,” she said. “I understand they need to raise prices to keep up with inflation. But lately their prices seem to be increasing at a more rapid pace.”

  But as WSJ exposes in its report, the real reason Chanel has been so aggressive with its price hikes is that it wants to place its bags in the same rarefied territory (metaphorically speaking) as those produced by its archrival, Hermès. So while higher raw materials prices are an excuse for these hikes, they’re not the real reason. And as one purse blogger quoted in the story pointed out, while customers have been grumbling, they’re still buying (even if that means buying second-hand).

  Chanel’s new prices put it more in line with Hermès, whose Birkin and Kelly bags have waiting lists despite prices that run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Chanel’s brand is about as strong as Hermès but until recently its bags were less expensive, said Mr. Rambourg, the HSBC analyst.

  “As much as some people are upset at Chanel’s price increases, they are still buying,” Ms. Mahoney Dusil said. “As the price goes up, it becomes unattainable for some. But the core customers won’t be priced out.”

  As a result, prices on second-hand Chanel goods on popular website therealreal have surged 26% since 2020. By comparison, headline inflation as measured by the CPI rose 7% between December 2021 and December 2022, the highest number in 40 years.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 21:50

• Why Newspapers Refuse To Correct Errors
  Why Newspapers Refuse To Correct Errors

  Commentary authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClear Politics (emphasis ours),

  Many iconic U.S. newspapers sport slogans that seek to explain their mission – and self-image. “All the News That’s Fit to Print” has been called “the seven most famous words in American journalism.” “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was an overtly partisan call to arms. But the most telling section of a newspaper’s true values is its “Corrections” page. That’s where journalism distinguishes itself from just about every other profession, routinely and straightforwardly admitting its mistakes. Who else does that?

  

  It is a soul-crushing enterprise. A single misspelled name is all it takes to ruin an otherwise stellar article. We reporters may forget the topic of the piece we wrote last week, while the error five years ago is seared into our memories. But it is also crucial: Reader trust is the lifeblood of journalism. If you can’t believe what you read, why bother?

  And yet, we do get things wrong all the time. Despite the self-righteous claims of too many news outlets, journalists don’t print The Truth. The “first draft of history” is necessarily messy and incomplete. What journalists have long promised readers is that we will do our best to get the story right initially and then set the record straight when better information emerges. This isn’t solely a commitment to high-minded ethics. It is also transactional: Journalists can so readily acknowledge errors because readers honor and reward our honesty. They forgive us our trespasses because we acknowledge them.

  Unfortunately, this glorious compact between readers and journalists is evolving in dangerous directions, as news coverage becomes corrupted by the give-no-quarter partisan divide that shapes our politics. Increasingly, readers expect their favored news sources to advance their favored narrative, the facts be damned. And many news outlets, beset by immense economic challenges, seem happy to satisfy them to stay afloat.

  A notable example is the stubborn unwillingness of major news outlets to correct clear errors in their coverage of the Trump-Russia investigation.

  On Nov. 24, my colleague at RealClearInvestigations, Aaron Maté, wrote a detailed article highlighting a series of stories published by the New York Times and the Washington Post that contained “false or misleading claims.” The pieces he analyzed were either part of the entry the papers submitted to win a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for their Russiagate coverage or were written by reporters who shared in that honor. Significantly, the major errors and misleading assertions identified by Maté were not based on newly discovered information, but on documents and statements long in the public domain.

  Before publication, Maté sent multiple detailed requests for comment to the reporters and newspaper representatives. All but one of his queries went unanswered. As of Feb. 7, neither newspaper has appended a single correction or clarification to the articles Maté discussed. Here are two examples from the Times that reflect the problems Maté found.

  Example 1: On Feb. 14, 2017, the Times published a bombshell report that seemed to establish a Trump-Russia conspiracy:

  Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

  Four months later, then-FBI Director James B. Comey undercut that story when he testified to Congress that “in the main,” the Times report “was not true.” Documents declassified in 2020 show that this view was widely held at the FBI. Peter Strzok, the top FBI counterintelligence agent who opened the Trump-Russia probe, described the article as “misleading and inaccurate.”

  “We are unaware,” Strzok wrote, “of ANY Trump advisers engaging in conversations with Russian intelligence officials.” Their view was corroborated by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, whose extensive Russiagate report contained no evidence of contacts between Trump associates and Russian intelligence officials, senior or otherwise.

  Perhaps the newspaper’s sources had information that the men leading the probe were unaware of. At the very least, the Times should address such questions about the accuracy of its reporting. It has not.

  Example 2: On Dec. 30, 2017, the Times reported that the FBI opened its Trump-Russia investigation because of evidence that the Trump campaign knew about an earlier hack of DNC servers:

  During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat [Alexander Downer] in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.

  About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign. …

  The hacking and the revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the F.B.I. to open an investigation in July 2016 into Russia’s attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of President Trump’s associates conspired.

  The key details of this Pulitzer Prize-winning article have been contradicted by the only two people involved. For starters, the Times creates the impression that intoxication prompted confession. Papadopoulos and Downer agree they each had a single drink. Where the Times specifically ties the conversation to the DNC hack, Downer says Papadopoulos never referred to hacked emails – or even “dirt.” “He mentioned the Russians might use material that they have on Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the election, which may be damaging,” Downer said.

  Maté also noted that the FBI’s July 31, 2016 electronic communication that officially opened its Russia investigation was similarly vague, reporting only that Downer had told the U.S. government that Papadopoulos had “suggested the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia that it could assist” it by anonymously releasing damaging information about Clinton and President Obama.

  In sum, the Times falsely reported that the FBI had significant and specific reason to take the extreme step of opening a counterintelligence probe of a presidential campaign – a direct link to the stolen emails. Instead, it merely had murky, and apparently second-hand, barroom gossip. As with the first example, it is likely that the Times was misled by its sources. That is no excuse to let stand work whose accuracy has been meaningfully undercut by the facts.

  Because the paper has refused to address these issues, we don’t know why it stands by this reporting. Perhaps it knows things we do not. Regardless, it has an obligation to set the record straight. Silence is the enemy of transparency.

  The Times is not operating in a vacuum. One reason it is not owning up to its errors is that the people whose goodwill it depends on – its readers and the larger journalistic community, including the board of the Pulitzer Prize – do not seem to care. I think they believe our country is at war with itself and that admitting that the most prestigious news outlets on their side made grave errors in reporting the biggest story of the last five years would give succor to the enemy. Perversely, acknowledging these errors would be an act of betrayal to the larger cause embraced by the increasingly radicalized minority of people who buy their product and pay their bills. Tout pour la guerre.

  This sorry situation has been a long time coming. At least since the 1980s, conservatives have actively accused mainstream outlets of liberal bias. In a healthy society, the editors would have taken this seriously, using the criticism that seemed valid (not all of it was or is) to improve their coverage. Instead, over time, they have transformed the complaints into a rationale for becoming even more biased. They dismiss it all as right-wing talking points. Even, apparently, factual errors.

  No wonder Gallup reports America’s trust in the media is near an all-time low. If you can’t count on journalists to set the record straight, why bother?

  J. Peder Zane is an editor for RealClearInvestigations and a columnist for RealClearPolitics.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 21:30

• Tesla Cut An Electronic Steering Wheel Unit From "Tens Of Thousands" Of Vehicles To Sidestep Semi Chip Shortage
  Tesla Cut An Electronic Steering Wheel Unit From “Tens Of Thousands” Of Vehicles To Sidestep Semi Chip Shortage

  Well it looks like we’ve finally found out how Tesla was able to so deftly sidestep the ongoing semiconductor shortage and post record numbers while the rest of the industry struggled from lack of chips. 

  It was reported yesterday that the company decided to “cut one of the two electronic control units normally included in the steering system” on some Model 3 and Model Y vehicles made in China in order to make up for a shortage of chips, CNBC reported. 

  The report, which cites two employees and internal correspondence from the company, says that the exclusion of the one electronic control unit had affected “tens of thousands of vehicles being shipped to customers in China, Australia, the U.K., Germany and other parts of Europe” and that Tesla did not disclose the change.

  But they key isn’t that didn’t disclose it, it’s that the company can no longer turn all of its existing cars into full self driving cars with a mere software update, CNBC noted.

  Elon Musk had recently claimed: “My personal guess is that we’ll achieve Full Self-Driving this year at a safety level significantly greater than a person. So the cars in the fleet essentially becoming self-driving via software update, I think, might end up being the biggest increase in asset value of any asset class in history. We shall see.”

  

  But internal correspondence showed that to add “Level 3” autonomous driving, cars would need the dual electronic control unit system.

  The omitted chip helps translate steering wheel movements into wheel turns for the vehicle, via computer. 

  “There’s still a mechanical component of course. But in today’s vehicles, when you ‘turn the wheel’ you are providing an electronic signal telling your car to go left or right,” said Richard Wallace, principal advisor for HWA Analytics.

  The second chip was deemed by Tesla to be a backup and “redundant”. 

  But Wallace said that removing the unit could pose a safety risk: “If something like a chip or an ECU is not providing additional functionality, if it is truly redundant, you may be able to turn it off or leave it out. With chips and software, there’s a little bit of wiggle room. I can reassign stuff here and there.”

  IHS Markit Senior Principal Analyst Phil Amsrud concluded: “I cannot think of a case where an automaker would say ‘You know what? We’ll take a component out of that module, even though it was there for a good reason and we’ll hope nothing happens.’ Going from a dual chip to a single chip variant in a vehicle can make a system simpler and make it better in some cases. But they’d really need to do a lot of validation.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 21:10

• Bitcoin: The Inevitable Path Toward Global Adoption Of The Next World Reserve Currency
  Bitcoin: The Inevitable Path Toward Global Adoption Of The Next World Reserve Currency

  Authored by Drew MacMartin via Bitcoin Magazine,

  A changing of the guard is standard for fiat currencies – but bitcoin is set to supplant them all…

  

  If the last 700 years are any indication, reserve currencies have a shelf life of roughly 100 years. The U.S. dollar (USD) officially became the world reserve currency 77 years ago (Bretton Woods, 1944). Arguably, USD was the reserve as far back as the late 1920s.

  

  Source: “Will a Digital Gold Rush Save America’s Economy?” Cryptokek Blog.

  From a historical timeline perspective, the USD is in the twilight of its reserve status. Couple that with the fact that the United States is also expanding the money supply exponentially (devaluing the purchasing power of the existing supply of USD in the process), and to put it politely, this growth rate is unsustainable.

  For the record, the U.S. Federal Reserve is not operating in isolation. Most major central banks across the globe are following this trend. Examples include the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of Japan (POJ) and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to name a few. Frankly, the majority of major central banks are racing one another to see who can debase their currencies the quickest.

  

  Source: Haver Analytics.

  Stanley Druckenmiller, who is considered a legendary investor in part due to his study of history and macroeconomics, thinks the USD will lose reserve currency status within 15 years.

  “I can’t find any period in history where monetary and fiscal policy were this out of step with economic circumstances, not one.”

  – Stanley Druckenmiller

  So, if the USD has a shelf life partially due to historical precedence and partially due to fiscal irresponsibility (overprinting of the money supply), what comes next? What replaces the USD? Another fiat currency? It’s possible, but my guess is the days of trusting a centralized party to maintain a stable supply of a currency have come and gone. Why trust, when you can just verify? An argument could be made that gold is today’s reserve asset as it is held by the majority of central banks.

  For me, gold is the past, while Bitcoin is the future. Bitcoin is decentralized, easily verifiable, immutable, divisible with a known supply and is easily amalgamated into an ever-increasing digitizing global economy. Bitcoin is already legal tender in El Salvador, a status that will be difficult for gold to parallel based on its transportation and divisibility limitations. There is a groundswell of Bitcoin adoption happening from different sectors of the economy.

  Retail, institutions, governments, pension funds, REITS and banks are all accumulating bitcoin. The diversity of accumulation produces “game theory” adoption, accumulation which is occurring far quicker than most would have predicted. For example, El Salvador became the first government to make bitcoin legal tender in September 2021. Today, there are more residents with Bitcoin wallets than traditional bank accounts. As of October 2021, exports of goods grew 34% in 2021 in El Salvador, while gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to be greater than 10% in 2021, making El Salvador one of the fastest growing economies in central America.

  

  Source: @DylanLeClair_

  El Salvador continues to acquire bitcoin at a fast pace, now owning approximately 1,220 bitcoin at the time of writing this article. Bitcoin adoption is an accumulation race. The thing is, most do not realize that the gun has already gone off and the race has started. Ask Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy if they plan to sell, let alone stop accumulating more bitcoin.

  From a government level, Laos mines bitcoin. They expect to earn $190 million dollars from bitcoin mining in 2022. Tonga is actively drafting legislation to make bitcoin legal tender in the fall of 2022. Panama, Zimbabwe and Ukraine are all looking into possible adoption. Singapore seeks to become a Bitcoin hub.

  “We think the best approach is not to clamp down or ban these things,” said Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

  The president of El Salvador is currently in Turkey, the first G20 country to experience near hyperinflation. I would guess Nayib Bukele would bring up the benefits that adopting bitcoin as legal tender could do for the Turkish people.

  For every case like China, which chose to close its doors to Bitcoin, there are two other countries ready to embrace it. You cannot ban Bitcoin, a country can only choose to ignore it, but Bitcoin is not going away. Ignore at your peril. Bulgaria owns 213,518 bitcoin, Ukraine owns 46,351, Finland 1,981 and El Salvador, at the time of writing, 1,220.

  

  Source: Buy Bitcoin Worldwide.

  Even in countries where governments do not present favorable policies toward Bitcoin adoption, high levels of citizen adoption can force the government’s hand. Nigeria and Turkey are two prime examples. Grassroots citizen adoption (retail) is taking hold in countries all over the world. In 2020, per the Statista global survey, 32% of citizens in Nigeria, 21% in Vietnam, 20% in the Philippines and 16% in Turkey and Peru have indicated they have used or owned “cryptocurrencies.”

  

  Source: Statista. 

  Corporate accumulation is also taking place. As of June 2021, 34 public companies collectively hold over 213,000 bitcoin. MicroStrategy and Tesla being the largest. The majority of companies who have adopted bitcoin have done so in the last 18 months.

  

  Source: Buy Bitcoin Worldwide. 

  Google has partnered with Bakkt to provide Bitcoin payment solutions. Twitter has enabled tipping via the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Bitcoin has the capability of being the native currency of the internet, as predicted by Milton Friedman in 1999.

  One of the most prominent U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITS), SL Green Realty Corp. (NYC Office REIT), has dipped their toes into bitcoin with a $10 million investment in a bitcoin fund. Banks are another corporate sector actively embracing bitcoin after trying to ignore and fight the asset for years. Banks make their money by lending out their assets. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has enabled 6 million of its customers to buy bitcoin. Banks must choose to adopt bitcoin or risk becoming irrelevant.

  Pension funds and insurance companies are also beginning to gain exposure to bitcoin. The Houston Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF) in partnership with NYDIG has purchased $25 million in bitcoin (and ether) in October 2021. MassMutual also purchased $100 million in bitcoin in December 2020.

  The reason why pension funds and insurances are drawn to bitcoin is because they need to save their monetary energy (purchasing power) for the future. With inflation levels at decade highs, cash savings (in fiat) are being devalued. These funds are forced to take on riskier investments in search of higher yields, to maintain their purchasing power that is being devalued through inflation.

  Holding bitcoin is simpler, as bitcoin enables the ability to save due to its deflationary nature.

  The toothpaste (Bitcoin adoption) can’t go back in the tube. Adoption has grown to a saturation level (in terms of scale and diversity) which makes a future bitcoin standard for the world inevitable. The majority of the world has blinders on and cannot see this or the groundswell of adoption and accumulation taking place.

  

  Source: Visual Capitalist. 

  Paul Tudor Jones says it best,

  “Bitcoin has this enormous contingent of really, really, smart sophisticated people who believe in it…. You’ve got this group — which by the way is crowdsourced all over the world — that are dedicated to seeing Bitcoin succeed in becoming a commonplace store of value and transactional to boot.”

  It might make sense to get some, in the event that the rate of adoption continues to accelerate.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 20:50

• As Oil Hits $90, High Cost Shale Basins Are Hurriedly Coming Back Online
  As Oil Hits $90, High Cost Shale Basins Are Hurriedly Coming Back Online

  Energy companies are once again starting to “kick the tires and light the fires” at high-cost shale basins, which have once again become economically feasible thanks to oil’s dramatic rise in price over the last 12 months.

  The same projects that were shuttered during the beginning of the pandemic are once again “buying properties and adding rigs and frack crews”, according to Reuters. 

  This is as benchmark oil prices rose over $93 last week, marking a stunning 65% move higher in a year and the highest prices since 2014. The report notes that this has catalyzed U.S. producers to spend “at double-digit rates as fuel demand has soared and fears have waned that OPEC will again punish them by flooding the market with crude”.

  Executives are calling the economics of the industry “the best in years”. 

  Chris Wright, chief executive officer of Liberty Oilfield Services, told Reuters: “Drilling economics today are better than they’ve ever been since the shale revolution started.”

  Names like Colorado’s DJ Basin, Wyoming’s Powder River, Louisiana’s Haynesville and North Dakota’s Bakken shale have all seen new activity in the last few months. 

  

  Budgets for U.S. oil producers have rise about 13% year over year, Cowen noted. 

  Bob Phillips, chief executive of energy pipeline company Crestwood Equity Partners, added: “When you look at the oil prices in the Bakken, the prompt price is close to $90 a barrel. That doesn’t happen very often.”

  The economics have spurred mergers and acquisitions, as well, Reuters noted:

  Crestwood completed a $1.8 billion deal to purchase Oasis Midstream Partners’ oil, gas and gas-processing assets in North Dakota and Texas as part of a plan to become a top-three midstream operator in the Bakken, Powder River and Permian shale fields.

  Oil M&A specialist Andrew Dittmar stated: “Most of the selling private companies are ones that bring inventory as well as production to the table.”

  “The DJ has been particularly profitable,” said Ben Dell, interim CEO at Colorado’s Civitas Resources.

  In fact, gains are happening so quickly that production forecasts for some areas have been too low. For example, there are 42 active rigs in Haynesville, beating estimates of ~40 rigs that were made by analysis firm East Daley Capital.

  Rob Wilson, a vice president at East Daley, said: “There is further upside to our current forecast.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 20:30

• LA County Sheriff's Department Could Lose 4,000 Employees Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
  LA County Sheriff’s Department Could Lose 4,000 Employees Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

  The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is set to lose 4,000 employees who have not been vaccinated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.

  

  The LA County Board of Supervisors is set to vote on the potential termination of 18,000 employees who have not complied with the COVID-19 vaccination requirements on Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department posted on Twitter Monday.

  Of those 18,000 non-compliant employees, 4,000 belong to the Sheriff’s Department.

  “These are the same law enforcement professionals, fire professionals, medical & health care professionals, mental health professionals, and others who we called HERO’s just a short time ago,” the department said. “Call the Board meeting tomorrow to share your public safety concerns and stop this social experimentation!”

  The Board of Supervisors began establishing a policy requiring all LA County employees to submit proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 in August 2021.

  Officials said employees needed to be vaccinated in an effort to “combat the elevated risk presented by the highly transmissible Delta variant and to prepare for the County’s imminent reopening of its buildings to the public.”

  A COVID-19 vaccination policy was then implemented in October and requires that all LA County employees be fully vaccinated and submit proof of vaccination unless they have been granted a medical or religious exemption.

  As of Feb. 1, 2022, 81.5 percent (82,298) of LA County’s approximately 100,000 employees are fully vaccinated, Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said.

  More than 90 percent of those vaccinated are employed by approximately a dozen LA County departments, while less than 60 percent of the employees in the Sheriff’s Department are fully vaccinated, Kuehl said.

  “Unsurprisingly, approximately 74 percent of the more than 5,000 COVID-19-related workers’ compensation claims filed by County employees as of Jan. 29, 2022, have been filed by employees in the Sheriff’s Department,” the supervisor said.

  The LA County Board of Supervisors says that this data illustrate the “vaccinations’ vital role in limiting the spread of COVID-19” and the “urgent need to increase vaccination rates across the entire County workforce.”

  They have agreed to “discipline the employees of any County department for noncompliance” with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and will be suspending or terminating such employees.

  The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs in December sued the Board of Supervisors, claiming that it does not have the legal authority to suspend or fire LA County sheriff’s deputies for noncompliance with the county’s mandatory vaccination order.

  But the board maintains it has the legal authority to do so.

  The Epoch Times has contacted the LA County Board of Supervisors for comment.

  Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has been a vocal critic of the county’s vaccine mandate and repeatedly said he will not force his employees to get vaccinated, while calling the issue of COVID-19 vaccines “politicized.”

  In October, Villanueva said that the termination of so many Sheriff’s Department employees could have dire consequences to public safety as the department was already struggling with “barebones” staffing issues due to “defund the police” efforts.

  Prior to that, the sheriff also said that forcing vaccinated individuals and those who have already contracted COVID-19 to wear masks indoors is “not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 20:10

• North Korea Boasts Of Testing Missiles That Can Strike US Mainland
  North Korea Boasts Of Testing Missiles That Can Strike US Mainland

  Days after North Korea’s Kim Jong Un was featured in the country’s latest propaganda video on a white horse prancing around in a forest and on a beach, he’s issued a new threat, saying advanced missile technology possessed by Pyongyang will “shake the world.”

  The statement was issued Tuesday through the DPRK’s Foreign Ministry. It said according to Reuters: “In today’s world where many countries waste time dealing with the United States with submission and blind obedience, there’s only our country on this planet that can shake the world by firing a missile with the U.S. mainland in its range.” 

  

  Effectively, Pyongyang says it has the capability of launching a long-range missile to strike the US mainland. “There are more than 200 countries in the world, but only a few have hydrogen bombs, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and hypersonic missiles,” the statement continued.

  The specific missile in question is believed to be the Hwasong-15, unveiled as under development starting in 2017, though it’s thought to not have been tested yet. The Hwasong-15 is widely acknowledged as the north’s longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

  However, there’s also widespread speculation that North Korea could be greatly advancing its hypersonic glide vehicle capabilities, after the Pentagon was reportedly caught off guard by alleged successful tests in the late summer of last year, though this is uncertain. 

  Amid stalled engagement with either the US or South Korea on nuclear talks, and a near compete lack of communication between Washington and Pyongyang since the rare, in-person summits with Kim during the Trump administration, North Korea started the year by flexing its missile capabilities. 

  .@DPRK_News has put out a bizarre video of Kim Jong Un riding a white horse. pic.twitter.com/AXviGPkTeb

  — Jonathan Franks (@jonfranks) February 4, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  In January alone it launched no less than seven missiles during a series of tests. The tests purportedly included another hypersonic glide projectile, as well as the intermediate-range ballistic missile Hwasong-12.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 19:50

• North Carolina Board Asserts Right To Disqualify Madison Cawthorn As An "Insurrectionist"
  North Carolina Board Asserts Right To Disqualify Madison Cawthorn As An “Insurrectionist”

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  The North Carolina elections board declared this week that it has the power to bar Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) from running for office due his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. It insists that it can enforce Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment and declared that he is an insurrectionist. It is a position that, in my view, is wholly outside of the language and intent of this provision. Cawthorn is right to challenge any such action as unconstitutional.

  

  In a filing to dismiss a lawsuit by Cawthorn, the board wrote

  “The State does not judge the qualifications of the elected members of the U.S. House of Representative. It polices candidate qualifications prior to the elections. n doing so, as indicated above, States have long enforced age and residency requirements, without question and with very few if any legal challenges. The State has the same authority to police which candidates should or should not be disqualified per Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

  The asserted authority would invite partisan and abusive practices by such boards. It is also wrong on the purpose of this constitutional provision. Moreover, there is a vast difference between enforcing an objective standard on the age of a candidate and enforcing the subjective standard whether that candidate’s views make him an “insurrectionist.”

  As I have previously written, (here and here and here), Democrats are playing a dangerous game with the long-dormant provision in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — the “disqualification clause.” The provision was written after the 39th Congress convened in December 1865 and many members were shocked to see Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president, waiting to take a seat with an array of other former Confederate senators and military officers.

  Ironically, it was Justice Edwin Reade of the North Carolina Supreme Court who later explained, “[t]he idea [was] that one who had taken an oath to support the Constitution and violated it, ought to be excluded from taking it again.” So, members drafted a provision that declared that “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

  The mantra that this was an insurrection does not meet the standard. The Constitution fortunately demands more than proof by repetition. In this case, it requires an actual rebellion. The clause Democrats are citing was created in reference to a real Civil War in which over 750,000 people died in combat. The confederacy formed a government, an army, a currency, and carried out diplomatic missions.

  While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this week called it an “insurrection,” there are ample legal reasons to reject that characterization in court. (I agree with McConnell in his other comments criticizing the sanctions against Republicans supporting the House committee investigating Jan. 6th).

  Jan. 6 was a national tragedy. I publicly condemned President Trump’s speech that day while it was being given — and I denounced the riot as a “constitutional desecration.” However, it has not been treated legally as an insurrection. Those charged for their role in the attack that day are largely facing trespass and other less serious charges — rather than insurrection or sedition. That’s because this was a riot that was allowed to get out of control by grossly negligent preparations by Capitol Police and congressional officials. While the FBI launched a massive national investigation, it did not find evidence of a conspiracy for an insurrection.  Only a handful were charged with seditious conspiracy, a broadly defined offense.

  I still believe that Jan. 6 was a protest that became a riot. That is not meant to diminish the legitimate outrage over the day. It was reprehensible — but only a “rebellion” in the most rhetorical sense. More importantly, even if you adopt a dangerously broad definition of “insurrection” or “rebellion,” members of Congress who supported challenging the electoral votes (as Democrats have done in prior years) were exercising constitutionally protected speech.

  Before the riot, Cawthorn declared “The Democrats, with all the fraud they have done in this election, the Republicans hiding and not fighting, they are trying to silence your voice,” he said. “Make no mistake about it, they do not want you to be heard.”

  While he later voted against certifying President Biden’s victory, he also later signed a letter congratulating Biden on the win.

  That does not make Cawthorn an insurrectionist and this Board is not tasked with enforcing the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause. The board’s position is itself a threat to democracy and free speech. It is only the latest first anti-democratic measure being used in the name of democracy.

  The board interpretation would allow partisan members to toss opponents from ballots to prevent voters from making their own decisions. That is something that has been a practice in countries like Iran, not the United States. Hopefully, a court will make fast work of any such effort in this case. If Democrats believe Cawthorn to be an insurrectionists, they are free to use that label in the campaign. However, the voters, not board members, should be the final arbiters of such questions in a democratic system.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 19:30

• Russia Draws 'Red Line' On Possibility Of US Sending Anti-Air Missiles To Ukraine
  Russia Draws ‘Red Line’ On Possibility Of US Sending Anti-Air Missiles To Ukraine

  Russia has for a couple months insisted that it has no plans to invade Ukraine, even as positioned extra forces in the south near the border, but the Kremlin is now issuing fresh warnings on its ‘red lines’ after reports emerged that Ukraine has requested THAAD missile defense systems from the US military. 

  Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov responded to the reports Wednesday, saying the missile request if true would mark a serious “provocation” and that it would be a significant setback for the Ukraine crisis, according to RIA news agency.

  

  However, Ryabkov admitted that at this point the US THAAD deployment remains “hypothetical” and appears to the be speculation among the media. Reports suggested they would be deployed around the large northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which Ryabkov dismissed as “blackmail and a provocation,” according to TASS news agency.

  “Everything that is happening in this field from the standpoint of supplying Ukraine with military equipment, ammunition and weapons, including lethal weapons, is an attempt to exert extra pressure, including military-technical pressure, on Russia. Obviously, there is a great deal of blackmail involved, too,” Ryabkov said.

  Referring to Ukraine’s military and its Western backers in NATO, he said “this group of [Russia’s] opponents has virtually nothing left in its arsenal by and large.”

  “Instead of de-escalation, including an unconditional demand Kiev comply with the Minsk agreements to the full extent there have followed all sorts of media fakes. Some of these are obviously addressed to the incompetent public at large, which is eager to buy any such news, in particular, negative sensations. But we do not yield to provocations. What he have seen is a provocation of the first water,” Ryabkov added.

  The THAAD system is capable of intercepting both high-altitude and intermediate-range missiles. But so far the main weapons entering Ukraine from the West appear to be smaller anti-tank and anti-armor munitions, using for closer range combat. 

  The AN/TPY-2 radar system, which is part of the THAAD complex, is capable of watching the aerospace situation over a significant part of Russian territory and can allow Kiev and its NATO allies to ‘peek’ deep into Russian territory for up to 1,000 km,” https://t.co/K1cGzQDl9p

  — M.E (@MikeElmurranie) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Meanwhile, President Putin reportedly complained to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron when the two met in Moscow for some five hours that NATO is continuing to “pump Ukraine with weapons.”

  “NATO member countries continue to pump up Ukraine with modern types of weapons, allocate significant financial resources for the modernization of the Ukrainian army. They send military specialists and instructors,” Putin said at a press conference immediately following the summit with Macron, which was aimed a finding a path toward de-escalation.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 19:10

• The CDC's Study On Natural Immunity Explained
  The CDC’s Study On Natural Immunity Explained

  Via The Brownstone Institute,

  The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) published by the Centers for Disease Control has released a fascinating study on comparing hospitalization with Covid-19 immunity status, thus addressing a topic of pressing concern for public health.

  The study, published in the January 28, 2022 weekly, carries the self-explanatory title “COVID-19 Cases and Hospitalizations by COVID-19 Vaccination Status and Previous COVID-19 Diagnosis — California and New York, May–November 2021.”

  The key contribution is the following chart, which illustrates the effectiveness of the vaccine (for the duration of the study) and plots that against the effectiveness of natural immunity with and without the vaccine.

  What it reveals is a point that has been strangely disputed or at least too often left unacknowledged: the power of natural immunity to serve as protection against severe outcomes from reinfection.

  This reality bears strongly on the question of vaccine mandates.

  Brownstone has kept a running list of studies that confirm the same: that list is now up to 150 studies.

  Here is the chart.

  

  Below, you can watch a video by Vinay Prasad who explains it in some detail.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 18:50

• GM And Ford Warn Dealerships: Stop Charging Over Sticker Price Or We'll Cut Off Supply
  GM And Ford Warn Dealerships: Stop Charging Over Sticker Price Or We’ll Cut Off Supply

  Both Ford and GM are directing their dealers to stop charging so much for autos, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. Dealerships have been marking up vehicles over sticker price as a result of a drought of inventory, attributable to supply chain issues and the semiconductor shortage, combined with increased demand.

  But Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said this week that dealers who gouge prices will “face consequences” that may include losing supplies of future models. “We have very good knowledge of who they are,” he said on his company’s earnings call, talking about these dealerships. 

  Farley noted that around 10% of the roughly 3,000 dealerships in Ford’s U.S. network are charging above the sticker price, the report said. Ford will punish those who don’t stop with “punitive action”, the report said.

  GM also called out “a small minority of bad actors” engaging in the practice, and said it could also withhold vehicle shipments as a result. 

  

  Most dealerships are franchise dealerships, the Journal notes, “which are independent businesses that purchase cars from the factory”. While they control the final transaction with the customer, the auto companies still control supply and can offer promotional programs. 

  The practice of overcharging has been rare in the past, and companies have said before that they disapprove of the tactic, claiming it reflects poorly on the brand. 

  But the practice has become routine over the past year thanks to supply chain lockups and shortages in computer chips. 

  A spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association commented: “This is simply a temporary symptom of supply and demand being entirely out of whack. Dealers and consumers have always been free to agree on the price of the vehicle.”

  Jon Harding, a project manager for a utility company in Southern California, told the Journal that while shopping around he got more than 12 quotes that were above sticker price. He said the experience was harrowing and left him considering buying another Tesla, a purchase that comes directly from the company, and not through a dealer. 

  He concluded: “The dealer represents the manufacturer, it’s the person you deal with. Right now, they’re not representing the brands very well by trying to jack people around.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 18:30

• GoFundMe And How The Left Came To Despise The Working Class
  GoFundMe And How The Left Came To Despise The Working Class

  Commentary authored by Roger L. Simon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  What irony!

  Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger must be turning over in their graves.

  Bernie Sanders must be having sleepless nights.

  The left-wing anthem “Which Side Are You On?” is no longer about whether you’re a “union man” or a “thug for J.H. Blair.” It’s about the size of your stock portfolio or when to go public with your start-up.

  

  The oh-so-progressive GoFundMe crowd-funding site—run by about as pure a group of upscale lefty elitists as you could invent, with its CEO being a former a consultant for the multimillion-dollar drug pushers at McKinsey—has turned against those lowly 16-hour-a-day working-stiffs, the Canadian truckers, for deigning to risk their jobs and livelihood to protest vaccine mandates.

  At first, calling the truckers occupiers and accusing them—without the slightest proof—of violent acts, GoFundMe essentially absconded with the US$8 million donated to the truckers through its site and peremptorily decided to distribute the money to charities of its choice (one can only imagine).

  Sounds like “misappropriation of funds,” at the minimum, and possibly fraud. Don’t these people have lawyers? But worse than that, it was one of the more clueless readings of public sentiment in recent years—and there have been many.

  Maybe it’s because those lefty elitists on their board don’t do much shopping on their own, send assistants to the supermarkets for food, and don’t see the empty shelves, so they think they can push the truckers around. That’s an explanation, anyway, but blowback happened fast enough that GoFundMe quickly rescinded its “charitable” decree and promised to return the money to the donors.

  Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for an investigation of GoFundMe (when are we going to start calling him “America’s governor”?), as have officials in Georgia.

  Good for them, but what interests me here is how it came to be that supposedly left-leaning organizations, indeed basically the entire modern-day American left, came to be so anti-working class.

  It could be a “Just So Story” in a style reminiscent of “How the Camel Got His Hump” or “How the Leopard Got His Spots,” although far less beguiling and humorous than Rudyard Kipling would have made it. (Kipling, whose stories many of us enjoyed as children, has become a particular target of those fun suckers known as the “woke.”)

  GoFundMe versus the truckers may prove to be a paradigm case for our time—and it’s about class.

  To understand it, you have to go back to the man who started it all, Karl Marx, who expected his communist revolution to begin in heavily industrialized Germany.

  He was wrong, of course. It began in the much less developed and largely agrarian Russia. In Germany, the working class was not nearly as attracted to his theories as he had hoped. The majority rejected them.

  This trend continued as communism did better in poorer countries (China, Cambodia) than it did in the industrialized West, where it was supposed to take hold.

  This failure was not lost on a group of intellectuals known as the Frankfurt School, who brought their revised Marxian theories designed to succeed where the working class approach had failed—notably via the so-called march through the institutions (media, entertainment, education)—to the United States at the end of World War II.

  This indeed was an intellectuals-first revolution, and it has succeeded almost completely in our university system, where their “critical theory” dominates. They also succeeded, to lesser but still powerful degrees, in turning the media and entertainment, pretty much destroying Hollywood in the process. Why would the Chinese object?

  This was clearly a top-down revolution, with elites dictating to hoi polloi what they should think and how to behave. In the way of the world, those elites also became increasingly rich, richer than anyone else in the history of the human race (the likes of Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, et al.). They knew best. (Someone should write a book about that.)

  In the process, the working class, what Amity Shlaes earlier called “The Forgotten Man,” was forgotten.

  Which brings us to the truckers. This time—I think, hope, and pray—these elites have gone too far. The yawning gap between them and the people they lord over has become too great. People are sickened, as they should be, by the arrogance.

  Thank you, GoFundMe, for blowing it. This is a teaching moment. Let’s use it.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 18:10

• Microsoft Looking To Hire 'Head Of Crypto'
  Microsoft Looking To Hire ‘Head Of Crypto’

  The race to be a leader in the domain of “Web3” intensified on Wednesday as Microsoft published a job opening looking for a director of crypto development.

  

  According to the posting, the software giant is looking for a business development director to assist the company in the field of cryptocurrencies and – most importantly – “Web 3.0”. The individual will join the company’s AI and Emerging Technologies business development team.

  Microsoft is on a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. You can help us achieve our mission.

  The AI and Emerging Technologies business development team is responsible for the inorganic growth of Microsoft’s products and services, in these key areas.  This role requires an understanding of the Web 3.0 market and you will drive collective impact on growing the business.

  Among other responsibilities, Microsoft’s head of crypto would be tasked with the “evaluation of potential acquisitions” and improving “the use of our products and increas[ing] adoption.”

  The role would be a senior-level position requiring the individual to work with other “senior members of the Business Development organization” to create “data-driven strategies that will impact both short- and long-term engineering plans and product ideas.”

  You will also work cross-company with Product, Finance, Marketing, Legal, and other stakeholders to ensure a well-thought-out and executable plan is delivered and help drive executive approval on key initiatives. This is a role with potential for high impact and direct exec level visibility (CVPs, EVPs).   

  Other requirements and responsibilities of the role will include:

  • Lay the foundation to support and inform Microsoft’s Web 3.0 strategy
  • Advise leadership on key technology and product roadmap considerations
  • Work with engineering teams across the company to understand when existing infrastructure can be leveraged, enhanced or built
  • Develop the vision, strategy, and roadmap for Microsoft’s web 3.0 partnership model including infrastructure and APIs
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, and other cross-functional teams to develop a business development build, buy, partner view

  The job posting also includes more in-depth descriptions of the role’s responsibilities, including people management, customer and partner focus, partnership strategy, negotiation and – most importantly – deal management.

  It’s just the latest sign that Microsoft intends to grow its footprint in the world of decentralized finance via an acquisition-focused strategy.

  Confused about Web3.0 and its relationship to the world of cryptocurrencies, blockchain and decentralized finance? Well, in a recent post on his substack “Moment of the Deep”, Deep Pulusani offers a helpful and in-depth explanation:

  Some notes before we start: the term web3 today is sometimes used synonymously to mean cryptocurrency, blockchain tech, virtual reality/augmented reality & the metaverse. I find that people already have a more intuitive understanding of how VR/AR may change the future. Therefore, I’ll only be writing about how crypto & blockchain tech in the context of web3 will transform the future, since it’s a bit more challenging to understand and abstract in its concepts.

  Often this subject is explained with technical specifications or more commonly with political terms, ideas about liberty, decentralization, censorship, and power. These are all important; but what ultimately determines if web3 powered by crypto is the future lies in the economic and productive value it brings, the increases in quality of life it can achieve. These are the aspects I hope to make clear.

  

  Where we’ve come from and where we are

  All of the iterations of the web are digital revolutions, i.e. not only do more of our analog (physical) lives move to the digital realm, but new digitally native (digital-first) experiences are invented as well.

  Web1 (1990s): a revolution in information availability.

  Information and content from the real world is put online. Information is no longer a local phenomena nor a physical one, but is available for anyone with an internet connection to access. Early web protocols also allow for file transfers, emails, and web pages.

  Examples: personal web pages, Encyclopedia Britannica & Encarta online, FTP, MapQuest

  Web2 (2000-): a revolution in creation, experience, and connection.

  The static becomes dynamic, and a convergence of hardware and software technologies enable us to experience rich interfaces and interactions on the web. Our lives start to become increasingly digital – compare what percent of your daily attention is focused online in 1999, then 2009, and then 2019. The ecosystem and interface of web2 is now rich enough where people can spend the majority of their lives online – from their careers, relationships, hobbies, investments, etc. – we now spend much of our lives in digital space. We also consume most of our content digitally, create much of our output digitally, and connect most frequently with others through messaging apps and social networks.

  Examples: YouTube, Google Docs, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Robinhood, smart home & smart health devices

  Web3 (2015-): a revolution in coordination, ownership, and value transfer.

  I’ll break down each of these web3 revolutions in the ‘Web3 Paradigm Shifts’ section further below. It’s important to note first, however, that much of what will happen in web3 has its roots in web2. What’s often lost in all the web3 talk is that the web2 era is not over and will continue to produce enormous value and new companies. Let’s see how web3 powered by crypto is the next logical step to some of the revolutions of web2.

  Web3 Extensions of Web2.

  New and more powerful networks.

  In web1 times, your networks might’ve included your local community, your job, your family, and friends you grow up with. Maybe you were part of a mailing list or a forum if you were savvy online. In web2, networks proliferated rapidly, and continue to explode. You might have networks on FB, telegram groups, IG niches, corners of Twitter, or varied family/friend WhatsApp groups.

  This network creation continues in web3 with the introduction of the value network. Examples include Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, countless others – each currency representing its own individual network of users. In addition, you have the tokens built on top of these programmable currencies, tokens that any individual or business can issue. The result is a proliferation of value networks that are themselves nested into a larger, more powerful network that it can communicate with and transfer between. This is an extremely powerful new invention because a value network can be added to all of our existing networks in web2 – to our existing social networks, messaging networks, and content networks – or to brand new networks entirely. Essentially any network can be monetized, tokenized, or incentivized, creating supercharged versions of our already rich variety of networks.

  Explosion of creative activity, niches, and formats.

  Even if we just include web2 companies launched in the past few years alone – TikTok, Substack, Clubhouse, etc. – there’s so many creative and productive niches for individuals to occupy. Couple that with increasingly easier ways to distribute content among a proliferation of platforms (aka networks), it’s no wonder there has been an explosion of creative activity and individual power over the past 20 years. In the web1 world, we still mainly had movie stars and bestselling authors. In web2, we have stars and activists in every genre, category, and format you could ask for. What progresses in web3 is the further expansion of platforms, niches, and content types. Most notably, you will see more purely digital creation and digital reward (e.g. create an opera in a virtual world that’s monetized by a virtual currency that’s easily tradeable into other virtual currencies or goods). Furthermore, the platforms that creators and producers use will be less intrusive, less expensive, and more malleable than the monolithic platforms of today.

  Ease of global collaboration

  Cloud storage & editing, powerful front-end frameworks, and ever-increasing browser strength have made it possible to collaborate effectively with anyone, anywhere, and in practically any field. Figma and Airtable are just two examples of recent web2 companies that have accelerated the ease of collaboration with individuals halfway around the world. The pandemic has further accelerated this phenomena. With web3, we now have organizations that can be independently formed with no underlying platform dependence. These organizations, dubbed DAOs, can be both incentivized to work towards a common goal and govern themselves through tokenization. Anonymous, pseudonymous, or fully public individuals can have their work measured and verified through a publicly available blockchain.

  Disintermediation and distribution.

  Web3 will continue the trend of removing distance between producer and consumer. There is a continual disintermediation happening on the web. During web1, to release a successful music album you had to go artist → label → distributer → retailer → consumer. At each step there is profit loss and gatekeepers deciding whether you can continue onward to distribute. In web2 you got to go either 1-step closer (artist → label → platform → consumer) or 2-steps closer for those fully independent ( artist → platform → consumer). Web3 continues this disintermediation, as the platform merely becomes the underlying network or protocol the connection is made over (artist → consumer via protocol or network). There’s no longer gatekeepers or an expensive take-rate. There can still be curators to guide consumers (the difference being that a curator can make money independently of the artist’s margin). The end goal is that all service providers or product creators have the option to be connected directly with service seekers and product consumers.

  Disintermediation is only possible because of the increasing ability to self-distribute. In the past, middle men at each step were essential to ensure wide distribution. Web2 gave us powerful tools of self-distribution through platforms like Amazon, Shopify, Google Ads, Social Media, SoundCloud, etc. In web3, we can maintain all the tools of web2, but now we introduce tokenized systems. By creating tokens that somehow represent your business or art in your chosen way, early fans and early users become incentivized to spread your art by holding those tokens. Those fans will now distribute that art for you through their own individual networks and tools.

  Web3 Paradigm Shifts

  Users become owners.

  Employee stock options made many tech employees rich with the advent of web-first tech companies. However, for companies that rely on network effects – which is all social media, all sharing economy e.g. Uber, all marketplaces e.g. Amazon, all cloud tools, all games – the early users are equally as important. Without the early users, later users don’t join in, and a company never gains traction. Today, however, early users are not compensated for this essential contribution. In web3, through both fungible and non-fungible tokens, users & early evangelizers will win when a company wins too.

  In common press about web3, what’s often talked about is that we’ll now be compensated for our data. This is true – unlike our data being owned by the platforms (Twitter, FB, etc.) it will travel with us and be owned by us. However, the more valuable and scarce asset that users give over to apps is their attention, and this will be the far greater reward to users. Power users and heavy users of games, cloud tools, and content platforms, will eventually either be incentivized by the app or move on to companies that do incentivize their valuable attention.

  Any agreement becomes possible.

  At each era of the web, we can code increasingly powerful experiences (i.e. code becomes more abstracted from the binary 0s and 1s that the computer actually runs). When web2 rolled around, internet connections were fast enough and devices strong enough to have rich streaming & content experiences. In web3, the game-changing abstraction is smart contracts. Smart contracts essentially allow any agreement between individuals, groups, protocols, or mix of the bunch. Relying on the legal system to enforce billions of agreements small and large on the web is neither desirable nor realistic. A smart contract’s ability to allow for agreements between two untrusted individuals without burdening the legal system creates a major shift in a human’s ability to coordinate behavior and form agreements between groups. In web3, code enforces the agreements and the blockchain infrastructure protects against manipulation of this code. Smart contracts are natively digital, meaning they can be combined and stacked with other contracts to create powerful systems and infrastructures. The implications of this are not yet fully realized, but one hint to the power of smart contracts is the emergence of decentralized finance, which has disrupted a giant sector in a very short period of time. Smart contracts can now be embedded in all the software and hardware we use – any object can be embedded with operating rules, sharing terms, & financial agreements between parties. Combine this with the ability to interface with any other contract on the network, and the creative, collaborative, and productive uses of these contracts become limitless.

  Everything can be a financial instrument.

  People often ask why not just use fiat currency through PayPal or Stripe – what’s the functional point of an open-source digitally native currency like Ethereum? The answer is that you can program it, build on top of it, and integrate it with anything digital – whether a smart hardware device or a software application. Even everyday items like your chat groups, gifs, or your writing journal can be made into a financial instrument. That universe becomes bigger when imagine digitally native assets and services that have not even been invented yet. Any individual can perform this integration, not just institutions. Usually when people think of financial instruments, we think of ownership, of buying and selling. But these aren’t the only functions of financialization – we can integrate all financial functions including borrowing, lending, insurance, and merging. With financial functionality, also comes executive functionality, like governance and direction. Now imagine these functions available to any asset or network, both digital and physical.

  A new identity emerges.

  Tokens don’t necessarily have to represent money or value – we can use tokens to verify productive work done, or personal and career milestones reached. Because web3 transactions are stored on a publicly available network, our web3 wallet can not only represent transactions we’ve made and tokens we own, but organizations we’re apart of, events we’ve attended, people we know, content we’ve created, and work we’ve done. We can carry this history around to any app connected to the network that we grant access to. Those concerned with privacy never have to expose their physical identity, as wallets are simply avatars which maintain the right to hide or expose the physical identity behind it. Instead of our creative and productive output being spread out and siloed over various companies – LinkedIn, Twitter, IG – our web3 wallet can be carried with us wherever we go. Apps, games, and experiences can then interact with the specific identity the user brings to create tailored and one-of-a-kind experiences for the user’s history. Collaborators and employers can verify your expertise, your skill, your network, and things you’ve created or worked on through your wallet, without requiring a resume or contacting references.

  Postscript: Why did I write this?

  There’s something odd about writing articles that predict the future. If the writer is correct, the future is going to happen anyway, so what’s the point of writing an article about it now? What’s the point of another article hyping up a future that is certain?

  Because web3 is so widely misunderstood, the future is uncertain. The economic and productive value that web3 can bring is deeply threatened by governments and regulators around the world.  This is somewhat expected from authoritarian governments that will naturally crack down on web3 because of what it entails – shared equity and decision making, mass participation and organization – as retaining centralized power is essential to their literal survival. This has already become apparent in China. What’s essential is that major democracies, especially the world’s wealthiest USA and the world’s biggest India, foster the web3 experiment. It’s essential that we let things develop before overzealously legislating in the name of protection. Unfriendly governments could have firewalled the web1 internet and set progress back a decade because it was now easier for criminals to communicate and spread criminal information.  Undoing legislation and regulatory burdens is much harder than waiting to pass them in the first place. Web3 built on crypto has the possibility to be the major boon for wealth inequality (see paradigm shifts listed above), an issue all sides of the political spectrum claim to want to solve. Democratic governments: let’s let web3 grow, develop, and make mistakes. We’re still so early.

  *  *  *

  Follow me on twitter @momentofdeep for more content like this.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 17:50

• Luongo: And The Rock Cried Out, You Can't Hide From Yourself
  Luongo: And The Rock Cried Out, You Can’t Hide From Yourself

  Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

  “There’s no hiding place down here,
  There’s no hiding place down here,
  Oh I ran to the rock to hide my face
  The rock cried out, ‘No hiding place’
  No hiding place down here.”

  — TRADITIONAL GOSPEL SONG

  It seems there’s a whole lotta hidin’ goin’ on out there, folks. While I’d like to spend a thousand words chronicling my disappointment with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for his hypocrisy over the Joe Rogan controversy, that would miss so much of the point.

  

  Not that Dwayne doesn’t deserve our derision for abandoning Rogan. He does. For a guy who’s built his persona around embracing everything that came before, good or bad, watching him reconsider his friendship with Rogan publicly is the ultimate betrayal of that carefully crafted persona.

  Respect is hard to earn and very, very easy to lose.

  Especially since it took the internet all of five minutes to dig up performances as “The Rock” which are cringe-worthy by any recent standard and him deleting tweets which were, by his own standard today, unacceptable.

  So, how many rocks do you have to hide behind in your glass mansion, Dwayne?

  But, again, this article isn’t about Dwayne’s flirtations with mendacity. I could literally give zero shits about his past, even though what he did as The Rock in the ring was far more venal and debasing to himself and his audience than anything Joe Rogan ever said on his podcast about black people.

  Because there are no good guys in this scenario. Johnson should have stuck by Rogan. Rogan shouldn’t have apologized.

  Everyone is making mistakes left and right and it will cost them more than millions of dollars.

  Casting Stones

  But it wasn’t because Rogan used the word that rhymes with bigger in honest inquisitions on racism and the fearlessness of those comics who blazed a trail before him.

  It was because he vastly underestimated the scope and scale of the operation being run on him.

  Rogan handled the initial onslaught well. As Jordan Peterson pointed out a few days ago:

  That was early last week. But then the next hammer dropped. He committed the unforgiveable sin.

  He apologized.

  Joe caved to the pressure. His self-image and basic decency was cynically used against him to get that apology for being a successful white guy who doesn’t know his subordinate place in the new order.

  This is both a strategical and tactical error on his part that will hurt him more than Peterson sees here. Because they won’t stop until he’s destroyed, now that he’s given them something to throw at him. They know his weakness now.

  I’m sure that Rogan thought, “I’ll just tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may.” That is consistent with his personality and his persona, since they are one and the same, unlike apparently Dwayne.

  Never Give Up, Never Apologize

  But there’s no hiding from the mob, especially an unforgiving mob obsessed with power and the need to take Joe Rogan down now that he nearly single-handedly destroyed the COVID-19 vaccine narrative with the truth and a couple of podcasts.

  It’s easy for those behind this targeted smear campaign to gin up some fake outrage which empowers the false virtue of their cult members to attack Rogan and Spotify. When all you believe in is power, when humanity is nothing but a wall to project your own self-loathing onto, then there are no restraints on your behavior.

  My intuition here is that this is not just Davos at work, but specifically this bus is being driven by Obama, who pulls the strings of the Biden administration and who, it looks like, has now corrupted Dwayne Johnson since Dwayne’s being courted as the Democrats’ 2024 savior.

  (and I’m happy to have Dwayne disabuse me of this accusation)

  One only has to look at the arc of Johnson’s character in the latter seasons of Ballers to see where he’s personally headed: to take on the “old boy’s club of the NFL (Wall St.) and be a champion of the people.” If there was ever a job interview masquerading as entertainment you couldn’t have asked for a better example. (Again come at me bro! mahalo!)

  The difference between these two guys couldn’t be clearer. Johnson was chosen by the Old Boys’ Club while still thinking he’s the one making the choice to be a leader of the people.

  On the other hand, Rogan was chosen by the people to be their proxy for keeping the lights on in the cave, screwing up the shadow play on the wall so they can make up their own minds.

  Leaders are Made, Not Born

  And while Joe can deny that responsibility, or more importantly, refuse to play the game, the game came to him when he signed a $100 million contract with Spotify last year.

  I told you then that he blew up the Death Star with that contract. He moved off YouTube and gave his content to Spotify to distribute, validating them and providing a counterpoint to Apple, Amazon and everyone else.

  But he had to know spitting in their eye repeatedly would bring the hammer down.

  Joe Rogan has now told the entire country that he’s had enough. And we needed someone like Joe to do this.

  That said, Rogan is only one half of the story, however. Because at the same time, one of these platforms needed to break away from the herd and welcome the dissenters.

  For Spotify, Joe Rogan is the ‘killer app’ they needed to differentiate themselves as non-partisan and begin the exodus away from the big platforms who have become nothing but partisan.

  I don’t know if the board at Spotify know what they’ve just unleashed but they better realize it quick. They’re Echo Base and the walkers will be landing real soon now

  And this is why Rogan’s apology is so damning. He had the world ready to follow him. But he did the one thing you can never do in this Age of Rage, apologize to them for who you were or who you are.

  If they can’t handle all of you then they can’t have any of you.

  So, Joe, I know you feel terrible about this, but why? No one owns any word. Words are not violence if they aren’t meant that way. Anyone who thinks that is the one with the problem.

  No matter how big your voice, you can’t be responsible for people’s reactions. Their emotions are their own to process. And if they choose to process them as temper tantrums on Twitter or Instagram then let their actions be their judge.

  You gained my respect speaking honestly. You lost it, apologizing because that honesty hurt the feelings of people who already despise you.

  A Race Already Run

  The truth is that this was a fight lost two generations ago when it became verboten for white people to use that word out of deference to try and heal a real divide within society.

  It was an apology for a past that many of us did not engage in nor are proud of. But, it was never about that. It was always the camel’s nose under the tent. Political correctness and self-censorship are the very essence of totalitarianism. It is Marxist power theory 101.

  But, where does it end? Should I, as a second-generation Italian immigrant (with black curly hair when I had any and a dark complexion), be held accountable for U.S. slavery which ended legally 40 years before my grandparents fled their homeland’s poverty for a better life in Brooklyn and Queens?

  That apology then has grown into the virus we have today, where everyone left of Karl Marx is a fascist and we’re taking our societal cues (this week) from the people who believe men can have babies.

  It’s not just that we shouldn’t apologize for who we aren’t but that apologies based on any kind of collective identity is antithetical to civil society. Joe Rogan knows that. Dwayne Johnson was supposed to know that.

  Joe. You apologized to people without shame or conscience.

  And what is missing in all of this frustration and fake outrage is that everyone, all of us, are being played for even reacting to this nonsense in the first place.

  Keep on Truckin’

  Controversies like this are meant to drive a reaction, to grant legitimacy to a non-issue and give people a chance to be self-righteous. The NPC’s screaming for Rogan’s censorship refuse to admit they are just pawns in Davos’ ugly game of division while the #ungovernables are disappointed that Rogan didn’t rise to the occasion and give them a little more courage.

  Ultimately, though, none of this Rogan nonsense matters. I would have loved for Joe to stand tall, but he didn’t. He’s to be commended for taking the ball this far.

  Because while Obama and Davos were busy attacking a podcaster for being a bigger-man than anyone in the dying media space, Canada’s truckers provided that leadership to the world.

  And that has truly lit the fire of resistance in a way that Rogan standing up to false accusations of racism cannot douse.

  Canada’s truckers are not domestic terrorists or white supremacists or menaces to society. They are simply people who have no other options left given that Davos’ lil’ buddy, Prime Minister Justin “Blackface” Trudeau has mandated, extra-constitutionally, a two-tiered society that even his RCMP personal guard cannot abide.

  There is no amount of fake sincerity for the well being of the people you govern that can cover the naked authoritarianism of cretins like Trudeau. The ‘Freedom Convoy’ was en route for days and what does he do the moment the trucks show up in Ottawa?

  He runs into hiding while leaving his civil servicemen to deal with the problem. It isn’t just that Trudeau is a venal little prick who can’t stand tall and lead his cadre of government thugs into battle against a bunch of peaceful protestors. I’d almost respect him for that.

  If you act on beliefs that strongly and can lead men to action, that counts for something. But leading from behind the shadows is the most shameful act of all. Joe Rogan’s mistake was not grasping leadership when it was presented to him.

  Trudeau’s mistake was in accepting the leadership in the first place when he wasn’t strong enough to wear the crown when things went a little off script.

  Now the City of Ottawa and the “laptop set” are angry they can’t get a good night’s sleep after they took away the rights of people whose only crime was not obeying an unlawful edict from a over-reaching government.

  You can’t take everything away from someone and expect them not to react to it. These people have had their lives ripped from them and you can’t sleep because their honking their horns?

  How about trying to listen to them as opposed to acting like you have the right to tell them to shut up?

  Trudeau can hide from the truckers but he can’t hide from us. He can talk down to them (and us) all he wants but he stands naked (shudder) in the light of something far worse than The Rock’s weakness, his lack of shame.

  No matter how many jerrycans of diesel fuel the cops confiscate, or millions of dollars GoFundMe steals or traffic citations issued, what’s happening in Ottawa is beyond their control.

  This is the real issue, not The Rock’s 10-year-old transphobic tweets or Joe Rogan triggering a bunch of self-obsessed ninnies. The real issue is that we see them for what they are and now that they’ve crossed the line their legitimacy is gone.

  The truckers in Ottawa have already moved far past just lifting the vaccine mandates or anything having to do with COVID-19 restrictions.

  They want Justin Trudeau’s government to resign. They want the globalist shills that infect the upper echelons of all the major Canadian parties unemployed like they are. After all, fair is fair, right?

  They’ve already gotten one scalp, Conservative leader Erin O’Toole. The only move left for Trudeau is violence.

  And they’ve done something Joe Rogan wasn’t willing to do, inspire people to get past the fear of losing something in order to truly gain something the Trudeaus and the Obamas of the world don’t want them to ever have, their self-respect.

  I can only hope that the police and military there see this for what it is, an opportunity to stop hiding behind their badges and their ‘duty’ and remember who they remember themselves being.

  The truckers have done the heavy lifting. They lifted rocks. Now it’s time to move mountains.

  *  *  *

  Join my Patreon if you like lifting rocks.

  BTC: 3GSkAe8PhENyMWQb7orjtnJK9VX8mMf7Zf
  BCH: qq9pvwq26d8fjfk0f6k5mmnn09vzkmeh3sffxd6ryt
  DCR: DsV2x4kJ4gWCPSpHmS4czbLz2fJNqms78oE
  LTC: MWWdCHbMmn1yuyMSZX55ENJnQo8DXCFg5k
  DASH: XjWQKXJuxYzaNV6WMC4zhuQ43uBw8mN4Va
  WAVES: 3PF58yzAghxPJad5rM44ZpH5fUZJug4kBSa
  ETH: 0x1dd2e6cddb02e3839700b33e9dd45859344c9edc
  DGB: SXygreEdaAWESbgW6mG15dgfH6qVUE5FSE

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 17:30

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Escobar: Erdogan In Kiev, Putin In Beijing: Can Neo-Ottomanism Fit Into Greater Eurasia?
  Escobar: Erdogan In Kiev, Putin In Beijing: Can Neo-Ottomanism Fit Into Greater Eurasia?

  Authored by Pepe Escobar via TheCradle.co,

  As the world turns further over monumental announcements from the Putin-Xi summit in Beijing, Turkey’s Erdogan keeps walking a thinning tightrope between NATO and Eurasia

  

  The Chinese year of the Black Water Tiger started with a big bang – a live Beijing summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping – and a minor bang – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Kiev, Ukraine. And yes, it’s all interlinked.

  Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov had revealed in advance that Putin-Xi would release a very important “joint statement on international relations entering a new era,” with Russia and China in synch “on the most important world problems, including security issues.”

  Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Wang Yi, who worked non-stop prior to the summit, met the day before in Beijing to finalize the joint statement. Wang stressed the increasing interconnection of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), and much to the interest of the Global South, referred to extensive discussions on BRICS cooperation, Ukraine, Afghanistan and the Korean Peninsula.

  The Russia-China joint statement (here, in Russian) did not cut any corners. The two global powers, among the summit’s key takeaways, are against NATO expansion; favor the UN and “justice in international relations;” will fight “interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries;” oppose “external forces” undermining national security; and are resolutely against color revolutions.

  A Putin Op-Ed published by Xinhua detailed the full spectrum of the Sino-Russian discussions at the highest level – from the drive to “strengthen the central coordinating role of the United Nations in global affairs and to prevent the international legal system, with the UN Charter at its center, from being eroded,” to “consistently expanding the practice of settlements in national currencies and creating mechanisms to offset the negative impact of unilateral [US] sanctions.”

  Putin resolutely defined China as “our strategic partner in the international arena,” and stressed how he and Xi “hold largely the same views on addressing the world’s problems.”

  He said this strategic partnership is “sustainable, intrinsically valuable, not affected by the political climate and not aimed against anyone. It is underpinned by respect, regard for each other’s core interests, adherence to international law and the UN Charter.” 

  The Global South – and possibly swathes of Europe, now facing a frigid winter with hiked fuel prices because of the stand off over Ukraine – will not fail to compare it with NATO’s worldview.

  Meanwhile, in Kiev, Erdogan and Zelensky were reviewing the Turkish-Ukrainian strategic partnership.

  Erdogan did perform quite a feat in Kiev. He called for “a “peaceful and diplomatic solution” in Ukraine, not exactly following the relentless War Inc. narrative. He even said the solution should be found “within the framework of the Minsk agreements, on the basis of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and international law.”

  That happens to exactly tie in with Moscow’s view. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had previously commented, “if Turkey could encourage Kiev to implement the Minsk deal, Moscow would welcome this development.”

  The Sultan swing again

  So enter Erdogan as benign messenger/peacemaker – the latest twist in the fascinating, never-ending saga of what could be interpreted as his search for a more refined post-neo-Ottomanism stance in foreign policy.

  Well, it’s not that simple. Erdogan, even before landing in Kiev, affirmed that Ankara is ready to host a live Putin-Zelensky meeting or even “talks at the technical level.”

  That was his cue to promote a possible Putin jaunt to Ankara after his meeting with Xi in Beijing: “Mr. Putin told us that he will visit Turkey after his visit to China.”

  Erdogan did invite Putin in late January. The Kremlin confirms no date has been set yet.

  The ostensible purpose of Erdogan’s visit to Kiev, part of a High-Level Strategic Council, was to sign a so-called New Generation Free Trade Agreement, including the very tricky – for Moscow – joint production of Bayraktar drones, manufactured by Baykar Makina, a company owned by none other than Erdogan’s son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar.

  Yes, in Erdoganistan it’s all in the family. And the problem is that the Bayraktar TBT 2 combat drone – like those sold to Ukraine since 2018 – will continue to be used against the civilian population of Donetsk. Lavrov and even Putin himself have been very vocal about it vis-a-vis Ankara.

  Erdogan’s geopolitical tightrope walking includes Russian S-400s in and US F-35s out, receiving Russian gas and nuclear technology while selling those Bayraktars to Russia’s enemies, and even the support, expressed by Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar in late January, to the 1936 Montreux Convention, which is very specific on restricting NATO in the Black Sea: “It is out of the question to give up on [Montreux] under today’s conditions.”

  NATO’s headquarters in Brussels won’t be amused.

  Up to now, Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) had been actively ditching Montreux to the benefit of the still far-fetched Canal Istanbul linking the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, “entirely under Turkey’s sovereignty,” according to Erdogan – obviously a very juicy deal from NATO’s point of view. Yet the fact is Ankara, mired in an economic/financial swamp, has no means to build the Canal.     

  The geopolitical tightrope walking still leaves in the balance the real objectives of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), formerly Turkic Council, which crystallizes the pull of pan-Turkism – or pan-Turanism. It has already gone beyond last year’s Susha Declaration, which solidified a Turk-Azeri “one nation, two states;” it now encompasses these two plus Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and has been actively courting Hungary, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and – last but not least – Ukraine.     

  The OTS met in a tightly secured island in Istanbul last November. They discussed in detail the fact that the extremely complex political environment in Taliban Afghanistan might spill over new instances of terrorism and uncontrolled migration. There were no leaks about future, practical OTS steps.    

  Way more than a bridge connecting Asia Minor and the Caucasus to Central Asia, or a sort of benign form of “dialogue” between the south Caucasus and Central Asia, the OTS, in theory, carries all the trappings of a bloc from the Black Sea to Xinjiang, under a not-too-disguised Turkish hegemony, which implies a serious Trojan Horse element: a NATO presence.

  It remains to be seen how the OTS would interface with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which congregates the “stans” as full members, as well as Iran – but not Turkey, which is just an observer. The SCO top powers are of course Russia and China, which in no way would allow, for instance, the Caspian to be open to western predatory policies, infringement of Russian and Iranian spheres of influence, and most of all a ‘security’ bloc with NATO ‘leading from behind.’     

  The talk in those palace corridors

  It’s quite enlightening to assess how Erdogan media – over 90% fully controlled across Turkey – mirrors what may be the real calculations swirling in the corridors of that 1000-room Sultanesque palace in Ankara.

  They see that Russia “invaded Crimea, and annexed eastern Ukraine,” and is trying to “solidify its position in the Black Sea and Eastern Europe.” At the same time, they see the Empire instrumentalizing Turkey as a mere ‘frontline’ in a larger war, with NATO’s strategy to ‘besiege’ Russia and China also being applied against Turkey.

  So “the fear of Turkey is now as strong as the fear of Russia and China.”

  They seem to understand that if War Inc. gets what it desperately wants, “the Black Sea will be transformed into the Eastern Mediterranean. The US and Europe fully settling into the Black Sea means they will never leave.” That “could lead to Turkey’s destruction in the medium and long term.”

  And then there’s the crucial twist: “Ukraine cannot stop Russia. But Turkey can.” That is exactly what Erdogan is playing at. “The US and Europe must be thwarted from settling into the Black Sea. Turkey-Russia relations must be preserved.” The problem is how “Ukraine’s integrity and defense must be supported.”

  All of the above perfectly ties in with Erdogan, back from Kiev with all rhetorical guns blazing, blasting that the West wants to “worsen” the Ukrainian crisis. Erdogan media frames it as “a game is being set to drive Turkey against Russia.” 

  Erdogan so far never really challenged the ‘rules-based international order.’ He always made a point of addressing two different messages to East and West. To Asia, the emphasis was on anti-imperialism, the dire consequences of colonialism, the Israeli apartheid state and western Islamophobia. To the West, he impressed his own version of dialogue of civilizations (and was branded as “an autocrat”).

  Ultimately Erdogan is not west-toxified, much to the contrary. He sees the US-led order as a neocolonial power only interested in pillaging the resources of the lands of Islam. Of course he’s handicapped culturally – adhering, at best, to memorizing Quranic verses, listening to Ottoman military music and having his photo taken with the odd Turkish pop star. He doesn’t read; it’s all about instinct.

  A conversation about Erdoganian neo-Ottomanism in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar beats any think tank analysis. Bazaaris tell us it’s something in constant flux. In foreign policy terms, it migrated from pro-EU to frustration for being excluded, coupled with the certainty that Turkey is fed up with being a US client state. It’s as if Erdogan, instinctively, has grasped the collective west’s current, abysmal strategic debacle – thus his effort, now, to build some strategic cooperation with Russia-China.

  Has he undergone a conversion though? Considering his legendary volatility, all bets are off. Erdogan has a long memory, and has not forgotten that Putin was the first world leader to condemn the – botched – 2016 coup attempt by the usual intel suspects, and support him personally.

  It’s still a long way for Erdogan’s Turkey to become a strategic partner to Russia. Yet he has a knack of knowing which way the geopolitical winds are blowing – and that points to Eurasia integration, the Russian-conceptualized Greater Eurasia Partnership, and the primacy of the Russia-China strategic partnership manifested through BRI, EAEU and the SCO.    

  There’s even an Eurasianist mini-boom in Turkey. They are secular; anti-NATO – just like Russia-China; consider the Empire as the undisputed troublemaker in West Asia; and want closer ties with Moscow and Tehran.

  In Nostalgia for the Empire: The Politics of Neo-Ottomanism, M. Hakan Yavuz argues that “neo-Ottomanism constitutes a web of interrelationships between the dominant discourse of Islamism, the residual memories of Ottoman grandeur, and the prominent desire to reconstitute the Turkish nation as a regional power with historic roots.”   

  The money quote is “regional power”. Why not a strong “regional power” deeply integrated into a strong Greater Eurasia – instead of a mere (decaying) western vassal? No wonder Erdogan is dying to hang out with Putin in Ankara.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 02:00

• "Dismantling Democracy" To Save It: How Democrats Rediscovered The Joys Of Rigging Election
  “Dismantling Democracy” To Save It: How Democrats Rediscovered The Joys Of Rigging Election

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Below is my column in the Hill on frenzy of gerrymandering in various states and the selective condemnation of President Joe Biden of such practices in North Carolina.

  While denouncing gerrymandering Republicans for gerrymandering as attack on democracy, Democratic figures like lawyer Marc Elias are under attack for raising millions to support democratic gerrymandering. Elias previously declared “Republicans gerrymander like this because they do not want free and fair elections.” (Elias was previously accused of lying to conceal the Clinton campaign’s funding of the Steele dossier, has sought to reverse election results, and has been sanctioned by the courts). Notably, the raw gerrymandering in New York not only seeks to rig the coming elections but openly flaunts the will of the voters who repeatedly demanded that the practice stop in their state. 

  

  Here is the column:

  “Voters should choose their representatives — not the other way around.” With those words late Friday night, President Biden celebrated a decision by North Carolina’s supreme court rejecting new state legislative districts that favored Republicans. The ruling was used to support Biden’s past portrayals of Republicans as the enemies of democracy, including their use of gerrymandering.

  Biden is not alone. Former President Obama condemned Republican gerrymandering efforts as threatening democracy. The liberal Brennan Center has declared that “gerrymandering is deeply undemocratic.” Liberal commentators insist the choice is simple: “It’s restricting gerrymandering or being complicit in the dismantling of democracy.”

  Biden was careful to keep his focus on North Carolina in stating that “for too long, partisan gerrymandering has allowed politicians to rig the political process and draw districts in their favor.” Indeed, it required an impressive act of myopia to avoid noting that Democrats have engaged in raw gerrymandering in various states, too. 

  But the North Carolina decision could seriously undermine Democratic plans in other states to rig elections and gain seats in Congress.

  For example, in New York Democrats want to add four new seats through gerrymandering, to try to retain control of the U.S. House. One district is designed to guarantee the reelection of Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has held hearings on the evil of  — you guessed it  — gerrymandering.

  Gerrymandering is to politics what doping is to sports. It is universally viewed as a cheat, an effort to manipulate districts to guarantee electoral victories. Drafting coherent districts evenly and logically to divide populations is not particularly difficult. School districts usually are designed to evenly distribute populations with schools as center points; those school districts often serve as voting locations. Once you depart from such logical divisions, however, political pressures produce a grotesque progeny of malformed districts.

  The Nadler district would make Elbridge Gerry blush. In 1812, Gerry — a Founding Father, vice president and governor of Massachusetts — signed off on a district designed to guarantee a seat for the precursor of today’s Democratic Party. The district resembled a salamander, so the Boston Gazette deemed it the “Gerry-mander.”

  Notably, the original gerrymandered district looks a lot like what is now being dubbed the “Jerrymander.”

  To cite Biden, Rep. Nadler did not simply “choose his voters.” His contorted district virtually selects them individually, weaving through neighborhoods in search of support.

  Nadler’s district is not the only monstrous creature dwelling on the map. Republicans currently hold eight of New York’s 27 seats in Congress. Despite being a state in which roughly 38 percent of voters went for Trump in 2020, Republicans would have an advantage only in four districts under the redrawn map, allowing Democrats to pick up the other four. For example, Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis previously beat an incumbent, Democrat Max Rose, in the 11th District. To guarantee that Rose will now win, Democrats stretched the district to include the liberal area of Park Slope in Brooklyn.

  This was not supposed to happen.

  In 2014, New Yorkers took the extraordinary step of amending Sections 4 and 5 of Article III of their state’s constitution. They created the New York Independent Redistricting Commission to prohibit drawing maps “for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties.” (N.Y. Const. art. III, § 4(c)(5)).

  However, the fix was in. After proclaiming a new day of fair and honest elections, the commission was set at ten members divided evenly. Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat, admitted that the commission was designed to fail: “Of course it was. When you have an equal amount of people from either side, you are inevitably going to get a deadlock or a tie. And that’s exactly what happened here.” In other words, all the democracy stuff was a lie. When the commission inevitably deadlocked, the Democratic-controlled legislature went on a gerrymandering frenzy.

  Nevertheless, President Biden and Democrats like Nadler are seeking to take control over state election laws in the name of democracy. It does not matter if they are using the same anti-democratic measures as they accuse Republicans of wielding, because their motivations are purportedly pure even if their means manifestly are not.

  There will be challenges this year to gerrymandered districts by both parties. While the Supreme Court said in 2019 that political gerrymandering is constitutional in Rucho v. Common Cause, such changes can be struck down when they result in the dilution or suppression of minority voters. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on one such race-based challenge to new districts in Alabama. A similar challenge in Illinois failed despite districts that rival Nadler’s in fantastical, illogical shapes to gain Democratic seats.

  The North Carolina opinion could complicate things for Democrats, however, if it is applied to other states with anti-gerrymandering laws. The law was notably a gerrymandering case based on partisan rather than racial impacts. The North Carolina court acknowledged the holding in Rucho but voted 4-3 that it could strike down “excessive partisan gerrymandering” on state constitutional grounds. It found that Republican lawmakers drew maps that deprived voters of their “substantially equal voting power on the basis of partisan affiliation.”

  The New York districts also are the subject of a lawsuit under the state constitution.

  The intent of the voters could not be more clear: While the commission was rigged to fail, voters clearly did not know that and reaffirmed their intent in 2021 when Democratic legislators tried to pass a proposed constitutional amendment to regain redistricting authority if the commission failed to produce redistricting plans. The voters rejected that effort. Thus, these Democratic groups are not only seeking to rig coming elections, but are thwarting the will of voters as expressed in two ballots.

  Nevertheless, Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged to “use [her] influence to help Democrats expand the House majority through the redistricting process.” The Democrats and Hochul did precisely that in going ahead and gerrymandering the districts while continuing to condemn Republicans for trying to destroy democracy.

  Both parties have engaged in gerrymandering this year — but the blinkered outrage of President Biden to Republican gerrymandering only highlights the hypocrisy of our times. We are left, yet again, with a gang of arsonists espousing fire safety in our political system. Despite voters calling for an end to gerrymandering, their leaders continue to lie to them and frustrate efforts to end this insidious practice.

  While the National Democratic Redistricting Committee called for a “Fair Districts Pledge” to “commit to restoring fairness to our democracy,” these politicians have instead followed Oscar Wilde’s rule that “the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 02/09/2022 – 00:05

• College Kid Cracks Code To Track Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg's Private Jet Flights
  College Kid Cracks Code To Track Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg’s Private Jet Flights

  Tracking the private jet movements of billionaires, dealmakers, celebrities, and even politicians has never been easier since 19-year-old Jack Sweeney, the mad genius behind the Twitter account “Elon Musk’s Jet,” developed tracker bots using publicly sourced air-traffic control data. Sweeney’s tracking software is above the rest because it can track jets blocked on popular flight tracking websites, such as FlightAware and FlightRadar24. 

  

  Sweeney has moved from tracking the world’s richest man, Elon Musk’s private jets, to more billionaires, dealmakers, celebrities, and even politicians. He announced Monday night three new tracking bots, including billionaire Mark Cuban (@MCubansJets), Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg (@ZuccJet), and real estate mogul Grant Cardone (@CardoneJet). Those who follow the accounts can monitor the private jets of these elites who virtue signal climate change but fly around the world in their polluting jets.

  The college kid recently published a list on Twitter of all the bots he has created: 

  • Billionaire Elon Musk (@ElonJet)

  • Former CEO of Nikola Corporation, Trevor Milton (@TrevorsPlanes) 

  • SpaceX private jets (@SpaceXJet)

  • Billionaire Jeff Bezos (@BezosJets)

  • Billionaire Bill Gates (@GatesJets)

  • Former President Donald Trump (@TrumpJets) 

  • Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk (@KimbalJet)

  • Private jet movement of celebrities (@CelebJets)

  • Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg (@ZuccJet) 

  • Billionaire Mark Cuban (@MCubansJets)

  • Real estate mogul Grant Cardone (@CardoneJet)

  Sweeney joined CNBC on Tuesday to explain how he tracks private jets. 

  Sweeney also appears to be expanding into tracking politicians. He asked his followers:

  “If you have info on any politicians with their own private jets let me know with tail number. Also I’ll be creating a site for other aircraft requests soon!”

  Sweeney is exposing virtue-signaling elites who preach about climate change but fly around the world in their private jets (some of which are blocked from public view on FlightAware and FlightRadar24). According to a study published last year in the peer-reviewed journal Global Environmental Change, private jets in 2016 produced about 33.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s about 4% of total aviation emissions, equating to as much as the entire nation of Denmark emits per year. 

  Now a college kid has cracked the code to monitor (all through public data) virtue-signaling elites who fly around in private jets.

  Now, the 19-year-old is exposing in real-time the elites’ rapidly expanding carbon footprints as they demand the rest of us eat fake meat and insects, use less energy, live in tiny homes, work gig-economy jobs, and forget about reality by joining the metaverse. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 23:45

• Border Patrol Union: Lucky If We Seize 5 Percent Of Fentanyl Pills Coming Across Border
  Border Patrol Union: Lucky If We Seize 5 Percent Of Fentanyl Pills Coming Across Border

  By Charlotte Cuthbertson of The Epoch Times

  Border Patrol agents are so busy processing large groups of illegal aliens, that in one Arizona area only four agents are available to patrol a 150-mile section of the border.

  “Now that 150 miles of border normally takes about 75 to 90 agents—we had four agents out there,” said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. Judd testified at an unofficial House hearing at FreedomWorks in Washington on Feb. 1.

  “Cartels control the border right now,” Judd said. “They dictate to us what our operations are going to be. That should never happen.”

  

  The amount of drugs being seized has correspondingly plummeted, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics.

  “If we seize even 5 percent of what’s coming across the border, we’re lucky,” Judd said, referring to a question about fentanyl pills. “And if there’s nobody there to detect you and apprehend you, the cartels are going to push it through between the ports of entry when they know that there is absolutely no chance that we’re going to apprehend that narcotic.”

  During the first three months of fiscal year 2022, agents have seized 316 pounds of deadly fentanyl coming across the border between ports of entry—more than triple that of the same period last fiscal year.

  At the ports of entry, where most drugs are seized, agents have nabbed 2,390 pounds of fentanyl so far in fiscal 2022, compared to 10,183 pounds in the same period the previous year. Two milligrams of fentanyl can be a fatal dose.

  Cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine seizures are also significantly reduced this fiscal year compared to the same period in fiscal 2021.

  

  More than 100,000 Americans, a record amount, died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in April, according to CDC data. Fentanyl was involved in almost two-thirds of those deaths.

  Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, highly addictive, and deadly. Buyers may be unaware that the drugs they buy are laced with illicit fentanyl.

  The substance is most often manufactured in Mexico using chemicals supplied from China and trafficked across the southern border by Mexican drug cartels. Fentanyl is mixed with other narcotics to increase potency as well as pressed into counterfeit pain pills that are made to look like blue Oxycodone prescription pills and are commonly known as “Mexican oxys.”

  In mid-December 2021, law enforcement authorities seized a record 1.7 million fentanyl pills in Scottsdale, Arizona.

  “There have been no new operations, policies, or programs put in place since this administration has taken office to help the border Border Patrol go after criminal cartels and the profits that they are generating,” Judd said.

  “We have allowed the criminal cartels to create billions of dollars in revenue at the expense of U.S. citizens who are dying at a record rate in 2021.”

  In a blistering indictment on the Biden administration’s management of the border, Judd said Border Patrol agent morale is “in the tank” and more agents have left the agency in the past year than were hired.

  “We go home every single day defeated. We feel like our time is wasted. Our only goal is to protect the citizens of this great nation—we are not allowed to do that at this time,” he said.

  

  Frustrated Border Patrol agents confronted Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of Homeland Security, and Raul Ortiz, the U.S. Border Patrol Chief, in recent meetings along the border.

  “For evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. That’s exactly what’s happening here,” one agent said, according to a leaked video. “Good men are doing nothing. You’re allowing illegal aliens to be dropped off in our communities.”

  Judd said, “I would absolutely say that this administration is aiding and abetting in the smuggling of individuals to include allowing them to make false asylum claims.”

  He told lawmakers that the agency doesn’t need more funding or resources and that the immediate border crisis can be fixed through policy.

  “I would argue that we must start with the illegal immigration because if we can control illegal immigration, we can then go after the cartels and their profits.

  “But as long as our hands are continually tied with the millions—because it is millions of people that cross the border illegally—we’re always going to give the cartels the upper hand to continue to cross their products and create artificial gaps in our coverage.”

  Immediately after taking office, President Joe Biden dismantled several key border security initiatives that the Trump administration had established, ordering a freeze on deportation and construction of the border wall, as well as the “Remain in Mexico” program, which contributed to up to an 80 percent drop in “catch-and-release” by requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico until their final court judgment.

  A Supreme Court decision in August 2021, required the Biden administration to restart the Remain in Mexico program. However, Judd said fewer than 100 illegal immigrants per day are currently being registered, yet anywhere between 5,000 and 7,000 are being apprehended on a daily basis. Most are being released into the United States to wait for a future court date that can be set years into the future.

  “We’re not even a speed bump,” Judd said. “We’re actually facilitating, because when we release these individuals … we are giving them a de facto legal status to be here. We are rewarding them for violating our laws.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 23:25

• Leaked Video Emerges Of US Stealth Jet Crashing On Carrier In South China Sea
  Leaked Video Emerges Of US Stealth Jet Crashing On Carrier In South China Sea

  In late January, a $135 million single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth fighter jet designed by Lockheed Martin crash-landed aboard the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson in the South China Sea. A partial video of the incident was published days after the Jan. 24 crash but didn’t show the full impact until now. 

  

  A leaked video emerged on the internet on Sunday and shows what appears to be the entirety of the crash.

  The advanced F-35C stealth fighter was on approach to land on the USS Carl Vinson as flight crews can be heard calling off the landing, but it was too late, as the jet undershot the flight deck, causing its engine and tail to smack the deck and miss the tailhook. The plane exploded into flames as it slid off the carrier’s flight deck into the South China Sea. 

  Leaked video of the F-35C crash on Carl Vinson, a classic case of ramp strike by the most advanced fielded fighter jet pic.twitter.com/wVl5nLI1bN

  — Fighterman_FFRC (@Fighterman_FFRC) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Here’s another video behind and underneath the flight deck, showing the F-35C’s engine and tail hitting the carrier. 

  too much poweeeeer. F-35C bump crashing on the USS Carl Vinson pic.twitter.com/tJKtzEwYaA

  — Lost Weapons (@LostWeapons) January 28, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Below is a confirmed photo of the F-35C floating in the South China Sea after sliding off the flight deck. 

  

  The landing mishap injured a total of seven, including the pilot who had successfully ejected and six sailors who were presumably injured while on the flight deck. 

  The US Navy has yet to verify the new video but has confirmed the leaked image above. This is the second crash of an F-35 in a matter of months at sea. Last November, a British F-35 stealth jet crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during what was described as routine flying operations from the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

  It remains a mystery how the world’s most advanced fighter jet, equipped with cutting-edge stealth technology and radar, was able to undershoot a landing on the carrier. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 23:05

• Taibbi Interviews Russell Brand, Who Isn't "Right Wing"
  Taibbi Interviews Russell Brand, Who Isn’t “Right Wing”

  Authored by Matt Taibbi via TK News,

  Had a terrific and wide-ranging talk recently with someone I’ve long admired, the comedian, actor, and podcaster Russell Brand, for his podcast Under the Skin. I don’t often end an interview and think, “Wow, I actually like that guy,” but that happened in this case, which I hope is reflected in the show. The above is a just-posted excerpt.

  Some of you may have seen, in recent days, a tweet that describes Brand and a ridiculous range of other Joe Rogan guests as “right-wing.” The list is full of people who clearly don’t fit that description, from Tulsi Gabbard to Steven Pinker and beyond:

  Joe Rogan fans often point to his fig-leaf endorsement of Bernie Sanders as proof that Rogan isn’t right-wing.

  But right-wingers overwhelmingly are his favorites as you can see from his guest list.

  Help me add to this, if you’d like. Source: https://t.co/t87NlwCQDr pic.twitter.com/UZnRbV95wK

  — Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  This is exhibit A in a phenomenon that’s become ubiquitous in mainstream press, where “right-wing” has become a stand-in for “heterodox” or “dissenting” or even just “open-minded.” Brand’s show, which now has 4.9 million subscribers (it was 4.8 million when we spoke), has been the repeated subject of crude smear jobs describing him as an alt-right Pied Piper, with the most shameless example being a Daily Beast piece from October called, “Comedian Russell Brand Has Become a Powerful Voice for Conservatives and Anti-Vaxxers.”

  That piece went off on Brand for having “vaccine-skeptic views” and running a “conspiracy theory-laden YouTube channel,” which led one to expect an avalanche of nuttery. Then you got into the piece and found the Beast’s complaints were things like questioning mandates and “pondering whether people could trust Bill Gates.” (That last line is such a perfect artifact of aristocratic cluelessness, it belongs in a museum). Worse, according to the Beast, Brand showed interviews of vaccine skeptics without mocking or denouncing them, almost like he was interested in hearing why they think what they think. Even more treacherously, he suggested people think for themselves:

  A December 2020 video titled, “Covid Vaccine – Skepticism or Trust?,” released just as the vaccine was rolling out in the U.K., saw Brand airing a series of clips of vaccine skeptics being interviewed on the street, before sharing, “I’m certainly by no means saying ‘Don’t take a vaccine,’ neither am I saying ‘Do take a vaccine’” and railing against an increase in “government authority” and decrease in “personal liberties” that is “concerning.”

  Much like the “NBC Verification Unit” that tried to get The Federalist in hot water with YouTube over supposed hate speech, and the reporters from The Guardian and The Washington Post who just pulled the same stunt with Substack over vaccine misinformation, The Beast bragged about its (ultimately failed) efforts to get Brand stuck in YouTube timeout over these offenses:

  On Wednesday, YouTube announced it planned to crack down on content posted to its platform that spread medical misinformation, saying it had already removed more than 130,000 videos within the past year that violated its COVID-19 vaccine policies. YouTube said of Brand’s channel, “We’re reviewing the videos raised by The Daily Beast.”

  Of course, Brand’s real crime is the basis of the show’s success: a welcoming, positive tone, the breezy lack of judgment, and a refusal to denounce anyone as enemies. The opening salutation — “Welcome, you 4.9 million shimmering wonders, you awakening souls, my brothers and sisters” — is a funnier, more exultant update on radioman Lowell Thomas’s legendary salutation from a century ago, “Good evening, everybody.” Thomas set the tone for generations of media outlets that saw their programs as places where the whole population could come together for discussion and debate, as opposed to being herded into warring camps. Brand is doing the same thing, just with more panache (saying a lot, since Thomas was also a storied stage performer).

  This willingness to court all audiences is an affront to the basic formula of current commercial media, which relies upon a strategy of identifying out-groups and rallying audiences to escalating hatreds. Any show that sends an opposite message that people with differing views can and should coexist, or that people who cross conventional wisdom may be interviewed for any reason beyond being “called out,” must now themselves be considered reactionary. We’re seeing how intense the propaganda about this sort of thing can get with the Rogan situation. Make no mistake, if the Jim Acostas and Brian Stelters and Daily Beasts of the world succeed in chopping Rogan’s knees out, they will go looking for the next target, which could easily be Brand or anyone else on that list of “right wing” terrors.

  I don’t want to get into this too much, as I’ve interviewed some other people on that list and want to share their takes on this as well later on. Still, this phenomenon has now reached points of absurdity, where being antiwar or supportive of free speech or even just sort of generally chill and forgiving — all part of the liberal’s basic toolkit, once — can inspire accusations of rightist treachery.

  Transparently, this is a tactic by a political mainstream so desperate to control what people say and think that it refuses to concede there’s even a word for legitimate disagreement with its dictates. As stupid as mainstream press people are in general, this specific stratagem is clever. First, it provides a massive disincentive for left-liberal thinkers to step an inch outside conventional thinking. Secondly, while people are arguing over the superficial provocation — Hey, wait, I’m not a right-winger! — even more dubious notions are slipped in through the back door, like the idea that Joe Rogan isn’t allowed to interview conservatives, or that if he does, he must do so using some bizarre pre-approved mathematical ratio.

  No matter what, it’s definitely true now that anyone who disagrees with the standard line on anything, from Russiagate to intervention in Syria or Ukraine to whether or not Anthony Fauci lied a time or five, can sooner or later expect to wake up wearing the wrongthink tag.

  More later, but in the meantime, here’s Brand on what he thought, when he discovered that “Russ, me, the person that I live inside of,” was being described as “right-wing”:

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 22:45

• Schumer Joins Pelosi, McCarthy In Supporting Ban On Congressional Stock Trading
  Schumer Joins Pelosi, McCarthy In Supporting Ban On Congressional Stock Trading

  The Democrats’ Congressional leaders are increasingly feeling the pressure to support a ban on lawmakers’ actively trading stocks.

  And finally, it look like they’re starting to cave.

  Not long after Nancy Pelosi came forward to express support for a trading ban despite being the poster child for lawmakers who supplement their income with day trading, her counterpart in the Senate, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, has also hopped on the bandwagon.

  According to a report in Punchbowl News, Schumer has officially thrown his weight behind a ban on trading single-name stocks by lawmakers in both the House and the Senate.

  NEW – SCHUMER says he wants to see a stock trading ban get done.

  — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 8, 2022

  Over the past two years, pressure on lawmakers to adopt a ban on stock trading has intensified – and it’s not just Congress: a trading scandal over at the Fed led to several senior Fed official being fired by Chairman Jerome Powell after the media picked up on financial disclosure forms detailing their trading. Late last year, the SEC also adopted tighter rules governing when corporate insiders can sell their company’s stock.

  Even rabid liberal and former Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich has insisted that Democrats now have enough “momentum” to make a trading ban a reality.

  In December, Nancy Pelosi dismissed banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks.

  In January, she reversed course following immense public pressure.

  We have momentum, folks. We can ban this corruption once and for all.

  Let’s keep the pressure on. pic.twitter.com/CEqF96e9pN

  — Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 2, 2022

  Of course, as Reich continued, it’s not just the Democratic leadership that trades; Senators from both parties, traded in 2021 as Newsweek reports.

  But how do Republicans feel about this? As it happens, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been aggressively pushing for a ban on lawmakers trading individual stocks (joined by – of all people – freshman Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff).

  Reports about lawmakers trading resulted in memes like the following image of Pelosi on her cellphone and a handful of other images, many showing Pelosi on the phone either on Capitol Hill or during the Congressional baseball game.

  SCHUMER WANTS TO PASS LAWMAKERS STOCK TRADING BAN: PUNCHBOWL

  (Move the shares into another account.) pic.twitter.com/6ebm8QEnXr

  — NOD (@NOD008) February 8, 2022

  76% of voters across the political spectrum believe members of Congress and their spouses shouldn’t be allowed to trade stocks while in office, including nearly 78% of Republicans and 80 percent of Independents.

  Last month, McCarthy and Ossoff introduced a ball barring trading in single-stock names. before that, more than two dozen Dem and GOP lawmakers signed a letter to the Democratic Congressional leadership urging them to support a trading ban.

  What’s more, the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act has been endorsed by several leading ethics reform groups, including the Project on Government Oversight, the National Taxpayers Union, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, FreedomWorks, and Issue One.

  The law would require all Members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children, to put applicable investments into a qualified blind trust or divest them within 120 days after the law is enacted. In the future, newly elected lawmakers, their spouses and their dependent children would be required to do the same within 120 days of assuming office. Covered investments that cannot be moved into a blind trust must be divested

  Readers can find the full bill below:

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 22:25

• Memphis Black Lives Matter Founder Sentenced To 6 Years For Illegally Voting
  Memphis Black Lives Matter Founder Sentenced To 6 Years For Illegally Voting

  By Jack Phillips of Epoch Times

  A Black Lives Matter organizer in Memphis was sentenced to prison after she was convicted for illegally registering to vote.

  

  Pamela Moses, described by some outlets as the founder of a BLM chapter in Memphis, was sentenced to six years in prison last week after she was convicted in November 2021 for illegally registering to vote in Tennessee, according to prosecutors. Moses had felony convictions in 2015, making her ineligible to register to vote.

  Judge Mark Ward, while handing down her prison sentence, accused her of making false statements to the probation department to register to vote.

  “You tricked the probation department into giving you documents saying you were off probation,” Ward said in court last week.

  “After you were convicted of a felony in 2015, you voted six times as a convicted felon.”

  Moses in 2015 pleaded guilty to felony charges of tampering with evidence and forgery. She also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of perjury, stalking, and theft under $500, according to local media.

  Public records also show she was arrested in 2016 and charged with inciting a riot. Those charges were later dropped.

  “I did not falsify anything. All I did was try to get my rights to vote back the way the people at the election commission told me and the way the clerk did,” Moses said at her sentencing hearing on Jan. 26.

  A local activist in Memphis alleged that her conviction was erroneous, and her sentencing is too harsh for the crime she committed.

  “Elected officials have used incredible amounts of resources in a time when there’s a backlog in this justice system unlike any we’ve seen before. They use resources to try and … convict this woman for trying to vote,” said Josh Spickler, executive director of the left-wing group Just City, in a news conference.

  Moses previously said she never actually voted and only registered unknowingly. She faulted officials for not telling her about her ineligibility after she began probation on the 2015 charges.

  “I relied on the election commission because those are the people who were supposed to know what you’re supposed to do,” Moses told News Channel 3 in December 2021. “And I found out that they didn’t know.”

  However, prosecutors said during her trial that Moses knew that she was ineligible to vote.

  “Even knowing that order denied her expiration of sentence, Pamela Moses submitted that form with her application for voter registration and signed an oath as to the accuracy of the information submitted,” prosecutors argued. “Pamela Moses knowingly made or consented to a false entry on her permanent registration.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 22:05

• China Falls Woefully Short Of Commitments To Purchase US Goods Amid Biden Lack Of Enforcement
  China Falls Woefully Short Of Commitments To Purchase US Goods Amid Biden Lack Of Enforcement

  Trade data released on Tuesday morning shows a massive shortfall in China’s ‘Phase 1’ purchases pertaining to 2020 trade deal promises inked under Trump, to meet a certain volume on American energy, soybeans, airplanes, and services, among other things. It suggests any claims of Biden’s ‘toughness’ on China notwithstanding, the reality appears that Beijing is seeing through the US administration’s supposed “firmness” on holding China to account. 

  Reuters observes of the numbers: “The data showed China missed by far its commitments to purchase an additional $200 billion worth of U.S. farm and manufactured goods, energy and services above 2017 levels – the year before a bitter trade war embroiled the world’s two largest economies.”

  

  Chinese leaders appear to be citing as the prime factor in the shortfall the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic, arguing that a specific clause in the trade deal necessitates consultations between the two governments “in the event that a natural disaster or other unforeseeable event outside the control of the Parties delays a Party from timely complying with its obligations.”

  According to a breakdown of the numbers reviewed in The New York Times China didn’t come anywhere close to what it pledged:

  In order to reach those targets, China would have needed to purchase at least $227.9 billion of U.S. exports in 2020 and $274.5 billion in 2021, for a total of $502.4 billion over the two years, said Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

  But China did not come close, Mr. Bown said in an analysis of the trade data published Tuesday, buying only $288.8 billion, or 57 percent, of the American exports it promised.

  At the same time, a separate NY Times report detailed that “The U.S. trade deficit in goods soared to record levels in 2021, topping $1 trillion as Americans continued to spend heavily on computers, toys, bicycles, clothing, pharmaceuticals and other goods made in foreign factories during the pandemic.”

  In an illuminating and blunt assessment given to Reuters by former USTR chief of staff Jamieson Greer, who was deeply involved in negotiating the Phase 1 deal, the admin still has the legal ability to pursue “retrospective enforcement for what’s been missed,” according to language embedded in the agreement.

  “It’s in the interest of the administration to pursue enforcement,” Greer underscored. But he emphasized: “With a few kind of narrow exceptions, we haven’t really seen that much enforcement” on trade matters from the Biden administration, he concluded according to Reuters. Meanwhile, US officials are much belatedly demanding “concrete action” from China, which is likely only to continue shrugging off the feeble Biden admin demands. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 21:45

• How Was CNN President Jeff Zucker's Resignation Covered On Television News?
  How Was CNN President Jeff Zucker’s Resignation Covered On Television News?

  Authored by Kalev Leetaru via RealClearPolitics,

  How has CNN President Jeff Zucker’s resignation been covered on television news?

  The timeline below shows total mentions of his name across CNN, MSNBC and Fox News since the start of this year, showing Fox News rapidly covering the story, then rapidly pivoting away, CNN only briefly mentioning it and MSNBC not mentioning his name at all.

  

  Fox News has mentioned his name 222 times since the start of this year, compared with just 24 mentions on CNN and 0 on MSNBC.

  

  Personality-driven shows have dominated mentions of his name, with Hannity, The Ingraham Angle and Tucker Carlson Tonight alone accounting for 52% of all mentions.

  

  Looking at the total seconds of airtime in which Zucker’s name was displayed somewhere in the onscreen text since the start of this month, Fox News leads with 40 minutes compared with CNN’s 13 minutes and MSNBC’s 0 seconds.

  

  Online news coverage surged after the announcement, dropped quickly, then rose again as breaking coverage turned into analyses, then faded.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 21:25

• Biden Admin Funding Free Crack Pipes To Promote 'Racial Equity'
  Biden Admin Funding Free Crack Pipes To Promote ‘Racial Equity’

  The Biden administration is finalizing funding to promote “racial equity” by handing out free glass crack pipes for drug addicts to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine or any other “illicit substance.”

  

  The new $30 million grant program from the Health and Human Services (HHS) department will provide funds to local governments and nonprofits for “smoking kits/supplies,” according to the Washington Free Beacon.

  HHS said the kits aim to reduce the risk of infection when smoking substances with glass pipes, which can lead to infections through cuts and sores. Applicants for the grants are prioritized if they treat a majority of “underserved communities,” including African Americans and “LGBTQ+ persons,” as established under President Joe Biden’s executive order on “advancing racial equity.”

  Not everyone’s a fan.

  “If we look at more of a preventive campaign as opposed to an enabling campaign, I think it will offer an opportunity to have safer communities with fewer people who are dependable on these substances,” Sgt. Clyde Boatwright, president of the Maryland Fraternal Order of Police told the Beacon.

  The move follows those by Democratic-run cities such as San Francisco and Seattle, which have distributed smoking kits to residents.

  This is the view of the taxpayer-funded supervised drug consumption and drug dealing site in United Nations Plaza, a public space in downtown San Francisco.

  

  Around this site, which was taken over without authorization, are armed and violent drug dealers whose deadly, addictive, and intoxicating products kill two San Franciscans per day.

  “We’re literally paying people in the form of cash welfare, housing, and other services to live in tents on the street, use hard drugs, defecate publicly, and commit crimes,” says Michael Shellenberger, author of “San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities.”

  Other municipalities such as Louisville, KY, have backed away from said programs on the grounds that they enable drug abuse.

  Funding for the program comes from the Democrats’ American Rescue Plan, which narrowly passed along party lines. It also includes money for other equipment such as condoms, fentanyl strips and disease screenings. It will last three years and includes 25 awards of up to $400,000.

  Perhaps Hunter Biden can be his father’s new crack czar – for which he’s infinitely more qualified than serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

  Joe Biden & Hunter Biden on crack pic.twitter.com/wwWZfSeN64

  — The Master Plan (@MasterPlan216) January 3, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 21:05

• Tanker Rates Turn Negative For First-Time Ever As US LNG Flocks To Europe
  Tanker Rates Turn Negative For First-Time Ever As US LNG Flocks To Europe

  Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

  The spot charter rates for shipping U.S. liquefied natural gas to Europe have just turned negative, suggesting that there are now too many LNG vessels in the Atlantic region but fewer requirements, according to LNG freight price assessor Spark Commodities.

  

  In December and January, dozens of cargoes of U.S. LNG flocked to Europe, which had a record-high natural gas price amid the gas and energy crisis. The crisis pushed regional LNG prices way above the Asian LNG benchmark and 14 times higher than the U.S. Henry Hub price. Tankers were not only traveling between the U.S. and Europe, but many were also diverted away from Asia to Europe as spot sellers took advantage of the higher gas prices in Europe.

  As the number of available LNG tankers in the Atlantic basin surged, freight rates plummeted. On Tuesday, Spark Commodities assessed its first-ever negative spot LNG freight rate at -$750/day for the Spark30S Atlantic assessment.

  

  The negative freight rate “Highlights how current vessel charter payments do not cover the fuel cost of ballasting the vessel back to load port. Lots of ships and few requirements,” Spark Commodities noted.

  Last week, LNG freight rates continued to slide on the back of weak vessel demand and increasing availability in both the Atlantic and Asia Pacific basins, according to Spark Commodities.

  “There just aren’t enough charter requirements to keep these ships fully utilized,” Tim Mendelssohn, managing director of Spark, told Bloomberg on Tuesday, commenting on the negative rates for Europe.

  The recent slide in LNG tanker rates is a dramatic shift from late last year when freight rates reached an all-time high with Asia stocking up for the winter and Europe desperate for any gas supply in the crisis.

  Now the soaring European imports from the U.S. have sent spot freight rates below zero.

  Europe was the top destination for U.S. LNG exports in January, for a second month running, ahead of Asia, according to Refinitiv data cited by Reuters last week. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. LNG exports traveled to Europe last month after 61 percent of American LNG shipments went to Europe in December.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 20:45

• Situation At Nikola "Starting To Look Dire" As Company Puts Hiring Freeze In Place, Loses Key Executives: Electrek
  Situation At Nikola “Starting To Look Dire” As Company Puts Hiring Freeze In Place, Loses Key Executives: Electrek

  Nikola shares are plunging late in the day on Tuesday after EV blog electrek put out a report claiming that the company has lost its “whole supply chain leadership” and that the company’s “situation looks dire”.

  “Electrek has learned that the supply chain department is in shambles,” the report reads, noting that four of the company’s top supplier chain executives have left the company in the last few months. The report says that the following employees have left the company:

  • Matthew Jenkins: Director of Supply Chain & Purchasing (Cab, Thermal, HMI & Controls, ADAS
  • Mike Chaffins: Global head of Supply chain
  • Mike Gallager: Director of Purchasing (Chassis, Powertrain, Indirect, CAPEX)

  Rather than the executives leaving because the company wanted to shift to outside suppliers, the report claims they were “critical” to “Nikola’s shift to relying on companies like Proterra for battery packs, Bosch for fuel cell systems, and IVECO for manufacturing.”

  Nikola CFO Kim Brady was responsible for the leadership leaving, the report says. 

  

  The report also noted that the company has put a hiring freeze in place, stating that during the time the company was dealing with founder Trevor Milton’s indictment, “the controversies took away from the actual work that the company was trying to accomplish.”

  The article also says that Nikola has given up on internally developed technologies and is now “highly dependent” on suppliers. 

  Nikola still trades with an over $3 billion market cap. Its last 10-Q filing shows no revenues for the 3 months ended September 30, 2021. During that time, the company posted a $271.8 million loss from operations. 

  Its founder, Trevor Milton, sold hundreds of millions of dollars in stock in 2021. 

  Nikola is, of course, the company that famously pushed the Nikola One prototype down a hill and filmed a promotional video saying the truck was operational. In September, Milton voluntarily stepped down from his roles as executive chairman and a member of the company’s board after being charged with fraud in late July. He stands accused of three counts of fraud for lying about the operational capacity of the Nikola truck.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 20:25

• Alberta To Scrap Vaccine Passport Program, Announces Path To Lifting 'Almost All' Restrictions
  Alberta To Scrap Vaccine Passport Program, Announces Path To Lifting ‘Almost All’ Restrictions

  Update (2013ET): And just like that, the honkening may be coming to an end – as Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced on Tuesday that he’s ending the province’s vaccine passport system.

  

  The program will end by midnight tonight, according to Kenney.

  As the Toronto Star notes:

  The passport system, dubbed as the Restrictions Exemption Program, is the first of the province’s current public health restrictions to go in a phased approach laid out by Kenney at a press conference Tuesday.

  “Now is the time to begin learning to live with COVID,” said Kenney. “These restrictions have led to terrible division.”

  Skip Advertisement

  “We cannot remain at a heightened state of emergency forever. We have to begin to heal.”

  Kenney announced a three-stage approach for the loosening of public health measures.

  First, the province will remove nearly all restrictions for children, including the kindergarten to Grade 12 mask mandate, by the coming weekend. Children who are 12 and under also won’t have to abide by the general mask mandate in Alberta. The general mandate still applies for the rest of the population.

  “It is time to let kids be kids,” Kenney said.

  As the Star reports, after three weeks, authorities will determine if the province can move to Stage 2, which would see “almost all the remaining restrictions lifted,” including the mask mandate, capacity limits, and work-from-home orders. Kenny is hopeful this can be accomplished by March 1.

  The final stage would see all restrictions lifted – however this could be paused if the healthcare system is under too much stress from Covid.

  “The threat of COVID-19 to public health no longer outweighs the damaging impact of public health restrictions,” said Kenney, adding “We are well positioned to live with the virus.“

  That said, Rebel News’ Ezra Lavant says Kenney is “He’s still going to have the QR codes. And he will still allow other entities, including private businesses, to discriminate based on those QR codes.”

  I deleted two tweets because they weren’t clear enough:

  Kenney is only ending the provincially-mandated vaccine passport. He’s still going to have the QR codes. And he will still allow other entities, including private businesses, to discriminate based on those QR codes

  — Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) February 9, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The announcement marks a significant divergence from an clearly rattled Justin Trudeau.

  NOW – Canada’s PM Trudeau says he and his team will stay focused on vaccine mandates “to avoid further restrictions.”pic.twitter.com/WqNFaeVmmd

  — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Trudeau walked out of QP during my question today.
  Canadians are standing up right now, grabbing this moment in our history, because they know there is something fundamentally wrong when a Prime Minister refuses to listen. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/ymzApUr4ri

  — John Barlow (@JohnBarlowMP) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  *  *  *

  Update (1340ET): More than 48 hours into protesters blocking the Ambassador Bridge that connects Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit, there are new warnings the auto industry might come to a “screeching halt” this week. 

  “Basically, if there’s a shutdown of transportation routes, the auto industry comes to a screeching halt in about two days,” Robert Wildeboer, executive chairman of Martinrea International Inc., said Tuesday on BNN Bloomberg Television.

  Martinrea is a major auto parts manufacturer based in Vaughan, Ontario. It manufactures engine blocks, transmissions, cases, housings, suspensions, chassis components, and body paneling for automotive companies in Detroit. 

  “We have 38 trucks cross at the Detroit border per day and 16 in Sarnia,” Wildeboer said. Since protesters have shuttered the border crossing, it appears Martinrea’s ability to cross into Detroit has become challenging. 

  It’s Day 2 of the anti-mandate demonstration in Windsor. There is no incoming traffic from the U.S. on the Ambassador Bridge and trucks are lined up for several kilometres to cross into Michigan. pic.twitter.com/cln0q3F8fk

  — Dan Janisse (@winstarjanisse) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Candian Freedom Convoy causes Ambassador Bridge to be closed at the Detroit and Windsor border again today. Story: https://t.co/J9eOJEPnfG pic.twitter.com/kgZczI6d0b

  — Dave Bondy (@DaveBondyTV) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  So far, Martinrea’s shares trading in Toronto has yet to react to the disruption. 

  

  “A closure of the bridge would be catastrophic for the Canadian economy,” Brian Kingston, president, and chief executive officer of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, told Bloomberg. “It’s responsible for approximately 25% of our goods trade, it is far and away the most important border crossing between Canada and the U.S.”

  * * * 

  A group of protesters have blocked one of the busiest international land border crossings in Canada – the Ambassador Bridge which links Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, for the second day in a row.

  

  As the CBC reports, “Dozens of demonstrators lined Huron Church Road, which feeds traffic to the international crossing from Highway 401, with trucks and vehicles starting Monday afternoon and into Tuesday morning with local police asking people to avoid the area.”

  The Ambassador Bridge is closed.

  Here’s the scene at Huron Church and College right now.

  Police say it was calm overnight.

  I’ve noticed the backlog of transport trucks caught in the protest have moved. pic.twitter.com/V9762O7dMS

  — Chris Ensing (@ChrisEnsingCBC) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  As of Tuesday morning, Police announced in a tweet that one lane of US-bound traffic is open.

  “I’m here for my kids, just to get it back to normal. They haven’t played hockey, it’s been a disaster. Just end, give us back what we need to live again. Trudeau, Doug Ford, just listen to us,” said Sam Kovak of Woodslee, Ont.

  “”I was in Ottawa the past two weekends, all the people I talked to were vaccinated. It’s got nothing to do — just give us our freedom back,” he added. “Now we’re in the exact same position two years ago, my kids are still sitting at home, my wife is still sitting at home.”

  “We’re sorry, but we have to make a stand.”

  The Ambassador Bridge is one of the busiest international land border crossings in Canada and a major route for transport trucks.

  

  Access to two schools on Huron Church Road near the bridge is limited Tuesday, prompting the Catholic school board to send a notice to families Tuesday.

  Police are asking students and parents to avoid the road, and access the schools from California Avenue. 

  “The Windsor Police have assured that they have no concerns for student or staff safety at this time. They will have two police officers at the school to assist us with the situation this morning,” the memo read. –CBC

  

  *  *  *

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

  Following the tactics used by Canadian truckers in Ottawa, a growing number of trucker-inspired protests appear to be gaining momentum worldwide—with groups in the Netherlands, Austria, the United States, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand forming.

  

  The Ottawa protest, known as the “Freedom Convoy,” aims to do away with Canadian COVID-19 vaccine mandates, namely for truckers crossing the U.S.–Canada border. On Sunday evening, the mayor of Ottawa declared an emergency, while police started making arrests and seizing the truckers’ fuel.

  In New Zealand, truckers reportedly launched a convoy from both the North and South Islands. They are slated to converge at the country’s capital, Wellington, according to the New Zealand Herald.

  One of the truckers, who only called herself Jess, told the Toronto Star that she is attempting to organize a trucker protest in New Zealand, which has some of the strictest COVID-19 restrictions in the world, because “her country needed to hear the call to stand up.”

  She confirmed that the two groups will converge in Wellington in the near future after communicating with truckers via social media.

  

  Farm vehicles joining the trucker convoy protest against COVID-19 mandates parked in Ottawa on Feb. 5, 2020. (Courtesy of Simon Alary)

  “I think you’re starting to see what will become a big global movement to end these mandates,” Brian Brase, co-organizer of the U.S. protest, told Fox News on Sunday, referring to vaccine requirements.

  “It’s a violation of your human rights to be mandated to take this vaccine. If you want it, go get it, but being mandated to get it, we’re standing up against that. We think it’s wrong.”

  Last week, organizers of a U.S. freedom convoy criticized Facebook after the social media giant removed a page organizing protests. The truckers told Fox News that they were planning to drive from California to Washington, D.C.

  Truckers in the United Kingdom will also demonstrate against mandates in a Glasgow suburb and will drive to Edinburgh, the capital, before heading to London, organizers told the Scottish Daily Express newspaper. Freedom Convoys will also depart in the English cities of Manchester, Exeter, Bristol, and Bournemouth, as well as in cities in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.

  In the Netherlands, according to the local NL Times, dozens of trucks and other vehicles gathered in Leeuwarden to protest local COVID-19-related mandates and restrictions on Sunday. A video posted by the “Freedom Convoy Nederland” showed the group.

  

  Protesters demonstrating against COVID-19 mandates gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway at the U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., on Feb. 2, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh)

  Elsewhere in Europe, Aram Lemmer, a business owner and organizer in Austria, told the outlet that he got commitments from about 2,500 vehicles to drive to Vienna, the capital, to protest against mandates. Recently, Austria passed a law that will mandate vaccinations for all eligible people aged 18 and older or they’ll face hefty fines.

  And police in the Australian Capital Territory say they expect crowd sizes for the “Convoy to Canberra” to peak on Feb. 8 when Australia’s Parliament resumes. Protesters led by truckers are expected to gather outside Parliament House.

  It comes as Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency on Sunday, alleging a “serious danger” posed by the trucker protest. Protest organizers say their movement is peaceful.

  “IMPORTANT: Anyone attempting to bring material supports (gas, etc.) to the demonstrators could be subject to arrest. Enforcement is underway,” Ottawa police also said in a statement on social media Sunday.

  The decision was panned by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, a group representing the truckers.

  “In a free and democratic society that is governed by the rule of law, citizens can freely associate with each other, including the giving and receiving of goods and gifts. There is no law that would allow the Ottawa Police to arrest people for giving fuel or food to another Canadian,” Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms lawyer Nicholas Wansbutter said in a statement.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 20:14

• China's "National Team" Is Good At Killing Stock Volatility
  China’s “National Team” Is Good At Killing Stock Volatility

  By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live strategist and commentator

  Chinese state-backed funds reportedly intervened in the stock market on Tuesday, helping stem the biggest intraday loss since August 2021.

  

  Since the bursting of the stock bubble in 2015, Bloomberg has reported at least seven occasions when the so-called “national team” came to the rescue when the market was cratering. The efforts didn’t always stop the bleeding immediately. But what they are good at is smothering volatility, which may be the very purpose of the intervention.

  State-related funds stepped into the market to buy local shares Tuesday afternoon, after the benchmark CSI 300 index slumped 2.4%, Bloomberg reported, citing people with direct knowledge. Shares of financial firms, including brokerages, were among those purchased. The CSI has lost about 7% this year, disappointing investors who had expected policy stimulus would boost stocks.

  The most-recent prior appearance of the “national team” occurred in March 2021, when the surge in U.S. yields hammered some highly-valued Chinese stocks during the National People’s Congress. They also intervened during the U.S.-China trade war in 2018 and 2019, and in 2016 in the aftermath of the stock crash.

  

  How effective is the national team’s rescue? On average, stocks continued to decline over the next three months, but at a slower pace. The CSI 300 fell by an average of 2.3% in the month after the reported intervention, compared with a loss of 5.1% in the previous month. The stock market did fare better over the ensuing six-month period, returning 5.5% on average.

  

  What’s more compelling is that the intervention consistently reduced market swings. State funds typically came in when 10-day volatility surged above at least 20. On average, volatility jumped by 9 points a month before the intervention, and declined by almost 14 points in the following month.

  

  In addition to volatility, there could be other clues to predict when the national team may step in. The recent episodes were related to external factors, such as tariff announcements in August 2018. On a few occasions, there seems to have been coordinated efforts by state media to talk up markets before the official intervention, although there have been plenty of false alarms. For instance, two weeks ago, state papers, including Shanghai Securities Journal, called for investors not to overreact to the market decline, saying A-shares have solid support from policies and fund flows.

  The old adage is don’t fight the central bank. In China’s context, it’s don’t fight the national team when they want to kill volatility.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 20:05

• The CCP Goes VC
  The CCP Goes VC

  There may be no better example of how Chinese Communist Party officials have shifted their interest toward Venture Capital than the municipal government of Hefei, who acquired a 17% stake in EV maker Nio at a time when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.

  The investment prompted the company to move to the eastern China city and to produce vehicles there. Nio turned its first profit and Hefei was able to cash out at up to 550% gains from its original investment – in less than a year of its purchase, Bloomberg reported. 

  Yu Aihua, the top Communist official in the city told Bloomberg: “From our investment in Nio, we ruthlessly made money. Making money for the government is not an embarrassment: It’s making money for the people.”

  Hefei has led the way for China since the 1950’s, with its “shrewd investments” helping it transform “from a relative backwater to a bustling metropolis of about 5 million people”, Bloomberg writes. It has made it China’s fastest growing city.

  

  The municipality made its first winning bet on on BOE Technology Group Co. after the 2008 financial crisis. The company wound up building a local plant in the city and, Hefei wound up with an 18% stake in the company. Hefei continued to invest in coming years and BOE’s presence in the city grew. 

  Now, in 2021, BOE just overtook Samsung as the world’s top manufacturer of LCD screens used in flatscreen TVs. 

  The municipality controls land sales and shares in the profit from state owned companies. It also has close ties to state-owned banks, the report says. And other municipalities have emerged as “white knights”, helping rescue strapped Chinese companies. The focus recently has been on technology, including semiconductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.

  These are all industries at the center of China’s plans to double the size of its economy by 2035. 

  Researchers at the University of Chicago, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, after looking at 37 million companies in China, say that companies owned by state agencies have been increasing partnerships with private companies. This has led to the average state stakeholder investing in nearly double the amount of companies as it did 10 years ago.

  

  The EV space remains a hallmark example. China’s six largest EV companies have sold more than 435,000 cars in 2021. Five of those names have local governments as minority investors, the report says. 

  In other words, the state owned VC model is starting to spread throughout the country. In turn, this means that “China’s biggest entrepreneurs are more connected with the state,” an obvious benefit for the CCP. 

  Chang-Tai Hsieh, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, told Bloomberg these companies are “not fully state-owned firms but also not really private firms,” adding that: “It’s this murky gray area, which I think is the dominant corporate structure in China today.”

  “Thirty years ago they [state government-owned companies] ­produced stuff that nobody wanted to buy. Now they are more like venture capital firms,” he concluded. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 19:45

• Hoax Alert: Black Illinois Student Criminally Charged For Racist Notes
  Hoax Alert: Black Illinois Student Criminally Charged For Racist Notes

  Authored by Jonathan Draeger via TheCollegeFix.com,

  Investigation involved the Secret Service

  Illinois law enforcement announced Friday that Kaliyeha Clark-Mabins, a black female college student, will be charged with three counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.

  Kevin Schmoll, the chief of police for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, made the announcement on Friday. 

  The College Fix had started asking questions about the investigation last week.

  The notes said “DIE BITCH” and “BLACK PEOPLE DON’T BELONG” according to charging documents provided to The Fix by the Madison County State’s Attorney office.

  “SIUE Police received [on January 23] a report of a hate crime involving the posting of hand-written notes on the door of a room in Woodland Residence Hall, along with an alleged anonymous text message thread from fall 2021 containing threatening and racially hostile content,” campus Director of Media Relations Megan Wieser said in an email to The Fix. Police responded to reports of disorderly conduct and suspicious activity, according to the crime blotter.

  The investigation included not just the campus police, but the “Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Secret Service,” the email said.

  The investigation cleared two white students falsely accused of involvement, Amanda Jerome and Jimmi Thull.

  The Fix emailed Wieser and Schmoll on Saturday and asked why the Secret Service was involved but did not receive a response. Neither provided photos of the notes.

  Black students demand expulsion – when they thought white teens were to blame

  A closed Change.org petition called for the expulsion of the initially suspected perpetrators.

  “A black teen and her sister has had their lives threatened by some white teens on campus and have had no justice,” a user by the name of “Justice for Us” stated.

  

  Black activists rallied for the expulsion of the alleged perpetrators when they thought white teens were to blame.

  “They say it’s under investigation but I feel like she shouldn’t be on campus period. Because you threatened to lynch students on this campus,” David Daniel, the vice president of the Black Student Union, told KDSK 5.

  “David organized a demonstration where students chanted and held up posters,” KDSK reported.

  The Fix reached out to the Black Student Union through its club email and to Professor Howard Ramsby, its advisor on February 3, prior to the filing of criminal charges. The Fix asked for photos of the notes, if BSU could put The College Fix in touch with the alleged victim and what it thought should happen to the perpetrator.

  Ramsby and BSU did not respond to a follow-up request for comment on February 4 after the announcement of the criminal charges.

  The SIUE Code of Conduct states that “a felony criminal charge with a nexus to campus and/or that involves other SIUE students” will lead to “automatic interim separation, pending further investigation.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 19:25

• Capitol Police Spies 'Dressed Like Construction Workers' To Surveil GOP Congressman's Office
  Capitol Police Spies ‘Dressed Like Construction Workers’ To Surveil GOP Congressman’s Office

  Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) has lodged a bombshell accusation against the Capitol Police, who he says broke into his office without his knowledge and photographed sensitive documents.

  

  Two days later, three intelligence officers dressed like construction workers ran into a member of Nehls’ staff while trying again during Thanksgiving week to enter the office – questioning the staffer as to the contents of a photograph they illegally took two days earlier.

  On November 20th, 2021, Capitol Police entered my office without my knowledge and photographed confidential legislative products protected by the Speech and Debate clause enshrined in the Constitution, Article 1 Section 6.

  — Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Upon discovering a member of my staff, special agents dressed like construction workers began to question him as to the contents of a photograph taken illegally two days earlier.

  — Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  They had no authority to photograph my office, let alone investigate myself or members of my staff.

  So, why is the Capitol Police Leadership maliciously investigating me in an attempt to destroy me and my character?

  — Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Maybe it is because I have been a vocal critic of @SpeakerPelosi, the @January6thCmte, and @CapitolPolice leadership about their handling of January 6th, the death of Ashli Babbitt and the subsequent SHAM investigation.

  — Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) February 8, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAccording to The Federalist, “In November 2021, a USCP officer entered the congressional office of Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Tex., and took a photo of a whiteboard in Nehls’ legislative office detailing various legislative plans being considered by Nehls and his staff.”

  The officer claimed in a police report several days later that he was conducting routine security patrol on Saturday, Nov. 21, and ‘discovered that one of the doors to Nehls’ office was open.’

  The report claimed that the officer entered Nehls’ office and found a whiteboard that contained “suspicious writings mentioning body armor[.]” The officer reportedly took a photo of the whiteboard, which was then passed around to analysts within USCP. The following Monday, USCP dispatched three plain-clothed intelligence officers to Nehls’ office and questioned a staffer who was there about the whiteboard and the legislative proposals it contained. -The Federalist

  Interestingly, the Washington Post had run a story days earlier about a Texas federal contractor who defrauded the United States by supplying Chinese-made body armor vs. armor made in the US.

  The Federalist also reports that the inspector general for the US Capitol Police (USCP) has launched an investigation into whether there has been inappropriate surveillance of elected members of Congress, their staff, and visitors to their officers.

  The opening of the investigation follows news reports and accusations from lawmakers that USCP has overstepped its bounds as it tries to recover from the January 6 riots that tarnished both the Capitol and the reputation of the law enforcement agency that was supposed to keep it safe.

  USCP Chief J. Thomas Manger confirmed the opening of the inspector general investigation in his response to congressional inquiries about USCP police tactics, reported in a January 24 article published by Politico, including surveilling and compiling intelligence dossiers on members of Congress, their staff, and visitors. -The Federalist

  “While I am confident in our methods, I am asking the USCP Office of the Inspector General to review the USCP’s programs related to these security assessments to assure both this Committee, the Congress as a whole, and the public that these processes are legal, necessary, and appropriate,” Manger wrote to seven GOP lawmakers.

  Read the rest of the report here.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 19:07

• Elon Musk Blasts Mainstream Media For "Relentless Hatestream" Of "Careless Negativity"
  Elon Musk Blasts Mainstream Media For “Relentless Hatestream” Of “Careless Negativity”

  Few people have received the kind of love-hate treatment from the media that Elon Musk has. Initially lionized for his role in building Tesla into the world’s preeminent manufacturer of electric cars, Musk saw his public image darken as the media fixated on his increasingly contrarian and – dare we say it – conservative viewpoint on politics, the climate and society.

  As a result, Musk took to Twitter Tuesday morning in Asia to criticize the traditional media for pumping out a “relentless hate-stream” of bad news. Musk lamented that it’s “so hard to find out what’s going on in the world without being bombarded with news that makes one sad & angry!”

  Furthermore, Musk lashed out at the media for “focusing relentlessly” on bad news, claiming that it doesn’t give an accurate representation of reality. In a reply to another user, the billionaire said “careless negativity (destruction) is much harder than thoughtful positivity (creation).”

  Why is the “traditional” media such a relentless hatestream? Real question.

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Most news outlets attempt to answer the question: “What are the worst things happening on Earth today?”

  It’s a big planet! Obviously, some bad things are happening somewhere at any given time, but focusing relentlessly on those does not give an accurate picture of reality.

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Musk’s tweets arrived just a few hours after Brett Winton, director of research at Ark Investment Management (a major Tesla bull that has seen the value of its funds collapse in recent months), tweeted “it is deeply weird that the Internet tried to bully, threaten, extort and browbeat us into giving up on Tesla.”

  reflecting on it
  it is deeply weird that
  the internet tried to
  bully, threaten,
  extort and browbeat us
  into giving up on Tesla https://t.co/V8gI37Gpbg

  — Brett Winton (@wintonARK) February 7, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Musk replied that “the insane tweet FUD campaign & press hatestream of 2017-2019 is still easily found.”

  It was so crazy! The insane tweet FUD campaign & press hatestream of 2017-2019 is still easily found.

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Musk’s anti-media tweets arrived at a particularly difficult time for Tesla: the media just reported that the SEC had sent Tesla and Musk another subpoena back in November over Musk’s now-infamous “funding secured” tweet from August 2018.

  The Tesla CEO also sent another one of his infamous dogecoin-pumping tweets…

  So … it’s finally come to this … pic.twitter.com/Gf0Rg2QOaF

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  …but before ending his tirade, he apparently signed off with a Monty Python reference.

  🎶Always look on the bright side of life🎶

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The subtext is obvious: perhaps instead of being so morbid all the time, the press should try writing about something positive.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 19:05

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Are Warnings About "Imminent Russian Invasion Of Ukraine" Any More Than A Deep-State Intel Operation?
  Are Warnings About “Imminent Russian Invasion Of Ukraine” Any More Than A Deep-State Intel Operation?

  Via StrategicMacro.com,

  I think what is happening overall is brinkmanship by a number of parties, which is not uncommon in geopolitics, and it is unlikely anything significant happens.

  

  But lets discuss the interests of different parties in each state:

  Ukrainian interests

  There are interest groups in Ukraine that want Nord Stream 2 sanctioned as it going live in June 2022 would end $3bn of transit revenues that the Ukraine government gets.

  The oligarchs in the Ukraine owe a lot of their wealth to milking the state budgets.

  Then there are Neo-Nazi militias that were folded into the military without much ‘re-education’ who dream of taking Donbass region back and like to wear WWII Galician division insignia.

  So we had a Ukraine forces build up last Feb/ March then a climb down (NS2 was supposed to go live last summer but a German court said the legal structure was not compliant and needed to be changed and then re-approved) now is the last gamble before it goes live.

  

  Ukraine built up forces in Oct and used newly received Nato weapons, such as a TB2 drone to strike 15kms behind the ceasefire line.

  They also crossed the ceasefire line and attacked two small villages with an armoured column. There are daily ceasefire violations of 100-1000 events that the OSCE record in a daily report published on the OSCE website.

  Here is a video of a Ukraine journalist firing a howitzer towards the area. They generally try and shell utilities to make the area as unlivable as possible but also routinely injure and kill civilians.

  Meanwhile the BBC Kiev correspondent notes little frontline expectation of an invasion:

  

  President Zelensky is a former slap stick comedian who was pushed forwards to power by an Oligarch. He won on a reform mandate with pro-western alignment, but has failed to challenge the oligarchs who can easily bribe officials, so has become dependent on the support of the nationalists. He has not implemented the Minsky agreement.

  The Minsk agreement is a treaty that Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France negotiated. It would deliver a federal Ukraine and MPs from Donbass would go to Kiev. But the nationalists want to defeat the Donbass fighters and don’t want pro-Russian MPs in Kiev. So it has never been implemented.

  Russia

  So Russia responded to the events in Oct by increasing their troops near the border from circa 90k to 120-130k. Also there was evidence of more equipment rail way shipped into Donbass. So they were definitely trying to menace Ukraine into stopping the heavy weapons attacks with the implicit threat of a bigger conflict. But they only did the build up after Ukraine provocations.

  Then the western media reports the Russian activities and is encouraged to conclude that Putin is about to invade.

  Russia has repeatedly called for the Minsky treaty to be implemented. If it is not implemented this year there are calls in the Russian parliament for the Donbass region to have a referendum on joining Russia. Most of the residents have Russian citizenship now.

  Russia recently seems to have decided to push back and use the reporting of their invasion threat in the western media to try and push for long term extra-territorial security guarantees, which the US/ UK have blown off, but there seems to be a serious discussion starting with France and Italy and by inference the EU in general.

  A low probability event is a conflagration happens/ is engineered and Putin then annexes the sea front from Mariupol to Crimea and possibly the area around the Dnieper river/ canal to secure the fresh water supply.

  That operation might take a week or so, it is flat land and his tanks would literally just roll across it. Our understanding is that Putin, Medvedev, Lavrov and other centrists in Moscow see the sanctions fall out from that as not worth it, but there are hardliners who dream of doing this.

  An invasion would also give the hardliners in the Washington ample excuse to impose much tougher sanctions and trade embargoes on Russia. We don’t see a broader invasion of western Ukraine as likely.

  In the last few weeks various Russian officials have alluded to what they see is little more than a UK/ US intelligence operation aimed at misleading their respective political leaders and bouncing said leaders into further anti-Russian sanctions. 

  “West cooked up ‘Russian threat’ to save face after Afghan flop, diplomat says”

  

  US/ UK

  America and the UK are unlikely to agree to any Russian security guarantees and are more likely to try and periodically antagonise Putin and his security people, as part of the old ‘great game’. Although this week it seems France and Italy are willing to negotiate security with Russia.

  Apparently, an MI6 dossier, no doubt drawing on Ukrainian sources, has been rubber stamped by the CIA/ State Dept and is the basis for the UK/ US claiming that Putin ‘could/ almost certainly will’ invade. Ie the deep state is bouncing the politicians to try and get more sanctions imposed on Putin and Russia. The Russians are aware of this and have alluded to it several times.

  By claiming Putin might invade imminently they justify sending more arms (Germany would block a NATO MAP) and can provide NATO training to an Army that has neo-Nazi elements within it

  Then when Putin does not invade they will be able to claim diplomatic victory and claim that they stared down the Russian threat.

  But it is almost certainly built on a series of false narratives and manipulated analysis and conclusions.

  Later this year/ Resolution

  Once NS2 is up and running in June and Ukraine has lost the >$3bn in transit revenues, it will be easier for Germany to pressure them to implement the Minsk agreement to make Ukraine a federal state as Ukraine will still want a closer EU relationship. If Kiev refuses to implement Minsk, which is quite likely, then perhaps Donbass would then join Russia, and having the Russian military directly in the disputed areas would necessarily end the low intensity conflict.   

  Germany and Russia don’t want anything to happen that would sanction NS2, Biden has accepted that without NS2 gas prices in Europe would be too high and that affects global gas prices, hence the administration blocked a sanction attempt in the Senate recently on NS2.

  

  German industry don’t want high gas prices or their investments in Russia to be affected, hence the US has given up on the idea of disconnecting Russia from Swift.

  So for now, there are multiple groups within each country that have competing agendas and some brinkmanship has suited a lot of them.

  It is possible that there is a sizable ‘border incident’ but we think it would likely be contained quickly.

  Then a permanent resolution is likely to be pushed for in H2 this year.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 02/08/2022 – 00:00

• Biden's Top Science Advisor Forced Out Over Harsh Treatment Of Subordinates
  Biden’s Top Science Advisor Forced Out Over Harsh Treatment Of Subordinates

  President Joe Biden’s top advisor on science and technology policy – two areas that have become extremely important to the White House over the past two years – has just been fired for demeaning and mistreating his subordinates following an internal White House probe.

  Recordings and documents obtained by Politico exposed how Eric Lander bullied his former general counsel, and how he spoke to White House Office of Science and Technology Policy staff in “a disrespectful or demeaning way,” which he acknowledged in his apology.

  “I am devastated that I caused hurt to past and present colleagues by the way in which I have spoken to them,” Lander wrote in a resignation letter to his boss. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday night that the president had accepted Lander’s resignation from his cabinet-level position (which technically put him in the line of succession)

  This could create serious problems for the president as he tries to shift the public’s attention to his cancer moonshot. Biden appeared alongside Dr. Lander during an event last week where the White House re-launched an initiative to cut the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years. The president said Dr. Lander would take a lead role in implementing the initiative. Dr. Lander had already recused himself from all COVID vaccine-related issues, but he has still played an important role in shaping the White House’s response to the pandemic.

  

  Dr. Lander

  Biden now finds himself in a difficult spot: he has repeatedly promised to fire anybody in his administration who “talks down to someone…on the spot”.

  One former subordinate of Dr. Lander’s complained that his behavior was downright “shocking”.

  Rachel Wallace, a career civil servant who works at OSTP, filed a complaint about Dr. Lander’s behavior to the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. A person who has spoken to OSTP staff said other people who worked in the office had similar concerns about Dr. Lander’s behavior.

  “Dr. Lander’s behavior is shocking, to say the least, and I’m concerned that this kind of misconduct may adversely affect science policy,” said David Seide, senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, which is representing Ms. Wallace.

  However, Lander’s transgressions are much bigger than all that.  While his behavior offered a convenient excuse for the White House to get rid of him, Lander has an employment record fraught with potential controversies. For one: before joining the White House, he was the founding director of the Broad Institute, a biotech outfit whose genomics work has touched upon eugenics – specifically the role that genetics plays in same-sex attraction, the development of PTSD and other issues, according to a report from the Organic Consumers Association.

  Lander also helped cover up evidence showing that “gain-of-function” research financed in part by the US had helped a team of Chinese scientists create the highly infectious SARS-CoV-2, before the virus escaped from the lab and set off the global pandemic

  Here’s more on that from the OCA:

  In January 2020, when scientists examined the genome of SARS-CoV-2 it was immediately clear that the unique feature that made it “100 to 1,000 times” more infectious than the first SARS was something that couldn’t have been achieved through natural recombination. In fact, the virus’s genetic code bore a tell-tale sign that it had been engineered in the lab. This was obvious to every scientist who looked at the virus, even those who later published articles claiming the virus wasn’t engineered.

  The US government engaged in a coordinated cover-up that has been revealed in emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, but one aspect of the cover-up hasn’t been explored before now: A January 2020 analysis conducted by Eric Lander’s Broad Institute for the Director of National Intelligence that falsely claimed that the virus wasn’t genetically engineered.

  Fortunately for Lander, he doesn’t even need this job: He is already among the richest members of President Biden’s cabinet, with a personal net worth of $45 million.

  The top Democrat and Republican on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee demanded that the White House turn over its report on Landers’ behavior – for which he issued a formal apology to staffers on Friday – as soon as possible.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 23:40

• Arizona Senate Approves Bill To Ban Males From Female School Sports
  Arizona Senate Approves Bill To Ban Males From Female School Sports

  Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times,

  A Republican-sponsored bill prohibiting males from playing on Arizona female school sports teams passed by a majority vote of the state’s Senate on Feb. 2 and now goes to the state House for review and vote.

  The Senate voted 16-13 to pass the bill, with all Democrats voting against it.

  

  Trinity junior Mack Beggs, a transgender athlete, wrestles Katy Morton Ranch junior Chelsea Sanchez in the final round of the 6A Girls 110 Weight Class match during the Texas Wrestling State Tournament at Berry Center in Cypress, Texas, on Feb. 25, 2017. (Leslie Plaza Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

  Sen. Juan Mendez (D) was not present for the vote as he is currently away on paternity leave, a staffer said Feb. 4.

  The bill, SB1165, acknowledges gender athletic performance differences exist between males and females, and “athletic teams or sports designated for females, women or girls may not be open to students of the male sex.”

  It states violation of the law by any school, institution, or government authority, would be cause for civil action.

  “Each interscholastic or intramural athletic team or sport that is sponsored by a public school, or a private school whose students or teams compete against a public school, shall be expressly designated as one of the following bases on the biological sex of the students who participate on the team or in the sport”—males, men or boys, females, women or girls, co-ed or mixed, the bill states.

  “Any student who is deprived of an athletic opportunity or suffers any direct or indirect harm as a result of a school knowingly violating this section has a private cause of action or injunctive relief, damages, or any other relief available under law against the school,” the bill adds.

  Civil action would have to be filed within two years of the alleged offense.

  The legislation is based on findings that assert the reality of biological sex, that a person’s physiological gender is determined before birth, and acknowledges physical sex differences in prenatal and early childhood through puberty.

  “Having separate sex-specific teams furthers efforts to promote sex equality by providing opportunities for female athletes to demonstrate their skill, strength, and athletic abilities; while also providing them with opportunities to obtain recognition, accolades, college scholarships, and the numerous other long-term benefits that flow from success in athletic endeavors,” according to the bill’s findings.

  Among the bill’s 24 Republican sponsors were Sen. Sonny Borrelli, Rep. Shawnna Bolick, Sen. Warren Petersen, Rep. Judy Burges, and Sen. Vince Leach.

  Leach, representing Arizona’s District 11, said he supported the bill based on his long-time position that acknowledges performance differences between males and females. For 18 years he was a high school sports and club coach in Wisconsin.

  “I can tell you from firsthand observation it’s different” between male and female athletes, Leach told The Epoch Times.

  “The game is played differently. Men are much more aggressive, much more using their body strength. If you introduce men’s strength into the [female sports] equation, it just magnifies that.”

  Leach said it’s becoming more common to see males wanting to participate in female athletics programs.

  “We’re making sure that girls get to play and get to play sports without fear of getting hurt,” he said.

  Leach said that males who participate on female athletics teams “doesn’t make the sport any better.”

  “It dilutes the sport. It’s presented as an issue of fairness, but who’s fairness is it? We’re taking away from a beautiful experience” in sports.

  The legislation will go before the Arizona House where it will be handed over to a committee for review and recommendation to the full House.

  Absent any amendments the approved legislation will be presented to Gov. Dough Ducey for signing.

  On Feb. 3, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed a bill into law prohibiting transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams, making South Dakota the 10th state to pass such legislation.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 23:20

• "No National Security Risks": Trudeau Admin Turns Blind Eye To Chinese Takeover Of Canadian Lithium Miner
  “No National Security Risks”: Trudeau Admin Turns Blind Eye To Chinese Takeover Of Canadian Lithium Miner

  According to Justin Trudeau’s liberal administration, the Chinese takeover of a lithium mine located headquartered in Toronto “poses no national security risks whatsoever,” according to a report by True North. 

  The report comes after Neo Lithium Corp. was purchased by Zijin Mining Group Co. without a national security review. Neo Lithium spokesperson Carlos Vicens said last month that the government had only conducted a brief security screening of the potential purchase, stating: “The law states they have 45 days after announcement to start a review if they believe there is a specific concern. The timeline passed in early December and no review was done.”

  Industry minister François-Philippe Champagne told True North: “This transaction was absolutely reviewed to make sure there was no security risk.”

  Zijjin Mining acquired the company for $960 million. Neo Lithium “has developed one of the world’s largest overseas lithium brine projects in Argentina,” the report says.

  

  In late January, some experts had warned against takeovers by the Chinese Communist Party, pointing out that they could have impacts on the country’s intellectual property and economic security. 

  Royal Roads University Professor Dr. Jeffrey B. Kucharski told MPs: “I think, as part of a bigger story, what I’m saying is that there are intellectual property issues, there is management knowledge and there is this company as part of a supply chain, potentially, that we now don’t have any longer to help build our own supply chain here in Canada.”

  Senior Fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation Dr. Wesley Clark added: “I believe the government addressed the Neo Lithium acquisition using too narrow a framework; misjudged its significance to Canadian national and economic security, now and in the future; failed to translate policy promises into action; and was caught up in a protracted period of political transition while the transaction was being reviewed—all of which, I believe, led to a wrong decision.”

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 23:00

• Hong Kong Will Send More COVID Patients To Quarantine Camp Amid Record Surge In Cases
  Hong Kong Will Send More COVID Patients To Quarantine Camp Amid Record Surge In Cases

  COVID outbreaks may be waning in the US, UK and a number of other countries – including far-flung Australia, where Prime Minister Scott Morrison just unveiled plans to reopen the country to tourists on Monday as that country’s omicron wave has diminished – but in Hong Kong, mainland China, and a handful of other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, case numbers are rising at an alarming rate, much to the consternation of local health officials.

  On Monday, Hong Kong reported 614 new COVID cases, the largest daily tally since the start of the pandemic two years ago. The figure was double the number of cases reported the day prior, prompting local health officials to declare that the “fifth wave” of the pandemic has already begun, and that the city would soon be dealing with 1,000 new cases per day, according to Health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee. 219 of the new cases were deemed asymptomatic or untraceable, and seven imported.

  

  The prospect of exponential growth of the virus has prompted Hong Kong to impose even tougher quarantine restrictions, including sending both close contacts of the infected, and those who tested positive but exhibit mild symptoms, to a quarantine camp similar to the barbed-wire-enclosed camps opened in Australia where some infected people have been forced to sit out their illness (and a trio of persons made headlines around the world when they escaped late last year). The camp is already housing patients who are deemed symptomatic and at high risk of spreading the virus. Authorities will also consider adopting even tougher social distancing restrictions.

  This facility is located at the Penny’s Bay facility on Lantau Island.

  Officials have laid out plans to start sending more patients who meet the new criteria there on Tuesday, according to the SCMP. Although some infected patients will be allowed to quarantine at home if their digs are deemed “suitable” by the HK government (which, remember, is now under the untrammeled control of Beijing):

  Warning that the Omicron-fuelled fifth wave of the pandemic was spiralling out of control, officials laid out plans to begin sending infected people to Penny’s Bay from Tuesday and allow home quarantine for close contacts whose flats were approved as suitable for isolation.

  The city’s leader will also meet her top advisers on Tuesday to discuss further tightening social-distancing measures to address the infection surge, partly blamed on Lunar New Year celebratory gatherings. Tougher steps could entail expanding the use of the vaccine pass to cover shopping malls and public transport.

  Authorities blamed family gatherings during the Chinese Lunar New Year for fueling the surge in infections. There have been a few notable clusters of cases in the city so far, illustrated below:

  

  As of Monday, COVID patients were occupying 1,146 of the 3,416 units available in the facility on Penny’s Bay. Meanwhile, more contacts of the infected will be required to quarantine at home for 14 days if their homes are deemed “suitable.”

  With fewer spaces available, close contacts of patients and the family members of those secondary contacts can isolate at home starting from Tuesday, for 14 days and four days, respectively, provided their living arrangements proved suitable.

  “Our colleagues will assess whether the household is suitable for home isolation, such as whether they need to share rooms or facilities with their family members,” said Centre for Health Protection controller Edwin Tsui Lok-kin.

  Authorities in Hong Kong have imposed more draconian restrictions as of late, including locking down an entire housing complex after roughly 50 cases were found there. The city has also imposed a requirement for all Hong Kongers to be innoculated. If they aren’t fully vaccinated before Feb. 24, they will not be allowed to enter crowded public places, which will now require proof of inoculation to enter.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 22:40

• Philadelphia Has Had At Least 140 Carjackings This Year So Far, Double The Year-To-Date Total From 2021
  Philadelphia Has Had At Least 140 Carjackings This Year So Far, Double The Year-To-Date Total From 2021

  Philadelphia’s carjacking problem is reaching new heights in 2022, according to reports by Brietbart and the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

  So far this year, there have been “at least” 140 carjackings in the city – an average of between 4 and 5 per day, every day, so far in 2022. 

  

  The 140 number is already “double the year-to-date total from 2021″, according to the reports. The number had stood at “at least” 90 carjackings in the first two weeks of the year and “over 100” in the first three weeks of the year. 

  2022’s carjacking pace is “seven times the pace reported at the beginning of 2020,” the Inquirer reported.

  

  Police think “it’s a small group of criminals that are responsible for the majority of carjackings in the city, and they say social media is a driving force,” according to CBS. Police believe the perpetrators are between the ages of 14 to 24.

  “Some carjackings that are getting social media attention are leading to other carjackings and that’s predominantly where a lot of juveniles are coming into play. We think they have been making somewhat of a spectacle or game at keeping score outta something like this,” concluded Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Ben Naish.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 22:20

• Thunder Out Of China: The Lab-Leak Theory Strengthens
  Thunder Out Of China: The Lab-Leak Theory Strengthens

  Authored by Yuri Deigin, biotech entrepreneur and co-founder of DRASTIC, via Inference-Review.com

  On August 27, 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a summary of the US Intelligence Community’s assessment on the origins of COVID-19.¹ Four of the agencies involved and the National Intelligence Council assessed “with low confidence that the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virus.”²

  One of the agencies—later reported as the FBI³—assessed “with moderate confidence that the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was the result of a laboratory-associated incident, probably involving experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

  “These analysts,” the summary continued, “give weight to the inherently risky nature of work on coronaviruses.”⁴

  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have now been more than 360 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in over 5.6 million deaths worldwide.⁵

  Questions about the origins of COVID-19 are of more than academic interest.

  

  From Animal Hosts

  Zoonosis is considered the default explanation for the outbreak of any new infectious disease. A number of pandemics occurred during the twentieth century, almost all of them of zoonotic origin. The one known exception is the 1977 H1N1 flu pandemic, which was caused by an insufficiently attenuated vaccine candidate that escaped either from a laboratory or from clinical trials.⁶

  A number of disease outbreaks began in Southeast Asia following zoonotic jumps: the Asian flu pandemic (1957), which originated in China; the Hong Kong flu pandemic (1967); and the avian flu outbreak (2005), which was first reported in Vietnam. The first SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus outbreak began in China during 2002 and infected more than 8,000 people worldwide between 2002 and 2003, as well as dozens more people in 2004 after several laboratory leaks.

  In a 2007 paper for Clinical Microbiology Reviews, a team of virologists from the University of Hong Kong issued a clear warning:

  The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb. The possibility of the reemergence of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore the need for preparedness should not be ignored.⁷

  Horseshoe bats, the genus Rhinolophus, are the natural reservoir for hundreds of coronavirus strains closely related to the SARS virus.⁸

  Once the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak had begun, virologists quickly reached the conclusion that the pandemic was almost certainly of natural origin. In February of 2020, barely a month after the SARS-CoV-2 genome was released, a team led by Kristian Andersen, an immunologist at the Scripps Research Institute in California, published a preprint and then a paper in Nature Medicine entitled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2.”⁹ If SARS-CoV-2 had been designed, they argued, it could have been designed better, and since it was not designed better, it most likely was not designed. “While the analyses … suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may bind human ACE2 with high affinity,” the Nature Medicine paper noted, “computational analyses predict that the interaction is not ideal and that the RBD [receptor-binding domain] sequence is different from those shown in SARS-CoV to be optimal for receptor binding.” “The high-affinity binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to human ACE2,” the authors concluded,

  is most likely the result of natural selection on a human or human-like ACE2 that permits another optimal binding solution to arise. This is strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is not the product of purposeful manipulation [emphasis added].¹⁰

  A month before Nature Medicine issued the paper by Andersen et al., The Lancet published a letter signed by 27 leading virologists dismissing the hypothesis that the virus originated in a laboratory:

  The rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumors and misinformation around its origins. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.¹¹

  One of the authors of the letter was Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based nonprofit NGO. Since 2004, EcoHealth had been collaborating with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) on studies of coronaviruses in bats.¹² The relationship between EcoHealth and the WIV was close. A specialist in the transmission of infectious diseases among animals, Daszak was frequently listed as a coauthor on their papers, often alongside the director of the WIV’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Shi Zhengli.¹³

  The authors of the letter that appeared in The Lancet, Daszak among them, declared that they had reached their conclusions while holding no competing interests. Five months later, the journal issued a demurral with respect to Daszak’s declaration. He updated his statement to clarify his employment at EcoHealth and the nature of EcoHealth’s research in China, and to affirm that their “work in China was previously funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).”¹⁴ Daszak’s updated disclosure does not include any mention of the WIV, instead referring to EcoHealth’s “collaboration with a range of universities and governmental health and environmental science organisations.”

  On January 14, 2020, a multidisciplinary team of international experts, Daszak among them, traveled to Wuhan to investigate the origins of the virus on behalf of the WHO.¹⁵ The study lasted 28 days. The WHO team was given a guided tour of the WIV facilities and they were able to interview some of its scientists. The “introduction [of the virus] through a laboratory incident,” the WHO concluded, “was considered to be an extremely unlikely pathway.”¹⁶ Instead, they argued, “introduction through an intermediate host is considered to be a likely to very likely pathway.”¹⁷ Elsewhere in their report, the WHO team repeated assurances they had received during their time in China:

  The Wuhan CDC [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] lab which moved on 2^nd December 2019 [to a new location near the Huanan market] reported no disruptions or incidents caused by the move. They also reported no storage nor laboratory activities on CoVs or other bat viruses preceding the outbreak.¹⁸

  If, in February of 2021, the WHO’s team of experts were prepared to take the WIV scientists at their word, by August of 2021, some of them confessed to having had reservations all along. In an interview for a Danish television documentary, Peter Ben Embarek, the leader of the WHO team, admitted that Chinese officials had pressured them to drop the laboratory leak hypothesis. “In the beginning, they didn’t want anything about the lab [in the WHO report], because it was impossible, so there was no need to waste time on that,” Ben Embarek remarked. “We insisted on including it,” he continued, “because it was part of the whole issue about where the virus originated.”¹⁹ Ben Embarek added that there were scenarios under which the laboratory leak hypothesis could be consistent with the assumption that COVID-19 had an animal origin:

  A lab employee infected in the field while collecting samples in a bat cave—such a scenario belongs both [emphasis added] as a lab-leak hypothesis and as our first hypothesis of direct infection from bat to human. We’ve seen that hypothesis as a likely hypothesis.²⁰

  When questioned about the interview by the Washington Post, Ben Embarek initially claimed his remarks had been mistranslated before declining to comment further.²¹ But Ben Embarek was not the only one expressing reservations. A month earlier, the WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, conceded during a press conference that there had been a “premature push” to rule out the laboratory leak hypothesis—comments that contradicted the conclusions of the WHO’s own report, released just a few months beforehand.²² He called on China to allow a full audit of the Wuhan laboratories.²³ “I was a lab technician myself, I’m an immunologist, and I have worked in the lab, and lab accidents happen,” Tedros remarked. “It’s common.”²⁴

  As it turned out, Tedros had every reason to express caution. To date, nearly 82,000 animal samples have been tested in China for SARS-CoV-2. No intermediate animal host has been identified in Wuhan or anywhere else in the country.²⁵

  When Mandarins Command

  Anthony Fauci has been the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984. Over the last few decades, he has expressed his support for gain-of-function research on numerous occasions. In a 2011 op-ed for the Washington Post co-authored with Francis Collins, the director of the NIH between 1993 and 2019, they made the case for viruses “engineered in isolated biocontainment laboratories” as a means to identify “genetic pathways by which such a virus could better adapt to transmission among people.”²⁶ The benefits were not elaborated in detail, the authors simply noting that, “important information and insights can come from generating a potentially dangerous virus in the laboratory.” The op-ed concludes with a brief consideration of the risks involved.

  The following year Fauci published a paper entitled “Research on Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Influenza Virus: The Way Forward,” again making the case for gain-of-function research.²⁷ In his commentary, Fauci acknowledges the question of whether “knowledge obtained from these experiments could inadvertently affect public health in an adverse way, even in nations multiple time zones away.”²⁸ He then invites the reader to consider a hypothetical scenario concerning “an important gain-of-function experiment involving a virus with serious pandemic potential … performed in a well-regulated, world-class laboratory by experienced investigators.” The information gleaned from the study is then “used by another scientist who does not have the same training and facilities and is not subject to the same regulations.”

  In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic? Many ask reasonable questions: given the possibility of such a scenario—however remote—should the initial experiments have been performed and/or published in the first place, and what were the processes involved in this decision?

  Fauci’s answer is unequivocal:

  Scientists working in this field might say—as indeed I have said—that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks [emphasis added]. It is more likely that a pandemic would occur in nature, and the need to stay ahead of such a threat is a primary reason for performing an experiment that might appear to be risky.

  In his conclusion, Fauci acknowledges “genuine and legitimate concerns about this type of research,” but his message remains clear: the research is worthwhile and important.

  Of course, no amount of gain-of-function research has helped the world to “stay ahead” of the COVID-19 pandemic, nor can any advocate of virological gain-of-function research explain exactly how one can stay ahead of nature.

  At the end of 2012, Fauci spoke at a workshop on gain-of-function research on HPAI H5N1 viruses hosted by the NIH. “There’s disagreements to the scientific and/or public health value of these experiments,” he remarked in a section of his presentation that discussed funding guidelines, “but I believe people who feel they shouldn’t be conducted are in the minority.”²⁹

  During Fauci’s tenure at NIAID, the NIH funded numerous studies involving coronaviruses and gain-of-function research. In 2015, the NIH supported a study led by Ralph Baric, a virologist from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the WIV’s Shi. Published in Nature Medicine, their paper described the creation of a chimera, the result of a spike protein gene from a bat coronavirus being pasted into a mouse-adapted SARS virus.³⁰

  The completion of this study was only possible after Baric received an exemption for his research from NIH officials.³¹ In October 2014, the White House Office of Science and Technology instituted a pause in new funding for gain-of-function research after a series of “biosafety incidents at Federal research facilities.”³² They also recommended “those currently conducting this type of work, whether federally funded or not, to voluntarily pause their research while risks and benefits are being reassessed.” Baric wrote to the NIH’s biosecurity board to plead his case and an exemption was granted.³³

  Three years later, following the election of Donald Trump, Fauci played a key role in the NIH’s decision to resume gain-of-function research.³⁴ The NIH funded a new study that expanded on the WIV’s 2015 work with Baric, creating eight novel chimeric coronaviruses.³⁵ When the 2019 SARS-CoV-2 outbreak occurred, work at the WIV was underway on further research, under yet another round of funding.³⁶

  In his May 2021 US Senate hearing, Fauci claimed that the NIH-funded research at the WIV did not constitute gain-of-function research.³⁷ He was emphatic in his denial because his memory was defective in its scope. In a February 2020 email that Fauci sent to his subordinates, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), an attached PDF of the Baric and Shi paper was labeled “SARS Gain of Function.”³⁸

  A Perfect Call

  Fauci had at his command virologists willing to offer him their advice. Kristian Andersen was among them. Having consulted with his colleagues, Andersen sent Fauci an email on February 1, 2020—also obtained under the FOIA—in which he claimed that the SARS-CoV-2 genome looked engineered, and, what is more, that its genome was “inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.”³⁹ Within hours, Fauci held a teleconference with Andersen, Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, Collins, and several other virologists.⁴⁰

  A June 2021 article by USA Today reported that, “details of what was said in the meeting, including extensive notes taken by one participant and further thoughts shared by others, were blacked out by the NIH before the emails were made public.”⁴¹ Interviewed for the same article, Fauci recalled:

  “It was a very productive back-and-forth conversation where some on the call felt it could possibly be an engineered virus” … Others, [Fauci] said, felt the evidence was “heavily weighted” toward the virus emerging from an animal host.⁴²

  Although the details of the conversation remain opaque, when the preprint of Andersen’s “Proximal Origin” paper appeared several weeks later, what had before looked engineered now looked natural.⁴³

  When the Fauci emails were published in June 2021,⁴⁴ the shifts in Andersen’s views were greeted with consternation. It had been the WIV’s release of the genome for a viral strain called RaTG13, Andersen later explained, that had changed his mind.⁴⁵ Curiously enough, Andersen had tweeted about RaTG13 a week before writing his initial email to Fauci.⁴⁶ Rather than attempting to resolve all these inconsistencies when they were pointed out to him, Andersen instead chose to first delete the offending tweets, and then to delete his Twitter account altogether.⁴⁷ 

  According to Andersen’s senior colleague, Farrar, other coauthors of the “Proximal Origin” paper were initially even more convinced the virus originated in a laboratory. Farrar later described the events surrounding the meeting with Fauci, Collins, Andersen, et al., in his book Spike: The Virus vs. The People.⁴⁸ That account was the subject of a mid-2021 article by Unherd:

  Before the call on 1 February, Farrar says Andersen was “60 to 70%” convinced the virus came from a lab, while Australian virologist Eddie Holmes was “80% sure this thing had come out of a lab.” Patrick Vallance, Britain’s chief scientific officer who joined the call, tipped off intelligence agencies about their concerns. But others on the hour-long call argued the new virus “was more convincingly explained, scientifically, as a natural spillover than a laboratory event.” Afterwards, the participants swapped notes but Farrar remained torn on the origins. “On a spectrum if 0 is nature and 100 is release I am honestly at 50,” he emailed Fauci. “My guess is this will remain grey unless there is access to the Wuhan lab—and I suspect that is unlikely.”⁴⁹

  The emails obtained under the FOIA revealed that, three days after the call with Fauci, Andersen and Baric assisted Daszak in drafting the letter that subsequently appeared in The Lancet denouncing what, in an email, Andersen would call the “crackpot” and “fringe” hypotheses that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered.⁵⁰

  The following day, Farrar emailed Fauci and Collins again.⁵¹ In his message, Farrar reported having convinced the WHO to form a group that would look at the origins of SARS-CoV-2. He also informed Fauci and Collins that the WHO had asked for “names to sit on that Group” and requested that the pair “please do send any names.” Farrar proposed a subsequent meeting to “frame the work of the group” and suggested there would be “pressure on this group from your and our teams next week.”

  The emails also reveal that having helped draft the Lancet letter, Baric and Daszak—initially at least—opted not to sign it.⁵² Baric expressed concern that if he were to sign the letter it might look “self-serving, and we lose impact.” Daszak, on the other hand, sought to downplay his own involvement, along with that of Baric and another virologist, Linfa Wang. “You, me, and him should not sign this statement,” Daszak suggested to Baric and Wang, “so that it has some distance from us and therefore doesn’t work in a counterproductive way.”

  “We’ll then put it out in a way that doesn’t link it back to our collaboration so we maximize an independent voice.”

  Hot Spot

  Whatever the origins of SARS-CoV-2, it was first observed in Wuhan, the initial outbreak occurring between October and December of 2019. The hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 originated elsewhere and traveled undetected until it reached Wuhan is implausible. Earlier transmission would have led to earlier outbreaks in other locations, or would have produced viral lineages at earlier spots on the SARS-CoV-2’s phylogenetic tree. The virus phylogeny is strongly rooted in Wuhan.⁵³

  While there is little doubt that SARS-CoV-2 originated in Wuhan, questions remain about where in Wuhan it originated. After the 2002 SARS outbreak in Guangdong, the first SARS patients had almost immediately been traced to restaurant workers handling exotic animals: palm civets sold at a local market were, within weeks, identified as an intermediate host.⁵⁴

  In November of 2021, the virologist Michael Worobey, writing in Science, argued that the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak originated in the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan.⁵⁵ In an interview with University of Arizona News, Worobey remarked that the evidence was like a “flashing red arrow pointing to the Huanan market as by far the most likely site of origin, with a failure to put a stop to sales of illegal wildlife in markets like Huanan as the reason.”⁵⁶

  Worobey’s article, it should be noted, provided no new evidence for zoonosis and his conclusion was based solely on a reanalysis of Wuhan patient data from December 2019. The data were subsequently shown to be erroneous.⁵⁷ The “strong evidence” for zoonosis cited by Worobey in his article for Science amounted to nothing more than conjecture: “[T]hat most early symptomatic cases were linked to Huanan Market—specifically to the western section (1) where raccoon dogs were caged (2)—provides strong evidence of a live-animal market origin of the pandemic.”⁵⁸ Not a single racoon dog has yet been found carrying a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2, nor has any other animal been infected by such a progenitor. Around 82,000 animal samples have now been analyzed in China, including 1,700 recent wildlife trade samples sold in wet markets.⁵⁹ All were negative for any SARS-like virus.

  Whether the outbreak originated in a female seafood vendor at the Huanan Market remains unclear. But the market itself clearly served as an epidemiological hot spot, harboring what Worobey described as a “genuine preponderance of early COVID-19 cases.”⁶⁰ While some early human cases were, indeed, linked to the Huanan Market, many cases predated the market outbreak.⁶¹ Moreover, the SARS-CoV-2 strains circulating in the market were not ancestral, all of them carrying three novel mutations not seen in earlier patients.⁶² Nor is Wuhan home to the horseshoe bats known to carry SARS-like viruses. Indeed, the likelihood of a bat virus outbreak in Wuhan was deemed so small that in 2018 the city was used as a negative control for a study by the WIV that assessed the risk of zoonotic jumps of SARS-like viruses in Yunnan from bats to people who lived within one to six kilometers of such bats.⁶³ The study found that six of 218 farmers carried antibodies to the bat SARS-like virus called Rp3, in contrast to none of the 240 residents of Wuhan. Both Daszak and Shi are listed among the sixteen coauthors for the study.

  After the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak broke out, Daszak cited this study in a tweet to estimate the general incidence of coronavirus zoonotic spillovers.

  These jumps occur every day. We conducted sero-surveys in SE Asia & found 3% of rural people have antibodies to bat CoVs. That means 1-7 million people per year exposed to bat origin SARS-related CoVs. It’s utterly illogical to think that this did not lead to the current outbreak.⁶⁴

  If 218 residents of rural Yunnan living in proximity to bat caves showed a 3% rate of seropositivity, then by extrapolation, he argued, one to seven million people in rural Southeast Asia should be exposed to some SARS-related coronavirus every year. It was certainly a curious argument for someone in Daszak’s position to make.

  By contrast, Shi acknowledged that Wuhan is an unlikely place for a SARS-like virus to emerge. She addressed the topic in a 2020 interview with Scientific American:

  “I had never expected this kind of thing to happen in Wuhan, in central China,” [Shi] remarked. Her studies had shown that the southern, subtropical provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan have the greatest risk of coronaviruses jumping to humans from animals—particularly bats, a known reservoir. If coronaviruses were the culprit, she remembers thinking, “Could they have come from our lab?”⁶⁵

  The Wuhan Laboratory

  In 2019, EcoHealth was scheduled to receive another round of funding from the NIH for project 2R01AI110964-06, “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”⁶⁶ This grant, the umbrella project that had funded EcoHealth’s collaboration with the WIV since 2014, had been initiated with three broad aims. The first was to “[c]haracterize the diversity and distribution of high spillover-risk SARSr-CoVs in bats in southern China,” while the second involved “[c]ommunity, and clinic-based syndromic, surveillance to capture SARSr-CoV spillover, routes of exposure and potential public health consequences.” The third aim was much more explicit about what the researchers had in mind:

  In vitro and in vivo characterization of SARSr-CoV spillover risk, coupled with spatial and phylogenetic analyses to identify the regions and viruses of public health concern. We will use S protein sequence data, infectious clone technology, in vitro and in vivo infection experiments and analysis of receptor binding to test the hypothesis that % divergence thresholds in S protein sequences predict spillover potential.⁶⁷

  Prior to the cancellation of the NIH grant in April 2020,⁶⁸ EcoHealth received US$3.1M in funding for the project.⁶⁹ Of that amount, US$600,000 was passed on to the WIV.⁷⁰

  In a December 2018 paper for Nature Reviews Microbiology, researchers from the WIV outlined their vision for the next stages of the project:

  [F]uture work should be focused on the biological properties of [SARS-like and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome)-like] viruses using virus isolation, reverse genetics and in vitro and in vivo infection assays. The resulting data would help the prevention and control of emerging SARS-like or MERS-like diseases in the future.⁷¹

  The ultimate goal of such work may have been to create a pan-coronavirus vaccine. Research focused on SARS-like and MERS-like viruses was a stated goal not just for WIV, but for EcoHealth as well. Daszak said as much publicly in a November 2019 interview:

  You can manipulate [coronaviruses] in the lab pretty easily, it is the spike protein drives a lot of what happens with the coronavirus zoonotic risk. You can get the sequence, you can build the protein. We worked with Ralph Baric at UNC who did this, insert into a backbone of another virus and do some work in the lab. So, you can get more predictive when you find a sequence. … The logical progression for vaccines — if you are going to develop a vaccine for SARS, people are going to use pandemic SARS, but let’s try to insert some of these [other spike genes] and get a better vaccine.⁷²

  In addition to sub-grants from EcoHealth, research at the WIV was supported by Chinese funding. Ben Hu, a researcher at the WIV, was awarded a three-year grant from the Youth Science Fund for a project to investigate “Pathogenicity of Two New Bat SARS-Related Coronaviruses to Transgenic Mice Expressing Human ACE2 Receptor.”⁷³ Hu has been a member of Shi’s group at the WIV since 2015.⁷⁴

  The WIV undertook its work for the best of reasons. Prior to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, it was widely held among researchers that a future epidemic, or Disease X as the WHO termed it, might be caused by a coronavirus.⁷⁵ In June 2020, Shi and her colleague Shibo Jiang published a paper entitled “The First Disease X Is Caused by a Highly Transmissible Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus.”⁷⁶ “Disease X,” Shi and Jiang observed, “would be a new disease with an epidemic or pandemic potential caused by an unknown pathogen.” Unknown? Not quite. “[T]he first Disease X,” they wrote, “could be a transmissible infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus originated from bats.”

  The Tell-Tale Genome

  SARS-CoV-2 contains a number of curious genomic features—its novel furin cleavage site most obviously. No other known SARS-related coronavirus has a furin cleavage site. To enter human cells, SARS-CoV-2 uses a spike protein that attaches to human ACE2 receptors. The protein must then be cut by an enzyme in order to fuse with the cell membrane and penetrate the cell. The spike protein consists of two parts, S1 and S2. S1 is responsible for primary contact with the receptor, and S2, for fusion and penetration. For S2 to initiate fusion, the S1/S2 junction must be cut by a host enzyme like furin or TMPRSS2. This junction is where the novel furin cleavage site is found in SARS-CoV-2. Furin is a very efficient enzyme, found both on the surface and in the interior of many human cells, most notably in the airway epithelium. It is furin’s presence in the interior of the cell that allows newly formed virions to emerge in a pre-cut conformation, enhancing their infectivity.

  The furin cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 was created by a peculiar 12-nucleotide insertion—so peculiar, in fact, that the genomic locus in SARS-CoV-2 enveloping its furin cleavage site is, at least, twelve nucleotides longer than any of its relatives.⁷⁷ Virologists have created novel furin cleavage sites in coronaviruses repeatedly.⁷⁸ It is obvious why.⁷⁹ Furin cleavage sites greatly expand both the tissue and species tropism of a virus.⁸⁰ And furin cleavage sites enhance the adaptation of a viral strain to certain cell lines.

  The WIV failed to mention the novel furin insertion in its first two papers on SARS-CoV-2,⁸¹ even though the WIV had in its possession the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 at that time—the strain RaTG13.⁸² Genomic comparison made the furin cleavage site obvious. In their diagram comparing the two genomes, the WIV cut off the comparison just before the novel insertion. In the paper that first mentioned RaTG13, the WIV researchers did not explain where RaTG13 came from or how they came to possess it.

  The novel insertion is comprised of the nucleotides T CCT CGG CGG GC; the corresponding amino acids are proline (CCT) arginine (CGG) arginine (CGG) alanine (GCA)—or PRRA in one-letter amino acid notation. The nucleotide insertion is odd because it is not completely in frame, the insertion splitting the ancestral serine codon TCA while preserving the downstream frame.⁸³ Odd as well are the two repeating CGG arginine codons. CGG is the rarest of the six codons to code for arginine in bat coronaviruses, and the SARS-CoV-2 insertion is the only example in which two CGG codons are consecutive. In fact, the CGG-CGG doublet is the only one coding for two arginines in all 255 SARS-like viruses with protein annotations listed in the NIH Genetic Sequence Database (GenBank).⁸⁴

  In contrast to bat coronaviruses, CGG is the most frequent arginine codon in humans.

  To continue reading, click here.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 22:00

• Meta Threatens To Shutter Facebook, Instagram Across EU If Data Privacy Rules Aren't Changed
  Meta Threatens To Shutter Facebook, Instagram Across EU If Data Privacy Rules Aren’t Changed

  The newly renamed Meta Platforms (the company formerly known as Facebook) is once again threatening to shut down two of its most popular social media services in the European Union (a move that would be devastating for the company’s bottom line while also instigating a backlash from EU consumers) if EU regulators don’t strike a more suitable agreement on a new data privacy arrangement with regulators in Washington.

  

  Meta said that if it couldn’t rely on new or existing agreements to shift some data back to the US using “standard contractual clauses,” then it would “likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe,” according to Bloomberg. The warning came in Meta’s annual report.

  This isn’t the first time the company has threatened to cut off its services in Europe: Meta raised the prospect of pulling the plug in last year’s annual report, too. It also threatened to block news articles from being shared on its platform in Australia after a court ruling there required social media firms to pay news organizations for use of their content.

  “We have absolutely no desire and no plans to withdraw from Europe, but the simple reality is that Meta, and many other businesses, organizations and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate global services,” a Meta spokesman said in an emailed statement.

  But Meta’s  continuedthreats highlight “the increasing tension between the social media company and lawmakers over the ownership of user data” collected on Facebook’s platforms.

  Ultimately, the issue must be worked out between the European Commission and Washington. The two sides are currently enmeshed in negotiations with Washington over its data transfer policy. These discussions “take time given the complexity of the issues discussed and the need to strike a balance between privacy and national security.”

  A spokesman for the commission told BBG on Monday that “only an arrangement that is fully compliant with the requirements set by the EU court can deliver the stability and legal certainty stakeholders expect on both sides of the Atlantic.”

  All of this stems from a 2020 legal battle between Facebook and Ireland, during which the court ruled that Facebook couldn’t use “standard contractual clauses” as a basis for transferring user data back to servers in the US. Facebook tried to appeal that decision, but the Irish court rejected the appeal.

  The spokesman continued…

  “Only an arrangement that is fully compliant with the requirements set by the EU court can deliver the stability and legal certainty stakeholders expect on both sides of the Atlantic,” the spokesperson added.

  But what’s the point of all these European data laws? Four years after the passage of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, many critics are warning that the new regulations have almost no impact on consumer choice – and instead of mostly just become an annoyance for tech companies and users alike.

  About a week ago, the NYT‘s Joe Nocera wrote in the paper’s daily “Dealbook” email newsletter that Europe’s GDPR regulations haven’t worked like their architects had hoped. Turns out, nobody reads the “cookie” warnings that sites are required to push to readers – so this whole notion about making an “informed” choice just went completely out the window. It has created a whole new concept called “consent optimization.”

  Four years ago, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation went into effect. It requires any website that is accessible in Europe, which means most websites, to post a notice of its privacy policy and to give people an opportunity to accept or reject cookies, the files that allow their data to be collected. When it passed, many digital privacy activists thought that digital privacy was on its way to being solved.

  That’s not how things turned out. The last time a pop-up window appeared on a website and asked whether you would allow cookies to gobble up your personal data, did you actually read the fine print or think for more than five seconds before you pressed “accept”? Me neither. “No one reads cookie banners,” said Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy advocate who played a key role in pushing for the regulation.

  “They’ve become almost a useless exercise.” Actually, it is worse. In practice, the proliferation of cookie banners has both numbed people to their purpose and given companies yet another way to manipulate users. Companies have turned cookie banners into a tool that does the opposite of what regulators intended.

  You’ve heard of “search engine optimization”? There are now firms, called consent management platforms, that are promising “consent rate optimization”— meaning they create cookie banners that will move people to hit the “accept” button.

  One simple example: According to one study, removing the “opt out” button on the front page of the cookie banner increases consent by 22 or 23 percentage points. Some of these companies say they can achieve a consent rate of 90 percent.

  Given the decision by the Irish courts, and the European Commission’s unflagging support for its GDPR, it doesn’t look like the negotiations between the EU and Washington will be resolved in CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s favor. That’s unfortunate since, as the NYT explained above, Europe’s data privacy rules haven’t made much of a difference to consumers.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 21:40

• Watch: Rand Paul Warns COVID Mandates Have "Always Been About Growing Government Power Over Your Lives"
  Watch: Rand Paul Warns COVID Mandates Have “Always Been About Growing Government Power Over Your Lives”

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  Senator Rand Paul warned Friday that the COVID mandates and restrictions have always been more about getting people to act submissively to government than they have been about health and safety.

  

  Appearing on Hannity, Paul stated “the dirty little secret is it’s always been more about submission.”

  “It’s always been more about collectivism. It’s been about growing government power over your lives,” Paul adding, further noting “the science has been clear for a long time on masks for children.”

  Paul continued, “Sweden didn’t have their school kids wear masks at all. Not one child died. The incidence of the disease and the teachers did not rise, with the kids not wearing masks. I mean, it’s sort of, you know, I worry about the future of America if the Europeans are leading us toward freedom.”

  Paul also referred to the Canadian trucker convoy standing against mandates, urging that “the Canadians are ahead of us in trying to unwind mandates.”

  Referring to Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel’s recent false assertion that unvaccinated children are at risk of contracting “a serious condition,” Paul continued, “We’ve got to stop the ridiculous mandates on children that Dr. Emanuel, that you put forward saying that kids are dying from omicron. The statistics are this and the science is this. The wild variant was a thousand times less deadly for kids than 80-year-olds, and it’s become progressively less dangerous to the delta, to the omicron.”

  Paul continued, “As far as whether you vaccinate your kids, that’s up to you. But there should be no mandate.”

  “And I think particularly for young males, the evidence is pretty strong now that the more vaccines you give young males, the higher their incidence of myocarditis,” Paul, who is also a doctor asserted.

  “If you were asking me about your children, I would get them checked first to see if they’ve already had COVID. If a child has already had COVID, I don’t think they need any treatment,” Paul added.

  Watch:

  https://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=6295580207001&w=466&h=263Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

  *  *  *

  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 21:20

• Amazon Doubles Maximum Base Salary For Employees Worldwide
  Amazon Doubles Maximum Base Salary For Employees Worldwide

  Following Amazon’s blockbuster earnings last week and recent news of employee angst over crappy pay, an internal memo from the e-commerce giant leaked to Bussiness Insider states the maximum base salary cap has been doubled. 

  

  According to an internal memo, Amazon will increase its maximum base salary to $350k, more than doubling the previous $160,000 salary cap for most employees. The memo states new base pay ranges will be set for most jobs within the company and will apply worldwide. 

   “The increases are much more considerable than we’ve done in the past.

  “This past year has seen a particularly competitive labor market, and in doing a thorough analysis of various options, weighing the economics of our business and the need to remain competitive for attracting and retaining top talent, we decided to make meaningfully bigger increases to our compensation levels than we do in a typical year,” the memo states.

  Insider reports the memo comes as Amazon employees have complained about low pay and the lack of compensation packages compared to competitors. The changes in maximum base salary are expected to be reflected in the company’s internal system beginning on Wednesday.

  Since this news just hit, we suspect Amazon’s recruiting office will be flooded with phone calls and emails today of millennial white-collar workers begging for a job.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 21:00

• Shipping Rates Could "Blow Through The Roof" In 2022 If This Happens
  Shipping Rates Could “Blow Through The Roof” In 2022 If This Happens

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  This is part 2 of an exclusive Fringe Finance interview with shipping analyst (and friend of mine) J Mintzmyer, where we discuss the state of the supply chain in the country, the developments with Canadian truckers, logistics, the effects of Covid and what shipping names he likes for 2022. Part 1 of this interview is here.

  

  J is a renowned maritime shipping analyst and investor who directs the Value Investor’s Edge (“VIE”) research platform on Seeking Alpha.  You can follow him on Twitter @mintzmyer. J is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, is regularly quoted in trade journals, and hosts a popular podcast featuring shipping industry executives.

  J has earned a BS in Economics from the Air Force Academy, an MA in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, and is a PhD Candidate at Harvard University, where he researches global trade flows and security policy.

  Q: J, What do you make of Covid’s effect on the shipping sector? Is there any chance that a loosening of restrictions will happen this year, in your opinion? If so, what affect will that have?

  COVID-19, or more precisely the global policy response to COVID-19, is a key factor in the entire supply chain mess. Things were already tight in late-2019 and US ports, particularly on the West Coast, have been underinvested for a decade, but the enormous lockdown disruption is what ‘broke’ the machine.

  

  Probably not the best metaphor, but I sometimes compare this to a snake accustomed to eating a steady diet of hamsters every day and keeping the jungle free of rodents.

  Then the hamsters disappear for a few weeks and the snake gets super hungry, eventually finds a warthog and panic eats. While the warthog is stuck digesting in the snake, hundreds of hamsters are piling up, running amok, and the jungle is infested. That’s crude, but that’s essentially what happened with ports operating at near full capacity by 2019 while the world was addicted to gimmicks like Just-in-Time inventory management. …the unwind is taking awhile.

  Easing restrictions obviously will help, but the system is all sorts of broken right now. Even with no government meddling and friction, this will take several months to unwind, even in the most optimistic scenarios.

  Do you see the U.S. economy heading toward recession. Why or why not?

  That’s a bit out of my scope as a maritime shipping investor. Frankly, the Chinese economy is a bigger focus and risk area for many of our investments. Generally speaking, my concern would be if a mixture of higher rates and equity market collapse drove a rapid slowdown in hiring and other economic activity. The corrections we saw in January were very encouraging and it looks like a decent chunk of the speculative bubble has started to deflate.

  Do you ever use market cap to GDP to measure how expensive stocks are? Why are why not? If not, what’s your favorite metric to use.

  Also a pretty broad question for me, but I’ll try my best, just please remember I’m outside of my lane here! I think the market cap-GDP ratio is likely skewed based on how many companies are public versus private. Although not a perfect index, I do like the Schiller CAPE (cyclically-adjusted price to earnings) caveated by interest rate levels.

  

  A mistake a lot of bears have made for the past 3-4 years was to ignore that we are in a ZIRP environment (zero interest rate policy), which means historical CAPE comparisons are flawed. With rates now set to slowly start rising in 2022, the CAPE starts to become more relevant and that’s likely why high-flier speculative things like the ARKK ETF have been unwinding hard.

  If you look past the broad market indices (SPY, QQQ, Dow 30), we are arguably in the midst of a raging bear market in small caps. Price discovery is starting to come back, and fundamental valuations should hopefully play a much larger role going forward.

  Any progress on ports being upgraded or rail lines being improved, as you suggested may happen back in 2021?

  The infrastructure bill had some hefty port allocations, but these are massive projects which will take years to roll out. Call me in 2023-2024 to chat about those!

  The far bigger supply chain concern this year is the pending renewal of the ILWU (west coast labor union) contract, which expires at the end of June. This was a hard-fought 3 year extension agreed back in mid-2019 when the industry was in a far weaker position. This time around, the workers have enormous bargaining power and they are likely to fight for better provisions. If this leads to a strike or shutdown of any sort, then congestion could surge, freight rates could blow through the roof, and all my more conservative projections are likely to be exceeded.

  In this sort of outcome, stocks like ZIM could go to $200+. Will this happen? It is hard to tell. Labor negotiations are never easy, but the industry might also be more willing to cut a sweetheart deal or offer a lucrative extension until things are more normalized. We’ll see… I am watching closely!

  Do you ever invest in rail? If so, what are some of your favorite names and why? If not, why not? How does rail differ from shipping to a novice investor?

  No. Valuations just are not attractive in rail right now versus the maritime angles. Rail is a better business in general due to fixed capacity and extreme difficulty for new entrants to compete (i.e. a strong moat), but I don’t believe it’s worth paying 5-10x the valuations versus strong maritime shipping firms.

  Maritime shipping is more of a commodity like energy stocks or mining stocks. Rail is much more comparable to utility or telecom stocks.

  Tell us about what’s new with your service.

  Thanks for asking! We have rolled our updated Model Portfolios for 2022, which recently included an update for February 2022. Thus far YTD (as of 2 February), our models have returned an average of 12.3% while the Russell 2000 is down over 10%, so I am very proud of that performance. As a reminder, in 2021, our models returned an average of 136.2%, which was the best year on record. We cater primarily to larger investors and traders and also work with a few dozen family offices and hedge funds. If you are interested in checking out our research platform, please head to www.mintzmyer.com. If you are a smaller trader or investor, then you can follow me on Twitter @mintzmyer.

  Part 1 of this interview is here.

  —

  If you have the means and would like to support my work by subscribing, I’d be happy to offer you 22% off for 2022: Get 22% off forever

  

  DISCLAIMER: 

  I have not personally vetted J’s returns — it is up to readers considering his service to do so. I own ZIM as does J, as disclosed. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. It is only a look into our personal opinions and portfolios. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe.

  MORE DISCLAIMER:  

  These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I get shit wrong a lot. If I am here listing things I got right or things I think will happen in the future, note that there are likely twice as many things I got wrong over the same period of time. I’m not a financial advisor, I hold no licenses or registrations and am not qualified to give advice on anything, let alone finance or medicine. Talk to your doctor, talk to your financial advisor or your therapist. Leave me a alone and do your research elsewhere. If you can find somewhere to rate this Substack one star, please do so as to save future readers from the misery of my often wholly incorrect prognostications.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 20:40

• Goldman Finds Most Financial Tightening On Record Already Priced Into Markets
  Goldman Finds Most Financial Tightening On Record Already Priced Into Markets

  Last week’s strong NFP print coupled with the BoE and ECB joining the Fed’s hawkish pivot has sparked a panic-scramble across the bond market to price in the unthinkable.

  Short-term interest rates are pricing in 5 rate-hikes this year (and a 25% chance of a 6th) as well as a 30% chance that The Fed surprises in March with a 50bps hike…

  

  The Bank of England is expected to hike 5 more times by November 2022 and European rates see a 75% chance of 5 rate-hikes by The ECB this year.

  These are dramatic pivots from just a few months ago, and every asset-class is coming to terms with the realization central banks are serious this time (for now).

  In fact, as Goldman Sachs’Cecilia Mariotti notes her latest strategy research note, our RAI PC2 “Monetary policy” is signaling the most hawkish pricing across assets on record (outside the COVID-19 shock)…

  

  However, Mariotti points out that while equities have been more under pressure, it is mostly longer duration, growth pockets of the market that have suffered – value has outperformed and cyclicals are flat vs. defensives.

  

  The current level of extreme monetary tightness expected by the market is the same as was priced-in in 2014 and 2018 – during which both times The Fed flip-flopped and reversed its hawkish stance (in the interest of ‘financial stability’)…

  

  The difference is… they had room then because ‘global growth’ was still positive (and obviously inflation under control).

  However, this time growth is already negative and declining…

  

  As Goldman concludes:

  We believe markets have entered a regime in which monetary policy will no longer support equity (and risky assets more broadly), and while a large part of the hawkish shift has likely been priced by equities, any rally from here will have to be supported by improving growth expectations…

  …and there is little on the horizon to make that seem likely as Washington is mired in gridlock into the midterms.

  In fact, as BofA recently noted, their global EPS model predicts deceleration from 40% last summer to 0-10% by summer (with a 40% probability that global EPS growth negative in H2)…

  

  Which doesn’t give stocks any room for complacency that any bounce is other than for selling.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 20:20

• IRS Abandons Plans To Require Third-Party Facial Recognition
  IRS Abandons Plans To Require Third-Party Facial Recognition

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

  The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will not use a third-party company to verify new accounts with facial recognition, the agency announced on Monday in a news release.

  

  The proposed move, which would have used the company ID.me, was criticized resoundingly by privacy advocates and some members of Congress, who say the technology is flawed and would not recognize users if they experienced significant physical changes. Previously, the IRS said it would use the software to cut down on fraudulent accounts.

  The IRS “will transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts,” according to its news release. “The transition will occur over the coming weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season.”

  At the same time, the agency continued, it will “bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition.” It’s not exactly clear how that will be accomplished ahead of the tax-filing deadline in mid-April.

  “The IRS takes taxpayer privacy and security seriously, and we understand the concerns that have been raised,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a statement.

  “Everyone should feel comfortable with how their personal information is secured, and we are quickly pursuing short-term options that do not involve facial recognition.”

  The IRS’s change will “not interfere” with taxpayers’ capability to file their tax returns or pay the taxes owed, the agency confirmed.

  “During this period, the IRS will continue to accept tax filings, and it has no other impact on the current tax season. People should continue to file their taxes as they normally would,” said the IRS.

  Some members of Congress hailed the move on Monday.

  “This is big,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote on Twitter in response to the IRS’s policy change.

  “While this transition may take time, the administration recognizes that privacy and security are not mutually exclusive.”

  Under the now-abandoned policy, in order to apply for the ID.me service, users would have to submit copies of bills and another form of ID, including a license, state ID, or a passport. They would also have to take a photo of themselves, or they would have to send it a recorded video of themselves if there were not enough materials available. The IRS, at the time in January, noted that people won’t have to submit to facial recognition software to file their taxes.

  Security researcher Brian Krebs, who operates the blog Krebs on Security, wrote in a January post that ID.me users can delete their biometric data at any time.

  “When I asked the support technician who conducted the video interview to remove my biometric data, he sent me a link to a process for deleting one’s ID.me account. So, it seems that removing one’s data from ID.me post-verification equals deleting one’s account, and potentially having to re-register at some point in the future,” he wrote.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 20:00

• Delta CEO Asks DOJ To Enforce A National "No Fly" List For Unruly Passengers
  Delta CEO Asks DOJ To Enforce A National “No Fly” List For Unruly Passengers

  It looks like the “friendly skies” are a thing of the past. Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, air travel has become an increasingly cantankerous undertaking, with flights routinely breaking out into fisticuffs over mask policies, social distancing rules and other guidelines that were introduced as part of 15 days to slow the spread…almost 2 and a half years ago.

  Now, Delta Airlines has seen enough. They are asking that unruly travelers should be placed onto a national “no-fly” list, according to CNBC. 

  CEO Ed Bastian has officially asked the U.S. Department of Justice for the help in an effort to deter aggressive behavior on flights, the report says. 

  Bastian wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland that the list “will help prevent future incidents and serve as a strong symbol of the consequences of not complying with crew member instructions on commercial aircraft.”

  

  Of the 5,981 cases of unruly passenger behavior that were logged in 2021, 72% of them were related to disputes over mask compliance. 350 enforcement actions followed. 

  This year, 323 reports of such passengers have found their way to the FAA. 

  The idea of a central “no fly” list for unruly passengers was put forth by Delta last September. Garland then told prosecutors to prioritize cases involving disruptive and violent behavior on flights. 

  So far, 1,900 people have been barred from flying Delta due to not adhering to mask mandates. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 19:40

• Credit Canary Upends Hope Of Benign Bond Selloff
  Credit Canary Upends Hope Of Benign Bond Selloff

  Last night we warned that “Credit Market Cracks Could Spark Doom-Loop With Stocks“, and today, Bloomberg’s Cormac Mullen picks up a different angle in the ominous thread of cracking credit, writing that with the credit market showing increasing signs of stress, the chances of a disorderly rise in yields are piling further pressure on global risk assets.

  Here are some more details from Mullen’s latest Markets Live note:

  A key measure of U.S. corporate credit risk reached the highest since September 2020 on Friday – and its European equivalent soared – after strong U.S. payrolls data and a hawkish ECB stoked expectations for aggressive rate hikes around the globe.

  Unlike during last year’s Treasuries slump, when high-yield debt continued to push higher, this time junk bonds are selling off alongside their government equivalents — witness the two popular iShares ETFs tracking the asset classes.

  

  This credit weakness removes a key argument from bulls that risk assets can tolerate higher bond yields — corporate debt is often used as a canary in the coal mine to detect broader market stress.

  As always it is the pace of yield rises that poses the biggest threat to investors and last week they realized that the prospect of faster-than-expected central bank rate hikes is not just confined to the U.S.

  Traders accelerated bets on ECB policy tightening to fight record inflation, when President Christine Lagarde declined to rule out a hike this year and the Bank of England came within a whisker of hiking rates by half a percentage point this month.

  This spreading uncertainty over the speed of global rate hikes will have to be priced in to the upcoming slate of corporate bond issuance, coming in the midst of the ongoing earnings season. And if wage inflation continues to beat expectations, investors will have to adjust their expectations for corporate margins on top of accounting for rising borrowing costs in future refinancings.

  Of course the hopeful demise of the omicron wave could brighten the economic picture and an alleviation in the supply-chain crisis could blunt inflation’s rise. But the fact that corporate bonds look to have joined the risk-asset slide is an ominous sign for global markets.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 19:20

• China Locks Down Border City Of 3.6 Million As COVID Flares Amid Winter Games
  China Locks Down Border City Of 3.6 Million As COVID Flares Amid Winter Games

  As Beijing scrambles to wall off its 3,000-mile-long southern border with a new “Great Wall” of fencing, barbed wire and cameras/motion sensor tech – all iin the name of combating COVID – local authorities in one southern province have locked down a city situated along China’s border with Vietnam after discovering an outbreak there.

  

  The latest lockdown in Baise, a city of nearly 4 million people, was ordered by authorities on Monday, Reuters reports. The decision comes as authorities have allowed COVID positive athletes to continue competing in the ongoing Winter Games (which have attracted abysmal viewership in the US).

  Authorities in China’s southwestern city of Baise ordered residents to stay at home from Monday and avoid unnecessary travel as they enforced curbs that are among the toughest in the nation’s tool-box to fight rising local infections of COVID-19.

  The outbreak in Baise, which has a population of about 3.6 million and borders Vietnam, is tiny by global standards, but the curbs, including a ban on non-essential trips in and out, follow a national guideline to quickly contain any flare-ups.

  It’s worth noting that the size of the outbreak in Guangxi was surprisingly large, as typically authorities are only willing to admit to small numbers of locally spread cases. Authorities reported 99 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms between Saturday and noon on Monday, according to Pang Jun, deputy director of the regional health commission, who offered confirmation during a news briefing.

  In that group of 99 cases, only 2 were said to be infected with omicron, according to the Chinese authorities.

  Lockdown restrictions mirrored those of other earlier lockdowns: residents should stay indoors except for trips to buy essentials or test for COVID, and they should opt for delivery rather than in-store purchases whenever possible, state television said, citing a statement from the highest municipal authorities in Baise. Essential workers will be required to show special passes allowing them to travel between their homes and work.

  The CCP authorities had locked down several Chinese cities – most notably Xi’an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi with a population of 13M – to try and prevent a potentially embarrassing outbreak ahead of the Winter Olympics.

  While the total number of omicron cases reported in China isn’t clear, Reuters says cases of the variant have been confirmed in 10 of China’s provinces.

  One local guide to tourists in Guangxi said he was worried that his income would suffer as authorities ordered him to cease taking new groups of travelers during the flare-up.

  “My income is basically zero at this moment,” the guide, surnamed Luo, told Reuters, adding that he had already been affected in previous outbreaks in Guangxi and elsewhere.

  In Baise, a hotel front desk agent who gave only his surname, Li, said, “Because of the outbreak, our hotel’s projected occupancy rate (this year) may not be as high as expected.”

  The southern province of Guangdong and the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin also reported small localized outbreaks on Sunday. In total, Chinese authorities reported 45 locally transmitted cases during the prior 24 hours, up from 13 cases reported during the prior day, according to data from China’s NHC.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 19:00

• Watch: CNN Guest Claims The Network "Saved Democracy"
  Watch: CNN Guest Claims The Network “Saved Democracy”

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  CNN is so far entrenched within its own echo chamber reality that even as the network faces multiple scandals involving sexual abuse and pedophilia, as its CEO was forced to resign, and as well as losing 90% of its viewers, guests and hosts are still claiming the network is the tip of the spear of media credibility.

  

  A most hilarious example of this came over the weekend as CNN’s potato headed host Brian Stelter platformed Media Studies Professor David Zurawik who declared that the network literally “saved democracy” in America.

  “CNN is one of the stations of all the television broadcast networks and cable channels it pushed harder from 2016 to 2020 against Trump and it was part of the fire wall that I think has saved democracy this far under Jeff Zucker,” Zurawik stated.

  That will be the Jeff Zucker who just resigned for allegedly having an affair with a CNN colleague.

  Clearly in total denial, Stelter replied “That is a very important piece of context for the conversations that I’ve been having the last few days about Zucker’s exit. I know a lot of people blame him for enabling Trump, others praise him for holding the line and even taking Trump to court when–here at CNN.”

  Watch:

  CNN peddled ‘Russia stole the 2016 election’ crap for five years straight, and continues to do so. Stelter has campaigned for outright censorship of any and all of CNN’s competitors no matter who they are. The notion that he or the network saved anything is patently ludicrous.

  *  *  *

  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 18:40

• Putin Warns "No Winners" In Nuclear-Armed Conflict, Agrees To Work With Macron On Peace Proposals
  Putin Warns “No Winners” In Nuclear-Armed Conflict, Agrees To Work With Macron On Peace Proposals

  “The next few days will be decisive and will require intensive discussions which we will pursue together,” France’s Emmanuel Macron told reporters after a lengthy Monday summit focused on the Ukraine standoff with Putin in Moscow. Both leaders cited “progress” made in a post meeting press conference. 

  “A number of his ideas, proposals, which are probably still too early to talk about, I think it is quite possible to make the basis of our further joint steps,” he said. Macron described finding terms of convergence with Putin, saying further that Putin “agreed to review concrete de-escalation steps.” Putin said some of Macron’s ideas were a “possible basis” for future steps.

  

  However, Putin pointed out in statements to the press that NATO had “unfortunately rejected” Russia’s three key security demands centered around NATO halting its expansion eastward.

  Russian media described a generally positive and optimistic end to the marathon talks, reporting that:

  Moscow and Paris have agreed to further work on “a number” of Macron’s proposals on Ukraine, the two leaders told reporters, after finishing their marathon Monday talks, which pushed the press conference past midnight Moscow time. Neither of them offered any details on what the proposals might be.

  Further, Putin referenced that an agreeable solution regarding Ukraine can be reached on the basis of the Minsk accords, while…

  Macron said new, “alternative” mechanisms to ensure stability in Europe may need to be constructed, as revising the existing arrangements and agreements would not be practical.

  Indeed specifics were lacking, but Putin underscored the dire nature of the United States’ recently ratcheting rhetoric and accusations. For example, on Monday Pentagon spokesman John Kirby alleged that Russia’s troop build-up threatening Ukraine is now “north of 100,000”. Moscow has consistently rejected that the troops are in the south as part of “plans” for an offensive on Donbass.

  Putin took the opportunity to warn that Europe will be dragged into military conflict if Ukraine joins NATO. He took swipes at NATO’s recent history of overreaching military interventions which ended in disaster for the local populations: “They say Nato is a defensive alliance. Ask the citizens of many countries – Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan,” the Russian leader said.

  “There will be no winners” in a war among nuclear-armed states, Putin said.

  Putin: we understand that conventional power of NATO is more than Russia’s one. But Russia is the top nuclear power. And there will be no winners in the war (in case of Ukraine in NATO, and will attempt to return Crimea with force) https://t.co/BjwGddInT0 #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/T0lnEkVnyX

  — Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) February 7, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  He further reminded Europe and the globe of what actual war between Russia and NATO would mean…

  PUTIN TO FRENCH PRESS: “Do you want war between France and Russia? Do your readers want that?” pic.twitter.com/okCFAHCAv8

  — The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) February 7, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  He tore into Western media for appearing bent on stoking conflict and pushing both sides to engage in confrontation and threatening rhetoric. 

  Earlier, just before flying to Moscow Macron had pointed out in a weekend interview with Le Journal du Dimanche that “The geopolitical objective of Russia today is clearly not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules of cohabitation with NATO and the EU.” While during the Putin meeting, no major breakthroughs were made, given Macron can’t make the kind of serious concessions Putin is looking for on NATO or Europe’s behalf, there’s at least hope this will lead to a cooling of tensions and offer an off-ramp in the face of encroaching military confrontation on the ground.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 18:20

• Bank Of America Forecasts 7 Rate Hikes In 2022 And Then… Pain
  Bank Of America Forecasts 7 Rate Hikes In 2022 And Then… Pain

  Last week, gasps of shock were heard around Wall Street trading desks when Bank of America decided to outdo every other economist with its either idiotic or brilliant forecast for seven 25bp rate hikes this year. All else equal, we would say “idiotic” as 7 rates hikes would almost certainly send the market crashing as real yields explode, long before the 7th hike is implemented, and to our surprise, BofA does not completely disagree.  Yet as the bank correctly notes, the Fed is caught in a trap, and while markets will certainly crack long before the tightening process is completed, the economy is in desperate need to cooling off after Biden’s ridiculous trillions in stimmies have unleashed a historic inflationary tsunami.

  Admitting the forecasts from her own bank’s economists “may sound extreme”…

  

  … BofA chief equity strategist Savita Subramanian – who maintains her 4,600 year-end S&P price target for reasons she explains below – writes that “the pivot from super dovish to more hawkish policy underscores that we are at the point of peak liquidity” as the Fed is now more focused on containing the inflationary conflagration that has been sparked by Biden’s out of control spending. 

  What is remarkable, and summarizing the findings from Matt King’s seminal note from last month, Savita notes that seven hikes doesn’t even get us to a “neutral” rate, “which is why a move to 1.75% on the Fed Funds rate this year is, in our economists’ view, entirely warranted.” She is, of course, right when discussing the economy. The far bigger question is how many hikes can the market sustain without breaking. That is the $64 trillion question.

  But beyond mere balance sheet reduction, Subramanian notes that other factors are more concerning: according to BofA, the key risk to stocks from a Fed hiking cycle remains that the Fed is embarking on a hiking cycle into an overvalued market, in fact as Michael Hartnett showed last Friday, the only time stocks were more overvalued entering a rate hike cycle was 1999.

  

  As BofA reminds us – tongue in cheek – “this ended poorly last time (1999).“

  Of course, it’s not just risk that overly aggressive rate hikes send stocks tumbling: QT itself will have a far bigger impact on risk assets than mere rate hikes; as Savita explains, Fed Fund rates alone have no significant relationship to US equity returns (we disagree but here is her evidence)…

  Despite our economists forecasting a faster pace of hiking than the market is pricing in (with their call for seven hikes this year and four next year), this would still be one of the slowest tightening cycles in history (implying a 1.5ppt annualized rise in the Fed Funds rate vs. a 2.1ppt average annualized rise in prior tightening cycles), with the total increase in the Fed Funds rate in-line with the average for prior tightening cycles.We find no consistent relationship between the pace of hiking and the absolute or relative performance of large and small caps (charts below)

  

  

  … and “what matters more is quantitative tightening, its effect on 10-yr yields and, of course, earnings.” But QT is likely to take center stage in 2022 given that as BofA shows below, Fed balance sheet increases have explained more of S&P 500 returns than earnings post-GFC.

  

  So in light of all this why isn’t Savita predicting a far lower year-end price target for the S&P? After all, her BofA colleague Michael Hartnett will not rest until the S&P tumbled well below 4,000 (which he believes is the strike price on the Fed put).

  The reason, according to the BofA strategist, is that she views her 4,600 price target as conservative – at least in the context of far more bullish Wall Street peers – and notes that her liquidity framework “suggests muted returns from here – 4600 on the S&P 500 by year end, and just +1.5%/yr over the next three years based on YoY Fed balance sheet change and +2.8%/yr based on rate of change.”

  

  Additionally, she expects EPS growth to slow to 6.5% this year from 48% in 2021; as a reminder, Hartnett is far more bearish, and in his latest Flow Show noted that the probability of global EPS turning negative in H2 is 40% and rising.

  

  Addressing this question directly, Savita writes that she maintains her “year-end target of 4600 based on our five-factor target outlook incorporating valuation, sentiment, fundamentals and technical factors, and we believe that risks to equities would be greater if the Fed did nothing.”

  Still, since her job in this particular case is to explain to the bank’s client why 7 rate hikes does not translate to a market crash, one specific reason why the BofA strategist remains relatively bullish (if only because she was told to be),  is that according to her, the public to private sector liquidity hand-off pushed combined consumer/corporate cash to >$19T+, which would shift from generating no return to a healthier ~2ppt returns. She explains:

  Following a ~$11T increase in the Fed balance sheet and money supply (M2), the Fed and US government successfully injected much needed liquidity into the system and saved the world. Now, the consumer and corporates are sitting with a record $19T in cash, a 35% increase from 2019.

  

  Naturally more cash is better than less cash, and as Savita extrapolates, “balance sheet strength is bullish for the real economy. The financial crisis taught corporates and consumers about the risks of leverage and the unsustainable leverage that we saw during the financial crisis is nonexistent today and bloated leverage ratios post-recessions are non-existent today.” While we disagree here because the big variable is the trillions in excess reserves that have been injected into banks and thus any sharp decline in reserves will act to dramatically destabilize banks (as we saw in Sept 2019), BofA claims that banks, as a proxy, “are better capitalized than ever, and are expecting to see loan growth in 2022.” Meanwhile, corporates locked in long-dated debt obligations at low fixed rates, with the mix of long-term fixed debt now 80% vs. 58% pre-GFC. The upshot from all this – and we agree with this – rising rates may not hurt for a while.

  

  What will companies do with the excess cash? BofA expects more capex, R&D spend and dividend raises than buybacks, while consumers are likely to ramp up spending in services in 2022 given that durable goods spending accelerated post-COVID leaving more pent-up demand for services.

  Clearly showing just how much she stretched the goalseek function in excel to come up with some more favorable “benefits” from higher rates, Savita goes so far as to praise the generous benefits that higher rates will confer on –  wait for it – interest income!

  A higher cash yield translates in additional interest income, and we estimate a 0.8% tailwind to S&P 500 EPS from a 90bp YoY increase in the Fed funds rate (house forecast for average 2022), all else equal. And we see a smaller headwind from higher interest expense, as 80% of corporate debt has long-term fixed rates today, compared to just over 50% prior to the GFC.

  

  Right… just ignore interest expense.

  There is one more argument brought up by Savita as to why higher rates will boost risk assets, and it has to do with the strong, significant relationship between S&P 500 Price to Earnings ratios and CPI, where higher inflation usually translates into lower multiples…

  

  … which is hardly a surprise, but what is amazing is how the BofA chief equity strategist actually manages to spin this as a positive.

  As she says, one reason is that S&P 500 earnings are positively correlated with CPI. But S&P 500 EPS are negatively correlated with wage inflation (Exhibit 7). Moreover, the bank’s Corporate Misery Indicator, a macro model that has led the profits cycle, remained positive during the early and mid-stages of Fed tightening cycles indicating that the Fed’s attempt to control inflationary pressures was either (a) positive for margins, (b) not enough to derail demand, or (c) some combination of the two (Exhibit 8)

  

  In other words, and this is some truly remarkable logical gymnastics, she concludes that “if the Fed is hiking rates to control inflation, that’s positive for equities” as runaway inflation would likely compress S&P 500 multiples and cut into earnings; and if inflation moderates significantly, the Fed has signaled it will adapt its policy on a real-time basis.

  And that’s how you just take your first step toward “validating” Erdoganomics, or in this case that rate hikes are actually positive for stocks.

  Yet while we commiserate with Savita for having been told to somehow spin the bank’s forecast of 7 rate hikes into a non-apocalyptic outcome, not even she can avoid the reality that what comes next will be painful, and while one can ignore rate hikes (we wouldn’t), just focusing on the bank’s “QT model” suggests far more muted returns from here, which according to Savita translates to 4600 on the S&P 500 by year end (a far more bearish Morgan Stanley is at 4,400 just so readers get a sense of what Wall Street’s bears have to work with; the bulls are all 5,000 and higher), and low single digit returns over the next two years.

  That said, even Savita admits that if inflation continues to surprise to the upside, “the strong negative relationship to PE multiples is worrisome. Moreover, EPS growth for the S&P 500 and most sectors has been inversely correlated with changes in wage inflation.” Finally, the bank forecasts a demonstrable slowdown in EPS growth from 48% in 2021 to 6.5% in 2022, a number which Subramanian’s colleague Michael Hartnett believes will turn negative in the second half.

  And while other notable Wall Street voices, including Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson, (see “Wall Street’s Most Bearish Analyst Warns Of “Calamitous” Collapse In First-Half Earnings“) share BofA’s modest pessimism, the assessment is by no means the consensus view. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s team reiterated on Monday that growth will remain solid this year and with still more upside for equities, following the ferocious rally of 2021. Then again, since it is JPM’s mandate to remain the fluffer of the Biden/Powell regime until the bitter end, we would urge all to discount what Jamie “Bitcoin is a worthless fraud” Dimon’s bank has to say about the future.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 18:00

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Ex-CIA Officer Asks: What Happens When America Experiences Real War With A Superpower?
  Ex-CIA Officer Asks: What Happens When America Experiences Real War With A Superpower?

  Authored by Michael G. Merhige via The Libertarian Institute,

  During my first years as a young CIA officer in Vietnam from 1965-67, I went to school (so to speak) and received the real education of my life. I learned about my government, its politicians, and military leaders. I learned about the lies, the high explosive and chemical bombings, our superior fire power, villages bombed and burned, the payoffs we made to our ranking Vietnamese allies and the reasons for our losing the war.

  The enemy fought to unite their country and expel foreign domination. The US fought because of corrupt leadership and our losses were a mere fraction being fought on the enemy’s turf with our superior fire power, money and material support. They fought for a cause. We fought for no justifiable reason. They won. We did not.

  

  Remember the body bags displayed on the tarmacs of our returning dead from Vietnam? Not like the lack of media coverage today given the damage we inflict. Remember the disapproving reception of our returning soldiers? Now we celebrate them as heroes and wounded patriots.

  Here, at home, we have not experienced wars employing mass-destruction weapons. Maybe one day will we receive an education about the consequences of wars as a nation. Surely, we learned nothing from Vietnam as it never happened here.

  Our commitment to the two-decade, multi-country invasions in the Middle East have shown our cowardliness to the world if not to ourselves. Our hypocrisy is stunning. No draft, no engagement (almost no KIA’s each year). Far more troop suicides than battle deaths while displacing, killing and maiming thousands of innocent civilian lives year after year. For whom and what? And, yes, a media in full march step with these disgraceful invasions and occupations.

  Remember the uproar about Vietnam? Burned draft cards, asylum in Canada, draft dodgers, street demonstrations and sit-ins galore. And why not these now? The unending, shameful action by our government is making sure the public is not paying a price in people. No draft, very limited engagement with the enemy and an approving media. What more can our government and Pentagon ask for? We will keep dropping bombs and feeding others money and weapons to assist with the killing and displacing of innocent populations for us.

  But are these wars really for us? Certainly not.  Remember George W. Bush, and his failing presidency, who was made a hero the morning after 9/11 with his WMD declaration that fooled no one but Americans? Not a sound from the citizenry. Would we try the pitiful WMD routine on China or Russia? They have the ability to hit back.

  

  The national celebration that greeted George H.W. Bush in death is a far cry from his presidency. It was not until after 9/11 that George W. Bush obeyed the lobbies’ demands to destroy Iraq that his father was resurrected and the son was hailed as our glorious leader. Remember his welcoming carrier landing which turned out to be a dud?

  These wars that we persist with are not only cowardly, they demonstrate our lack of respect for other nations, their people and our national conscience. Notably, they demonstrate our being a failed nation not capable of controlling or directing its own interests. We will go down in history as that most powerful, but most surrogate nation ever. Stunningly shameful with the blood of others staining our once proud national emblem.

  While we busy ourselves with “enemies” that we and “friendly” others have invented, we have become oblivious to the enemy within. The one taking us down.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 02/07/2022 – 00:00

• The Cost Of Space Flight Before And After SpaceX
  The Cost Of Space Flight Before And After SpaceX

  On December 21, 2021, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a cargo capsule to deliver supplies and Christmas gifts to astronauts in the International Space Station.

  Just eight minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, landing on one of SpaceX’s drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean. This marked the company’s 100th successful landing.

  Like other companies such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Ball Aerospace, SpaceX is designing and building innovative spacecraft that are speeding up space delivery by making it more routine and affordable. But how much does it cost to launch a cargo rocket into space, and how has this cost changed over the years?

  In the graphic below, Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti and Carmen Ang take a look at the cost per kilogram for space launches across the globe since 1960, based on data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

  

  The Space Race

  The 20th-century was marked by competition between two Cold War adversaries, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States, to achieve superior spaceflight capability.

  The space race led to great technological advances, but these innovations came at a high cost. For instance, during the 1960s NASA spent $28 billion to land astronauts on the moon, a cost today equating to about $288 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.

  In the last two decades, space startup companies have demonstrated they can compete against heavyweight aerospace contractors as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Today, a SpaceX rocket launching can be 97% cheaper than a Russian Soyuz ride cost in the ’60s.

  

  The key to increasing cost efficiency?

  SpaceX rocket boosters usually return to Earth in good enough condition that they’re able to be refurbished, which saves money and helps the company undercut competitors’ prices.

  Space Tourism

  Although competition has brought prices down for cargo flights, human space transportation is still pricey.

  During the last 60 years, roughly 600 people have flown into space, and the vast majority of them have been government astronauts.

  For a suborbital trip on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin’s New Shepard, seats typically cost $250,000 to $500,000. Flights beyond that to actual orbit—a much higher altitude—are far more expensive, fetching more than $50 million per seat.

  The Future of Space Flight

  In a SpaceX press briefing, SpaceX Director Benji Reed said, “We want to make life multi-planetary, and that means putting millions of people in space.”

  This may still seem like a stretch for most people. But, given the decreasing cost of space flights over the last two decades, perhaps the sky won’t be the limit in the near future.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 23:30

• The Revolution Has Come For Joe Rogan
  The Revolution Has Come For Joe Rogan

  Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary (emphasis ours),

  The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in the late summer of 2021, shortly after the Americans withdrew, tired and weary and broke after nearly 20 years of fighting. They seized was control of the country in the broad and particular sense: setting up command in the presidential palace in Kabul and targeting the individuals who criticized the new government. By December 2021, regular Afghans and the members of the Afghan press who had expressed critical views of their new rulers had “been subjected to months of intimidation and fear.”

  The Biden Administration has adopted these same tactics, calling for their critics to be silenced by the Administration’s corporate and media allies. After 20 years of trying to export Western values to Afghanistan, they ended up importing Taliban-style repression to the United States. And it only cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of lives.

  

  Now, the Regime and its comrades target Joe Rogan, an inquisitive comedian with a podcast. He is accused of spreading “misinformation” by those that illegally spy on their citizens and lies without remorse. In reality, this isn’t about misinformation. It’s that Rogan’s crimes are those of words and thought. The prosecutors have become the prophet of the god they have created, searching to eradicate those guilty of the sin of blasphemy. The Taliban would be proud.

  We can be certain that the Regime is not concerned with the truth. Have you seen them struggle to explain the “evidence” that Russia was planning a false-flag in Ukraine to justify an invasion?

  Or, consider how the COVID-19 misinformation originated from the U.S. government and its bureaucratic arms. In early 2020, Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins were both presented with arguments that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered. Instead of investigating this issue, they saw to it that this theory was killed off. Despite – or perhaps because of – these lies, Fauci and Collins remain dear sons of the Regime. Reminders that “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others. (The Christians of the Left – such as David French – even go so far as to say that you have a “spiritual problem” if you don’t trust Fauci and Collins. Both the left and the right make their idols.)

  They killed the truth before. Who is to say they’re not trying to do that with Rogan?

  Those are the easy observations.

  Then we get to the deeper and more consequential truths that are manipulated and deformed and remade for political purposes. Patterns emerge – and maybe they’re repeating. The institution of marriage, and the definition of marriage, is subjected to social – meaning political – evolution. Mothers are redefined as “birthing people.” Words are even disappeared by the U.S. government for threat that they are stigmatizing, dare someone have a negative opinion of an ex-convict or prisoner.

  To put it more bluntly, the people who believe men can give birth are now in charge of what is true. The only authority they have is political power. Such power isn’t necessarily authoritative, but it gives them the strength to set definitions and enforce the rules, to declare guilt and issue punishment. Conflicts of interest be damned. Power over language is power over the people: “the primary purpose of language – which is to describe reality – is replaced by the rival purpose of asserting power over it.”1

  In their eyes, this public lynching is justified because these are revolutionary times and removing Rogan is a revolutionary act. There is no forgiveness because they seek destruction, not restoration.

  There is some limitation to their enforcement power, those means by which they achieve their ends, necessitating the Biden Administration in July 2021 to order social media companies to ban those who disagree with the official line of thinking. The U.S. government went so far as to flag the objectionable content itself, helping corporate America snuff out inconvenient voices. Supposedly devout Christian Francis Collins has been silent on the government’s campaign to punish dissent, having been part of the cover-up. As Collins uses his faith to promote COVID-19 vaccines, perhaps he needs a reminder that Christianity does not give the civil government jurisdiction over your thoughts or words. Or a refresher of the evils of abortion.

  Anyway, the censorship encouraged by the Biden Administration was effective – to an extent.

  Alex Berenson was banned from Twitter in August 2021 for correctly labeling the COVID-19 vaccines as “therapeutics.” Dr. Robert Malone, “who has been credited with inventing the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 immunizations,” was also been banned from Twitter. These suspensions came after Fauci and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and other members of the Biden Administration called for stronger measures to stop the spread of misinformation.

  Yet Joe Rogan thrived, in large part because he provided an alternative platform to the voices that were being suppressed. The public yearned for this information and it was delivered through his podcast. It’s reported that Rogan has an estimated 11 million listeners per episode. It’s also estimated that his interviews with Dr. Malone and Dr. Peter McCullough brought in millions more.

  In response, the Biden White House demanded Spotify do more to censor the discussions of Rogan and his guests. At the same time, the liberal mob – encouraged by their leadership – aimed at Rogan, hurling disgusting and false allegations of “racism.” CNN, eager to shift the focus off the network’s own problems, is asking Spotify to give Rogan the proverbial death sentence:

  CNN’s @BrianStelter & Jim @Acosta strongly suggest Spotify should remove Joe Rogan from their platform; also note his “profanity-laced apology”

  “It seems untenable to have that kind of video surface, and that kind of compilation surface, and keep one’s job” pic.twitter.com/rSyAV8f1dN

  — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  This is the same network that lied about Rogan’s use of Ivermectin, calling it “horse dewormer.” It is the same network that ran an altered video of Rogan, making him seem sicker with COVID-19 than he really was.

  No surprise that it’s CNN’s Brian Stelter leading the way against Rogan. How do I describe Stelter? (For starters, I do so with pleasure.) He is a humorless fat man. A dedicated media believer pretending to be a media reporter. He is as dumb as he sounds and as arrogant as he looks. He oozes the sadism of a hall monitor and the false confidence of an impostor. He is Kim Jong-un without the hair or the country or the charisma.

  Prior to Rogan, Stelter’s favorite targets were enemies of the Regime: Tucker Carlson and Fox News. For being a “media reporter,” he typically has a curious focus to target one journalist and one network. CNN tolerates this well enough, excusing Stelter’s poor ratings because he attacks the network’s adversaries and defends the network without question.

  Put Stelter on the offense against critics and he’ll call a Jihad against “right wing” media from his CNN studio. He’s the zealot that will behead you for drawing a cartoon of the wrong left-wing figure (whether it’s Joe Biden or Don Lemon) – and then blame you for inciting violence on “Reliable Sources” the next day. He will demand the unvaccinated be treated as second-class citizens, relegated to the margins of society until they comply with his favored health policies, just as he continues on his own adventure of finding out what comes after “morbid obesity.”

  And in the presence of his preferred State power, masochist Stelter emerges to flatter and grovel. When he had the chance to interview Biden’s press secretary, he lobbed the softball of his dreams: “What does the press get wrong when covering Biden’s agenda?”

  But back to Rogan.

  One could say that Rogan is under attack for speaking truth to power. But that’s not quite true. As Christopher Hitchens observed, that cliché is looking in the wrong direction because power already knows the truth. More importantly, Rogan – and his guests – speak truth to the powerless. That’s what they’re scared of. And that’s why we see these campaigns against Tucker and Rogan and anyone else who dare tell dangerous truths.

  To put it another way, President Biden and his corporate allies, and their mob of supporters, seek to obliterate the relationship between the writer and the reader, the speaker and the listener.

  Thus, this is about more than Joe Rogan. It is about you and it is about me. It is about gatekeeping and limiting what we can watch and read and hear. And they achieve that end through the destruction of Rogan the individual.2

  *  *  *

  1. Roger Scruton, Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands.
  2. “Human individuals are the most important of those real things, the obstacles that all revolutionary systems must overcome, and which all ideologies must destroy.” Roger Scruton, Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands.

  Subscribe to The Reactionary

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 23:00

• China Fixes Yuan At Weakest On Record Relative To Expectations
  China Fixes Yuan At Weakest On Record Relative To Expectations

  China has returned from its week-long holiday. While it is no secret that Beijing is easing (ever more aggressively, prompting fund managers to allocate capital to China at a time when the country is increasingly viewed as non-grata by both the left and right) to stabilize its slumping economy, just as the rest of the world is tightening, moments ago the PBOC underscored its commitment to keeping the yuan on a downward slope when it fixed the yuan at 6.3580. Compared to expectations of 6.3328, this was the weakest fixing on record!

  

  The weak fixing comes less than two weeks after the yuan hit a near four-year-high against the dollar on Jan. 26 while an index tracking yuan’s value against a basket of currencies (the CFETS RMB basket ) is flirting with the highest level since late 2015.

  

  It follows two months after the PBOC’s previous record low fixing vs expectations which was set on December 9 of 2021, and according to Bloomberg, “signaled a limit to its tolerance for the yuan’s recent advance by setting its reference rate at a weaker-than-expected level” and when Malayan Banking Berhad said that “the weaker-than-expected fix is a reminder to markets that the currency is being watched and the central bank wants to prevent appreciation bets from snowballing.”

  Despite China’s ongoing weakness and the PBOC’s recent pivot toward easing, in the past year the yuan has been supported by strong inflows given China’s robust exports and foreign investment in onshore bonds. The currency was more recently aided by bets that Beijing’s monetary stimulus will sustain the nation’s growth and that the new Covid variant will have limited impact on the global recovery.

  That said, the unexpectedly weak fixing comes at a time when the increasingly hawkish Fed and ECB should take some appreciation pressure off the yuan: as Bloomberg’s Ye Xie noted earlier today, the trade-weighted yuan fell 0.9% last week, the most since July 2020. And while the yuan is still supported by a lofty trade surplus, but the interest-rate differential is becoming less supportive. Additionally, surging crude oil is another negative for China, a major energy importer.

  All that suggests that there’s limited upside for the yuan, a conclusion reinforced by Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International and a former official at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), who said that the Chinese government could take further measures if needed to keep the yuan stable, potentially putting downward pressure on the currency.

  Among the measures mentioned by Guan, he said that policymakers could increase yuan’s flexibility, expand capital outflows, or control capital inflows to rein in the yuan, which could deviate from economic fundamentals in the short term.

  Writing in an article published in the Shanghai Securities News on Monday, Guan noted that the yuan also faces downward pressure from several market factors, including further strengthening of the dollar index, the shrinking spread between U.S. and Chinese yields, and the narrowing difference in the growth between the two economies.

  The former regulator, who previously headed SAFE’s balance of payments department, said that the yuan is already losing some momentum, citing shrinking trading volumes in the interbank forex market.

  Whether it was driven by the sign of force against a strong yuan, or just because they are catching up to the upward move in risk assets observed in the past week, Chinese shares soared on their return from a week-long holiday, with sentiment boosted by Friday’s jump in Hong-Kong listed names and easing concerns about regulatory headwinds for the nation’s battered tech sector.

  China’s CSI 300 Index jumped as much as 2.4% before paring its advance to 1.2% as of 10:42 a.m. in Shanghai. Even so, at this level the benchmark is on track for its best post-Lunar New Year holiday performance since 2019. The Shanghai Composite Index also rose.

  It could prove challenging for Chinese stocks to maintain their upward bias: traders returning from their long break are having to contend with challenges ranging from weak local manufacturing and housing data to an expanding camp of hawkish foreign central banks. Economic trends during the festive period – typically a boon for spending and travel – have been disappointing, even with the Winter Olympics.

  “Fewer red packets of “lucky money” appear to have been exchanged in the WeChat groups, the box office on the first day of the new year plunged, and lending stats for January among the biggest lenders were disappointing,” Hao Hong, chief strategist at Bocom International, wrote in a note.

  According to Bloomberg, domestic tourism revenue fell around 4% from a year earlier, while virus flare-ups and pollution curbs during the games are weighing on consumer and industrial activity. Movie ticket sales for the first four days of the break were down 23% from a year earlier to 3.5 billion yuan ($550 million), according to Maoyan data.

  The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slid 0.9% in Hong Kong after adding nearly 3% on Friday in its first session post the break.

  One final point: if all else fails and the yuan keeps rising contrary to the wishes of the PBOC and politburo, how long until the market starts whispering that dreaded phrase “devaluation”?

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 22:30

• Xi-Putin Olympics Summit Is Explicitly – And Primarily – Anti-US
  Xi-Putin Olympics Summit Is Explicitly – And Primarily – Anti-US

  Authored by Dominick Sansome via The Epoch Times,

  The Feb. 4 meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin proceeded with the expected proclamations of “mutual trust” and “the spirit of friendship.”

  

  According to the Kremlin, there were a total of 16 agreements across various spheres of cooperation reached during the meeting. These included economic trade, technology, and energy relations.

  Coinciding with the opening day of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, part of the purpose of the high-level meeting was undoubtedly appearance based. Putin additionally wrote an article for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) outlet Xinhua in which he celebrated the growing relationship between Moscow and Beijing.

  “Our countries play an important stabilizing role in today’s challenging international environment, promoting greater democracy in the system of international relations to make it more equitable and inclusive,” stated Putin. The Russian president went on to explain that one of the primary means for accomplishing this goal is through support for the United Nations Charter.

  A joint statement put out by the two countries following the Putin-Xi summit in Beijing went further. It stated that Moscow and Beijing seek to “to protect the United Nations-driven international architecture and the international law-based world order, seek genuine multipolarity with the United Nations and its Security Council playing a central and coordinating role.”

  

  Members of the U.N. Security Council gather for a meeting at the United Nations in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images)

  These statements together place emphasis on the fact that Putin continues to see the U.N. as the primary body through which Russia is able to uphold its international influence. Citing the importance of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), on which Russia and China both permanently sit, Putin reinforces the primacy of the “democratization of international relations.”

  Under the veneer of international stability and world peace, this latter point is what is truly of critical importance for actors such as Putin and Xi. The U.N. ensures that Russia has just as much power as the United States or its Western allies, especially considering its crucial veto on the Security Council. By allying with fellow UNSC member China, the two hold significant sway in influencing international decision-making.

  Given Moscow’s current tensions with NATO over Ukraine, it makes sense that Putin would be highlighting the importance of the U.N. A constant refrain from the Kremlin regarding NATO expansion is that no country’s security should be enhanced in a manner that reduces the relative security of a third country. By referring back to the U.N., Putin claims to be relying on a neutral multilateral organization in which every country has equal standing—this, rather than Western-led institutions such as NATO.

  Xi and the CCP also gain advantage from promoting this line of thinking. Besides also seeking the type of multipolarity that is referred to in these Russia-China joint statements, the international attention of the Olympics presents a favorable opportunity for the CCP to reference that it is not the United States or NATO that unilaterally set international policy.

  It is reported that only about 25 countries have sent official diplomatic delegations to the Beijing Olympics. The United States and most of its Western developed allies have chosen to diplomatically boycott the Games over human rights concerns with the CCP’s internal governance of China. Placing the meeting with Putin on the opening day of the Games ensures that the spotlight cannot be ignored: the China-Russia bilateral relationship is secure and constantly growing. The continued reference to the U.N. and the Security Council additionally remind the West that the two nuclear-armed powers hold just as much institutional legitimacy as the United States and its allies.

  Xi called on both countries “to maintain close high-level exchanges, give strong support to each other in safeguarding sovereignty, security and development interests.” This includes “deepening back-to-back strategic coordination and upholding international equity and justice.”

  Reading between the lines of the frequent calls for international democracy and equality from two of the world’s most authoritarian regimes reveals the true message: We support one another in the right to conduct our domestic policies as we see fit, independent from the judgment of the United States or other democratic nations.

  That does not mean that Beijing has irrevocably committed itself to Moscow. Even up until the Feb. 4 meeting, Xi withheld making any definite comment one way or the other regarding the escalating situation in Ukraine. This changed at the opening day of the summit. Following the meeting between Xi and Putin, the two countries released a joint statement on “international relations entering a new era and the global sustainable development.”

  

  A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea, on Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Photo)

  Notably, this included a joint call to halt further NATO enlargement and for the alliance to “abandon its ideologized cold war approaches.” Moscow also reaffirmed its support of Beijing’s stance regarding Taiwan, and both countries voiced their opposition to the AUKUS security alliance between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

  This is an important development as, again, Beijing has recently held off from committing itself on the Ukraine issue. The opening up of the Games and the absence of Western delegations may have emphasized the heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing. Putin is the most prominent guest at the Games.

  As stated by Xi: “We are working together to promote a truly multilateral world. Efforts to uphold the real democratic spirit are a reliable foundation for rallying the world towards overcoming crises and protecting equality.”

  A “multilateral world” is essential for Russia and China to uphold the legitimacy of their own internal systems. As the U.S.-led order continues to try and isolate the two regimes and cast international condemnation on them for their foreign and domestic policy choices, the strength of the Sino-Russian bilateral relationship is increasingly important to withstanding Western pressures.

  Xi apparently calculated that the advantage of publicly aligning himself closer to Moscow at this period of heightened international tensions outweighed any potential negative cost.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 22:00

• 'Black Mirror-Like' Robo-Dogs Patrol US Border, Searching For Illegals
  ‘Black Mirror-Like’ Robo-Dogs Patrol US Border, Searching For Illegals

  President Biden’s southern border crisis isn’t going away anytime soon as Republicans stress the need to beef up border security amid a flood of illegals crossing into the US. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently adopted quadrupedal machines to patrol the border’s harsh landscape, extreme temperatures, and dangerous obstacles to search for illegals. 

  DHS’ research and development team, the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T), released a statement on Tuesday specifying the use of Ghost Robotics’ robot dog ‘Ghost Vision 60’ by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on the southern border to test new surveillance methods. The robot dog’s appearance is eerily similar to the rover dogs in the popular dystopian Netflix series “Black Mirror.” 

  “The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there,” said S&T program manager, Brenda Long. “This S&T-led initiative focuses on Automated Ground Surveillance Vehicles, or what we call ‘AGSVs.’ Essentially, the AGSV program is all about…robot dogs.” 

  

  Ghost Vision 60 is a mid-sized high-endurance, agile, and durable all-weather ground drone that can navigate autonomously or be controlled manually on the border. The robot can be equipped with numerous payloads, including thermal and night vision cameras. 

  The 100-pound robot dog could one day become mechanical reinforcements for border agents who are currently overwhelmed by a flood of illegal activity (thanks to Biden). The robots can traverse areas where border agents would generally stay clear for safety reasons. 

  “Just like anywhere else, you have your standard criminal behavior, but along the border you can also have human smuggling, drug smuggling, as well as smuggling of other contraband—including firearms or even potentially, WMD.

  “These activities can be conducted by anyone from just a lone individual, all the way up to transnational criminal organizations, terrorists or hostile governments—and everything in between,” explained Agent Brett Becker of the CBP Innovation Team (INVNT).

  

  Testing of the robots comes as illegal border crossings hit record highs, detention centers overflow, and cartels incite chaos along the border. Republicans have called the border a “crisis” while the Biden administration downplays the ongoing mess. 

  

  Where are most of the illegals coming from?

  

  Which states are heavily impacted by the border crisis?

  

  One of Biden’s job-approval ratings has tanked to record lows, partially due to the administration’s poor handling of the border. Republicans have called for increased border security, and states like Texas have taken border security into their own hands instead of the federal government. 

  Increasing news stories about the “border crisis” resulted in slumping approval ratings for the president. The border is just one of many factors that have led to falling poll numbers (inflation is another). 

  

  Will robo-dogs be the solution to stop illegal border crossings? Absolutely not, but it shows the federal government is willing to test new technologies to automate security. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 21:30

• Bridgewater Touts Chinese Assets As PBOC Diverges
  Bridgewater Touts Chinese Assets As PBOC Diverges

  By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live commentator and analyst

  Three things we learned last week:

  1. There was a new wave of bond-market carnage. When mainland Chinese investors return from the Lunar New Year holiday, they will be greeted by what was a renewed selloff in the global fixed-income market. The European Central Bank became the latest to turn hawkish, opening the door for rate hikes this year. The pivot trigged some dramatic bond moves. Both German and Japanese five-year yields climbed above zero on Friday for the first time in years. In the U.S., a stronger-than-expected jobs report Friday prompted traders to boost bets on a 50bp rate increase in March.

  In contrast, China’s policy makers are firmly in easing mode, thanks to tamed inflation. In its 2022 outlook published last week, Bridgewater Associates touted Chinese assets, while sounding the alarm about risky assets in developed markets. “Chinese assets remain attractive relative to cash,” because bond yields still have room to fall, inflation remains relatively low, and policy makers face pressure to ease, the outlook said. “The differences in conditions versus the West” create “a high likelihood of continued diversification,” it said.

  

  2. Global growth is moderating. Major central banks are tightening through a soft patch in global growth. It isn’t exactly a friendly environment for risky assets. The Global PMI manufacturing index declined to 53 in January, the lowest since October 2020. While that’s still a respectable number, and the waning of omicron infections may brighten the outlook, the tightening financial conditions nonetheless add to market volatility. The chart below plots the change in the manufacturing index and the S&P 500, when real yields rose more than 40 bps a month, as they did in January. It shows markets had more difficulty digesting higher yields when growth slowed than when the economy picked up.  In China, data is expected to show on Monday that the service sector barely grew in January.

  

  3. A hawkish Fed and ECB take some appreciation pressure off the yuan. The trade-weighted yuan fell 0.9% last week, the most since July 2020. The yuan is still supported by a lofty trade surplus, but the interest-rate differential is becoming less supportive. Surging crude oil is another negative for China, a major energy importer. All that suggests that there’s limited upside for the yuan, a result that Beijing may be happy about.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 21:00

• "A Disaster In Plain Sight" – Why San Francisco Is Doing Nothing To Curb Brutal Fentanyl Crisis
  “A Disaster In Plain Sight” – Why San Francisco Is Doing Nothing To Curb Brutal Fentanyl Crisis

  The San Francisco Chronicle just published a lengthy multimedia report about the most devastating public-health crisis currently afflicting the city. And no, it’s not COVID-19. It’s the rash of super-potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl that are causing a surge in deaths among the city’s vast homeless community, as well as among others.

  Nearly 3/4ths of the thousands of drug overdoses that have been reported in the City by the Bay have involved fentanyl; for the last two years, Fentanyl has been killing far more people in San Francisco than COVID. It’s not even close, really.

  

  In San Francisco, roughly 1,310 people died from drug overdoses in 2020 and 2021. That’s more than double the roughly 710 people who have died from the virus in the city since the start of the pandemic.

  The city’s fentanyl death toll would be higher if it wasn’t for narcan, the antidote now used more than 500 times a month to yank people back from the brink of death.

  

  Source: Chronicle

  Overdose deaths happen all over the city, but by far the biggest concentrations are found within a few square blocks on Tenderloin and South of Market, a part of the city that has long plagued law enforcement.

  A large percentage of the older addicts are blacks who have been living on the city’s streets for years, if not decades. What’s more, the scourge of fentanyl has transformed the Tenderloin into an open-air drug market.

  

  Source: Chronicle

  Despite budgeting more than $70M for resources for the indigent last year alone, the city of San Francisco has barely managed to make any kind of positive difference in the lives of the city’s homeless. Overdose prevention programs in the last fiscal year alone have accomplished little. And police have been stymied by the progressive DA’s insistence that city cops not arrest peopl

  ity leaders have not created a clear, urgent and cohesive plan to intervene despite budgeting $71.4 million for treatment and overdose prevention programs in the last fiscal year alone Since then, however, the problem has only gotten worse.

  

  While drugs were once smuggled into San Francisco via complex networks of criminals, nowadays, the biggest drug carriers in the city are DHL and USPS.

  But the illicit fentanyl now killing people in San Francisco is cooked up in labs — often in China and Mexico — and trafficked via delivery services like UPS and DHL. Doses bound for the city are sometimes mixed with other drugs or fillers, packaged in foil and sold for $20 to $40 a gram.

  Amazingly, the city’s leadership has so far failed to treat the fentanyl crisis with anywhere near the same gravitas as the COVID pandemic.

  Despite the death toll, San Francisco leaders have not treated the fentanyl crisis as the all-hands emergency that many residents and advocates recognize.

  The Department of Public Health says that typically, people can access treatment as soon as they’re ready. But some of those seeking help, as well as social workers assigned to them, say they commonly wait days, and sometimes weeks, for a bed that meets their needs.

  Meanwhile, San Francisco has so far failed to cut the flow of the drug into the Tenderloin and South of Market, where the city has concentrated services and housing for vulnerable people, including those experiencing addiction. Drug dealers operate on the streets with abandon.

  One of the most surprising details from the report is a depiction of an interaction between an SFPD officer and a homeless addict sleeping in a doorway.

  As police walk through the Tenderloin, Sgt. Heather Fegan approaches a woman slumped in a doorway.

  “It’s San Francisco police, honey,” Fegan says. Another officer gently taps the woman’s shoulder, rousing her awake. “We’re just making sure you’re all right,” the officer says. “You’re not in trouble or anything.”

  It seems the only thing officers are empowered to do when dealing with SF’s population of homeless drug addicts is revive them with Narcan when they overdose. On particularly bad days, police in the Tenderloin revive up to 10 or a dozen people, sometimes returning to the same individual just hours later.

  Still, police usually don’t make arrests when they find people dying from an overdose, nor do they investigate to try and ascertain where the drugs came from.

   

  Who’s decision was this? Well, unsurprisingly, the Chronicle lays the blame at the feet of Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco DA facing a recall election because of his notoriously soft on crime (critics call them ‘pro-criminal’) policies.

  There’s also Mayor London Breed, who has apparently ordered police to “get tough” on crime – at least, that’s what she’s telling the public. On the street, it doesn’t seem like much has changed.

  Mayor London Breed’s new get-tough public stance is consistent with her longtime views, but still marks a shift from programs she spent much of the last year championing, which aim to reduce police interactions with people in need of mental health care and addiction treatment.

  “It’s time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city…come to an end,” the mayor said, adding that San Francisco should be “less tolerant of all the bulls—.”

  Somehow, progressive do-gooders like Boudin and Breed have embraced the idea that the ‘broken windows’-style tactics used in the 1980s to clean up NYC simply aren’t effective. Progressives have taken another view: that the welfare of criminals and drug addicts should be prioritized above all else.

  

  One common saying is “kilos, not crumbs”.

  Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin agree, though, that the city cannot focus on arresting and prosecuting users or lower-level drug dealers, some of whom are supporting their own addictions. Boudin, who faces a recall election this year fueled by critics who say his policies are too lenient, says it’s not effective to prosecute quality-of-life crimes, including street drug use, and favors seizing “kilos, not crumbs” of narcotics.

  As priorities have shifted, the city police force presented about 40% fewer drug-related arrests to the D.A.’s office in 2021 than in 2019, according to data obtained by The Chronicle. But the cases that police still bring are more serious — and Boudin is more frequently filing charges. Even so, Boudin acknowledges that the Tenderloin “has not gotten better.”

  “We need it to be easier for people to get help than it is to get high,” he said.

  The problem with this ‘treatment first’ narrative is that drug addiction treatment in the US is notoriously expensive. It involves rehabs, medication, outpatient therapy. It’s a lot. And most of the time, it doesn’t work. For more thoughts on why treatment often isn’t enough, click here.

  But at least Big Pharmaceutical companies are lining their pockets while progressive politicians are building a new indomitable political machine,

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 20:30

• Teacher Made White Elementary School Children Apologize To Black Kids For Their Skin Color
  Teacher Made White Elementary School Children Apologize To Black Kids For Their Skin Color

  Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

  A 5th grade teacher working in the North Penn School District made white elementary school children apologize to black kids for their skin color, according to irate parents.

  

  The sensational claim was made during a school board meeting by the mother of a child who attends AM Kulp Elementary School.

  “I actually pulled my daughter out of AM Kulp because of the 5th grade teacher who lined those students up, from whitest to darkest,” she said.

  “(The teacher) made them turn around and made the white ones apologize to the black ones – now do not tell me that did not happen in this district,” the mother added.

  “You need to put an end to this. Kids do not see color and you are segregating them and you are separating them. This is not OK. Do something or get out of those damn chairs!” she concluded.

  The mother’s complaint was bolstered by a further claim by another individual at the meeting who described how the same teacher forced children to take part in a ‘privilege walk’ multiple times.

  This teacher also allegedly made her students participate in a “privilege walk” pic.twitter.com/AoUOA4Pe9C

  — Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) February 1, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “This board has repeatedly denied an activity that has taken place at AM Kulp Elementary…it happened in the courtyard…not once but four times,” said the speaker.

  “A teacher…lined the students up on the wall, asked them to step forward if their parents were married, step forward if their parents were college educated, step forward if they own a cellphone or an iPhone, step forward if their skin color resembled a band aid, step forward if they had an in-ground pool.”

  Explaining that multiple different parents had told him that this had happened, the speaker also related how the teacher in question “also added at one point when she asked about a band aid with a mini-megaphone, the teacher told the student to get back on the wall because her parents were from India.”

  The speaker finished by accusing the school board of falsely denying that such events were taking place.

  North Penn School District appears to be riddled with activist teachers intent on indoctrinating children.

  Last month, we highlighted an image that went viral showing a North Penn teacher forcibly taping a mask to a child’s face.

  Parents across the country have come under attack by both the media and the government for their vocal opposition to Critical Race Theory being taught in American schools.

  In September last year, the National Association of School Boards (NASB) sent a letter to the Biden administration claiming parents were engaging in domestic terrorism by fighting against CRT and mask mandates.

  Attorney General Merrick Garland subsequently announced the DOJ and FBI would establish a task force aimed at probing a “disturbing spike” in threats against school officials.

  *  *  *

  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Get early access, exclusive content and behinds the scenes stuff by following me on Locals.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 20:00

• Goldman: For The First Time In 2022, We See Massive Net Inflows Into Stocks This Week
  Goldman: For The First Time In 2022, We See Massive Net Inflows Into Stocks This Week

  One week ago, when the turmoiling market was on edge over even the smallest tremor following a record-ugly start to the year for risk assets, and emini liquidity hit the lowest level since the March 2020 crash meaning even a modest buy or sell program could move spoos by dozens of points…

  

  … Goldman’s flow trader Scott Rubner pointed out something which changed the facade of market risk dynamics overnight: a record number of index puts had been purchased by institutional investors who were hedging further downside en masse, in effect putting an end to the liquidation panic.

  

  That, coupled with a near record negative dealer gamma…

  

  … which could only go up as risk bounce and shorts were squeezed, and several other reasons why the furious selloff was exhausting itself, helped explain why stock managed to stage a remarkable rebound – at least until Facebook’s meta-hearse implosion – and yet the S&P still closed well in the green last week.

  So now that the bulk of earnings season has passed, and despite some high profile tech misses – most notably Facebook – is it safe to say that markets have finally stabilized? For the answer we go to Rubner’s weekly tactical flow of funds note, which recaps where investors are putting their money to work in 2022. What is most notable this time, is that according to Rubner, while we are still not “all clear” after week 5, for the first time in 2022, net demand is set to exceed net supply this coming week. Meanwhile, all eyes remain on key-technical levels…

  Here are the biggest highlights from Rubner’s latest Flow of Funds note (as usual, the full note is available to professional subscribers):

  1. Global Equities logged a massive +$106B worth of inflows YTD. Annualizing ~$1.2 Trillion. January 2022 Equity inflows logged the second best start to the year on record with $84.2 Billion worth of inflows. And yet, Rubner notes that this time there is a twist: the biggest theme in the market place, this new money is going into Rest-of-World Equities, not US. This, as the Goldman trader notes, is new.

  

  2. January 2022 Equity inflows logged the 6th largest monthly inflows of all-time

  

  3. February is historically the 3rd largest month for inflows and 2nd largest in 1H. Investors are rotating now.

  

  4. ROW board room demand exceeds USA board room demand. European equities logged +$4.818B worth of inflows this week. This is the largest weekly inflow since May 10th, 2017 (+$6.059B) – post ECB (out of bonds). But it is Emerging Market Equities that have been the 2022 Allocation winner, with back to back to back to back inflows.

  5. YTD scoreboard: For context in USD terms: Brazil #2 (+11.89%), Colombia #3 (+10.58%), Peru #6 (+9.06%), and Chile #9 (+7.46%) vs. SPX -6.06%, significantly benefits from these non-USD inflows, and have broadly not seen inflows during this cycle.

  

  6. Value/EM/ROW/Cyclical 2022 board room allocations have room to expand in the context of what happened in January 2021 (lasted until March Quarter-end). i.e., when investors rotate in a big way, it lasts for a few weeks.

  

  7. Inflows into Equities is a “2021 new thing”. The cumulative 10-year inflows into stocks before 2021 was zero. Bonds have seen 3x more inflows than equities and Cash has seen 2x more inflows than equities over the past decade. Rubner writes that “I am watching this chart, as I am watching yields this morning.”

  

  8. Bond “outflows” are not very common. There is just too much money sitting in bonds for RIA/PWM allocations if yields continue to move higher. But now outflows are rolling.

  

  Rubner says that he has become popular among credit pods who are tracking “passive credit outflows”. -$1.5 Trillion of negative yielding bonds went “non-negative” on Thursday, the largest 1 day on record. Negative yielding bonds are now below $5 Trillion, the lowest level in over five years years (and down from a record $18 Trillion).

  

  9. Investment Grade Bonds and High Yield Bonds drove the outflows from bonds this week. Watch further widening in CDX HY. We like HYG and LQD put spreads. This is also new.

  

   

  Key flow highlights aside, and looking at Mark-to-Market post Payrolls, Rubner writes that in his view, “we have not met the conditions to go from “Red Light” to “Green Light” this week, but I think we are certainly in yellow and improving ” as conditions are in place move back from systematic to subjective and markets will move more freely. The Goldman trader hopes “to clear the last end of this systematic checklist in week 6. All eyes, on 4438, the 200-day moving average, which needs to hold after the weekend.”

  Another potential bullish inflection point: Systematic Selling fades after next week, after a lot of selling

  10. Systematic Supply. Similar to Nomura, Goldman estimates that systematic strategies sold -$74.1B over the past week and -$111.9B over the past one month. That is a lot with multiple indices currently short: But more importantly, systematic supply faded by EOD Friday and assuming a flat tape, there is +$30B of equity demand over the next 1 month. This is important because the up vs down scenarios become balanced vs. skewed to the sell side. The bottom line: CTA’s are now net short. This becomes more balanced going forward and subject to new market moves.

  

  And while the CTA picture is increasingly favorable, liquidity is also improving, but still remains challenged.

  11. Liquidity. Top book liquidity in ES1 (E-mini futures) is currently $5M. The ranks in the 3rd percentile on a 10-yr rank (so zeroth percentile). There have been 6 instances in the last 10 years that top book liquidity on the S&P 500, most liquid future in the world, were this low. (This is pre-March fwiw). I find it really hard to monitor price discovery during the overnight session given lunar holiday next week. This could be really choppy.

  

  As noted above, dealer Gamma is getting longer and rebuilding:

  12. Dealer Gamma. S&P 500 dealer gamma is now flat (from short). The current dealer gamma position ranks in the 8th percentile on a 3-year rank. The long dealer gamma position, which stocks have enjoyed as a market buffer for so long, is no longer present. Hedging activity has been exacerbated by those dealers hedging customer delta with demand for puts. The market could move freely both to the upside and downside, but this has mattered given the low liquidity provided by futures hedging (mostly end of day).

  

  Just as notable, the institutional demand for index hedges – which was the highlight of last week’s note – has dropped by 56% since last Monday.

  13. Put Buying. We have been averaging $1 Trillion worth of puts per day. Largest on record. There has been several days this week where put notional set records. Monday for example $2.2 Trillion notional traded in US options market, with 64% puts ($1.4 Trillion) further adding LP hedges and taking the street further short gamma.

  

  Another notable reversal, the passive Market on Close Impact has started to improve – we have had 4 days of large MOC imbalances to buy after weeks of massive MOC for sale imbalances.

  14. Equity Passive flow redemptions and MOC Impact. As a reminder, recently Rubner notes that every day, he watches MOC imbalances get posted at 3:50pm NY time, “and it feels like a new day. There are 2,670 ETF’s that trade in the US. Passive redemptions are starting to happen. SPY has seen the largest outflows YTD (-$21.8B), followed by QQQ (-$7.98B), followed by IVV (-$1.8B) outside of bonds. Inflows are still happening broadly, but these redemptions will have the largest impact. “A reminder, if you ask me for money, I sell.” 23.66 cents of every $1 of SPY sold is from the top 5 stocks. I cannot predict the outcome here, but $1.226 Trillion of capital has gone into passive funds in the last 66 weeks.”

  

  15. Sentiment. Everyone says sentiment is negative but not panic-y, well how negative? Since 1987, the AAII Bull vs. Bear has been below .45 (it is currently .44). This has only happened 51 times out of 1,799 readings or 2.8% of times. This is rare and has historically been a contrarian indicator with positive hit rates 1m (79%), 3m (81%), and 6m (82%) with high absolute returns. That said, household allocations to equities has risen, so stabilizing sentiment to reduce passive outflows will be key to watch.

  

  

  16. Retail. This, as Rubner notes, has always been his swing factor. After what felt like margin/deleveraging all week from retail, this changed by the end of the week. On Wednesday, FOMC day, I have retail as a MASSIVE buyer. >$22.6B worth of retail buy demand, which ranks in the 98% percentile on a 1 year basis. This follows big sell days. The retail buy demand in tech of $9B was the largest on record, and 100% percentile.

  17. Money Market Funds, “cash on the sidelines”. This money has been raised, and potentially looking for a home (“down 5%”). This week saw some minor money market inflows.

  

  Last but perhaps most important, corporates – i.e., stock buybacks – are now coming out of the blackout window in a big way next week.

  18. Buybacks. Corporate blackout window ends substantially next week, led by tech stocks, with 65% of the S&P 500 market cap coming out of the earnings blackout by Monday, and Goldman’s trading desk estimates >$5.5B worth of daily demand during the open window which closes back on March 14th.

  

  The full Goldman note is available to professional subs.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 19:30

• More Potential Buyers Emerge For Peloton
  More Potential Buyers Emerge For Peloton

  (Update: 7:00pm ET, Feb 6): Shortly after the WSJ reported that Peloton was drawing acquisition interest from “multiple suitors including Amazon”, on Saturday the FT added Nike to the list of companies that are “separately evaluating bids for Peloton” as part of what we have dubbed a flurry of distressed M&A defining the current market selloff…

  Distressed M&A #3: Peloton Draws Interest From Potential Suitors Including Amazon: WSJ

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 4, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  … after the company with the iPad superglued to the front of an exercise bike came under fire from an activist investor who has urged the board of the maker of connected fitness bikes and treadmills to sack its chief executive and explore a sale.

  Nothing is imminent, with the FT noting that both Amazon and Nike have not held any direct talks with Peloton and the considerations are preliminary, citing “people briefed on the matter” who added that the decision to look at Peloton was opportunistic given its market value collapsed from nearly $50bn 12 months ago to less than $8bn this week. Of course, those people may just be long who have seen their holdings wiped out in recent weeks.

  Of course, the lower the PTON price drops, the more likely it is that other strategic (or even financial) buyers will emerge, “potentially including Apple and large private equity buyers.”

  Sure enough, in a weekend note from Wedbush, the bank writes that Apple may emerge as the eventual buyer as “acquiring PTON would be a major strategic coup and catalyze the company’s aggressive fitness initiatives.”  The note adds that AAPL may be forced into this deal if “AMZN, NKE, or potentially DIS aggressively go after Peloton in a defensive blocking .. move.”

  Of course, any deal would be hard to get done without the backing from John Foley, Peloton’s co-founder, and other insiders due to the company’s dual-class shareholder structure, which gives them veto power on all big decisions.

  That said, now that acquisition interest is a clear and present danger, expect the shorts to cover as the last thing they can afford is be underwater on what had previously been a profitable position after an unexpected takeover bid sends the stock soaring. On Friday, PTON price jumped 30% in after-hours trading after The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was considering a bid for the company.”

  * * *

  After a week of utter chaos in the US equity markets, with unprecedented intraday swings in market caps of the largest companies in history, The Wall Street Journal decided that 1710ET was the perfect time to drop a report, sourcing ‘a person familiar with the matter’ that beleaguered bike-maker Peloton is drawing interest from multiple potential suitors including Amazon.

  

  As WSJ reports, according to people familiar with the matter, Amazon has been speaking to advisers about a potential deal.

  And in what can only be assumed is an effort to promote a bidding war for this cash-burning cow, the ‘people familiar with the matter’ also said that other potential suitors are circling (but that no deal is imminent and there may not be one at all).

  Given the total lack of liquidity in markets – especially so at 1710ET on a Friday – PTON shares exploded over 30% higher in after-hours trading, erasing the losses triggered by a report in January from CNBC that the company faces layoffs and production halts.

  

  Interesting that this ‘source’ would appear shortly after reports that an activist shareholder is calling for the CEO to be fired and the company to be sold.

  Color us skeptical… how long until the AMZN denial….

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 19:10

• "This Is A Nationwide Insurrection" – Ottawa Mayor Declares 'State Of Emergency' Amid Trucker Convoy 'Occupation'
  “This Is A Nationwide Insurrection” – Ottawa Mayor Declares ‘State Of Emergency’ Amid Trucker Convoy ‘Occupation’

  Protesters continued to gather and demonstrate against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions in Canada’s capital on Feb. 6, marking the one week anniversary of the so-called “occupation.”

  “We are on day eight of this occupation. Our city is under siege. What we’re seeing is bigger than just a City of Ottawa problem. This is a nationwide insurrection. This is madness. We need a concrete plan to put an end to this,” said the chair of the board, Ottawa City Council member Diane Deans, at the beginning of the nearly two-hour-long virtual discussion.

  Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly agreed with her portrayal of the situation, saying that local law enforcement was “never intended to deal with a city under siege,” and decried the lack of resources – and legal authority – to disperse the protest.

  

  At one point, Deans wondered whether the city had legal grounds to declare an unlawful assembly and then a riot, in order to conduct mass arrests, instead of pursuing “one criminal charge at a time.”

  “There are so many people out there engaged in a broader act of… mayhem, that we need to be able to bring it all under control,” she said.

  “We can’t allow this kind of terrorism in our community to continue this way.”

  Yes, in accordance with the narrative laid down from Trudeau’s twitter feed, the establishment is now calling protesting truckers – terrorists!

  

  And as a result of all that hysteria, The Epoch Times reports that Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has declared a state of emergency due to the trucker protest that continues in the city’s downtown core.

  In a brief statement, the city said the decision reflects the “serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations and highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government. ”

  “It also provides greater flexibility within the municipal administration to enable the City of Ottawa to manage business continuity for essential services for its residents and enables a more flexible procurement process, which could help purchase equipment required by frontline workers and first responders,” the city said in its statement.

  Protest organizers say their demonstration is peaceful… apart from this terrible, awful, horrific, terroristic attack on a good, honest, local citizen who was just trying to cross the road…

  I can’t believe the drivers are assaulting counterprotesters. This is domestic terrorism. pic.twitter.com/fGiAfVNP3A

  — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The protest started as a demonstration by truckers against the federal government’s requirement for cross-border truck drivers to be vaccinated, but has since evolved into a large movement joined by people from across Canada to oppose different COVID-19 mandates and restrictions. Vehicle convoys came to Ottawa on Jan. 29, and many have stayed in the city, with trucks and other vehicles parked by Parliament Hill. Many protesters say they will remain until the mandates are lifted.

  

  Trucks are parked in downtown Ottawa as demonstrators continue to protest COVID-19 mandates and restrictions on Feb. 2, 2022. (Jonathan Ren/The Epoch Times)

  Sounds of honking horns can be heard throughout the day in the Parliament Hill area, which residents are complaining about.

  Protest organizer Benjamin Dichter says people who are unhappy about the honking should be contacting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ask him to lift COVID-19 mandates.

  “To anybody who is annoyed, we apologize. Please call Justin Trudeau, his office, and get these mandates lifted, and we’re out of here,” Dichter said at a press conference in Ottawa on Feb. 6.

  Trudeau has refused to meet with the protesters.

  Tom Quiggin, who is helping the organizers with “protective intelligence,” said many people across Canada have lost their jobs, homes, and businesses as a result of COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, and they have grievances too, which is why they are protesting in the nation’s capital.

  “Let’s remember most of Ottawa is government, huge number of civil servants here. They haven’t missed a paycheque. They’ve got pay raises, some of them have got back pay, most of them are working from home. Some of them who can’t work from home are just doing nothing and still getting paid,” Quiggin said at the press conference.

  “So yes, it’s unfortunate that they feel bad about the horns, yes, it’s unfortunate they feel bad about the disruption, but the rest of the country is hurting.”

  Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who quit the force because of its vaccine mandate and is now helping the protest organizers, said his children don’t want to play hockey anymore because of the position his family has taken on vaccine issues, as they feel “isolated and alienated.”

  “The people dealing with the honking, they’re not the only ones that are dealing with the impact of all these mandates,” Bulford said at the press conference.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 18:52

• Visualizing The State Of Global Debt, By Country
  Visualizing The State Of Global Debt, By Country

  Since COVID-19 started its spread around the world in 2020, the global economy has been put to the test with supply chain disruptions, price volatility for commodities, challenges in the job market, and declining income from tourism. The World Bank has estimated that almost 97 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic.

  In order to help with this difficult situation, global governments have had to increase their expenditures to deal with higher healthcare costs, unemployment, food insecurity, and to help businesses to survive. Countries have taken on new debt to provide financial support for these measures, which, as Visual Capitalist’s Rail Amoros details below, has resulted in the highest global debt levels in half a century.

  To analyze the extent of global debt, we’ve compiled debt-to-GDP data by country from the most recent World Economic Outlook report by the IMF.

  

  Debt-to-GDP ratio by Country: The Top 10 Most Indebted Nations

  The debt-to-GDP ratio is a simple metric that compares a country’s public debt to its economic output. By comparing how much a country owes and how much it produces in a year, economists can measure a country’s theoretical ability to pay off its debt.

  Let’s take a look at the top 10 countries in terms of debt-to-GDP:

  

  Source: World Economic Outlook Report (October 2021 Edition)

  Japan, Sudan, and Greece top the list with debt-to-GDP ratios well above 200%, followed by Eritrea (175%), Cape Verde (160%), and Italy (154%).

  Japan’s debt level won’t come as a surprise to most. In 2010, it became the first country to reach a debt-to-GDP ratio 200%, and it now sits at 257%. In order to finance new debt, the Japanese government issues bonds which get bought up primarily by the Bank of Japan.

  By the end of 2020, the Bank of Japan owned 45% of government debt outstanding.

  What is the main risk of a high debt-to-GDP ratio?

  A rapid increase in government debt is a major cause for concern. Generally, the higher a country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is, the higher chance that country could default on its debt, therefore creating a financial panic in the markets.

  The World Bank published a study showing that countries that maintained a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 77% for prolonged periods of time experienced economic slowdowns.

  COVID-19 has worsened a debt crisis that has been brewing since the 2008 global recession. A report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that at least 100 countries will have to reduce expenditures on health, education, and social protection. Also, 30 countries in the developing world have high levels of debt distress, meaning they’re experiencing great difficulties in servicing their debt.

  This crisis is hitting poor and middle-income countries harder than rich countries. Wealthier countries are borrowing to launch fiscal stimulus packages while low and middle income countries cannot afford such measures, potentially resulting in wider global inequality.

  The IMF Warns of Interest Rates

  Global debt reached $226 trillion by the end of 2020, seeing the biggest one-year increase since World War II.

  Borrowing by governments accounted for slightly over half of the $28 trillion increase, bringing global public debt ratio to a record of 99% of GDP. As interest rates rise, IMF officials warn that higher interest rates will diminish the impact of fiscal spending, and cause debt sustainability concerns to intensify. “The risks will be magnified if global interest rates rise faster than expected and growth falters,” the officials wrote.

  “A significant tightening of financial conditions would heighten the pressure on the most highly indebted governments, households, and firms. If the public and private sectors are forced to deleverage simultaneously, growth prospects will suffer.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 18:30

• Morgan Stanley: "It Begins"
  Morgan Stanley: “It Begins”

  By Andrew Sheets of Morgan Stanley, Chief Cross-Asset Strategist for Morgan Stanley

  

  If you’re a fan of American football, this year’s playoffs were some of the best in the sport’s history. The last six contests were all decided by the narrowest of margins, often at the last second. It was a good reminder that you need to stay until the end.

  I mention this because between lunchtime on Wednesday January 24 and this past Wednesday, there was a distinct feeling of ‘we made it’. Yes, inflation has surprised to the upside. Yes, key data were weak. Yes, central banks are pivoting more hawkishly. Yes, yields are rising. Yet, thanks to good earnings and fund inflows, global equities are only down 3%. Well done.

  It’s tempting to think that this is the end of the story: the test arrived early this year,and the markets passed. But the reality is likely to be more complicated. This is just the start of the game. A record amount of stimulus is about to be withdrawn from the global economy. It begins.

  Part of the withdrawal will come through monetary policy. That shift has two parts: reversing the lowest policy rates in history, and reversing the largest central bank bond purchases in history. You know, simple stuff. From May 2022 to May 2023, Morgan Stanley economists expect G4 central bank balance sheets to shrink by US$2 trillion, four times the largest 12-month decline ever, from 2018-19.

  If that isn’t enough, central banks need to engineer this policy withdrawal while unemployment is historically low and inflation is historically high. One often hears that central banks provide markets with a backstop, or ‘put’,given their desire to avoid tighter financial conditions. But central banks now have to balance this concern against their core mandates. And regarding financial conditions, isn’t tightening them kind of the point?

  Still, maybe January gave markets a look at these challenges – the weak growth, the high inflation, the hawkish pivots. And after some (very)volatile contemplation, didn’t they pass?

  We think it’s simply too early to tell. While rates have risen, our strategists think they rise further. While markets have priced in ‘more hawkish’ central banks, they still expect these hiking cycles to end at historically low levels. For example, the Fed is priced to stop raising rates in 2023,at 1.8%. It’s a similar level for the BoE.

  Other factors suggest plenty of twists and turns,and soon. 1Q22sees the greatest risk to our growth estimates, the highest readings for inflation,and the greatest concentration of geopolitical risk.2Q22 could feel very different, with our economists forecasting a growth rebound in the US and China, alongside an inflation decline. And then 2H22 sees a record central bank balance sheet decline begin in earnest. There is a lot of time on the game clock.

  For investors, the scale of what lies ahead means we think they should keep overall exposure light. We remain cautious towards duration and IG-rated spread product, believing that both have outsized sensitivity to these policy shifts, with more uncertainty around where ‘fair value’ is without central bank largesse.

  Other areas of the market look more promising. While the ECB was surprisingly hawkish this week, that’s probably a good thing for the euro, European banks, and even European equities overall. European stocks have tended to do better when the euro has been rising, perhaps because such environments tend to reflect more relative economic strength and ‘normalcy’. Valuations also matter; despite low rates and QE, stocks in Europe and the UK trade at lower valuations than they did five years ago.

  That valuation argument applies elsewhere. Stocks in Japan, Brazil and Korea also trade at similar or lower valuations versus five years ago, suggesting less risk as QE reverses. Most currencies have depreciated against the dollar,a reason why our FX strategists recently upgraded EM FX to neutral. And in commodities, we think that strong fundamentals in energy can help to outweigh this liquidity reversal. We continue to like oil over gold (via 1-year forwards).

  January was eventful.February has been, too. While the issues facing the market this year are clear, their impact and timing are uncertain and will continue to play out as the year unfolds. This is the start of a historic policy reversal,not the end. There is a lot of game left to play. Good luck. Enjoy your Sunday.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 18:00

• Russia Might Invade Ukraine "As Soon As Tomorrow": White House
  Russia Might Invade Ukraine “As Soon As Tomorrow”: White House

  Here we go again… just days after the White House was forced to awkwardly walk back its prior assessment that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was “imminent” – Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said while making the rounds on Sunday news shows that the invasion will come “any day now” – or even as soon as “tomorrow”.

  “Fox News Sunday” host Martha MacCallum asked Sullivan about the White House’s assessment of Russia’s troop build-up, to which he began in response: “Well, what I can tell you Martha is that we are in the window. Any day now, Russia could take military action against Ukraine or it could be a couple of weeks from now or Russia could choose to take the diplomatic path instead.”

  

  “The key thing is that the United States needs to be and is prepared for any of those contingencies in lockstep with our allies and partners,” Sullivan continued. He further explained that the US had already informed allies of the near-term possibility of war breaking out. 

  “If war breaks out it will come at an enormous human cost to Ukraine, but we believe that based on our preparations and our response, it will come at a strategic cost to Russia as well,” he said. 

  Elsewhere on Sunday, while speaking to ABC’s This Week, Sullivan got even more alarmist in his predictions. He started by repeating that President Vladimir Putin “has put himself in a position with military deployments to be able to act aggressively against Ukraine at any time now.” And that’s when he said there could be an invasion “tomorrow”…

  “We believe that there is a very distinct possibility that Vladimir Putin will order an attack on Ukraine,” Sullivan said. “It could take a number of different forms. It could happen as soon as tomorrow or it could take some weeks yet.”

  The Kremlin rejected the fresh statements and media reports from this weekend predicting Russia will invade soon as “madness and scaremongering.”

  It was only last Wednesday that the White House walked back its prior consistent assertions that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was “imminent”. 

  White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had explained at the time: “I used it once. I think others have used that once, and we stopped using it because I think it sent a message that we weren’t intending to send, which was that we knew that President Putin had made a decision.”

  ❗️Russian invasion of Ukraine no longer “imminent”, says the White House, which had promised a Russian invasion every day for near enough two months

  For a government that missed the Taliban offensive, foretelling a Russian invasion wasn’t going to be easy pic.twitter.com/TjAerpVu7m

  — Murad Gazdiev (@MuradGazdiev) February 2, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “I would say the vast majority of times I’ve talked about it, I’ve said he could invade ‘at any time,’” she added, trying to obfuscate her own unambiguous prior messaging.

  Sullivan’s latest words on the Sunday shows suggests the White House still can’t get its own messaging straight. And certainly it’s not on board with its own allies like Ukraine, which has lately said the situation is not as dire as the US is painting it. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 17:30

• Driver Pay-Hikes Continue To Roll In
  Driver Pay-Hikes Continue To Roll In

  By Todd Maiden of FreightWaves

  High demand and a lack of qualified drivers has pushed truckload carriers to raise pay substantially over the past year and a half. Wage increases have helped fleets maintain size through the pandemic, but few have been able to grow organically. Following a round of large pay increases in 2021, it appears the industry will continue to push pay rates higher to address a labor shortfall.

  

  Two more fleets announced pay hikes this week.

  Kaukauna, Wisconsin-based Midwest Carriers announced a 9% pay increase for over-the-road drivers. The pay bump takes average annual pay to a range of $86,395 to $92,250. Average annual pay for the top half of the company’s over-the-road drivers increased to $97,550.

  “As a driver-focused trucking company, we know that taking care of our drivers is job number one,” said President Eric Van Handel.

  “This increase is our way of showing how much we value their hard work and dedication.”

  The company also announced a 9% reduction in health insurance premiums for 2022.

  Midwest Carriers operates a fleet of 166 trucks and 455 trailers, hauling temperature-controlled and dry freight.

  TFI International affiliate CFI announced Wednesday it increased driver pay in its truckload and temperature-controlled units by two cents per mile. Drivers will also be eligible for incentive bonuses tied to safety, productivity and years of service.

  The Joplin-Missouri-based company said it plans to take delivery of 770 new Kenworth tractors and 250 new trailers in 2022, moving its average tractor age to less than 2 years. It also plans to invest $3.75 million in additional fleet upgrades during the year to attract drivers to the company.

  “We continue to invest in our people with modern, fuel-efficient equipment, including options and accessories most in demand by professional drivers supporting safe operations and driver comfort,” said CFI President Greg Orr.

  CFI employs nearly 3,000 drivers for its fleet of more than 3,900 tractors and 10,000 trailers. The company also utilizes capacity from an owner-operator network of 700.

  “We recognize our professional drivers as the ‘captain of their ship’ who pick up and deliver on time and safely, as promised to our customers,” Orr said. “As such, we are implementing driver pay increases that align pay across our services with an attractive compensation package.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 17:00

• Rogan Apologizes For Using Racial Slur As Spotify Removes 113 'JRE' Episodes With No Explanation
  Rogan Apologizes For Using Racial Slur As Spotify Removes 113 ‘JRE’ Episodes With No Explanation

  Update (1230ET): Amid all this ‘tempest in a teapot’, one person has some clarifying thoughts for all those @lizzie363 offers this suggestion to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek:

  Take back control.

  Tell employees on Monday: “we can get rid of Rogan by Friday, but with Rogan goes 50% of our workforce.”

  “Go back to your divisions and decide among yourselves who is getting dismissed and who is staying.”

  “I want the names by Thursday.”

  Will Ek have the cohones to stand up to the mob?

  *  *  *

  Update (1030ET): While the tsunami of piler-on’rs grows – because what is more virtuous that signaling your disdain for someone that dares to think for themselves – there is also a gathering storm of support for Rogan and what his podcast stands for…

  The eclectic group of @joerogan guests who were pulled from Spotify just shows you this censorship shit isn’t about left or right. It’s about an authoritarian push for complete control over speech. They hate Rogan bc he’s not controlled by corporate media.

  — Krystal Ball (@krystalball) February 5, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The effort to smear Joe Rogan as a racist is one of the most despicable efforts I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. They don’t actually care, they’re just trying to destroy him. We either live in a society where context matters or we don’t. By their standard Joe Biden is a racist pic.twitter.com/7wUI8aeL3P

  — Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) February 5, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Rogan is the man. If they cancel him just end your Spotify subscription.

  — Shane Gillis (@Shanemgillis) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Nobody targeting Joe Rogan right now gives two damns about anything he’s said in the past. This is all just an opportunity for activists to destroy a guy who doesn’t carry water for those with institutional power, and whose audience dwarfs their own. It is that simple.

  — Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 6, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  If they can cancel Joe they can cancel anyone. Time to stand up people.

  — Funky (@Benaskren) February 5, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Nobody is offended by anything @joerogan said. Nobody is hurt. Nobody is a victim. They went digging for the “offensive” comments. They’re happy to have found them. That’s why these damned vultures deserve a middle finger, not an apology. Rogan owes them nothing but contempt.

  — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 5, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  *  *  *

  Unfortunately for both Spotify and Joe Rogan, the controversy surrounding ‘the Joe Rogan Experience’ isn’t over yet. In fact, it looks like it’s metastasizing, now that one of the artists who pulled her music from the platform in recent days has managed to ‘change the conversation’ to the “problematic” use of ‘the n-word’ in some episodes of the show.

  

  So far, Spotify has removed at least 113 episodes, according to a running count by JRE Missing, a website dedicated to monitoring how many episodes of the show are no longer available on the service.  Some of the episodes were removed months ago, but the biggest purge has taken place since Friday. The show has been exclusively available on Spotify for about a year.

  At the same time, Rogan has published another frank apology video, this one in response to a super clip shared by grammy-winning soul musician India Arie of him saying ‘the n-word’. Rogan said he’s “making this video to talk about the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”

  Rogan clarified that he hasn’t said the word at all ‘in years’, before explaining that when the word would come up in discussion, that he would say the full word instead of saying ‘the n-word’, and that, given this context, the audience would be understanding.

   

   

   

   

  View this post on Instagram

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  A post shared by Joe Rogan (@joerogan)

  //www.instagram.com/embed.js

  He went on to explain that he has since changed his mind, and now agrees that a white person shouldn’t say the word at all, even in context.

  It’s not clear how many of the episodes removed by Spotify actually feature Rogan saying the word, or one of his guests (which, depending on the race of the guest, might be deemed acceptable by some). The show is nearing its 1,775 episode, and has been running since 2009.

  Neither Rogan nor Spotify has released a statement nor given an explanation for why any of the episodes have been removed, according to the New York Times.

  Both the NYT and other news outlets like Engadget have reported that the company’s reasoning for removing the episodes is unclear.

  Rogan ended his statement by saying he hopes this instance is a “teachable moment” to others and offering his “sincerest deepest apologies.”

  Spotify’s new content guidelines prohibit “dangerous” content that “advocates or glorifies serious physical harm towards an individual or group”. But nowhere does it specifically mention ‘the n-word’ or any other racial slurs (although it does prohibit content that “glorifies” breaking the law – but isn’t that what 99% of hip hop music is?)

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 16:44

• "We Don't See That Very Often" – Credit Market Cracks Could Spark Doom-Loop With Stocks
  “We Don’t See That Very Often” – Credit Market Cracks Could Spark Doom-Loop With Stocks

  As the old adage goes (for those who have been trading for more than the last 12 years of central bank fantasy-land enablement, “Credit anticipates, equities confirm.”

  Credit and equities decoupled in Q3 2014 when The Fed (under Yellen) issued policy normalization plans…

  

  Credit and equities decoupled in Q4 2017 when The Fed (under Yellen) embarked on balance sheet normalization…

  

  And now, since The Fed began to talk about normalization and accelerated that with the Powell Pivot, credit and equity markets have decoupled dramatically once again…

  

  The issue at hand, however, is that this time is ‘different’…

  

  Which means it will not be as easy to slow-down the taper, fold on normalization, temper the tantrum as it was in 2015 and 2018.

  Perhaps it is that realization that credit is “anticipating” (and equity is yet to “confirm”)

  

  As The FT reports, Viktor Hjort, global head of credit strategy at BNP Paribas. said he believes the credit cycle has turned, meaning that the positive economic backdrop will no longer benefit corporate bond investors.

  “The market is a lot more nervous than it was at the start of the year,” warned Hjort, as investors rush into derivative markets to hedge their credit portfolios…

  

  “It signals that more people are cutting risk and adding hedges,” said Calvin Vinitwatanakhun, a strategist at Citi.

  In another sign of bearishness, funds that buy US high-yield bonds have suffered outflows for four straight weeks, taking year-to-date withdrawals close to $11bn.

  

  And finally, perhaps the most notable litmus test of the market, The FT reports that Ion Analytic pulled a bond deal from the market in January citing volatile market conditions, according to people familiar with the deal, highlighting the sense of nervousness in the market.

  “We don’t see that very often,” said one credit investor who had been briefed on the deal.

  “It’s a sign the money sloshing around looking for things to buy is low.”

  All of which sets up the rather ominous potential for a doom-loop of cross-asset-class-driven vicious selling as credit’s current signal impels the marginal stock holder to sell (in an increasingly illiquid stock market), which, given the record amounts of corporate debt, will lead to an accelerating sell-off in credit as spreads adjust for equity (asset) values that are considerably lower than the Fed-Balance-Sheet-inflated state of nirvana for which they are still currently priced.

  And once credit starts to accelerate lower in price (higher in spread), it can get ugly fast on the other end of the balance sheet…

  

  Which would only stop – as it did on a dime in 2020 – if The Fed stepped back in and put the world’s risk-takers back on its shoulders (but remember the inflation mandate?).

  And bear in mind that if credit is correctly anticipating an increase in equity volatility (to a VIX of around 40 currently), we are talking about the S&P dropping to around 4,100.

  There is, however, a potential silver lining.. or throttle on this potential waterfall.

  As JPMorgan’s Marko Kolanovic recently noted, the short interest on the two biggest credit ETFs, HYG and LQD, has been elevated since last March…

  

  Which, while providing some cushion for the current collapse, may be just enough ammunition for a short-squeeze (dead-cat bounce) to save the day.

  However, before traders get their hopes up, remember the wise words of Nomura’s Charlie McElligott who warns that there is an overhead “lid” on Equities, where the Fed is effectively shorting Calls / upside because anytime US Equities rally higher substantially higher, US FCI eases… and that’s exactly when we have to anticipate them to “up” their “hawkish” messaging.

  The Powell Put is dead… and credit knows it.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 16:30

• CNN's Collapse Is Now Complete
  CNN’s Collapse Is Now Complete

  By Joe Concha

  It all began 42 years ago — Ted Turner’s creation of a 24/7 news network that would exist on something called cable TV. Few believed it could succeed. 

  And, for its first decade, CNN largely chugged along but wasn’t seen as a game-changer or ​a true competitor to big broadcast news entities based in New York in the form of CBS, NBC and ABC. That all changed when war broke out between the United States and Iraq in 1991.  

  On the night war exploded over Baghdad, CNN was the only news organization that was able to broadcast from the city under siege as the U.S. onslaught began, all courtesy of the CNN team’s ability to convince the Iraqi government to grant them a line out of the city to broadcast​, one that the competition could not secure.

  “How CNN Won the War” was the glowing headline from the Washington Post on a story that perfectly chronicled the events that led to CNN officially becoming a major player. And off it went. 

  Until 2002, CNN was ​No. 1 in the cable news race. But competition that hadn’t existed before ended its dominance forever, primarily in the form of Fox News and, to a lesser extent, MSNBC. Despite the ratings results, CNN continued to carry itself as a credible, facts-first network of integrity that leaned heavily on solid reporting with a sprinkling of opinion and infotainment mixed in via programs such as “Larry King Live” and “Crossfire.”  

  In 2013, the network hired former NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker to take the reins as ratings continued to be below average at best. This gave Zucker a mandate to radically change the network from its journalistic roots of more than three decades — the months-long wall-to-wall coverage of a missing Malaysian airliner being an early example.

  But two years later, the move to insert heavy doses of partisan opinion into its news reports only accelerated when Donald Trump – a Zucker hire at NBC for “The Apprentice” – jumped in to the 2016 presidential race. At first, CNN bear-hugged Trump’s every move. (Hillary Clinton’s giving a speech somewhere? Screw it. Let’s show an empty Trump podium with chyrons stating “Trump to speak soon” instead.) The real estate mogul’s 17 Republican challengers never had a shot; Trump blotted out the sun in terms of media coverage ​on his way to winning the nomination.

  At that point, Zucker and CNN began to worry. Because while it was a ratings boon for the network to make Trump the centerpiece, there was growing concern that the guy could actually beat Hillary and become the nation’s 45th president. So Zucker unleashed the hounds, but it was too late. Trump would go on to shock the world in November 2016.

  Undeterred, CNN decided there would be no honeymoon period for the new president. Talk ​about Russian collusion handing Trump the White House began even before the inauguration. And after the nonstop Trump-bashing, Harvard University concluded that CNN led the way, along with Zucker’s former home of NBC, in giving Trump 93 percent negative coverage in his first 100 days. 

  For the next four years, CNN served as the leading media resistance to Trump, throwing objectivity out the window. And after Joe Biden got elected, the network cheered the new president as it had throughout the entire campaign while still making Trump a prime centerpiece for over-the-top negative coverage despite ​his being out of office.   

  But as much as CNN tried to resurrect its lead character – who was banned from social media and largely off the grid for the year – his absence ​clearly showed the network was a one-trick partisan pony. Ratings fell 90 percent overall when comparing Jan​uary 2021 to Jan​uary 2022. That’s hard to do. 

  Which brings us to the events of this week: Zucker released a statement saying he had to resign because of a consensual affair with a female executive named Allison Gollust. WarnerMedia apparently has a rule against this, so Zucker – instead of a slap on the wrist for a benign offense – simply had to go abruptly. 

  Nobody believed this excuse. Turns out they may have had plenty of reason to be skeptical.  

  Per several reports, Zucker and Gollust allegedly advised then Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) – the older brother of then-​CNN anchor Chris Cuomo – on what to say during his COVID-19 daily briefings in the spring of 2020. They also reportedly told Cuomo how to respond to and how to criticize then-President Trump, to make it more compelling TV. (Gollust is a former communications director for Andrew Cuomo.) 

  Let’s unpack all of this: 

  In the spring of 2020, the country was in a horrific place. Businesses shut completely; people were scared. There were no COVID therapeutics, no vaccines. Hospitals ​were overwhelmed, thousands were dying ​each day. If ​ever there was a time for news organizations to educate and inform the public, this was it. 

  Instead, Zucker apparently believed it was the perfect time to exploit the situation for political gain and to help the network’s ratings.

  Andrew Cuomo benefitted from briefings that made him​ appear to be the adult in the room ​regarding COVID and Trump ​appear to be the villain. ​Cuomo got a $5.1 million book deal as a result.

  Chris Cuomo and Zucker/Gollust/CNN benefitted from marathon interviews with ​Cuomo’s governor/brother, which didn’t touch the governor’s alleged nursing home scandal. Ratings soared.

  So, was Zucker’s departure ​simply about a consensual relationship with a co-worker? One might be forgiven for questioning that.

  Moving forward, what’s next for CNN when the company falls under the Discovery Channel umbrella later this year? Let’s hear from its soon-to-be largest shareholder, John Malone of Liberty Media. 

  “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing,” Malone said in an interview that recently aired on CNBC. 

  The collapse of CNN is now complete: Nine-out-of-ten viewers, gone. Its top-rated anchor, ​Chris Cuomo, gone. Its network president, gone. Its integrity in shambles.  

  ​Oh, and new management coming in that is signaling big-time changes … changes that may bring CNN back to the proud network it once was before Jeff Zucker destroyed it. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 02/06/2022 – 16:00